We considered items relating to driverless delivery vehicles, extreme heat, parking policies, 'sixplex' housing and more.
This week was the June meeting of City Council, where we considered several important items.
These included privacy risks from the province's secretive driverless delivery vehicle pilot project, improvements to our extreme heat response, the city's parking strategy, proposed zoning changes to allow 'sixplex' housing and more.
I was pleased to support Mayor Chow's motion this week to improve the city’s response to extreme heat and provide critical protections for those most vulnerable to its impacts.
The Mayor's motion included the following measures:
The motion also directs staff to have in place measures to keep rec staff safe while avoiding closures to recreation facilities and programming caused by the heat.
With the hotter temperatures and more extreme weather expected over the coming months and years, we must take proactive steps like these to keep residents safe. Read the full motion to learn more.
In our discussion on the city's Strategic Parking Framework, Council adopted two of my motions to make city parking policies and enforcement practices more accommodating.
My first motion called for an increase in accessible parking spaces. To achieve this, it requests Transportation Services to implement minimum thresholds for accessible spaces within curbside parking zones.
It also calls on city staff to integrate accessible parking considerations in all assessment and decision-making processes for adding, removing or reconfiguring on-street parking spaces. Transportation Services will report back on these measures at the December 2025 meeting of the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee.
I moved a second motion to ensure parking rules and enforcement practices better reflect the multi-faith makeup of Toronto.
It calls on the Toronto Police Services Board, who oversee parking enforcement, to establish a consistent policy that provides a grace period on religious holidays for vehicles parked near relevant religious institutions during and around religious services.
My motion also called on the Toronto Parking Authority to examine extending its free parking policy on Sunday morning to other days of religious significance.
Council also considered city Planning recommendations to permit multiplexes with up to six dwelling units (sixplexes) in all low-rise residential neighbourhoods.
I intended to support staff recommendations. Adding gentle density will help address Toronto's housing crisis and provide residents with more housing options.
Allowing for sixplexes city-wide is also required for the city to access all of the $471.1 million in available funding from the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund.
However, when it became clear Councillors, many of whom were from more outer, suburban wards, would not support allowing sixplexes city-wide, a compromise motion was brought forward.
It would permit sixplexes in Toronto-Danforth and the eight other wards in the geographic area covered by Toronto and East York Community Council. Every other ward would require its Councillor to 'opt-in' to allowing sixplexes in their communities.
Faced with either this compromised motion or no right-of-way approval of sixplexes at all, I voted in favour of the amended motion along with a majority of my colleagues.
While I'm glad some form of compromise was found, I remain concerned about the 25% cut - approximately $60 million over two years - we face as a result of Council's failure to approve sixplexes across all of Toronto.
Read the agenda item to learn more.
We also considered a staff report this week on Magna International's driverless delivery vehicle pilot, quietly approved by the province without city input or consent, underway in Ward 9 and portions of Wards 4, 5, 11 and 12.
I am deeply concerned about congestion and safety risks. I'm also deeply troubled by the privacy implications of the province's secretive arrangement with Magna, whose autonomous vehicles use facial recognition to identify delivery recipients.
In response, I moved several motions calling on the province to object to the privacy, safety and congestion risks created by their deeply problematic arrangement with Magna.
My motions also call on the city to consult the provincial and federal privacy commissioners to inform a City Manager report for the September 2025 Infrastructure and Environment Committee that answers the following critical questions:
As you likely agree, the fact we weren't provided this information before the province moved forward with this arrangement is deeply concerning.
Thank you to my colleagues for unanimously supporting my motions for this item.
View the full June 2025 City Council agenda for more on these and other items we considered this week.
Luella Price Lane was named after the Eureka Club founder and resident of the Black community in early 1900s Leslieville.
The City of Toronto's first purpose-built pickleball facility will have 11 courts and several other exciting features.
We considered several major issues at City Council this month. Read my recap for a full breakdown.
