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Council Highlights
Archive
2008 |
 Highlights
of the City Council meeting of July 15, 16 and 17, 2008
are provided as a service to residents of Ward 25.
1.
Environmental Assessment on the removal of the Gardiner
east of Jarvis (EX22.1)
City Council approved an $11 million environmental
assessment to study the removal of the Gardiner
Expressway east of Jarvis Street, as recommended by
Waterfront Toronto. Mayor Miller, a member of the Board
of Waterfront Toronto, envisions a new boulevard-style
street that would replace the east Gardiner at a cost of
$200 - $300 million. A steering committee of City and
Waterfront Toronto officials will oversee the
assessment. During the assessment, the City will
conduct only necessary maintenance on the Gardiner east
of Jarvis to ensure it continues to be safe. The
immediate, and perhaps greatest, beneficiaries of the
removal of that part of the Gardiner would be those
landowners immediately south of the existing raised
expressway. Since zoning is already in place there to
permit residential and commercial towers, being adjacent
to a residential/arterial street instead of a raised
expressway would certainly have a very positive effect
on their property values. While nearby property owners
would benefit, current commercial and commuter traffic
would not. Waterfront Toronto staff estimate that the
new stop-and-go road system would increase travel times
– with a current minimum estimate of two minutes. I
moved two amendments – the first to provide for interim
partial or full closings of the existing Gardiner in
order to accurately gauge the increased travel times for
commercial and commuter traffic, and the second to
request the adjacent benefiting landowners to share some
of our $200 - $300 million costs. The first did not
pass. And while the second did pass, it would be
surprising if the property developers choose to share
any of their incremental windfall profits with you the
taxpayer funding the demolition. In my view, delivering
such a benefit to selected private landowners at the
expense of taxpayers and our commercial transportation
industry is inappropriate and I voted against the item.
2. Woodbine Live transformation project incentives
approved (ED15.2)
In May, Council approved the Tax Increment Equivalent
Grant (TIEG) program, intended to spur commercial
development in strategic industries through incentives,
paid for with a portion of the property tax growth over
the following 10 years. At the July meeting, City
Council went further, approving a Community Improvement
Program including a TIEG for Woodbine Live - a large
entertainment, hotel and retail complex planned for
North Etobicoke near Woodbine race track, with
residential development to follow in a later phase.
Without such a program, which will cost the City a
total of $120 million in foregone tax revenue, the
applicant apparently would have declined to proceed with
the project. To continue to receive the annual tax
relief over 20 years, the $1 billion project must meet
its commitments including new employment - expected to
include 9,000 new jobs once the site is open. Woodbine
Live is near three priority neighbourhoods and the
project will use a local hiring program to help meet its
staffing needs. Woodbine Live is considered a
transformative project under the City’s Agenda for
Prosperity with its potential to transform North
Etobicoke. Even with the reduction in taxes, the City
expects to net $171 million in new property tax revenue
from this new tourist attraction, while foregoing a
further $120 million to which it would otherwise be
entitled. On balance, I believed this program was worth
supporting – particularly with amendments which now
provide for very rigorous accounting – but I remain
concerned that such TIEGs will result in incentive wars
between neighbouring municipalities seeking to obtain
new industry.
3. Loophole on Parkland
Dedication Closed – former
North York
Official Plan
Council
adopted a by-law resulting from my motion to close a
loophole which would have permitted certain developments
under the former North York Official Plan to escape the
new Alternative Parkland Dedication Rate By-law which
came into effect on January 1, 2008. The new rates
permit maximum parkland dedication to be capped at 10%,
15% or 20%, depending upon site size. The old rate was
5%. The result will be more parkland (or cash-in-lieu)
on all new development in North York hencforth under
both the old and new Official Plans.
4. City expands planning to address severe weather
through Climate Change (EX22.4)
As an extension of
Toronto’s
Climate Change Action Plan, the City and its agencies,
boards and commissions (ABCs) will review the impact of
climate change, especially severe weather, and develop
plans to mitigate the impacts on City operations and
infrastructure. Climate change involves a change in
long-standing weather patterns, which impacts
infrastructure such as buildings, roadways, sewers, as
well as humans through such change as heat waves. City
divisions and ABCs are expected to report back on issues
and impacts for the 2009 budget process. The City will
also consider the creation of an Extreme Weather Reserve
fund.
5.
Transit
City
- construction on Sheppard East LRT to start in 2009
(PG17.1)
Council approved the recommendations of the
environmental assessment, paving the way for
construction of this first Transit City light rail line
to start next year. Detailed design work on the light
rail line will now begin. Council also requested that
the TTC minimize the amount of land along Sheppard that
must be expropriated for this project. The final
environmental assessment study report will be made
available for a 30-day public review period.
