Toronto city council will tell the Ford government that it is opposed to legislation that would allow the province to remove bike lanes in the city.
Councillors voted 21 to 4 at a meeting on Thursday for one part of a motion moved by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow that outlines council’s opposition to the bill, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act. Councillors Brad Bradford, Vincent Crisanti, Stephen Holyday and Nick Mantas voted against the motion.
“No matter where you stand, whether you support bike lanes or you don’t support bike lanes, I think it’s important that this council and the people of Toronto have the respect they deserve,” Chow told council.
The votes follow a city staff report, released on Wednesday, that said removing bike lanes on Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street would cost at least $48 million.
Chow said previous Toronto city councils have made decisions about bike lanes after hours of public consultation and discussions with local business improvements areas and staff.
“Once a decision is made, we deserve the respect because each council is duly elected by your constituents.”
Council to explore potential for legal challenge
According to the first part of the motion, council will ask the province to work collaboratively with cities to address congestion and road safety and to remove amendments in the legislation that deal with bike lanes.
Council will also direct the city solicitor to review the bill and its regulations, once they are in force, and report back to council on the potential for a legal challenge. As well, council will appear before the Ontario legislative committee as part of public hearings to express its opposition.
Councillors voted 22 to 3 in favour of a second part of the motion, which says the city should pay no costs of the bike lane removal, including staff time, planning, design, construction and traffic management that will be needed as a result of congestion created. Crisanti, Holyday and Mantas voted against the motion.
Chow said she will meet with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to express the position taken by councillors.
The motion and debate at council come after Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria introduced the legislation last month that will enable the government to remove bike lanes. A regulation would allow the province to remove bike lanes specifically on Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street.
Under the legislation, municipalities would be required to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic and demonstrate that the lanes would not negatively impact traffic.
Province has ‘no business’ interfering, councillor says
Coun. Dianne Saxe, who represents University-Rosedale, said six cyclists have died on Toronto streets this year and three of those deaths happened in her ward. None of the three would have died if they were able to ride in a “safe” bike lane, she argued.
“Fundamentally, the province has no business sticking its big foot and its lies about evidence into how we allocate public space,” Saxe said.
“That is the central job that we do here at council. It is our right to do it. We are the closest to the community and the province has no business telling us not to.”
Coun. Josh Matlow, who represents Toronto-St. Paul’s, said the legislation is not about bike lanes but about Ford’s political interests.
“While Doug Ford is focusing on micromanaging Toronto, he’s neglecting a healthcare system that needs improvement, schools that need fixing, vulnerable people across this province who don’t have a premier who is for the people. But damn, we can go to 7-11 and buy a cooler now. Isn’t that awesome?”
Coun. Jamaal Myers, who represents Scarborough North, said allowing the province to remove bike lanes without opposition sets a “terrible” precedent because councillors are elected to represent constituents. He said a conversation is needed about the relationship between the city and province.
“You can’t run a city as large, as diverse, as frankly important as Toronto when we’re basically just taking orders from whoever happens to be in the premier’s office,” Myers said.
Council has to listen to upset citizens, councillor says
But Holyday, who represents Etobicoke Centre, said he supports the plan by Ford to remove bike lanes in Toronto.
“Citizens feel insulted, they feel upset, they feel like they’ve been gaslit because they’ve been stuck in traffic paralysis,” Holyday said.
Toronto’s mayor spoke with Metro Morning’s David Common about a new city report that says removing bike lanes in Toronto will cost at least $48 million.
Earlier on Thursday in an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, Chow said she is hopeful that the province and the city can work together to find common ground on tweaks and redesigns for some portions of key Toronto bike lanes instead of unilaterally removing them.
Chow said that ripping bike lanes out could cause delays for traffic on main streets for “at least” nine months.
“It will take, in some cases, two construction seasons … so it’s a lot of time.”
City staff say in the report that removal of these three lanes would also mean Toronto loses the $27 million it has already invested in installing the infrastructure, on top of “as yet unknown additional costs to identify, design, and construct alternative cycling routes,” as well as unknown costs to rebuild these roads solely for cars.
Toronto city manager Paul Johnson told Metro Morning’s David Common if the province legislates changes to bike lanes in the city, he wants reimbursement to include planning time and staff wages. When asked about that, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the province will “reimburse the removal.”
Despite those possible costs, Chow struck a collaborative tone while talking about the issue.
“Forty-eight million dollars. That’s enough money to feed every kid in school — and that’s my priority. I know that’s also the premier’s priority,” she said.
“Spend the money feeding kids and we’ll work out the details.”
Meanwhile, Ivana Yelich, deputy chief of staff for the premier, said in a social media post on Thursday morning that there is “no real-life example of the costs being even remotely close to what the City of Toronto is suggesting.”
Chow also said she was open to making changes to a stretch of bike lane on Bloor heading into Etobicoke, which has drawn Ford’s ire as it is about a 10-minute drive from his home in Toronto’s west end.
“There are some new ones put in, there are problems in them. We’ll fix it together,” she said.
“There are some that we just put in that are not very busy.”