Toronto City Council Economic Development Committee, 1 Mar 2018

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From YouTube: Economic Development Committee - March 1, 2018

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Economic Development Committee, meeting 27, March 1, 2018
Agenda and background materials:
http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyProfile.do?function=doPrepare&meetingId=13010

Meeting Navigation:
0:06:19 - Call to order

Agenda Items:
0:11:22 - ED27.1 - Economic Outlook (Ward All)
1:00:25 - ED27.2 - Economic Development and Culture Division 2017 Annual Report (Ward All)
0:09:04 - ED27.3 - Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) - 2018 Operating Budgets - Report No. 3 (Ward 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 41, 42)
0:09:20 - ED27.4 - Appointments to Business Improvement Area Boards of Management (Ward 15, 16, 17, 22, 25)
1:09:37 - ED27.5 - The City of Toronto's Canada 150 Celebrations (Ward All)
1:14:16 - ED27.6 - Redefining Public Art in Toronto (Ward All)
0:10:06 - ED27.7 - Toronto Economic Bulletin (Ward All)
1:44:18 - ED27.8 - Film Studio Infrastructure (Ward All)

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I'd like to call the meeting to order.

A

Good morning, everyone and welcome to the 27 folks I wonder if I can just ask our quiet in the room please. So we can start the meeting. We have a very modest agenda this morning so that we will be able to complete the agenda rather quickly, so you may want to entertain conversations and meetings a little bit later on. So welcome to meeting number 27 of the Economic Development Committee like to welcome all of our members of the committee and other members who may be here.

A

I see no other non committee members here at the moment, but they may be here and also welcome the public. That's here with us this morning for those of us that are in the room with us. The screen at the back to my right provides real-time updates concerning where we are on the agenda and what item is coming up next and for those of you who are home, you can follow us. Follow the agenda on your end, debate on your computer tablet and or smartphone at WRC, a backslash Council.

A

The Economic Development Committee gratefully acknowledges its meeting on the traditional territory of the Mississauga. The new credit First Nation and the Judah Shawnee, as well as the Honda 1 dot and they've, been home to many diverse indigenous people here in this land.

A

Are there any declaration of interest on the municipal conflict of interest? Act I see none I'd like to ask for confirmation of the minutes of the January 18 meeting. Okay Kel, sir Kelly I see first all those in favor. Oh that's carried! Thank you. We have a few speakers and presenters this morning.

A

Yes, well, presenter is Intel, so, okay, we will start off in members with item IDI 27.1. We it's an economic outlook. Mr. benjamin tall deputy chief economist for CIBC World, Markets Inc is here and he's no stranger to this committee, and he will be here speaking to you shortly so I'll hold that particular item 80/20 7.2 economic development, culture, 2017 annual report, we're holding that for presentation by the GM IDI 27.3, Business Improvement area, be ayase.

A

2018 operating budgets, report number three: let's say members of council for a caracas there's moving all those in favor opposed. That's carried, Thank You, Edie, 27.4, appointments to business improvement area, Board of Management, councillor heart-moving adoption, all those in favor opposed. That's carried, Thank You, Edie 27.5, the city of Toronto's Canada, 150 celebration. We have a presentation on this item a whole back down: edie 27.6, redefining public arts in Toronto. We have a speaker dr., Sarah diamond, is here. We have a communication from councillor Cressey, so we'll hold that item down.

A

Okay, Edie, because I saw the business you Edie 27.7, that's the Toronto economic bulletin. Ok, council recognizes, is moving the item. All those in favor post-sex carry. Thank you members. We have an additional item of new business to be added to the agenda. It is titled Toronto, film television, digital media board. It's a decision letter from the board. Members have copies of this okay members copies are being distributed. Additionally, there is a correspondence from councillor Fletcher titled options for film film studio infrastructure report.

A

I have spoken with the general manager he's in support of the letter, and there is a corresponding recommendation. I know that the that is associated with the correspondence from Council Fletcher general manager was already working on this, so this is rather helpful and instructive. With respect to the communication from council fetcher, so I like to add this to the agenda, all those in favor of posts that's carried and get members an opportunity to review the correspondence, as well as the decision letter from the film board. Okay.

A

So we are now moving to item number one and I'd like to ask mr. Benjamin tall deputy chief economist at CIBC, World Markets Inc, to come forward. He is no stranger to this committee. We are always delighted to have mr. tall here. He is very informative, he's a world-renowned expert in the field of economics, and we are always delighted to have you here so good morning. Mr. tall and welcome, thank you.

B

Very much good morning, I don't have much time and so much to discuss so I'll go through this presentation very very quickly. So please pay attention.

B

2017 was a great year, and not only for Toronto, but for the global economy and us being a global city.

B

We are feeling the impact of a very strong economic growth globally, as you can see, this chart is what we call the surprise index, basically to what extent global economies surprise on the upside, namely relative to what people expected what we got, and you can see that everywhere, with the exception by the way of the US everywhere, we have seen economic world globally better than expected by a lot in 2017 and leading the way by the way, is Canada, 1.2 percentage point extra economic growth, and that's why you know.

B

Yesterday the budget was balanced or two days ago, because we got extras not balanced, but basically did not go up the deficit simply because of the fact that we got extra three four billion dollars extra money gravy just because of the increased unexpected increase in economic growth. So that's actually something that the government definitely will take and use, and that's a what we have seen and we've seen everywhere.

B

The question is why the global economy is doing so wonderfully and the short answer is easy money when you have the Central Bank of Japan, with negative interest rates, negative interest rates and they are printing money. That's something when you have the central bank in the euro zone negative interest rates and they are printing money. You go to dynamic, you ask for a mortgage. The bank pays you.

B

So we have a situation in which you have a lot of momentum in the system, a lot of energy in the system, and if you generate enough wind, even pigs can fly and that's exactly what we are seeing. That's exactly what we are seeing. This is a mirage. This is all about low interest rates, and the question is to what extent that will change the mini correction that we got in the stock market two weeks ago was all about the market starting to tweet, about the possibility of interest rates rising.

B

So that's a window to how much we are sensitive to the risk of our interest rates, with major implications for a city like Toronto by the way in Canada. It could have been even better because the change in Canada was a lot about energy. You know, I was in Alberta just the other day. I was in a coffee shop. Don't quote me on that: I'm, not 100 sensual, but I'm, almost positive. That I saw somebody actually smiling them.

B

Things are moving in the right direction. In Alberta oil prices improved from 40 to 50 60, but relative to what it used to be 100, it's much less so the swing in 2017 was because of energy, but it was in an environment of energy prices at 40 50, as opposed to 100. Basically, what I'm telling you it could have been better. It could have been much better. Actually what I'm telling you is that, as opposed to what Scotiabank is telling you, you are not richer than you think, but we will take it.

B

We will take it because that's a good surprise. The question is to what extent it's sustainable, to what extent is sustainable and I believe the 2017 is the peak of the cycle. You look at what the market did and that's very interesting. Every two minutes the market upgraded expectations in 2017, because we got good numbers, but when we did 2017 and we felt better about 2017, we also upgraded 2018.

B

Why I'm not sure? So what I'm telling you is that? Maybe the market is a bit too optimistic about to what extent the economy can continue to grow. 2017 was a wonderful year, and now the market is expecting 2018 to be even better I'm, not so sure, especially when we get some, as you can see from this chart, some indications that the global economy is starting to slow down. So maybe the market is a bit too optimistic about 2018, but that's not the story.

B

The story very important as far as interest rates are concerned and the city is where we are in the cycle. Listen. This has been, as you can see, a very long cycle in two months. It's going to be the second longest expansion ever and the only one that would be longer was the one in the 1990s where we benefited from the internet revolution that lifted economic growth. So this is a very old cycle, so people are talking already about a late cycle behavior. Basically, the recession is over there and I say not so sure.

B

Maybe this cycle is younger than it looks why? Because what counts is not how long the journey is, but how much you accumulate what you achieve during that journey and if you look at of the world GDP growth that was accumulated since the recovery started nothing to write home about. So this is not the ninth-inning. This is maybe the fifth sixth inning of this game, because the recovery was muted.