6. Funds from
Toronto
Hydro Telecom sale to
Toronto
Community Housing (EX22.16)
Council approved that a $75 million dividend from the
sale of Toronto Hydro Telecom will go to the Toronto
Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) to help address the
backlog of repairs required to the City’s public housing
units. These buildings were downloaded by the province
onto the City with an existing, substantial repair
backlog which continues to grow rapidly. The TCHC has
invested more than $550 million in repairs between 2002
and 2007, using borrowed funds. Currently, TCHC sites
have a repair backlog with a value estimated at $300 -
350 million. This level of expenditure can not be
sustained by the City – unless we continue to find a
“Telecom”-sized asset to sell every year. In my view,
selling assets is like burning the furniture to keep the
house warm – after it’s all gone, if you haven’t found a
sustainable solution, you have no furniture and a cold
house. It is not a wise way to run the City. More
importantly, the provincial government promised to deal
with uploading in a report due last March. It is now
five months overdue in announcing its uploading plan.
And if the Mayor continues to propose that the City keep
on imposing new taxes and/or selling assets to deal with
downloading, why should the provincial government upload
at all?
7.
Transit
City
– street access could extend from The Ex to
Dufferin Street
(PG17.10)
Council approved an environmental assessment amendment
that would allow expanded service along the Western
Waterfront LRT. It would allow streetcars to travel
along Fleet Street to the Canadian National Exhibition
grounds and continue on to Dufferin Street. The
streetcars could travel along the existing GO Transit
rail corridor from the CNE to Dufferin, and on to
Roncesvalles Avenue.
8. Award to be named in honour of Dr. Sheela Basrur
(MM23.1)
Council approved the creation of a new award, the Dr.
Sheela Basrur Occupational Health and Safety Award, to
be given out annually to the Division that has best
contributed to staff safety and health programming
through joint management-staff efforts. Dr. Basrur, the
City’s former Medical Officer of Health, passed away
earlier this year.
9. Shade audits to be conducted for City playgrounds
and splash pads (PE18.2)
The City will launch a pilot project to help the public
guard against harmful UV rays. An audit will be
conducted at select locations documenting the amount of
shade available to protect people at City playgrounds,
splash pads and wading pools. The audits will help
determine the shade needed at sites, and how that shade
may be provided for existing and new play sites. A
preliminary assessment in 2008 indicated most facilities
need improvements to the shade provided. I supported an
amendment that the shade audits be performed with
existing staff.
10.
Toronto
Bike Plan - series of new bike lanes approved (PW17.9)
A total of 4.4 kilometres of new bike lanes were
approved for Royal York Road, Simcoe Street, Stanley
Avenue and Birchmount Road. The City intends to add 50
kilometres of new bike lanes for 2008. The overall goal
is to build 1,000 kilometres of bikeways in the City.
11.
New expense policy for Councillors (EX22.7)
Council approved a new Councillor Expense Policy which
is available at
http://www.toronto.ca/city_council/pdf/councillor-expense-policy.pdf.
Council adopted amendments to permit Councillors to seek
an outside legal opinion on matters coming before
Council – despite the contrary recommendation by staff.
Nineteen Councillors, including myself, had previously
sought an opinion from an outside lawyer after staff had
presented a legal opinion which would have the effect of
denying access by Councillors to information in City
databases in order to respond to queries from
residents.
Non-Council
Items
1. Powers of the Mayor
Nine Councillors, including myself, hosted a public
meeting on July 28 in the North York Civic Centre to
receive public deputations on the proposed new powers
for the Mayor. Deputants were very critical of the
proposed new powers – the ability to hire/fire the City
Manager and to conduct secret meetings of the powerful
Executive Committee. This was the third in a series of
public meetings. The first two, in Scarborough and
Etobicoke, elicited similar responses from the public.
2. Advisory Committee on the TTC as an Essential
Service
Councillor Cesar Palacio and I formed a small Citizens
Advisory Committee from among the hundreds of concerned
people who emailed us before, during and after the TTC
strike in April. The Committee has developed
recommendations – 1. that the TTC be declared by the
Provincial Government to be an Essential Service,
without recourse to strike, job action or lockout; 2.
that, if settlement negotiations between the TTC and its
unions reach an impasse, mandatory arbitration be
implemented based on “final offer selection” and 3. that
the arbitrators be required to consider the requirements
of a public transit system to be efficient, reliable and
affordable. This issue will be returning to the
Executive Committee on October 6 – for deputations from
interested citizens.
I welcome your comments on the Council Highlights. I
will be taking a few weeks vacation in August before
Council resumes again immediately after Labour Day.
Hence I may not be able to respond to you until after
catching up in September, and may have to respond with a
“general email” instead of a personal response. Also,
please feel free to forward these Highlights to others
who may be interested. And if you wish to “unsubscribe”
to Council Highlights, please email me at
councillor_jenkins@toronto.ca or call us at
416-395-6408. Have a wonderful August.
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