Item - 2026.EX33.18

The Executive Committee:

1. Requested the Director, Revenue Services, in consultation with the Executive Director, Customer Experience, to examine the Tax and Utility and Vacant Homes Tax volume of requests for information of various complexities, and to seek opportunities to improve the wait times, self serve options, communications materials and overall customer experience; and to report to the appropriate committee by the second quarter of 2027.

At its meeting on July 6, 2026 the Service Excellence Committee considered Item SE13.3 and made recommendations to the Executive Committee.

Summary from the report (June 19, 2026) from the Executive Director, Customer Experience Division and the General Manager, Parks and Recreation

The Customer Experience Division, in partnership with Integrated Service Divisions (which include Transportation Services, Solid Waste Management Services, Toronto Water, Municipal Licensing and Standards, Urban Forestry within Environment, Climate and Forestry, and the Parks Branch within Parks and Recreation), continues to strengthen data transparency and enable data-driven decision-making through public dashboards, shared operational data, and quarterly reviews.

As directed by Council, Customer Experience Division is reporting biannually on the ongoing analysis of performance against service standards, including the identification of opportunities for improvement. This report complements individual reports from Integrated Service Divisions identifying how data is used to drive service excellence, with a report from Parks and Recreation, Transportation Services, and Municipal Licensing and Standards brought forward to the May 2026 Service Excellence Committee meeting, and reports from Toronto Water, Solid Waste Management Services, and Urban Forestry within Environment, Climate and Forestry tracking to the July 2026 Service Excellence Committee meeting. Additionally, this report addresses separate direction from Executive Committee to provide the geographic distribution of service requests in parks.    

While 311 service requests data provides information on where the public is requesting additional services and visibility into how divisions respond to these requests, it does not capture proactive, planned and longer-term work. As such, this data does not provide insight into the overall performance of a service or division and cannot be used as the only metric to evaluate City service delivery. Integrated Service Divisions rely on internal operational dashboards that integrate both customer demand and planned activities, providing a comprehensive view of service delivery, performance, and improvement priorities.

This report provides a review of the first quarter of 2026 service requests demand and performance. Between January to March 2026, 311 created 158,000 service requests for Integrated Service Divisions and non-integrated divisions and agencies (for example, Court Services and Toronto Public Health), up nearly 20 percent from the 132,000 service requests created in the first quarter of 2025. Most service requests were driven by winter-related demand, with 53 percent of service requests directed to Transportation Services.

Despite the increase in volume, performance improvements were seen in Transportation Services and Municipal Licensing and Standards due to enhancements in service planning and cross-divisional collaboration, especially in the case of 2025/2026 winter operations. The severity of the winter season also impacted performance for Solid Waste Management Services, Toronto Water, and Urban Forestry due to increased service requests volume and the re-assignment of staff to address winter operations. These divisions continue to assess service requests data, alongside other planned work, and explore opportunities for continuous improvement.

This report also provides a geographic analysis of common service requests that have been received by the Parks and Recreation division. While service requests are evident across the city, parks in the downtown core receive the highest density. Staff regularly review request volumes, locations, and response times to identify recurring issues and service hotspots to inform crew deployment, with priority given to high-demand areas and public safety concerns.  

Customer Experience Division continues to work with City divisions on enhancing customer insights and service delivery. In partnership with the Technology Services Division, work is underway to establish the Toronto Data Platform, which is a centralized solution for data governance and analytics. As well, Customer Experience Division is working with Revenue Services to identify improvement opportunities in high-demand service lines like tax and utility-related inquiries.