City Council meeting of May 8 and 9, 2012

Community use of school pools
Council approved a five-year agreement between the City of Toronto and the Toronto District School Board for the City's continued use of pools in Toronto schools. The agreement extends to June 2017. By offsetting the board's pool operation and maintenance costs, the City is able to use 33 school pools for community swim programs weeknights, weekends and during the summer months.

Sale of City properties
Council decided to make changes to the procedure for considering the transfer of City of Toronto lands to the Build Toronto agency for sale on behalf of the City as surplus to its needs. The process is to include consultation with the relevant ward councillor and the City's chief planner. Meanwhile, Council authorized the transfer of several specified properties to Build Toronto as recommended by the Government Management Committee.

Toronto Sportsmen's Show
Council agreed to exempt the City's Exhibition Place from a policy that prohibits the use of City facilities for the promotion of firearms. The exemption was made to permit the Toronto Sportsmen's Show to host its annual show at Exhibition Place. The show was held at a different location the past two years, after the previous Council banned the display of guns on City property. Gun displays, as well as presentations about the safe use and storage of guns, are a component of the show.

Firearms database
Council agreed to ask the Province of Ontario to do everything in its power to stop the planned deletion of existing data pertaining to non-restricted gun ownership in Ontario. Federal Bill C19 has ordered the deletion of data on millions of non-restricted firearms currently registered in Canada - including about 287,000 such firearms registered in the Greater Toronto Area. Council reaffirmed its support for the registration of all firearms. The data can be useful to police in tracing guns to their last legal owners.

Site of first parliament buildings
Council directed staff to work with the owner of property at Front and Parliament streets that was the site of Canada's first parliament buildings in an effort to secure the site under public ownership at no net cost to the City. A developer has applied to build a residential condominium building on the site. Full public ownership is required for the site to qualify for designation as a national historic site. The City would like to make the first Parliament Site a historic monument and tourist attraction.

Jury duty
Council agreed to ask the Ontario government to deem the members of Toronto City Council ineligible for jury duty. The rationale for the request is that the mayor and councillors have responsibilities that make it impractical and inappropriate for them to serve on a jury. Elected officials of the federal and provincial parliaments are exempt from jury duty.

Toronto's aerospace industry
Council approved the creation of a working group with broad representation dedicated to advancing aerospace-related employment and training in Toronto's Downsview Park area. Council wants to see continued growth of the aerospace sector through the promotion of Toronto as a world-class centre of aerospace excellence.

Specialized driver training for staff
Council approved plans for a pilot project aimed at reducing collisions involving City staff - and in turn reducing the annual cost of collisions involving City vehicles. The pilot project under Fleet Services will use a simulator in the training of 100 City employees who drive daily as part of their job. Assessment of the pilot project will help the City decide whether to implement a larger-scale training program of this kind to supplement its established driver training and safety efforts.

Promoting awareness of autism
Council agreed to endorse Autism Ontarios Ontario Rides for Autism fundraising event on Sunday, June 10. A motion before Council requesting the formal endorsement noted that Autism Spectrum Disorder affects the lives of about 20,000 Toronto residents and 80,000 Ontarians.

Previous Council Highlights

Council Highlights is an informal summary of Council's recent decisions, produced for readers' convenience. Any questions about this summary can be emailed to Strategic Communications at stratcom@toronto.ca

The formal documentation of Council's decisions is available at http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/index.do

Questions about the formal documentation can be emailed to the City Clerk's Office at clerk@toronto.ca