Toronto City Hall rethinks rules for street buskers, vendors
· Toronto Sun
City Council is being encouraged to add a little more hustle and bustle to Toronto’s streets in time for the World Cup.
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On Thursday afternoon, City Hall’s economic and community development committee endorsed a long list of bylaw changes related to street artists and vendors. Notably, it’s proposed that on June 15 – just days after Toronto’s first World Cup match – rules on sidewalk vending be loosened downtown and mobile food vendors be allowed to extend their working hours.
City Council is due to vote on the proposals at its meeting this month.
Ausma Malik, one of the downtown councillors who sits on the committee, told the meeting that buskers “make the experience of living in a big and bustling city a little bit more enjoyable, and whimsical as well.”
There wasn’t much whimsy in the committee debate however, as many of the proposed changes relate to permits and rewriting the language in Toronto bylaws. The report before the committee contained grids that lay out new fees for licences and permits that councillors will be asked to approve.
Cameron Pounder, co-owner of FeasTO, a food truck that serves dumplings, told the committee that Toronto’s two-tier permitting system makes it hard to break in as a street vendor.
“The issue has never been about hours, or dollars and cents,” Pounder said. “It is about equitable access to public space regardless of the date you started your business,” he said.
“We now have two systems: a small group with permanent fixed locations, and like me, over a hundred mobile vendors competing daily for limited curb access. We pay the same fees, but we operate under two very different systems.”
Pounder appealed to Councillors Chris Moise and Shelley Carroll, given their private business experience before entering politics. That drew a gentle admonishment from Alejandra Bravo, who chairs the committee, for addressing an individual city councillor rather than the committee as a whole.
Still, Pounder’s argument seemed to resonate with Bravo. She brought in amendments to phase out certain curb land vending permits, and said it was important that “we’re providing fair access to local economic development activities.”
Brick-and-mortar struggles
Meanwhile, a saxophonist and street magician who addressed the committee both complained about city bylaws, saying noise restrictions can make it harder to eke out a living. (One of the proposed changes would allow street performances to be amplified.)
Moise expressed some concern about the proposals, some of which would specifically affect his downtown ward. He called for a report on issues such as noise and congestion, and said he may ask for safety-related revisions later when the idea comes before City Council.
“I’m a huge supporter of street vendors and artists, of course,” but bigger crowds – and more commerce – could make the narrow sidewalks in his Toronto Centre ward unsafe,” he said.
While the committee largely heard support for the changes, the board of directors for the Yonge North York BIA urged caution, citing Toronto’s “struggling restaurant sector.”
“The proposed bylaw changes will further strain bricks-and-mortar businesses that contribute to the city’s vibrancy and diverse cultural offerings,” the BIA’s board wrote in a letter to the committee .
The board provided a list of suggestions, including “choosing a more conservative approach to the proposed significant extension of vending hours” and “deferring the introduction of non-food vending to first evaluate impacts of other proposed changes.”
While the committee was unanimous in its support, Councillor Nick Mantas recused himself from the discussion as a family member of his runs a vending truck.