B

Yes, it was long, but it was muted and, as you can see from this chart, nothing to write home about it's, not something that we haven't seen before. So I think that this recovery still has legs can continue to go without a recession. Eventually, there will be a recession but I'm saying it's not next year or even not in 2019, just because of the fact that we did not accumulate a lot of GDP, which is a good thing now very, very important. All this and our city is operating in this environment.

B

This is the economic reality that we are facing. Remember the potential growth of the economy is slowing down, the ability of the economy to grow is slowing down, and we know why what used to be speed limit of let's say four percent- is now two percent. That's extremely important. Why number one demographics, when you have people getting older and people are getting older in North America in Europe, in Japan, less people are participating in the labor market, so the potential growth of the economy, the speed limit- is actually slowing down.

B

It's all about demographics and Trump can do many things, but Trump cannot make America young again this. He cannot do so. What I'm telling you is that the speed limit of the economy is being compromised. The ability of the economy to grow is being compromised by the demographic story, which means that when interest rates rise, they will rise very little, namely the next peak will be much less than the previous peak just because of the slowing in the potential growth of the economy. So the next aspect of this is demographics, plus productivity.

B

That's what counts so. The only way to lift our standard of living, the only way to lift this limit of the economy is productivity and I wish I had time to get into it, but I'm convinced that which right policies we are on a verge of a significant boost in productivity. All the statistical bureaus are telling us that we are not productive. We are less productive than we were 10 15 years ago and I say how is it possible with this wave of innovation?

B

We are all less productive, I, really, don't think that we can measure it. We see a lot of small frontier companies in Toronto in Toronto that their productivity is rising rising much faster than anything else, so we can measure it an I believe that the only issue is diffusion of information Emily. Those frontal companies are not talking to the rest of us.

B

If that's the case, it's a very optimistic way of looking at the future, because it means that only with time of right policy, this information will be shared and we will be another will see another wave of productivity. It can be artificial intelligence, robotics, 3d, printing, whatever it is. We are on a verge of another web that might lift this line and will enhance our ability to grow without inflation and therefore, without higher interest rates. Very very important, I see the city I see the province.

B

I see Ottawa playing a significant role in enhancing productivity, because that's the only way to improve our Sun of living. The demographic story is very, very predictable quickly. Let's talk Trump now, listen I was not trading Trump. Until recently, tre Trump was a blip when it comes to financial markets. Trump was unable to change the market. You know. After the elections, the US dollar went up and two minutes after I started to go down now it's below what it was before the elections. The consensus for economic growth in the u.s.

B

before the elections was 2.1 percent. Now it is 2.1 a blip, even the interest rates. They went up dramatically after the elections and then they started to go down. The only reason why they're still is because they fed in the u.s. is moving nothing to do which one and you know in the stock market. Until two weeks ago he was tweeting and saying it's all about media, and no because the US stock market went up, but also the German stock market went up. Japanese stock market went up, emerging markets went up, it's a universal story.

B

Nothing to do with Trump, so I believe that when it comes to markets, Trump was not a force, but that's changing the ability of Congress to change the tax package or the tax policies in the u.s. is huge. Very significant. A city like Toronto cannot underestimate the impact on our city. Clearly, on Canada this is huge. Tax rates are going down and that's very, very significant in the u.s. they are going down in a big way. Now. Why is it important?

B

Because until now, all oil CDs countries, with exception of the US, have been cutting corporate tax rates? It has been going down and down and down and down. The US was flat at 34 percent, now they're down to 20, which is small as where we are even lower, which means that the gap we lost our ability to compete through tax. In addition, in the u.s. now you invest in a new facility 100% of this investment, you can write off immediately an accelerated depreciation schedule. This is huge in terms of cash flow.

B

Now you can repatriate you can get money out of the US with very low tax. That's two point: six trillion dollars of money that will be coming to tax to stock, buybacks and dividends. And, of course, as you know, in the u.s. there is no global warming. We have global warming, so our companies pay for carbon.

B

They don't that's a major issue and by the way, if you have a CEO of a Canadian company and you are trying to make a decision Canada versus the US, you have all those issues and in addition, if you do it in Canada, you are not sure. If you will ship, you would be able to ship tomorrow your goods to the US because of NAFTA. So we are facing major issues and we have to react to it.

B

We cannot pretend that nothing is happening, because this is a significant change that will impact the City of Toronto, will impact manufacturing and and something that we have to wake up. We are the budget that did not respond to it. I hope that the next budget will respond to it, because we are starting to lose time, because if you have a CEO try to make a decision current a versus the u.s.. Unfortunately, at this point the decision will be the u.s. and I would like to change it.

B

Policy is the right way to do it and we have to respond, because this is not vacuum. This is not business as usual. This is a significant change in the u.s.. We have to recognize that in this environment we also have to recognize what we are doing in terms of the issue that the Trump is trying to deal with and whether or not it will succeed. The main issue and I will go to the previous chart and I think I could just collect that yeah.

B

That's the main issue that we are facing very very important: Toronto is seeing it other people are seeing. This is the previous chart before them. I suggest that the reasons one of the most important reason and that's important to understand why this expansion is so long and why the stock market has been going strong ever and why interest rates haven't been rising is the following in a normal cycle over the past 50 years. What happens is the following?

B

The labor market is on fire, the unemployment rate goes down, then you have wages rising because the unemployment rate is done. The bargaining power of level goes up. Well, just go up, inflation goes up, inflation goes up in just let's go up into sets, go up, the economy goes down, and then you have a cycle that what we have. We have seen this over the past 56 years. That's the cycle. Something is broken this time, because the labor market, at least the headline numbers are on, is on fire. You know in the u.s.

B

in Canada, you know we get all those numbers. The labor market is great, the unemployment rate is down, but then you look at wages until very recently they haven't been rising at all. Even now, they are not even close to where they should be given well, the labor market is so something is broken and when you don't have wages, rising inflation and that's where interest rates are so low and that's why the economy continues to go because nothing is killing it now and that's why the stock market went down now.

B

The question is why wages are not think very, very quickly. I think that something is broken in the labor market, with major implications for city like ours, because I see a mismatch in the labor market. I see people without jobs and I see jobs without people I see people looking for jobs. That is not fine and I, see companies looking for people, they cannot find. You know that many small businesses are telling us they cannot find people. So we have this mismatch.

B

That is really breaking the you know the wedge equation and if economics 101 is not working anymore everywhere and the issue is that you look at the u.s., the unemployment rate is very low. The headline numbers are great, but you look deeper and you can see that not all is well in the US labor market. The number of people collecting disability insurance is larger than the number of production workers in the US. You have more people collecting, disability insurance and production workers.

B

The duration of unemployment are long, people unemployed is rising, the quality of employment is going down, namely not all is well. Many people are not even participating in the labor market, they gave up that's their cry and Trump is the messenger.

B

So you see the reasons why the expansion is so long and the equity market is going up and interest rates are not rising is the same reason why Trump is the president today and I think it will be naive to believe that we in Canada are immune to this trend. We are not.

B

The quality of employment in Canada is going down, the number of people making below average wage is rising and the income gap is widening and I wish I had more time to get into it, but I believe that the number one issue is clearly education from a shorter perspective. This problem simply does not have a solution. You cannot, you cannot take a manufacturer workers and put and make this person a computer engineer overnight. It's not going to happen so those people in Michigan there will be waiting for every job we lost to tread.

B

We lost 8 to automation. You cannot change that, so that will take a while. But during this while we have to rethink education, I believe that we as a society we are failing. Young Canadian I, do believe so. I think that the the field of study, what people are studying today, not very relevant to what's happening outside the labor market, is changing at the speed of light and the education system is behaving. Like nothing happened.

B

You know we tell people go to stem, you, know: science, technology, mathematics, engineering and for the first time young Canadians are listening to us and the involvement 20 in those fields, rising, wonderful guess what tuition has risen, 40% faster on those fields than others and I said. The opposite should be the case, the case we should subsidize them. We should help young Canadians because we are failing them. Not only.

B

We have a baby boomers that not you know, baby boomers, not retiring, show you a bottleneck not only we have the most expensive real estate market in generations, and now also the labor market is not flexible enough. I'm talking about changing the way we think about education, I'm talking about to break the negative stigma associated with colleges, I, believe you need something like universities, colleges, one degree, one tuition, something you know with.

