‘This saved businesses’: City council votes to make CafeTO permanent
Posted November 10, 2021 1:32 pm.
Toronto’s CaféTO program will return in 2022 and beyond after city council voted to make curbside patios permanent.
The program passed almost unanimously after several amendments during Wednesday’s meeting, council also voted to waive all application, transfer and permit fees for business owners taking part in the program next year.
CaféTO was originally set up in 2020 to help restaurants function safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to boost business while indoor dining was prohibited.
“This saved businesses, it saved a lot of businesses,” said Mayor John Tory before council took their vote by show of hands.
Tory says the program’s impacts have been more than just economic.
“It was born out of necessity I guess you could call it, out of crisis… but also the needs of people.”
More than 1,200 establishments took part in CaféTO this year, marking an increase of 51 per cent over 2020.
“The city came to life,” councillor Mike Colle told colleagues. “As a life-long street runner, I have never seen Toronto so lively despite the pandemic.”
“If you want to see Paris in Toronto, just go down Ossington south of Dundas down to Queen,” Colle said. “It is alive with cafés, young people, old people – incredible humanity of wonderful, wonderful animation.”
Toronto’s Transportation Services, Municipal Licensing and Standards, and Economic Development and Culture offices will now be tasked with establishing criteria to make the CaféTO program permament by the first quarter of 2023.
