Toronto city council set for decisive vote on Bloor bike lanes
City council set for 3 days of debate on a range of topics, including hateful rallies
The rubber hits the road at city hall Tuesday.
Or, more specifically, the bicycle tire hits the protected pavement of Bloor Street's bike lanes.
City council votes Tuesday on whether or not to make the lanes permanent in a decision that's been years in the making.
But that isn't the only major issue up for debate. Here's a look at what councillors will be talking about.
The Bloor vote
The councillors championing the bike lanes say they have the votes they need to get it approved. They also have the support of Mayor John Tory, who said he was sold on the results of the year-long pilot project, and the backing of city transportation staff.
Coun. Mike Layton says the lanes are making Bloor Street safer, something he say his council colleagues should be making a priority.
Tomorrow City Council will have the chance to make bike lanes on Bloor permanent. More than 40 years in making, it's time. Let's win this!
—@joe_cressy"You can't vote for Vision Zero, a pedestrian safety and road safety plan, and not think that you need to make some serious changes with the way our roads are used," he said.
However, there's still the possibility that councillors who oppose the 2.4-kilometres of lanes will move last-minute motions to modify the design. It's unclear what that would look like, but during the committee-level debates, some local business owners suggested winter hours for the lanes, or a redesign of where they are in the road.
In a separate member's motion, councillors will be asked to support Bill 158, a piece of provincial legislation aimed at protecting vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and people who work on roadways.
If approved at Queen's Park, the bill would stiffen penalties for drivers involved in fatal collisions. It would also require them to attend their sentencing hearing, where they may hear victim impact statements.
Quick, spend the transit funding
Tory is expected to make fare integration talks between the TTC and GO Transit his key item of business, but councillors will also be asked for input on how to spend some $181 million worth of federal transit funding — quickly.
Council will be asked to approve a plan to ask the federal government for more time to spend the money it's putting up as part of the first phase of its Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.
Tory says he doesn't want to let the funding, which the city would be required to match, go unspent.
How should the city handle controversial rallies?
Nathan Phillips Square has recently been home to clashes between demonstrators aligned with the so-called alt-right and anti-fascist groups.
Coun. James Pasternak has asked Toronto's deputy manager to look at what can be done to stop those rallies from happening in the first place.
His exact question: "do the Toronto police service or city of Toronto have ability and what resources could they utilize to prohibit a rally that is inciting hatred and violence, such as Al Quds Day, white supremacist or neo-Nazi rallies, from taking place on city or provincial property in Toronto?"
Pasternak says while freedom of speech and assembly must be respected, there are "red lines" that shouldn't be crossed.
"There's no place for hate rallies, white supremacist rallies ... Nazi symbols in our public spaces," he said.
Refugee funding
City council will vote on whether or not to authorize upwards of $20 million worth of spending to house refugees in local hotels.
City staff say Toronto has been experiencing a surge of refugees this year, although an increasing number of people have been making their way here since 2015. The influx has put pressure on the emergency shelter system, staff say, requiring the city to turn to hotels.
Councillors are expected to ask for a more detailed plan about how to keep up with refugee flows to be presented next year, and also seek more support from the other levels of government.
More GO for Etobicoke?
Two councillors want the city to study the feasibility of adding a new GO station to service the rapidly-growing Lake Shore and Park Lawn neighbourhood.
While it would really be up to Metrolinx, Coun. Mark Grimes says he wants the city manager to help support a study.
Grimes recently told CBC Toronto the area is at a "tipping point" when it comes to transit, and that something needs to be done to serve the some 28,000 people expected to be living within a few square kilometres within the next five years.
Recently, one frustrated resident tried to launch a shuttle bus service in the area, but a crowd-funding effort is still far from reaching its goal.
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