B

We tell people study what you love say: fine, but also start study something relevant, and then you can combine a system that gives you both. You can have a BA in history and a minor in plumbing in Germany. It's not a joke in Germany. That's a reality in Sweden. That's reality: we have to rethink education because young Canadians are failing and we are failing them in terms of their ability to participate in the labor market to the extent that they can, because we have extremely talented, innovative, creative, energetic young generation.

B

We just need to help them and the system has to change. That's basically Trump that breaks it and to an extent, this situation is happening in Canada. You can see all the jobs created in the OECD, including Canada over the past ten years, were created in the higher end of the market of the labor market and the lower end of the market middle class. Going down said. The demise of the middle class is not just a political slogan, its economic, and we have to wake up very very quickly.

B

Let me say something about NAFTA, because that's important for a city like Toronto- and you know about the trade deficit in the u.s.

B

is mostly with China, and you can see that this is the yellow line and the you are saying we need to narrow our trade deficit fine, but to say if it's now, if you have to narrow it, why don't you deal with the yellow path, as opposed to the NAFTA belt, which is a very small part, because I think that in many ways Trump needs China as much as China needs Trump, you see I think that when you have, when you impose a forty five percent tariff in China as it promised, what does it mean means that prices in Walmart are rising?

B

That's a de facto tax on low-income Americans, your base not going to happen. The fastest-growing segment of the global economy today is the consumer of emerging markets. You want to end in the future of North American manufacturing. Is that consumer? The consumer of energy market is the future of North American manufacturing. Do you really want to start a trade war and reduce access to them?

B

That will cost you dearly in terms of future revenues, and Germany will be more than happy to take over and, of course, you have the North Korea file in its China and done so I think that it cannot shut touch China now so he's going after the little ones. That's us and you look 12% of the trade deficit is NAFTA within it. You need a microscope to find Canada, but I think that we should lose some sleep of the NAFTA, because NAFTA is an issue. The prime minister is telling us negotiations are not going well.

B

The foreign minister is telling us it's not going very well. We know that the most significant issues haven't been dealt with yet and it's coming I, don't know what will happen. I really don't know, but I do know, is that there will be this fog of uncertainty. That eventually will have a negative impact in the Bank of Canada is starting to tell you that that's something that is entering its psyche when they decide about interest rates. So I believe that you will see some impact on the value of the dollar.

B

We are starting to see it is starting to go down. The Mexican peso will go down because of that until we get some sort of resolution, I don't know what will happen, but in between you have a CEO of a Canadian company. You are thinking twice before investing you don't know what will happen, what kind of tariffs you will be facing. We need to find some sort of resolution to that, and then we can start rethink the situation.

B

This is not healthy and the longer it goes, the more difficult it is because we have this fog, so I'm very concerned about NAFTA I. Think that we should really try to find a way to find a resolution very, very quickly. The Bank of Canada facing the tax cuts in the US facing facing NAFTA and also facing a very significant increase in the ability of higher interest rates to impact the economy. Our sensitivity to our rates as a society is much much higher than it used to be.

B

You know we have a generation of Canadians that never experienced high or even rising interest rates for them. Those low interest rates.

B

It's you know not so exciting, so low interest rates is the base, and now they go up that's significant and remember: we are much more sensitive than the US, because during the recession, our debt to income ratio went up from 140 to 165 in the US it went down from 165 to 140 so that the leverage we didn't and now it's 171 in Canada the debt to income ratio, 171 I, think almost everybody in this country knows this number, it's all over the media.

B

It's in the news we are obsessed with this I think it should be part of the citizenship test or something because I do believe that that's the issue. So we have sensitivity to higher interest rates and you can see every basis point counts when the Bank of Canada goes, you feel it so the bank is the first to tell you. Maybe the disease is also the cue.

B

Maybe the increased sensitivity to higher rates will prevent interest rates from rising and therefore I believe that the Bank of Canada will be moving very slowly, much more slowly than the Fed, with major implications. For let's say the real estate market in Canada, very, very important, given that we are in Toronto, you must talk about real estate, because real estate is important and the question is: are we in a bubble? We are not what's happening, Gail. Clearly, you can raise interest rates without raising interest rates.

B

You are all aware of b20 the changes by Austria to qualification rates. Now, if you take a five-year mortgage instead of paying instead of qualifying a 3-person, which is the way it they are qualifying, you at 5%, basically, two other basis points higher. That will reduce demand or will impact demand by 12%. So that's significant. What percent of people will not qualify after this? This is, you can see, will reduce the man now. Some of the winners here are actually alternative lenders.

B

Basically, if you go to a bank and the bank says, listen so you're not qualifying you go there, you go to what we call mix mortgage investment corporations. They account now for 10% of the market on its way to 15, because their business is booming. Now because many people go down, I, don't like it, because what we are doing here, we are transferring risk from the regulated segment of the market to the unregulated segment of the market. We are transferring risk from where there is light.

B

Well, it's dark, I, don't think it's a smart thing to do, and I think that we have to be aware of the fact that, yes, we are trying to deras the market, but we're moving risk to where we can not actually see anything, and we have to change regulations just to deal with that very very quickly. Are we in a bubble and I think that when it comes to Toronto, the best view of the toronto venice at horizon is actually from the vancouver harbour very, very quickly?

B

That's Vancouver and you can see the 2005 2015 was a crazy year in Vancouver, where prices went up very very very quickly, in my opinion, most of it in 2015 after 2015, everything was normal in 2015. Something bad happened. Speculations flipping that led to this. To this you know almost hockey stick type situation and then the government, as you know, introduced a 15 percent tax on foreigners. Things slowed down even before that, because of gravity and I believe that the attacks on foreigners was not really funny. Investment was not really the issue.

B

It's what domestic buyers believe these tax will do. So it's really domestic buyers slowing down expecting this start to slow down, not tech, Toronto move it 14 months of the left, that's Toronto! Exactly the same. Exactly the same, you can see that our bad year was 2016. We are the crazy year in 2016. I was able to explain- maybe 10, maybe 11 percent activity, not 22, so again, I'm positive that in Toronto in 2016 up to the first quarter, 2017 was a lot of flipping a lot of speculation happening, not healthy.

B

The government, as you know, introduce the 16m plan, will state a 16-point, realistic plan and I can tell you that one of the issues that are in the market slowdown again. The 15% tax on foreign vessel is part of it. But again all of it was gravity more than anything else. As you can see, in both cities, things improve because supply is the issue not just demand, and now we are seeing some softening because of regulations. So that's more or less where we are, and my main issue with the changes is clearly rent control.

B

I think that rent control is not something that will help the market. I would think that rent control should be inflation plus 2, as opposed to just inflation. That will allow builders to build, while protecting tenants, unfortunately, did not happen. This means that supply of rental activity will go down and we are desperate to see that this city needs more supply. You can see that density is rising wonderfully. That's exactly what the province would like to see.

B

You can see a situation in which, for every unit to include decline in low-rise, we have seen an increase in irise, so it's almost one-to-one, so the composition change, not the number and you're replacing an expensive unit, low-rise with less expensive units high-rise and that's exactly what we have seen and in many ways this composition change actually led to a situation which prices did not rise as much as the kewlabah reason, because of the fact that you change an exchange again, something that is expensive with something that is a cheaper now.

B

I do believe that we will slow down over the next CEO to because of regulations, and because of the fact that we reach a point where we are unaffordable. The low-rise segment of the market is already slowing down. You go to the 905 area and you know what used to be 800,000 house now, it's 7 on its way to 650 the gap between the low rise and the high rise is actually shrinking and eventually will reach an equilibrium, but I think that, from a long-term perspective, we need this a way to release the pressure.

B

We know that immigration will go up not down. We know that the speed at which land is being released under the presence of rock is actually slowing down, and we know the population growth and the man actually would be faster than expected. So from a long-term perspective, the demand-supply story is not an equilibrium and we don't have the rental market to release the pressure like in any other big city with rent control.

B

We will see a situation in which you will see less and less purpose build and the counter space cannot be the rental solution in a city like Toronto, so I believe that, from a long-term perspective, I'm very concerned about Toronto being an affordable City with metro implications on labor force and immigration and many others. We have to find a way to make this city more affordable and a big part of it is a rethinking, rent and B. We have to look at ways to release more land and, of course, transportation is key.

