Item - 2024.MM24.5

Tracking Status

  • This item will be considered by City Council on December 17, 2024.

MM24.5 - More Great Eats - by Councillor Dianne Saxe, seconded by Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin

Notice of Motion
Consideration Type:
ACTION
Ward:
11 - University - Rosedale
Attention
* Notice of this Motion has been given.
* This Motion is subject to referral to the Economic and Community Development Committee. A two-thirds vote is required to waive referral.
A communication has been submitted on this Item.

Recommendations

Councillor Dianne Saxe, seconded by Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin, recommends that:

 

1. City Council direct the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, in consultation with Transportation Services, Toronto Public Health, other appropriate Divisions, and the Ward 11 Councillor, to report back to the February 26, 2025, Economic and Community Development Committee meeting with proposed by-law amendments to establish a time-limited pilot project in Ward 11 to allow:

 

a. a non-motorized refreshment vehicle which bears a Highway Traffic Act trailer licence to receive a mobile food vending permit that allows them to park and sell their refreshments in appropriate parking spots where a mobile food vendor with such a permit may do so.

Summary

Toronto thrives when small businesses do. Selling affordable street foods from a mobile vehicle is a low-barrier small business which reduces the cost of living for residents and adds vibrancy to our streets.

 

Unfortunately, current city rules make it unnecessarily difficult and expensive to operate such a business. Our sidewalks are crowded, so since 2002 the city has had a moratorium on sidewalk vending permits in downtown wards, including Ward 11. Once widespread, downtown food carts are now rare. It is therefore difficult or impossible to either purchase food from a food cart or start a new food cart business in Ward 11.

 

Food trucks are a type of mobile refreshment vehicle that is allowed to park and operate in certain motor vehicle parking spaces, and many operate on St. George St. in the University of Toronto campus. However, the number of such trucks is strictly limited, and the bylaw requires that they be independently motorized. This makes it illegal to operate a less-polluting, less-expensive mobile refreshment vehicle, such as a trailer that is towed by car or bicycle.

 

Anastasiia Alieksieiehuk, a newcomer from Ukraine, owns a popular coffee and baked goods trailer that serves students at the University of Toronto. She obtained a non-motorized refreshment vehicle licence, but has been frequently ticketed because the current by-law does not allow her to lawfully operate her trailer on either the road or the sidewalk.

 

No municipal interest is served by requiring on-road mobile food vendors to operate trucks, rather than unmotorized trailers, providing that the vehicle bears a Highway Traffic Act licence, and therefore can be securely identified, bear insurance and fulfil the other requirements of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 740, Street Vending.

Background Information

Communications

(December 12, 2024) E-mail from George Bell (MM.Supp)
Source: Toronto City Clerk at www.toronto.ca/council