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E-Blast: Council Highlights - Public Realm Improvements, Congestion Management, Capital Project delivery & More

  • councillorcarroll
  • Apr 24
  • 7 min read

Updated: May 1

It was another full week at City Hall, and I want to take a moment to share a few highlights from this month’s Council meeting with you. From tackling traffic congestion and improving how we deliver capital projects, to updating our dog off-leash strategy and preparing for the future of AI in municipal services—there’s a lot happening that directly affects our daily lives here in Don Valley North and across the city. As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of these items.



 

At this month’s Council meeting, we will take another important step forward on something I know many of care deeply about: the beauty, functionality, and vibrancy of our shared public spaces.

 

In response to a motion called Towards a Beautiful City, senior City staff across Planning, Parks, and Transportation have laid out a thoughtful path forward to strengthen design excellence, improve maintenance, and elevate the experience of the public realm citywide.



Why does this matter? Because a beautiful city is about more than aesthetics. Well-designed, welcoming public spaces help foster civic pride and order. They encourage us to spend more time outdoors, interact with our neighbours, and truly feel like we belong. From wide, tree-lined sidewalks to thoughtfully designed parks and public buildings, every detail of our city’s physical environment shapes our daily lives.

 

In Don Valley North, I’ve long championed high-quality public space through our development work—ensuring new communities come with meaningful public realm investments that reflect the needs and diversity of our neighbourhoods. Whether it’s adding new parkland, upgrading street furniture, or protecting natural heritage, I’ve worked alongside residents and City staff to make sure our growing city doesn’t lose sight of the importance of beauty and function in public design.


This new initiative outlines two key themes:

 

  • Stronger Leadership in Design Excellence – including improved oversight, better procurement processes, and making high-quality design a priority in public projects.

 

  • A Better Maintained Public Realm – including clearer construction guidelines, upgraded service levels, and a citywide “Clean and Beautiful” campaign to build civic culture and shared responsibility.

 

As we prepare for major international events like the 2026 World Cup, and continue to welcome new residents, investing in the look and feel of our city isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential to our identity, economy, and quality of life.

 

 

Let’s talk about one of those behind-the-scenes City processes that has a big impact on how we get things done—the Bid Award Panel (or BAP for short).

 

The Bid Award Panel was originally created after amalgamation to play a hands-on role in reviewing bids and ensuring fairness in the City’s procurement process. At the time, it made sense—Toronto was transitioning into one unified city, and we needed strong oversight as we figured out how to handle complex purchases across departments.

 

For those unfamiliar, a bid is a formal offer from a company or contractor to provide goods or services to the City—whether that’s fixing roads, constructing facilities, or delivering specialized equipment. These bids come in response to posted Requests for Proposals (RFPs) or tenders, and the City awards contracts based on price, quality, timelines, and other factors.



But like many things in government, the BAP’s role has shifted over time. As our procurement systems grew more robust, the Panel evolved from playing an active, decision-making role into something more procedural. Today, there are already extensive checks and safeguards built into the procurement process—financial reviews, legal assessments, transparency measures—so much so that BAP has become a duplicated step, adding delays and administrative workload without contributing meaningful oversight.

 

The recent staff review of BAP made it clear: the current system isn’t working as intended. The Panel’s review functions are no longer adding value, and in fact, they may be slowing down our ability to award contracts efficiently. In light of that, staff have recommended we phase out the Bid Award Panel altogether and modernize our procurement approval framework.

 

I support this change. Not only will it streamline our processes, but it also allows for earlier engagement in the procurement timeline. As a Councillor, I’ll now have access to the same TO Bids software that staff use to post Requests for Proposals. This means I can better understand what we’re asking contractors to deliver—early in the process—before contracts are awarded.

 

Of course, we’re not letting go of accountability. We’ll continue to follow a rigorous financial control bylaw, overseen by our finance division and the Auditor General. What will change is our ability to move faster, reduce red tape, and ensure competitive bids stay relevant and cost-effective by the time decisions are made. The industry has told us this will help them bid with more confidence—and that translates into better value for Toronto.

 

This is a great example of how the City can evolve, improve, and adapt as our systems mature—and I’ll keep a close eye on how this new approach delivers results. 

 

 

This item comes from a motion moved by my colleague, Councillor Ainslie. While I don’t typically support internal award programs like this one—especially when there are already so many third-party organizations eager to recognize municipal achievements—I do think this item opens the door for an important conversation about the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in local government.