B

You know the story, so that's the way. I see it I think I'm little bit too long, but that's the rest of the situation. If you have any questions, thank.

A

You very much wow wow wow, there's a lot there and a lot for us too, to the cypher and and to sort out members any question for mr. tall okay, so I'll start with councilor heart first and then councillor vice-chair Holland tells her heart. You may begin it was a great presentation.

C

By the way, just a quick question you mentioned the Canadian economy is doing so well, all economies are doing so well. Why is the TSC so flat over the last four years? If we're doing so? Well, yes,.

B

That's a very good question and if you look at the Canada, one of the issues was resources. We actually lost some ground on the energy. The health sector clearly is there and we, if you see the high-tech sector in every country, especially in when it comes to the TSX, did very well. Our high-tech sector is very small relative to the shell of of the economy. You look at the stuff like gold, where we are relatively I, did not cooperate, so it's the composition of our stock market.

B

In many ways our stock market is not representing very well representation of our economy, so the economy is doing doing well, but it's not really being translated with the stock market. Absolutely and.

C

Just a follow-up question: that would be why the Dow is doing so well, because that's more representative of companies like Apple Amazon, exactly.

B

Look at the high tech sector did extremely well. So yes, absolutely okay,.

A

Thank you very much. Accounts are hard counselor Halling thank.

D

You so much and I thought the one slide that I was looking at was slide 8 on the change of an unemployment by skills, so obviously we're seeing a lot of transformation within the ecosystem, the technology ecosystem with job transformation AI, and we know that between 37 and 45 percent of jobs will be transformed in the next five years. So what? What is the recommendation on that? What's your feedback coming from CIBC or what are you doing within CIBC? Even for your own, your own staffing.

B

Yeah III think that again, I I'm very concerned about it I. Think. If you ask me, what is the number one issue facing Canada in the next 10 years? I would say this number one issue will be a widening income gap, it's already wide and it's in widen, and we have to start realizing the thing so and it's being translated into the political arena that breaks it. That's Trump, there is no question about it. It's not people not liking Hillary, it's much deeper than that, so so I'm very concerned about it.

B

So I think at least in the short term. Let's face it in the short term. The elephant in the room is that this problem simply does not have a solution. You cannot fix it over the next five years. You simply can't, but you can fix it to them. For the next wave cohort of students that are now in school and I say, the number one issue is with thinking education, so I'm talking about an umbrella type degree.

B

Well now, like 20 percent of people going to colleges are coming from universities, not because they're going to the BA MA, they get the student loan and debt, and then they have to find something practical and I say if you have a degree that combines colleges, universities together with one tuition and if you have cooperations part of it as far as co-op opportunities there, and if you have the government there, you can really generate a system like in Germany that really you don't have this kind of problem and you break the negative stigma associated with rates.

B

For example, it's not just computer engineers, we need electricians. We need plumbers, good luck, finding a plumber, you know, so we need to walk there as well and it's doable it's. We know what to do, because other people are doing it as well, but we have to rethink the way we do. Education second is tuition. We have to make education more affordable, especially I.

D

Think the province is doing that so they're doing free free tuition. I know in Sweden they've completely transformed their educational system to geared towards the innovation economy so like that would start actually in primary education, so from JK to 8 and then onwards, so even prior to getting at the university level. It's really important for the prompt, that's more provincial. Obviously we have no influence over there over that at all, but but I hear what you're saying, but in terms of job transformation.

D

That's more more my question that I was asking you like what is CIBC I know I've, been to your Innovation Lab like what is CIBC doing in terms of its own employment. Like I, mean AI is going to going to have massive impact on job transformation and that's post education. So what would your recommendation be? Or what, if CIBC dream to address that I.

B

Think that CIBC is actually more in the it's not about other workforce, because the transition there is much more most loyal but clearly services, big time into innovation, a and investing in it. But what I think the private sector should do in service is part of it in some others box. It's actually create full of money to help startups. So.

D

Do you mean like it? Well, we we have so much funding going into startups and actually I would probably debate you on that, because it's not so much money. That's going to startups and scaling up that's more of the issue. We have so much money going into startups. It's the the focus now is scaling which Canada is doing but the, but the bigger question that is asking is in terms of AI and and like the impact of job transformation with all of these new technologies like what is it?

D

Do you mean, like a social contract, should the provincial federal government start looking at social safety nets in terms of so? If somebody doesn't have that skill set or I mean even the federal budget mentioned 220,000 jobs that we have a vacancy for 220,000 jobs. We have a vacancy for because we can't we don't have that skill set here. You.

B

See I I think that's exactly it so I think that if things don't change in a dramatic way, the way I've seen labor market in use from now, let's face it. The labor market of today is the most exciting labor market ever think of it from your basement. You can start your own company. You can deal with many countries project by project and the way we define a business will change it's the most exciting.

B

You know labor market ever, but the wall that is protecting this paradise is getting higher and higher and I, and you have to climb it. Some people will not be able to climb it and I totally agree with you that if we don't change the way, we think we will have to societies those who actually will subsidize the social safety net that the government's will provide, and it will happen because not everybody can be a computer engineer.

B

But if we can minimize this dependency by starting education very early by you know, funding startups and and forward I think we can at least have a chance to induce this guy. Okay.

A

Thank you. Thank you capture, all just progress. Thanks.

E

Very much for your presentation: I have like a million questions, but I'll limit them, because in the interest of time and other people's presentations, but I wanted to get your perspective on where you think we are in the cycle. I mean you know. You said that the elephant in the room is that we have a problem for which we don't have a solution so like. Where does that place us in this larger?

E

We have a widening income gap in a city that is on the verge of unaffordable, if it isn't there already and like what does that mean for us trying to attract other companies to this city if their labor force can't actually live here? Yes,.

B

So and that's why I think that the tax aspect from Trump is very important, because all of the sudden, the personal tax story is becoming an issue. People say: why would I come here and pay no 54 percent tax? Well, they pay much less in the US. Oh so I'm a bit concerned about it. We need to be able to touch work still. We are 200 the place.

B

People want to live in Vancouver the place people want to live in and we are able to attract a lot of talent, but we shouldn't take it for granted. We should make it more attractive and I'm not sure if new immigrants now lining up to come to the road, given the cost of living and given the tax aspect, so we have to be aware of that and don't take it from God that the people will come regardless. What happens? Because that's not going to happen so we have to wake up to this reality.

B

I think that in the short term, things actually will not improve in any significant way, because again, there is no solution to this. The what's interesting is that there is a demographic aspect if you are in your 20s now and your 30s, that's actually very unfortunate in a sense that the labor market is more difficult because there is the baby boomers. You know, you know this bottleneck and that people must, you know, remember you know. In the past you which 60 61 62 there's a poverty, you get a watch and you say goodbye.

B

Retirement now is not a dirty calendar. It's a very the fastest growing segment of the labor market in Canada today is aged 55 and of them the fastest growing by far three times faster than prime age, and that will continue. People are engaged llt the damo to retire, so that will take a while, so people retiring. Eventually they will retire.

B

Eventually, there will be actually shortage of Labor, because the next generation is not as large and and if you are in a like high school now or even you will be fine demographically speaking, but you need a skill as well, so I think that in the short term, I'm not extremely positive, they think that can help us dramatically. Is productivity if demographics is not helping you, we must invest in productivity.

B

If we get another wave of productivity, you increase the ability of the economy to grow, so more people can participate without inflation without higher interest rates, and then you have some sort of a solution, so we need to invest in productivity, enhancing methods and I think that the Ottawa is a little bit behind the curve, though, in my opinion, Thanks.

A

Thank you very much Council for Caracas. Just a couple of questions for me: Benjamin there's a report that's been prepared by Philip gazelle and Jack Mintz and Austin Thompson, which really speaks to the 2017 tax competitiveness and you've addressed that somewhat. But they really, you know, focus on the fact that less we in Canada respond to the changes that are taking place in the US, and you talked a little bit about it.

A

But the federal budget that was just passed didn't seem to really address that at all I'm, just wondering what would have caused them to miss that opportunity. In terms of addressing this, that's.

B

A difficult question, and maybe the Finance Minister, should answer it, but I suggest that he told us that is not going to act on speculations. What might be based on an economic theory. It would like to see the evidence that actually it's hurting us and then we'll see. That's basically what I said. I I think you know when you have a so many changes as a very short period of time. Waiting a year can be costly right, but that's my opinion. I thought that we should have acted now right.

B

What the finance minister it wants to focus on on evidence and I understand right.

A

So, given cities around the world are being asked to do a lot of things that appears to requite not appears, but requires money, resources and so on. Federal and provincial governments are strained with respect to resources. What advice would you give cities in terms of how to take action on some of the challenges, and you address the few of them? You talk about housing and so on, which is a key problem here in the City of Toronto talk about education, which is a key problem again. This is a provincial matter. We don't look after education.

A

What advice would you offer to cities in terms of effecting changes other than simply looking at lobbying? Yes,.

B

I know it's a very difficult situation to be in, but I would say the following and I feel relatively strongly about. It is that we have to make sure that, given the fact that we need money, taxing is not the only solution. For example, you know the proposal to waste development charges on on condos I, really, don't think that that's a place think that will help the housing market.

B

The opposite will will happen so I'm a little bit concerned about you know: okay, let's try to squeeze as much money as we can from the real estate market, which is the Golden, Goose and I say let's be careful here, because we are actually can make the situation worse from a long term. Perspective same goes for rent control, which I think is not the right policy and actually would make things worse. I totally hear you it's a very difficult situation.

B

It's a growing city and we are in a transition period we're in a transition period in which we have the mismatch, and that's so difficult too, because you have more and more people kind of falling behind and need the help. And you have the housing market, which is a major issue. And then you have. We are waiting for the transition and this transition could take five six years. So I thought they knew that it's a very difficult period to be and I say it has to come from the province.

B

I think that the province has to rethink the way they allocate money because I think the cannot our city is to just be with, with a very limited revenue base to do all the heavy lifting and when you do that, it leads to, in my opinion, some sub optimal policies like raising development charges, which I, don't think would happen.

A

Thank you very much members. We are going to ask you enough. Can you speak, but I know that mr.

A

Tull has to go and he can stay if he wishes to hear what you have to say and with great respect, I know if you laugh, we wouldn't think that as being a negative at all that you didn't want to hear what we had to say, but I wanted to on behalf of members of the committee and the staff and the public who've heard you thank you very much for this very insightful and enlightening as well as somewhat frightening, frightening analysis of the economy and so on, but I think it's very instrumental and helpful, because there are many things that we will take away from this and fits really into some of the work that we're actually doing here already and clearly we don't have all the answers and so on or solutions.

A

But we are aware- and you will refer what some of the challenges are and so on, and there are some opportunities in there as well. It appears to me, though, that there is needs to be a lot more collaboration. There's a great gap between some of the business interests and the political interests and so on, and just how we think and then on another part of the gap that exists is the educational component that we as a society need to address.

A

Probably about seven years ago, we were in touch with the folks in Germany talking about some of the things that they're doing here. We wanted to look at how we can extrapolate from that learn from them and try to implement some of the practices which are long-standing with respect to how they have done things, we're not there. Yet. We are very mindful and I, like the point that you made with respect to interest educational interests.

A

I say to my own son: I know that you like business, but also there's a technical component, part that you really should be aware of and should get yourself into I know that he is not alone or unique. A lot of our young to the kids who are in university or colleges and so on, they're doing a lot of things that they like.

A

But, as you pointed out rightfully so it's not necessary transferred into a marketability aspect in terms of what are the needs and I think government's need to have more of a role as well as the business sector, in terms of how we collaborate and it create the interest opportunity to engage our young people into interesting aspect of their interest. But at the same time, what are the market requirements so that, as a societal interest, we can address some of the challenges and so on.

A

Those are the things that we're trying to work on here as a city, and we need to ensure that there's more collaborators. It is always fascinating and very, very helpful when you come into to give us your analysis. We do look forward to it. We want to thank you in a CIBC, continues to be very fortunate to have you on board, because your knowledge and and and and your expertise, obviously is very helpful, and not only to us here but clearly to the economy as a whole. So thank you very much for.

C

Being here with us,.

A

B

A

You alright, so members I'd like to then ask councillor Holland to be the first speaker, Thank You, councilman, great.

D

And thank you so much for that presentation. I did find it insightful as well and just bringing up a number of topics that you know we've been finding in the ecosystem as well. So I mean it's it's interesting because in terms of our tech in tech ecosystem, where we're doing phenomenally well, so we're punching wherever wait. We're doing phenomenally well, despite not even having a great branding strategy, but we were going to get that underway. But it's it's.

D

It's fascinating to see the the separation between how well we're doing there, but there is still a need for a certain skill set even and that that ecosystem, so we're seeing that many of the companies that are that are scaling have a need for certain skill sets and they're going abroad to get those.

D

So, even though we have an amazing well of talent here we have amazing educational institutions world-renowned, but we- and we have so much talent here, but there's still an absence of certain areas that that we that we need to address so I think that the federal government should actually have a role in that and in identifying the need versus what we're producing again and I would have our educational system. But I'd also say that you know: there's there's a lot of countries that are addressing the new innovation economy and it's either Sweden or Norway.

D

I know that they've completely revamped their primary education to to address that. So it's look. It's identifying sort of the type of educational system that we have in the skills that were educating there and making sure that we're putting a certain type of mindset into into our educational system, but again, that's provincial, so we don't have influence there. So I think you in looking at the these broader aspects as much as we can Lobby, they just don't fall within our purview. But again we can provide many things within our city.

D

That would help elevate that and continue that growth and I think that we're doing a great job at it I mean we're seeing so much in that, at least within that ecosystem, which I would probably say at this point. Everything is tech, I mean if it's not tech, you're, probably gonna, be obsolete within about five years. So since tech runs this way, horizontal I mean everything is taxed.

D

So eventually it will just turn that way and and I just want to thank CIBC for presenting and I think that it's it's really fascinating to see other areas where, where, where we needed to improve Thanks, okay.

A

Thanks everybody, else'll Holland anyone else to speak; okay, no problem, so just move receipt of the presentation, all those in favor post, that's carried! Thank you. Next members, we actually have a presentation from the general manager, its Edie, we're on item Edie, 27.5 city of Toronto's, Canada, 150 celebration.

F

A

F

A

F

F

So this is just a quick sales pitch for this document to take a scan of it from our. You know, work at your direction and counsels direction with respect to what the division did in 2017.

F

We just distributed this document today today, just now fresh off the press, I'm going to run through a couple of things quickly. First of all, a little quell I'm going to speak a little bit put a candidate 150, but we have a different report on that. If you take a look at that report, you'll see an incredible depth of activities that went on and then walk through each of the four service areas within the division and and then the program support which ties it all together from the point of view of providing support.

F

So let's talk a little bit about some of the high post form the Canada 150, because all we're going to show and when the item comes up is the couple of videos.

F

So we set a record for the number of people that came to Nathan Phillips Square. For any event, when we opened up the year with a New, Year's Eve celebration, sixty thousand people and I think it was possible to get that many people in this area. But if you closed Bay Street, close Queen Street and you have people coming in and out, you can get a lot of people here.

F

Lots of events, lots of TV coverage, especially on the New Year's Eve. We benefited somewhat from the problems that Ottawa had with their weather that that evening, so we got more national coverage, momento momento, which was a display of important artifacts from Toronto's history that was mobile, moved around. We had my city, my six six words to tell your story about your experience with Toronto very inspiring. If you look at them, you read 100 of them. It's unbelievable!

F

How people can put so much emotion and heartfelt appreciation for their city into six words and a very important commemoration of the Vimy battle which, for those history buffs in the room, will know how important that was for coalescing the Canadian spirit, unfortunately, in a very heavy loss situation, but a victory for the Canadian Corps that just pulled together. Just then I think probably for my mind, the biggest accomplishment was our contact. We had an a bridge building, we did with the indigenous peoples chiefly form and many others.

F

Now, while indigenous communities had trouble with Canada 150 for understandable reasons for many of those communities, they don't seize on last hundred fifty years as being the greatest thing that happened to them, but it's very important that those issues be addressed and full-on and I think we were able to use Canada 150 to actually reach out and they reached out, and we did a lot of terrific things and video will highlight some of those arts and culture I'm not going to go through all these numbers there in the book.

