On Tuesday July 6, the Toronto and East York Community Council was supposed to vote on the bike lanes on Cosburn Ave. from Broadview Ave. to Oak Park Ave. At the end of the day, a long day, the decision was deferred to the Community Council meeting in September. Community Council couldn't vote on the report to put in the bike lanes because of procedural manoeuvres on the part of Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29 Toronto-Danforth) prior to the meeting.

Councillor Case Ootes didn't want the bike lane on Cosburn to run through Ward 29 (pictured above). If you live in this Ward and want the bike lanes to go through call him at 416-397-4670 or e-mail him at councillor_ootes@toronto.ca

The staff report that was to be voted on recommended that a bike lane would run along Cosburn Ave. through both, Councillor Ootes' ward, Ward 29, and that of Councillor Janet Davis (Ward 31 Beaches-East York). Two weeks prior to Tuesday's meeting Councillor Ootes put pressure on the Works Department officials to pull the original report and substitute it with a report recommending only half the bike lane go through. He wanted the sections of the report dealing with his ward taken out. Staff complied and the report was rewritten, printed and handed out at the meeting. Evidence of the last minute nature of these interventions is in the fact that the copy of the report included with the meeting agenda on the City of Toronto's web site is the original report. July 6th Agenda, Item 35 - Cosburn Bike Lanes. The resulting confusion among staff, over which report was being dealt with, and the delay resulting from the rewriting of the report, gave Councillor Ootes his chance to derail the approval of the bike lanes.

The proper consultation process that should be followed is as follows. A notice of an initial public meeting is sent to residents in the vicinity of the bike lane. In this case 12,000 notices were sent out and 40 people attended. After the initial public meeting the proposal is finalized, incorporating comments from residents, and a letter is sent to residents who attended the public meeting letting them know when the matter will be voted on at Community Council and giving them a chance to make a further deputation. On June 21, 2004 the final report covering the entire bike lane, through both wards was completed. It was posted on the City's web site as a public notice, Notice of Meeting - Cosburn Bike Lanes, and the letters were about to be sent off to the 40 people who attended the meeting. It was at this point that Councillor Ootes' interventions against the bike lane proposal started and staff decided to hold off mailing the letters.

At the Community Council meeting on Tuesday Councillor Ootes said his reason for requesting that the bike lane proposal be cut in half was that he said the consultation process had not been followed, the letters to the 40 people who attended the public meeting had not been sent. Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18 - Davenport) pointed out that the process was being followed until Councillor Ootes' intervention in the process, which derailed the sending out of the letters.

Councillor Case Ootes protests about not enough consultation rang hollow. The proposal for the bike lanes had sat on his desk for over a year waiting for him to hold the initial public meeting to get feedback from local residents on the project. He never called that meeting in 2003. When, thanks to the work of Councillor Janet Davis, a meeting on the project was finally held on May 26th, 2004, he did not attend. His last minute conversion to a defender of local democracy on this issue was seen as opportunistic. Councillor Janet Davis in her speech supporting proceeding with the bike lane project summed up the feeling of most in the room stating that it was “Disappointing that this consultation process had been undermined by Councillor Ootes.” He had already delayed the approval process by a year, now he was engineering another 3 month delay.

There was overwhelming support for the Cosburn bike lanes expressed at the meeting. Six of seven people who made deputations were in support of the project going forward in its entirety. Councillor Janet Davis received 165 letters in support of the project. When it came time for councillors on the committee to debate the motion most spoke in favour and worked hard to overcome the obstacle that Councillor Ootes had set up. Councillor Joe Mihevc ( Ward 21 St. Paul's) made a motion that the staff prepare to paint the bike lane lines immediately after the October Council meeting, which is now the earliest that the project can go to City Council for final approval. This was to ensure that the project gets completed in 2004. Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18), also the Co-Chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, made motions asking that the process of approving bike lanes be reviewed and a report on how to improve it be made to the Works Committee, Olivia Chow (Ward 20 - Trinity-Spadina) tried to craft a motion that would allow the committee to get around the procedural road block set up by Case Ootes. Council's rules of order prevented her from being successful. When the issue comes back to Community Council in September it will have the support of most of the committee. Councillors Joe Pantalone (Ward 19 - Trinity-Spadina), Paula Fletcher (Ward 30 - Toronto-Danforth), Sandra Bussin (Ward 32 - Beaches-East York), and Pam McConnell ( Ward 28 Toronto Centre-Rosedale) all expressed support for the bike lanes on Cosburn. The only member of the Committee who seemed to be on side with Ootes was Councillor Michael Walker (Ward 22 St. Paul's) who occasionally heckled those councillors who spoke in favour of the proposal.

In the end, it was the respect for the democratic process on the part of Janet Davis and most of the Councillors present that lead to the passing of Councillor Davis' motion to defer the issue so that the full original report on the Cosburn Bike Lane from Broadview to Oak Park Ave. could come back to the September Community Council meeting and be voted on then. They recognized that due to Councillor Ootes meddling some residents may have been denied the opportunity to have their views expressed. It was a disappointing experience for everyone there, with the exception of Councillor Ootes. His mood improved considerably when the motion to defer passed, he was laughing.

While this was a setback for the bike plan and those who support it, it is a temporary one. Had the Community Council approved half of the bike lane recommended in the revised report we may have never got the other half back on the table. This way we can push for the entire bike lane at the September Community Council meeting. Those community members who have worked to get these bike lanes approved will have to redouble their efforts and they will need the support of others who have not yet voiced their support. Councillor Ootes may now try and stir up opposition to the bike lane proposal in the guise of consultation. Residents in his ward should take the initiative and start calling and writing him, telling him that they support the Cosburn bike lane from Broadview to Oak Park and he should too when it comes to a vote. The number of his constituency office is 416-397-4670. You can e-mail him at councillor_ootes@toronto.ca. If you are not sure which ward you are in you can go to the Find your Councillor web page provided by the City of Toronto.

The other positive that came out of the meeting was that it raised the awareness of the Councillors present about the problem of getting bike lanes approved in a timely fashion and the near veto that a councillor can have over the process. It prompted them to pass Councillor Giambrone's motion to examine the bike lane approval process. The real solution is to revamp the process revamped so Councillor Ootes and others of his ilk can't use these tactics in the future to hold up the expansion of the Bikeway Network.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca