Dear Ward 24 Neighbours,
I was happy to Chair the inaugural meeting of the General Government and Licensing Committee of the new term, this past Monday, January 14th. This committee focuses on city government, assets, resources, and business licensing.
During the meeting another of my Scarborough colleagues, Councillor Jim Karygiannis was elected the Committee’s Vice-Chair. 
Moreover, items discussed include a comprehensive review of business licensing across the City as well as a review of the City of Toronto’s Clothing Drop Boxes.
In 2015, the Municipal Licensing and Standards (MLS) began modernizing business licensing to better reflect the current and evolving business environment, to develop efficiencies and to reduce regulatory burden.
This review is being conducted in stages due to the changing nature and number of existing businesses and licence categories. Early stages included the transformation of business licensing and operational processes and technology.
The next stage includes an update and review of the Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw, a review of payday lending businesses and the review of licensing requirements for bars, restaurants and nightclubs and more. This work is expected throughout 2019.
The next stages for this review include the following:
- Streamline, simplify and modernize operational processes to reduce red tape and regulatory burden, while ensuring consumer protection and public health and safety objectives are met.
- Modernize business licensing requirements and processes to better meet and adapt to today’s evolving and emerging businesses; and
- Move to a risk-based approach to business licensing
Sadly, on January 8, 2019 Toronto Police reported a woman had passed away in a clothing drop box near Bloor St. and Dovercourt Rd. Due to this incident the General Government and Licensing Committee was asked in writing by Mayor Tory to speed up the review of the Clothing Drop Box bylaw which was intended to be completed by MLS in September 2019.
This review will focus on the following:
- Options on how to improve the safety of clothing drop boxes;
- Methods other than drop boxes that are used to collect clothing donations and the effectiveness of each option;
- Review of the rules that guide where drop boxes are permitted to be located; and
- Review the enforcement of clothing drop boxes, particularly those that are illegally placed and without permits
These items will be brought forward at the May 21, 2019 meeting of the General Government and Licensing Committee.
The review of clothing drop boxes is not singular to the City of Toronto. The Toronto Star reported Vancouver City Councillors are also looking into the safety of local clothing drop boxes after a man passed away in a donation bin on December 30, 2018.
Some City official’s suggestions include removing the donations bins until they are completely safe for the public, motions to explore better regulations, safer designs or alternative drop-off points. Find the full article
More details on this meeting of the General Government and Licensing Committee can be found here.
The General Government and Licensing Committee, City Council and other committee meetings can be watched live on YouTube at this link.
If you have any questions of comments please let me know!
All my Best,
Paul