F

But we continue to reach many many Torontonians all year long, both in regular programming, special events and we've lost over a million people. Don't see that very often anywhere in the world doors open, which has been a great May event for everybody and gets to show off the buildings that we don't see very often in business growth services, investment into the city remain strong job growth was not bad, not not the best. It's been, but not bad. Last year, our unemployment rate continues to drop.

F

Mr. tall describes some of the factors of that an aging population and discouraged workers being the two not great reasons filming we sat in 16 and we announced at the beginning of 17 a two billion level. We don't have the final numbers tallied for 217. We don't think we'll set a new new, a new record this year constraint in studio space, which is subject to the last item that just got added to the agenda is one of the reasons for that. But it's not a disastrous year either it's a solid year.

F

We had no tentpoles ie huge productions, although we have probably the largest TV production going on in trial right now terms of spend so all in all solid Irae for film entertainment industries, museum and heritage services, along with arts and culture, were the two main focuses for a candle and 50. But in addition to that, we continue to support many of our regular activities. We have a new road map driving our museum world and that is starting to show in terms of the contributions we have in the local communities around our 10 history.

F

Museums program support is vital for all of those four areas to work solidly provides research policy, support the Finance and Administration marketing and fundraising, and this chart right now shows the significant amount of additional money that we find from sponsors grants from governments other governments to supplement the funding that council provides to us.

F

So those are solid numbers above previous years. That's the presentation on the book. Please take a chance to look at it. If you have any questions about it or would like to know more about it, because it's a very good summary what the division does does, please give me a call thanks, eat.

A

Up, don't move, don't move I'm going to say just in the interests of certainly time as a general manager has indicated that we just received the document and so on and there's a.

C

Lot of information in.

A

That general manager and I've been discussing this matter for some time now. A lot of good information and so on.

A

The general flow is that we would ask questions and so on at this particular point in time, but in view of the fact that you've just received the report, I'd like to suggest that if there are some questions, as you read through the document later on, invite the general manage to come into your office and sit down and have a discussion, we can have that's one of a process that allows you to be able to have your question answers and so on, just in terms of inches of time.

A

But this is really good, good, good news and there's a lot of work, that's being done to support the additional good news for that. In the you know, 2018 annual report that will come. We will have additional good news and so on. Okay, however, I will allow members an opportunity, maybe to speak, to the issue and so on. If you'd, like so Kelly Kelly, did you wish to speak or did very.

G

Briefly, the report I think summarizes not only the work of the department but of this committee as well and I'm very I'm delighted at the caliber of staff that we have in the various departments.

G

These are first-rate people, they're, knowledgeable, they're, aggressive and, at the same time, very personable and frankly, under the leadership of our chair and vice chair, I, think that there's been a perfect marriage of the political and civil service components at City, Hall and so I'm delighted to be a member of this committee and to work with these people in the various fields. So thank you very much for what you've done in the past and what you will be doing in the future. Okay,.

A

Thank you very much Council Kelly anyone else, but just to speak. Okay, just want to thank mr. Williams and the amazing, talented men and women that councilor Kelly has just identified in the EDC department, they're just absolutely amazing, to work with and they get it and they get it done. So. Thank you all very much and please extend to all of your respective staff members under your leadership, our conveyance of thanks and our sincere appreciation, look forward to continued working with you all you're, just absolutely amazing. So thank you. Okay!

A

So then move receipt of the general manager's presentation. All those in favor opposed that's carried. Thank you very much. We will now members we moving to IDI 26 as 27.6 redefining public art in Toronto.

A

That's re so you're right where I'm driving ahead really fast Thank, You, council record acts and and madam clerk number five ET 27.5.

A

F

Sort of covered that a little bit we.

A

F

You a taste of if you happen to miss any of these events or occasions. Okay, how you get or.

A

Wow, fantastic.

A

Well done any questions of there's air war, just one okay thought you only had one.

A

Well, Jessica I never get tired of seeing that one yeah. So great. Okay, any questions or comments on this. Anybody wishes to speak when just move receipt. We've seen this videos room okay, so we're just moving receipt of the presentation. All those in favor opposed that's carried. Thank you. Okay, moving right along to moving ahead to Edie, 27.6, redefining public art in Toronto, we have a speaker, dr., Sarah diamond the President and Vice Chancellor of OCAD University's here, dr. diamond, you are no stranger to this committee is always a pleasure to have you here.

A

You may be getting. You have five minutes and.

H

Thank you so much, and it's so hard to not jump into the presentation on the Toronto economy and post-secondary education, but I will restrain myself so I'm here, because I had the pleasure of co-authoring a report with a group of researchers from OCAD University in the University of Toronto. That was really looking at the incredible work. That's happened in the city in investment in public art, so the report came from really a position of strength. It was motivated by conversations with a developer community with the art community.

H

My role as chair of and we've launched is Advisory Council in a sense that we should really could take a snapshot of where we are right now. What public art does for this city and look at it in the context of other urban centres, and we used a mixed method approach. We used natural language processing which in fact is AI to look at a huge number of documents and policies from cities around the world with more than a million population with strong public art.

H

We interviewed folks and we did a comparative study with Montreal, and what we found is that Toronto is really poised to be a leader in public art, but our investment and overall initiative and policy is lagging. Visa vie peer cities and we know that public art actually helps to strengthen communities and build identity and Coheed diversity. But it also is a really important investment in the quality of life and the actual value of the public realm and of real estate. So there's both economic and social and creative cultural benefits from it.

H

So in this study that we undertook and we've had some really great conversations with economic development and culture and planning who are very aware of this study, we were able to identify a series of gaps in this city. There's no city wide public master plan.

H

There are public art deserts outside of intensive development zones and I have to say that you know we're very excited that newly-launched is going to be both in the Toronto core, but also in Scarborough and I. Think it marks really one of the really core findings of the report, which is we need to look at how to ensure that public art is present not only in the downtown core, with all of the developer investment, but really throughout the City of Toronto, with all of its benefits.

H

There's a few sites where it's aggregated into larger and or interconnected projects. We need some revision of policies and bylaws, there's somewhat antiquated and cumbersome, and we don't mandate our city's infrastructure plans and budgets in terms of investment in public art and the guidelines of what public art is: don't keep up with best practices and emerging global practices in a global city, and we also frankly, could find other sources of funding, including from the private sector. So we have a series of recommendations.

H

One is to really renew the vision and commitment to public art in this wonderful city, redefine it place it everywhere and use the tools and vehicles to do that. Let's simplify our processes, hi everybody.

H

What a pleasure to have all these students come in as a university president speaking build new collaborations, so other cities have great collaborations with the university sector, with public art, galleries and museums who hold art that can be leased or placed in the public realm, and let's look at how we can promote public art.

H

So, as we were doing, our study, Elana Altman also did a really wonderful piece of work, which we work very closely, side-by-side that actually looked at all of the public art that has been created in Toronto in the last 40 years and developed an amazing map of those resources. How each piece was funded, what it was, what medium, how it impacted communities. So we have that history. We have these proposals for policies and we want to see public art really integrated in future funding. So what are we suggesting?

H

Well, this is a report that was created outside of the context of the city. We didn't ask you to invest in it. We thought a strong third party piece of research with lots of support from foundations and different communities would really provide you with the tools with which to really look at public art. So we're hoping that now you will undertake the review that the talent at the city will look at the recommendations in a timely matter. In 2018 we think afternoon, we've launches in Scarborough.

H

Many communities will be saying we want public art here now help us get it. So those are my comments. Thank you very much for hearing my suggestions and I'm happy to to speak to any questions. Thank.

A

You very much dr. diamond members. We have a number of members who have questions for you, we'll start with councillor Hart to begin because card. You have five minutes. Yes, thank you for that.

C

Can you tell me what your priorities would be well.

H

That's a wonderful question, so part of what we'd like to see really is to develop really a public art plan, and we know that will take some time that we'll look at. We can really further investment throughout the City of Toronto and Chicago has done that and they've looked at the 50 wards in Chicago and how to create a number of initiatives, not all of which are costly. That really brings this kind of power of community mobilization through public art, both temporary and more permanent works throughout the city. So a plan is very important.

H

We also have proposed that there's we've got excellent people working in economic development and culture. Great people in planning bring them together in a way that there's more coherence and more more collaboration together.