 

As the Mayor’s Economic Development & Culture Champion, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a range of companies—both local and international—that are doing truly innovative work in the AI space. Their advancements offer exciting opportunities for a city like ours, particularly when it comes to efficiency, cost savings, and improving service delivery for residents.



Municipal government is a natural fit for certain types of AI—not necessarily the large language models that you see in search engines or ChatGPT, but smaller, more scoped applications. These tools can help streamline administrative tasks, support decision-making, and improve everything from traffic flow analysis to building inspection processes. Used thoughtfully and responsibly, AI can be a powerful tool to help our staff do their jobs more effectively and make better use of public dollars.

 

To that end, while the implementation of the proposed awards program itself has been deferred until 2026, Council has endorsed a more immediate initiative: the creation of an AI Use Case Incubator through our Tariff Response Action Team. This incubator will allow the City to partner with the tech sector to explore safe, practical ways to integrate AI into our operations. It’s a smart step toward identifying real solutions—and making sure we’re not just chasing trends but implementing tools that work for Toronto.



As this work moves forward, I’ll be paying close attention to ensure it delivers value for residents and that any new technology is deployed transparently, ethically, and with a strong focus on public benefit.

 

  

This month, the Infrastructure Committee tackled two big topics that go hand in hand: how we manage congestion on our roads and how we deliver capital construction projects across the city. If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic downtown and wondered why half the street is fenced off for construction—this one’s for you.

 

Let’s start with the basics: congestion in Toronto isn’t just about too many cars. It’s the result of a perfect storm—private development, much-needed infrastructure renewal, and the rollout of major transit projects, all happening at once and often overlapping. The City's traffic data consistently shows that construction-related activity is the single biggest factor contributing to congestion. So, if we’re serious about keeping people and goods moving, we need to get much better at how we coordinate and deliver this work.

 

Back in late 2023, Council approved a three-year Congestion Management Plan with a focus on data-driven solutions. We’re already seeing early signs of improvement in journey times, and to keep the momentum going, Council supported the Mayor’s motion to appoint a permanent staff lead—a Congestion Czar, if you will—to focus exclusively on this work.



But here’s the thing: you can’t manage congestion unless you’re also managing construction. That’s why we’re overhauling our approach to capital delivery. Last summer, nearly 20% of city roadways were affected by public infrastructure work or construction tied to housing development. That level of activity isn’t going away—in fact, we expect even more capital projects in the summer of 2025, all while preparing for the global spotlight during World Cup 2026.

 

The difference now is how we plan to deliver. With the support of KPMG, we’ve introduced a new framework for capital procurement, better coordination across departments and utilities, and tougher rules for contractors. Private developments downtown will face significantly higher fees for occupying lanes, and we’ll be incentivizing them to complete their work faster and more efficiently using less of our limited road space in the process.



Meanwhile, city-led capital projects will move through the tendering process faster, with stronger on-site management and a new code of conduct for contractors. These changes are about more than project speed—they’re about making sure that every minute a lane is closed, or a street is torn up, it’s truly necessary and well-managed.

 

It’s all part of a broader strategy: improve the way we build and maintain our city, reduce the burden on our roads, and make it easier for people to get where they’re going. We’ve come a long way from the backlog left by years of underfunding and pandemic delays, but we’re not there yet. These reforms get us one step closer to a city that moves better, works smarter, and serves residents more effectively.

  

 

As this is going out, we are debating the long-awaited update to Toronto’s Dog Off-Leash Strategy, our citywide framework for planning, building, and maintaining spaces where our furry friends can run, play, and socialize safely.

 

Toronto is home to over 600,000 dogs, and with more people and pups living in denser communities, we need to be smart about how we share our park space. That’s exactly what this Strategy aims to do.

 

Since the first off-leash area was created under the City's 2010 policy, we've learned a lot about what makes these spaces work well—for dogs, owners, and everyone who uses our parks. This new Strategy reflects those lessons and builds on them with clearer planning guidelines, improved design standards, and a commitment to keeping off-leash areas clean, safe, and welcoming.



It also supports responsible dog ownership through education and enforcement and includes new guidance to better accommodate commercial dog walkers.

 

Here in Don Valley North, we’re already putting this work into action. Our new off-leash area, set to open soon in Parkway Forest Park, was designed using the principles laid out in this updated Strategy. It’s an exciting milestone, and I can’t wait to see it become a beloved gathering space for local residents and their pups.

 

We’ve gotten better and better at delivering these projects, and this Strategy ensures we’ll keep moving in the right direction—creating thoughtful, inclusive park spaces that work for everyone.

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