Toronto Council meets today!
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A bit late, but Council is back.
Up now: a deferred item from last meeting. Councillor Saxe wants a report on allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local neighbourhood polls. The city uses these to measure support for things like permit parking. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.DM23.1
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Advocates have argued letting younger people vote in neighbourhood polls is a good opportunity to build civic engagement. Holyday, though, has concerns about the logistics of registering 16- and 17-year-olds as voters in these polls.
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Pasternak asks if it makes sense for young people to vote on things like speed bumps when they don't drive. Transportation GM says Council recently waived polling requirements for traffic calming, so it's not really relevant. (But also, 16 year olds can drive!)
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Councillor Dianne Saxe rises to ask colleagues to support reviewing letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote in neighbourhood polls. "We know how important it is to encourage and facilitate participation by young people in the life of the city," she says.
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"It would be very significant symbolically to give them a vote for the first time in a formal process," says Saxe.
"This is a very small step — a limited effort by the city — to indicate to 16 and 17-year-olds that their voice counts. Their future in this city counts."
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But Councillor Holyday says he'll vote against it. He worries that a self-identification voter registration process for 16- and 17-year-olds could be vulnerable to fraud and threaten the integrity of the neighbourhood poll results.
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Councillors Morley and Cheng are in favour of getting a report on 16- and 17-year-olds voting, arguing it's important to give young people a way to engage with local issues and promote active citizenship.
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Pointing out this is a mere report request — not an actual motion to change anything yet — Councillor Shelley Carroll moves to call the question and end debate. That CARRIES 18-6.
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Council votes 18-6 to APPROVE a report on allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in neighbourhood polls on issues like permit parking.
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"Wow, we have so many priorities in this council chamber," Nunziata remarks sarcastically after the vote for a report on 16- and 17-year-olds voting in neighbourhood polls.
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Up now: a temporary increase to the hotel and Airbnb tax to fund costs related to hosting part of the FIFA World Cup in 2026. Staff are proposing a temporary hike from 6% to 8.5% for June 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026. Temp tax hike will raise ~$56.6 million. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.EX18.17
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Cheng asks how the hotel/Airbnb tax is allocated. City CFO says a portion goes to Destination Toronto for tourism marketing and other costs, while the rest goes to City Hall general revenues. In 2023, the City received $94 million total and sent $28 million to Destination TO.
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Councillor Crisanti asks how CFO determined the timeframe for the temporary tax, noting the 14-month period is way longer than the length of the World Cup. CFO says they started with a revenue target, then determined how long the extra tax would need to be in effect to reach it.
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Councillor Paul Ainslie asks if it's generally accurate that tax revenue from having big events like T-Swift and FIFA goes 47% to the federal government, 44% to the province and 9% to Toronto.
"That is correct," says CFO.
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Budget Chief Councillor Shelley Carroll is calling the Municipal Accommodation Tax the "MAT tax" for short. Just want to make it clear she is not saying Matt Tax. It is not a tax on Matts. I'd probably be opposed to that.
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Council votes 21-4 to APPROVE a temporary hike to the tax on hotel rooms and short-term rentals (like Airbnb) to help fund the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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Up now: the Auditor General's report on parks maintenance. The AG found parks maintenance crews were spending too much time parked — and not at parks. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.AU6.1
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"Do you find that odd, that 20 years later after amalgamation, that we're still using paper and we still have no idea what's going on out there with the 311 system?" asks Councillor Paula Fletcher of parks maintenance.
"We agree that there is room for improvement," says staffer.
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Here's the old-school paper-based worklog system the parks division uses. AG found many were not properly filled out or signed-off on by a supervisor.
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Councillor Lily Cheng moves for a look at a system where parks workers would be required to take photos to document their work, with those photos made available to 311.
She compares it to Amazon, where workers are required to take photos confirming package delivery.