H

We think that you know at the sort of front end we can do some reading of what we think of as public art in the city in reality, about 40% of current public art are in urals, work that in fact, mobilizes communities 60% is more permanent. We could shift that balance, so there's really an opportunity to have more public art. That's somewhat less expensive, more integrated throughout the city, and then another piece of it is to really look at how to aggregate the dollars.

H

So this is one of the weaknesses in the city is that we don't have an effective way of taking developer investment city investment, pooling it and creating the kind of fantastic impacts that we are seeing at the bentway at the waterfront and that we actually could look at in terms of designating areas in in various Ward's we'd have that power of convening public and an art and really building community. So those would be some of the proposals.

H

We have a lot of ideas for other sources of money by the way and we're working with partners in art, who are a wonderful group who are private citizens who invest in art in the city. They've made public art the priority this year, so they're really excited at working with us working with the city to say you know what are the kind of vehicles that other municipalities have created to reel um create capacity in this? In this context, I hope that was helpful. Thank.

A

You very much councillor Hart. Thank you now, councillor Kelly question. Please.

G

In the recommendation that we have before us from councillor cressie, the report is to be reviewed from the perspective of feasibility yeah and how are you defining feasibility? What does that mean? It's.

H

A it's a great word: you know feasibility is taking the recommendations that have you know a lot of strong research behind them, so these are all about best practices in other here that we want to continue and from other cities that we want Toronto to consider and saying. How do we agree with these? Does the city agree with these and then how can we in fact roll them out so with what would they cost? What would be required in terms of, for example, better cooperation?

H

You know to be able to create these consolidated funds and looking at the public art district, so feasibility is both. Do we agree with them and then also? How would we realize so one of the things we talked about and very simple mechanisms to make sure that public art is maintained when it's commissioned by a condominium, and some of it is just sort of practical measures that the city can adopt. That will make it simpler both to have public art present and also to sustain and maintain once it's built. This.

G

Is the room something in these stipulation in the city bylaws that one percent of the capital costs of building something in the city has to go to public art? Well,.

H

That's the thing is the section 37 currently is for developers, and it gives them an option of investing 1% in public art, our recommendation and it would be a change of practice- is that, like other cities in Canada and many in other countries, that that become a requirement that that money could either be invested on-site or it could be pooled. So it would be.

H

Look look at that, and the second is that the City of Toronto has not consistently used its 1% that is attached to public buildings and infrastructure that the city in fact invests in all of the five areas of the city so parks. For example, if you look at Ottawa Vancouver Calgary Edmonton, which are smaller cities Montreal with way less cultural practice, I mean Montreal is a good competitor, but nowhere near frankly to Toronto and the capacity of our cultural communities they require when city infrastructure is built, that 1% go to public art.

H

So you know that would be a decision the city could make and it would really help to position us another recommendation which again usability many cities use public art as one of their major tourism draws. We don't do this in the city, you know we could take the work that Alana Altman did build a really wonderful, interactive map and use that as part of our attractions.

H

When we're you know, selling the visual art scene in Toronto, which, by the way, is one of the most dynamic in this country and now internationally, with the MOCA opening up our gallery, we've got a gravitas around visual art in the city and our public art holding should be part of what builds up and it's it's actually an economic asset. So you know when we talk about feasibility, it's like.

H

Let's look at some of these recommendations that aren't costly but would in fact make public art one of our attractors with a revenue that would come back both directly and indirectly. Maybe.

G

I misread the the recommendation, but it would appear that that many of the people who are going to be reviewing the report were present. When the report was researched and written and I was wondering if your, if some of the people that would be tasked with reviewing the report, might be people that were outside the box and be able to give. You know a fresh or an alternate.

G

Interpretation of the info data- yes,.

H

Thank thank you very much counselor. What we are hoping is that the city creates a working group to work with it on the reviews, so it is working with. You know, members of Economic Development and culture who are tasked with public art and planning who are tasked with public art, but they also use the resource of the researchers and others potentially who sit on a committee. So I'm I agree with your logic, completely look at the data. Look at the research and then say these are.

H

This is what we feel would be the best way for the city to fall through on these recommendations. Okay,.

G

And the report backs the date.

A

That's probably not in 2019, so we will address that with the general manager, but we're.

H

Hoping 2018 it's.

A

Not gonna happen any 19's gonna. Thank you very much. Council quality Kelly with respect to your questions, and we will address a little further on the date of the report. Coming back, I did talk to the general manager and we've looked at the fact that there's an election coming up and so on and when we break it would not be sufficient time in order to address the report and to deal with this with sufficient information. Okay,.

H

Well, George I understand. As long as we get our process, we will be moving forward.

A

With respect okay, just before I go to a council of raccattack as I'd like to just take a moment to introduce a group of visitors who are here with us this morning and they are amazingly wonderful. Looking young people from Hamilton welcome to Toronto you're part of as I understand, councillor Matthew that he greens group, with its the project with a Hamilton center for civic inclusion, HCC I and there are 50 young people from Hamilton that are here.

A

I hope you all came with your past sports, because if you don't have paths, but you won't be going back home, be staying here in Toronto, because you're amazing and we do need more young people in Toronto and so on. I understand that you are here under the tutelage of Sara geometries in the room, but also councillor Nathan Shan is also supervising the group here at City. Hall. Welcome to Toronto, welcome to toronto city hall. Welcome to the economic development committee meeting.

A

My name is councillor Michael Thompson on here with the members of committee, councillor heart to my far left. Councillor Kelly immediately fallen council heart councillor and vice-chair Holland thereafter, and next to me is the general manager of Economic Development. He does all the work. We get all the praise. You need to make sure you figure that out as you move forward again I'm Kevin Thompson. These are a member of the clerk team who are they ones?

A

Who do a lot of the work in terms of recording the minutes and so on, and also we have to my far right councillor mayor for a catechist who is a member of the committee and also we have staff members are here so I hope you learn a lot here today. I understand you're, going also to to Queen's Park and to enjoy obviously the process and the activities and so on, and you are witnessing an esteemed member of our community, the president of OCAD, so for those of you who may be considering OCAD dr.

A

sarah diamond, who is the principal and vice chair, is here presenting an arts and culture in terms of how we focus and collaboration between economic development, the economy and culture and how we use culture to drive the economy in the City of Toronto. So thank you very much as well as to thank you to all the people who are your chaperones and the leaders in the community workers who have brought you here to Toronto.

A

We hope that you have an amazing day here at City, Hall and Queens Park wish you great success in your scholastic and your academic career and then in your professional career. So thank you very much and thank you to councillor Matthew green, my colleague from Hamilton, in order to spare heading this, and thank you for councillor Shan in terms of ensuring that the group were here today so enjoy your stay here. In the city and you're welcome to continue to stay if you wish- and we will now continue with respect to our our meeting.

A

So thank you very much.

A

Council raccattack it's the floor is yours. Yes,.

E

Thank you mr. chair I, so I don't wanted to follow up on councillor Kelly's the questions too. It's you Sarah with respect to the option for developers for the one percent, so I know in the United States and I'm not sure what the percentages in places like Chicago or New York, but they do have it mandated that there is a percentage.

E

I mean I would think it's the one percent for the ninety nine percent and their public art plans there and so I'm wondering if, if what you're proposing is something along those lines so that maybe we could also see Picasso's on the streets of Toronto yeah.

H

Thank you, I have to say, as the students are leaving okay, to use in the midst of negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding, with councilor green to collaborate with them. So it was very timely for them to to emerge just literally looking at that.

H

So no that's a really wonderful question and, as we looked at 38 cities and there are different practices and policies, we found that really in most cities it is a mandatory one percent or two percent, so it can be up to two percent and in some in some areas and other cities also have the capacity to pool that resource.

H

So that you're not only looking at- and that does happen to some extent here. So in the waterfront, a number of the developers got together and said: we're going to pull our resource and we're going bill. You know public art park, but the ability to pull the resource to also, if developers don't want to see the sculptor or the work on their site to give it to the city to be able to efficiently manage and place public art in other locations.

H

E

Mean you're talking about only private developers and what's and what about a mandate that actually makes ensures that the city well.

