Toronto Council meets today!
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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.
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Cheng is facing pushback from councillors McKelvie and Fletcher, who are pointing out not all park workers have city-issued smartphones and the cost of providing devices so they can take photos would be very high.
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Fletcher says the issue with the sheets and parks maintenance workers is a management issue, not a worker issue — if the daily activity sheets aren't being reviewed by supervisors, that's on the supervisor.
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"I don't shop at Amazon. I really don't care what Amazon does," says Nunziata.
"The system is not working," she adds, noting many parks in her ward that aren't maintained. "This should have been caught years ago."
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Mayor Olivia Chow says she has "heard it over and over again" from residents about issues with garbage in parks.
"And the washrooms — the washrooms are what I heard A LOT — to the extent that I went to some of the parks and started taking photos."
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Councillor Lily Cheng's motion to look at having parks workers take photos of their maintenance work to verify the work is getting done FAILS 10-14.
