City Council Preview: February 2015

Your primer to the monthly city council meeting.

By David Hains

Photo by HiMY SYeD from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

John Tory woke up to a sterling 72 per cent approval rating, so it will likely be all smiles and handshakes for him this morning. Meanwhile, council will make its way through a slew of transit motions—some sensible, others outrageous—and there will be some other City business, too.

Read more to find out what’s happening on at City Hall for this month’s council session, and how you can follow along.

Scarborough Subway Inquiries

Motions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] | Letters to Staff [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] | City Manager Response

Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) has a series of motions designed to get information from City staff on the status of the Scarborough subway proposal. Using administrative inquiries (that is, when a councillor solicits information and updates directly from staff) doesn’t happen often in council, but Matlow has already elicited a response from the city manager. Among the issues related to the Scarborough subway that Matlow asked about were:

1. The status and total amount of the sunk costs the City is obligated to pay for the cancellation of the LRT plan. Since Matlow put the motion on the agenda, the Star reported that the City has agreed to pay $75 million in sunk costs for the cancellation of the LRT plan.
2. The capital maintenance and operating costs of the subway proposal, which the City is liable for under the subway proposal. These costs would not have been incurred with the LRT plan. In a response [PDF, p.2] to Matlow’s inquiry, Pennachetti writes that the annual capital maintenance will be $30–40 million. Operating costs are unknown, as service levels and other details have not been determined.
3. The impact of SmartTrack on the Scarborough subway ridership estimates. The city manager responded that this information would be studied as the environmental assessments proceed.
4. Clarification regarding $125 million in spending on extra subway cars to service the extension. The city manager responded that every other eastbound train during the morning rush hour will be out of service.
5. An explanation of how the projected ridership for the subway extension was calculated. The city manager responded that the estimates are consistent with past transit modelling, although the estimates include assumptions that the extension would connect to the Sheppard LRT.

Subway vs. LRT Interactive: You Do the Math on Scarbrough Transit

SmartTrack Work Plan

Motion | Staff Report

John Tory continues to pursue his signature campaign promise, the regional commuter rail line billed as SmartTrack [PDF].

This vote is a minor hurdle in the larger effort to pass the 53-kilometre transit plan—it’s basically a motion to give staff a thumbs up to proceed with studying the subject. Given Tory’s fresh mandate, high approval rating, and the importance of SmartTrack to his election effort, the motion will likely pass with overwhelming support.

While the outcome of the vote may be a foregone conclusion, the debate should highlight some of the different criticisms SmartTrack will be exposed to as it makes its way through City Hall. City staff recommend an additional $900,000 to study SmartTrack on top of the $750,000 in funding that council approved in its December session.

The city manager’s report also refers to some objectives that will be challenging to meet. Among them are the goals to have train service more frequent than every 15 minutes, a motion from the executive committee to increase the amount of stations, and the prospect that SmartTrack’s route and ridership could further complicate the Scarborough subway proposal.

SmartTrack Part One: John Tory’s Short-Sighted Transit Planning

SmartTrack Part Two: John Tory’s Questionable Funding Scheme

Reconsidering the Finch West LRT and Sheppard Subway Extension

Motion

Councillors Bulk and Skull Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) and Jim Karygiannis (Ward 39, Scarborough Agincourt) have thoughts to add to Toronto’s transit debate.

The two councillors have a motion to reconsider council’s support of the provincially funded Finch West LRT, a transit project Mammoliti voted for before voting against. The North York councillor, now in his 20th year in the position, argues that his ward deserves a subway and would wait 50 years without local transit relief rather than settle for an LRT.

Likewise, Karygiannis is equally spirited for all things subway, and the second part of this motion proposes to affirm the Sheppard transit plan (which is currently an LRT) as a subway. The former MP clamoured for a Sheppard subway extension as soon as council’s first meeting (in a motion that was ruled out of order, as council was discussing SmartTrack). Karygiannis’s subway boosterism, even at the expense of a funded LRT, has some passionate local support, and is a notion backed by many of his fellow Scarborough councillors.

Because this is a member’s motion that did not go through the committee process, it requires a two-thirds vote to pass council.

The Uncertain Future of the Finch LRT

TTC Suicide Prevention Doors

Motion | Staff Report
From 1998 to 2014, the TTC averaged 23 suicide-related incidents a year. With 243 suicides in Toronto in 2009—four times that year’s homicide rate—it’s an issue worth addressing as a matter of public safety and health.

The City’s medical officer of health recommends that the City install suicide prevention doors in its transit system, but such a move would come with a cost. The addition costs about $10 million per station, and, for a transit agency that struggles to keep up with its basic state of good repair, it remains to be seen whether a new policy that would cost around $800 million to implement system-wide can gain the support of a cost-conscious council.

Subway Suicides and the Case for Platform Barriers on the TTC

Emergency Homelessness Strategy

Motion | Staff Report
One of the biggest differences between mayors Ford and Tory is the way the latter has responded to homelessness during the cold winter. While Ford would deny that there was a problem and wrongly claim that people weren’t being turned away from at-capacity shelters, Tory has said that council can and should do much more.

There’s a proposed increased budget allocation, although according to some advocates it’s only limited relief. In the meantime, this motion aims to increase shelter access to help occupancy rates go down to council’s target occupancy of 90 per cent (the current occupancy is effectively at capacity, with co-ed adult shelters at 98 per cent, and 97 per cent for women’s shelters). The motion seeks approval for the staff-recommended emergency strategy of renting motel rooms as emergency shelter spaces until April 15.

While the motion will have broad support in council, as well as the $8 million in enhanced shelter services in the proposed City budget, it remains to be seen what a more sustainable, systemic approach would look like, and whether there’s the accompanying political will to look beyond individual crises.

Advocates Say Housing Budget Provides Only Limited Relief

North York Windrow Clearing

Motion
Longtime city hall watchers will know that there are a handful of issues that will get undying support from residents. Which means you give people the parking permits they ask for, support mechanical leaf collection, and you don’t mess with windrow clearing. Windrow clearing, which is a real term, refers to the low ridge of snow that piles up at the end of driveways after a plow has been through. In Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke, a second plow will come by to scoop up this surplus snow (the service is only provided in parts of two wards in the old city of Toronto.) Windrow clearing represents slightly more than 4 per cent of the City’s annual snow removal budget, but Councillor Mammoliti is concerned North York is not getting its fair share.

In his motion, he writes that during last year’s ice storm, the windrow clearing did not materialize and that his constituents placed many calls to 311 as a result. He calls for a feasibility study on what it would take to return North York to its pre-amalgamation standards for windrow clearing.

Because this is a member’s motion, it will need two-thirds to pass council.

Heritage Preservation Framework

Motion
Matlow has a motion that responds to the recent takedown of the century-old menswear store Stollery’s at Yonge and Bloor streets. While it was publicly announced that the store was closing, it was not known that when the building would be taken down, and City staff were looking into preliminary steps for heritage protection for the building.

The motion requests the Province to amend Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act to allow for a pre-listed heritage classification that would allow a 60-day demolition delay without council approval.

The motion also asks for a citywide inventory of heritage properties, using SurveyLA as a model.

The Rise and Fall of Stollerys, and What it Says About Heritage Preservation in Toronto