H

That's what we're saying absolutely so so, absolutely so I think in Chicago it's over 1% yeah, you've got it. You've got it, so we are saying that we're saying that- and we heard that so we you know, we interviewed quite a few people from very different walks of life. Around this question, we looked at best practices in other cities. We looked at the history of public art practice in Toronto and at one point in time the 1% for the city was mandatory after amalgamation.

H

It wasn't so we're saying bring that back, because you know you have to think of public art is a sort of economic stimulus as well. You know it creates work for for artists for architects. You know for the people who build the work increasingly we're seeing work that uses a digital dimension and can be used, in fact to show the kind of innovation environment in a city Montreal. Does that San Jose does that, so it really helps actually as an economic stimulus.

H

It's not like a burden on the city to do that, although it is money right because it it it plays back by creating work that you know his benefit to it. Okay,.

E

Great thanks so much thanks for coming again. Thank you. Thank.

A

You very much dr. diamond and council fracas, just one question for me: if you were to look at a city around the world that exemplifies this concept of having arts and cultural elements throughout the city, is there one city that comes mud and I know you talked a little bit about Chicago but beyond Chicago? Where would you what would you say in.

H

The Australia I mean Sydney's done a lot of work there, but Sydney's also at a moment, um because I'm involved with the smart cities work for the city as well, and we had the folks come in from Sydney they're, very divided city, so they're now looking at how they take the kind of investment you know in a region that is well relatively, had a lot of development in transportation, investment and move it across the river so to speak.

H

So Sydney is a great example. Ottawa has just passed. Excellent policy and Calgary is doing some fantastic work in terms of City investment in public art, david rowe, kabhi who's, one of our alumni and a you know, a really very famous Toronto, based artist, has done this phenomenal piece which we works, the entire real underpass.

H

You know in in Calgary with a very close working relationship with the City of Calgary and engineering and architects and designers there. So we certainly have the opportunity to do that kind of work here, we're a wealthy City. You know I mean I, think we've talked about our challenges, but this is a great way of sort of spreading the wealth and we've got a lot of infrastructure development happening here.

H

I just want to say that you know every body we met within the developer community, including build who we interviewed, was extremely positive about continuing to see investment in public art and some of the developers and I won't go through the list of them. They've got really very radical, exciting ideas about you know how to strengthen public art present some in the City of Toronto, great.

A

Thank you very much, dr. Drummond, good members. Anyone wishing to speak okay councillor for a kodaka's just before you speak, maybe I'll just do this, but I did I did ask the general manager if he wanted to answer any questions that you may have or members may have and or whether or not he wanted to make a comment on this particular item. Just before you speak, so any questions for the general manager, no okay, mr. general manager, did you want to just comment and then I'll get members to speak. Thank.

F

You just personal thank OCAD, you and and UT for the work they did. They did a lot city staff were involved and consulting as councillor. Ford is already.

H

F

Kelly mentioned.

F

H

F

We've just a lot of staff were involved. I went to a couple of public meetings, so it was very collaborative broadly-based very done in a very positive spirit and working with the city, but had the great advantage I think of being independent being able to form their own views from it.

F

I'll make a couple of comments, so I'm gonna ask Patrick if he has anything to add in a minute we talked Sara's talked about the big areas within the city, this division and planning, but there are other areas and within this division even we have the BIA office that gets involved in public art. We have our own public art group that basically takes care of investment. That's that's created because of money generated by the city's investment in infrastructure.

F

Buildings planning does the work when the private sector builder is looking for approvals and he's given an option opportunity to put some money into public art, but there's also what if our Toronto that Sara mentioned, there's evergreen has been doing some work down that down the Don River. The TDC does some work in in their transit vehicles.

F

So there's there's a lot of fractured non coordinated and non accumulated energy. That's expended here and I with the report that says that we are missing some opportunities for for a lot and we know there's no single source where you can go and find out. You know I mean we have some very famous artists. Doing some work. I want I wanted to use an example.

F

I can't remember the artists that, as the sculpture outside of the now ritz-carlton, it was there before the ritz-carlton was built, but it's a three-dimensional art that is phenomenal by one of the very famous sculpture art is so famous I can't remember his name. We.

H

Have decklist Copeland's I mean we have? We have a panoply of international public art here. That's amazing already right so.

F

So I think the report is going to galvanize City attention towards it. I've committed to the chair that staff will do this work in 2018 and that our first opportunity they would report back officially won't occur until either the budget process or the new committees in 2019 Pat. Did you want to add anything to what I just said.

C

That was a great summary. Perhaps a few quick points for the benefit of committee. The outside the core piece will be critical. We've just gone to tender for a study by best practices in art, animation outside the core. The city's street art program run by rotation is very popular, and it's community engagement and connection to be IAS is something I think we can learn from so we'll we'll be doing that the other side as well. Councillor Holland's comments, sir diamonds comments as well.

C

There is a great opportunity to look at the the innovation economy here to help public engage with public art. We will be working with arts. Etobicoke is one example where there are a series of murals in Islington which speak to the history of the community, perhaps not the diversity community today, as opposed to replacing that public art we're working with an augmented reality, application that will allow the viewer to walk forward in time to see successive waves of immigration and how that a community has evolved over time.

C

So there are great opportunities at the interface of the public experience to work with Toronto's high tech sector, fabulous.

H

A

Thank you very much. Council Frank and Agassi wanted to speak. Yes,.

E

I was gonna, move the recommendations in councilor Krusty's letter and just say how excited I am by by the possibility of actually having more public art in our streets.

E

That's accessible to all people, because we actually do represent a wide spectrum of residents, some vulnerable and some more affluent and so I think that not everybody has an opportunity to be able to afford to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario or the Royal Ontario Museum or whatever gallery it is, or perhaps they don't have the opportunity to travel to see some some of the great artists in the world and so I think this is a wonderful opportunity to make that more accessible to everyday people.

E

So, I see this like I said as the 1% for the 99% okay.

A

Thank you very much. Anyone else, councillor Holland great.

D

Thank you so much and Sarah thanks so much for coming as usual. It's a great I, think great report and opportunity and I've been over to OCAD and seen the amazing work. That's taking place there, which is even just beyond the art, but the Tec as well, and the intertwining within that. So I'll be really excited to see how we can unite both across the city, there's so much opportunity and there's so many organizations and tech, tech, tech companies that want to get involved.

D

So that's where I'll see a really great intersect, even public-private partnerships and they're of those that really want to get involved. So there's a lot of people stepping up to the plate and and want to see that that creativity right across the road across the city, I.

H

Can respond to.

A

Okay, anyone else speak. Okay, great all those in favor pose that's carried. Thank you. Thank you. Thank.

H

A

Right so members we have basically two items left I just and to being the fact that on item five I just wanted to reconsider, I just need to reopen that for a moment and to then adopt the recommendations are actually in the report. Okay, all those in favor opposed if carried so move. Adoption of Edie 27.5, all those in favor was carried. Thank you alright. So we have the this particular item with respect to there's an attachment as well.

A

Let her communication from councillor Fletcher and there's a motion that I'm going to move and it is as a result of the communication from councillor Fletcher. Is there any questions on this particular item? Anyone is unclear as to what is actually being done at a moment to review it and so on. Okay,.

B

A

We good with it oh right, exactly I think we're all aware of it. I mean this is really to ensure that, as we move to develop the the the the Portland's as such and the work that's going on there that there's going to be collaboration in terms of consideration in terms of how we build that out, there will be residential component as part of it, but all the film peace to protect this very vital industry.

A

Council Fletcher wants to be very clear, as well as members of film board, as do we as chair and members of the economic development committee and council as a whole, the mayor, as well as rather supportive of this in terms of moving forward. So we want to get the staff to address the report.

A

The film studio infrastructure report by n berry lines consultant to get our staff to work on that, and so this is really what's being asked and I think it's pretty clear. The general manager and I've had some discussion. He and his team are prepared to advance this work, and so we are now giving instruction to that be done. So all those in favor I'm- sorry, oh yes, this is the amendment here. This comes out of council frenchers letter.

A

So all those in favor of this opposed carry and item as amended and all those in favor opposed that's carried. Thank you. Still. Members may have a motion to adjourn the councillor Kelly. All those in favor opposed that's carried. Thank you very much have a great afternoon. Everybody in we're done. Thank you to the clerk's and the staff. Thank you.

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