Item - 2025.EC22.4

The Economic and Community Development Committee recommends that:

1. City Council request the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to continue to review and amend the updated Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy, in Attachment 1 to the report (June 26, 2025) from the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, as appropriate and when necessary.

2. City Council direct the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to host public sessions and design other programming as appropriate in each of the City’s Community Council Areas on the updated Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy while continuing to reallocate existing financial resources for public education efforts on coexistence in 2025.

3. City Council request the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, in consultation with the Executive Director, Development Review, to include guidelines for wildlife management within the Construction Management Plan as an advisory comment in the Notice of Approval with Conditions issued through the Site Plan Control application review process.

4. City Council direct the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to leverage existing resources within the 2025 Operating Budget to provide funding to wildlife and/or community organizations to help proactively engage communities and support public education on wildlife issues as outlined in the Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy, and include consideration of the creation of the Wildlife Response Team as part of the 2026 budget process.

5. City Council request the Government of Ontario to outline detailed criteria for when provincially-led redevelopment projects will include coyote and/or wildlife-specific studies.

6. City Council notify the Government of Ontario of the resources and costs necessary to respond to coyote interactions in Toronto and reiterate its request for the Government of Ontario to share the costs of wildlife management.

7. City Council request the Government of Ontario review the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1997, to incorporate updated best practices for wildlife management and to support wildlife management in urban areas, including disruptions to wildlife caused by urban densification.

8. City Council request the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, consider cost-effective third parties alternatives to deliver upon the strategy.

9. City Council request the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to continue to monitor research related to reproductive controls for coyotes and to participate in relevant research opportunities where feasible and report back with a status update in the second quarter of 2027.

10. City Council direct the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, in consultation with the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management, General Manager, Parks and Recreation, and other City divisions as appropriate, to review best practices from other jurisdictions related to coyote management and physical infrastructure and to make site-specific improvements as necessary at vacant City-owned property adjacent to greenspaces such as parks, ravines, and lightly treed areas, where increased coyote activity has been observed and report back with a status update in the second quarter of 2027.

11. City Council request the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards to work with the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture, to provide educational materials to Business Improvement Areas on rules related to proper waste disposal and wildlife feeding in order to discourage coyote activity.

Toronto’s urban wildlife is incredibly diverse, with thousands of unique species calling the city home. In particular, coyotes have lived in Toronto’s communities for many years. Coyotes have adapted well to urban environments and are a consistent feature in many cities across North America. It is normal to see a coyote in residential, commercial, or industrial areas, and in or around parks, trails and ravines.

The City of Toronto monitors coyote activity and has relied on its existing Coyote Response Strategy to guide its response. The Strategy (last updated in October 2013) prioritizes deterrence and public education to minimize coyote encounters. It focuses on removing open food sources, preventing dog-coyote interactions, and coyote-proofing properties.

This staff report responds to several Council and Committee directives, notably to update the Coyote Response Strategy and report back on items related to the Downtown Coyote Action Plan, which was received by the Economic and Community Development Committee on May 6, 2025 (2025.EC20.4). The City of Toronto’s updated Coyote Response Strategy, renamed the Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy (“the Strategy”), is attached to this report as Attachment 1. The updated Strategy organizes best practices for coyote management into a comprehensive operational document to guide City responses and support public participation in wildlife management efforts.

This report recommends City Council’s endorsement of the Strategy and that Council make several requests to the province: to outline detailed criteria for when provincially led redevelopment projects will include coyote and/or wildlife-specific studies, share costs for coyote management (which reiterates a previous request), and review provincial wildlife conflict management regulations. This report also outlines additional actions, including creating a proposed Wildlife Response Team, developing a comprehensive public education campaign in 2026, creating reliable and responsive channels for public updates related to coyote incidents, and clarifying how wildlife management is factored into construction and development projects.

This report was prepared in consultation with City Planning, Customer Experience (311), Development Review, Environment, Climate and Forestry, Parks and Recreation, Policy, Planning, Finance and Administration, Solid Waste Management, Toronto Building, Toronto Public Health and Transportation Services.