City council approves housing proposal, rooming house bylaw

Toronto City Council has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a proposal to create a housing action plan which could result in significant changes to existing zoning regulations.

A new bylaw that would license and regulate rooming houses across the city also received a majority support from council at Wednesday’s meeting.

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

Mayor John Tory is asking staff to create the action plan and report back on its exact structure in March. Tory, however, has said that the plan should focus on 15 key areas, including amending zoning laws to “increase density within neighbourhoods, creating “transition zones between commercial and residential areas” and “increasing zoning permissions on major streets.”

“We as a city government and as a city council, we have the opportunity today to take a more aggressive approach to address the acute affordability and housing crises facing our city. The housing action plan begins the process of updating the city's regulations so that we can meet or exceed the target of building 285,000 homes over the next decade,” Tory said Wednesday morning. “The plan will bring our city into the 21st century by removing the extraordinary zoning that has focused growth in just a few areas of the city and prevented Torontonians from having the full range of housing choices.”

Tory’s motion also includes revisiting the plans for the Port Lands and the waterfront to “ensure housing density is optimized” and to create a separate post-secondary housing strategy to increase student housing.

In addition, the motion calls for city staff to review Toronto’s “urban design guidelines, heritage standards and urban forestry policies” to ensure they align with the goal of expediting the delivery of new housing.

With the recent passage of Bill 39, also known as the Better Municipal Governance Act, Tory could benefit from the new powers which could allow him to pass certain bylaws with the support of only one-third of city council.

However, at a news conference before the meeting, he said he doubted he would use those powers to pass his plan.

"The law is the law, and it's there but I have no desire to use it. I have a desire to move forward in collaboration with my colleagues and we'll go from there but I just will tell you I will not be spending my time in endless theatrical performances that don't really reflect what people are telling me they want me to deal with," he said.

Toronto Mayor John Tory, speaks during a press conference in Toronto, Monday, June 27, 2022. Tory says the city will be working with the Toronto District School Board to prioritize schools that need enhanced youth programming, mental health supports and food security initiatives. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Tory conceded that not all councillors would agree with his motion, but he remained positive that the certain items would move forward.

Ultimately, the mayor did not have to invoke his new powers as his housing plan carried with a majority support of 23-3.

"The 2023 Housing Action Plan takes bold, aggressive action to address the affordability and housing crises facing our city. I will keep looking for new, innovative approaches so there are more affordable options for Torontonians to build their future in our city. This new Housing Action Plan sets aggressive targets to get more housing built with lightning speed," Tory said in a statement after the vote.

"With Council’s support this week, we’ve taken a major step forward to ensuring that every Toronto resident has a place to call home. We are working together to tackle this housing crisis and ensure that our city is a welcoming place for everyone.”

 

Separate from the housing plan, Tory also asked council to approve the multi-tenant housing bylaw to make those homes safer for tenants.

"I'm optimistic that on the multi-tenant housing that we will have a sufficient consensus to move this forward, which I think is what needs to be done and I think we'll find quite frankly, once it has moved forward that the fears that people have are grossly exaggerated and largely unfounded," Tory said.

The mayor noted that from 2011 to today, 14 lives were lost due to fires in unlicensed rooming houses, versus two lives lost in licensed rooming houses during the same time period.

The bylaw was approved with a vote of 18-8.

This after a nearly identical proposal was twice deferred during the last term of council because Tory didn’t believe it had the votes to pass.

With files from CP24’s Chris Fox