City council debates bed bugs, food trucks, at monthly meeting

Toronto’s city council debated a host of measures at a two-day monthly meeting, including how to deal with bed bugs and expanding permission for food trucks.

Council also adopted a motion calling for the federal government to take over the Toronto Zoo. With Scarborough’s Rouge Valley set to become a national park, the city’s executive committee had recommended that the zoo could be incorporated into the National Urban Park.

Meanwhile, council held a motion from the Board of Health that asked for $180,000 to fight bed bugs in city-owned buildings, including Toronto Community Housing Corp. properties. The money would be used for “extreme cleaning and unit preparation.”

The province’s one-time funding of $1.2 million for a bed bug control program that paid for six public health inspectors ended on March 31.

Council approved a deal with the Toronto District School Board to keep 33 city-funded school pools open for the next five years.

Council will also debate lowering speed limits within the city, another proposal from the Board of Health.  Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s chief medical officer, has recommended that the speed limit on residential roads be reduced to 30 km/h, which he claims would make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam has proposed keeping information from Canada’s long-gun registry program, requesting council to advise the province to ask the federal government for data from the national registry.

The long-gun registry will soon be shut down, but Wong-Tam says the data – including more than 287,000 non-restricted firearms registered in the GTA should be saved.  

Changes to the city’s food truck program could be on the way. Coun. Adam Vaughan proposed allowing parking lot operators to rent their spots to food trucks. Spots that face the sidewalk could be home to standalone carts or booths as well as trucks.

The meeting will run Tuesday and Wednesday. CityNews.ca is live streaming the session.

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