Every municipal-election cycle, we hear a number of splashy announcements. Since candidates don’t have party branding to run on, they often need to differentiate themselves with headline-grabbing ideas. But, while signature campaign planks get most of the headlines, there are often a number of practical, small ideas that vanish into the ether after the election.
That’s a shame. Some of those ideas could and should be implemented even if the candidate championing them loses. To that end, I’d like to highlight some good ideas from various campaigns that Mayor Olivia Chow should borrow from her opponents.
For the sake of simplicity, I’ll stick to issues that don’t have a lot of moving pieces. Several campaigns had interesting ideas about addressing the city’s financial challenges or expanding the TTC, for instance. But I’m looking for easy wins here.
The first idea comes from Councilor Josh Matlow. It’s an issue he’s been championing for years (and happens to be my own pet issue): reducing extreme heat in apartment and condo buildings.
Toronto summers are hot and getting hotter. This April was a prime example. Many apartment and condo residents (myself included) had to endure indoor temperatures of 26 C and up because there is a bylaw requiring buildings to ensure that units have the ability to maintain a minimum of 21 C between September 15 and June 1. This all means that buildings often wait until late May or June to start the switchover from heating to air conditioning, since it isn’t just a matter of flipping a switch. The rules are meant to protect tenants from landlords who might not provide adequate heating in winter. The unintended consequence is that a lot of people end up roasting for two months before they get to turn on the AC.
Fortunately, there are things that our new mayor and council could do about it. In the past, Matlow has sought to change the bylaw to require air-conditioning systems to be turned on from May 16 to September 30. Moreover, during the campaign, he pledged to legislate a maximum indoor temperature of 26 C. Of course, that works only for buildings that have air conditioning. Recognizing that, Matlow also endorsed supplying air conditioners to seniors living in Toronto Community Housing Corporation buildings. Given the physical danger of living through extreme heat, this makes perfect sense. Air conditioning isn’t really a luxury in Toronto — not in this heat.
The second idea comes from the Ana Bailão campaign. Bailão introduced the idea of automatically ticketing cars that illegally drive around streetcars at stops — something that endangers TTC riders getting on and off of trains. As a streetcar rider (when they actually run), I’ve had a few close calls. While I can’t speak to the feasibility of using existing external cameras on streetcars for enforcement, it’s a very attractive idea, in principle, to increase rider safety.
Idea number three comes from the Mark Saunders campaign. The former Toronto police chief pledged to waive this year’s permit fees for outdoor patios and sidewalk cafés and to simplify the application process for the city’s CaféTO program.
The expansion of patios and sidewalk cafés was one of the few bright spots of the pandemic. COVID forced us to rethink our use of outdoor space. We needed to spend more time outside, so we made some long overdue changes to ensure that Torontonians could enjoy outdoor dining. But, as the campaign noted, applications for patios and sidewalk cafés have decreased this year, at least in part because of the cost and headache of obtaining permits. This is penny-wise, pound foolish.
The fourth idea comes from former MPP Mitzie Hunter. Public safety was a recurring issue during the campaign, given the uptick in random violence on the TTC. A greater police presence might be a medium-term solution, but it takes time to train and hire officers.
Hunter’s campaign put out a five-point TTC safety plan, part of which centred on adding resources other than police officers to help improve safety. For instance, she advocated for pairing social workers with transit officers to help deal with people experiencing mental-health or addiction issues. One can debate whether adding an additional officer versus a social worker is optimal for these situations. But given that we’re talking about adding rather than swapping resources, it seems like a low-risk effort.
The last idea is from the Brad Bradford campaign. Building more housing more quickly was one of the councillor’s major campaign themes. Bradford has highlighted the urgent need to streamline housing approvals to ensure that projects don’t get caught up in endless consultations and long approval processes. Taking a page from former mayor John Tory, he pledged to create a new Development and Growth Division tasked with expediting housing approvals. Every week or month of delays adds to project costs and, crucially, to the time it takes to house people.
No one has a monopoly on good ideas. Sometimes losing candidates have solid proposals that are practical and not especially controversial but fall off the radar. We should encourage our new mayor to recycle some of the good ones. I think the five I’ve highlighted here would make for a good and achievable start.
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