Toronto businesses, councillors, candidates call for CafeTO overhaul

Toronto’s CafeTO may have been born out of pandemic-era necessity, but the city’s efforts to make the program permanent have been cumbersome and frustrating, heralding calls from councillors to mayoral candidates to fix it.

It’s taken a long time and a many hoops to jump through, and despite the aggravation, Jason Fisher admits he’s one of the lucky ones who have actually been able to open a curb lane patio. The owner and operator of Indie Ale House pointed to another restaurant across Dundas Street West that hasn’t been as lucky.

“(They’ve) been waiting for a piece of paper that we got three weeks ago. It’s not fair; we’re paying the same amount,” he said.

Unlike in its previous iteration, the city made the decision to add fees and requirements to improve safety, accessibility, and ensure it would be sustainable. Stricter guidelines were considered to ensure patios were not only installed in the right place, but that they were actually being used.

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The attempt to streamline the process, business owners have been saying, has achieved the opposite. The rollout of other processes has also been slow. The city revealed on Wednesday that around 10 per cent of approved patios still were awaiting traffic safety equipment like concrete barriers.

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Patio season is a brief affair in Toronto and of the 345 successful CafeTO applicants, many have been watching time and money slip away. Fisher said his own patio missed out on the lucrative Victoria Day long weekend, profits he said he has no chance to get back this year.

Fisher said the result for businesses was an overly complicated process that often seemed designed to confuse business operators.

“Unnecessary, bureaucratic existing processes were used to shove this into as opposed to starting fresh,” he said. “I don’t know how it got harder three years later than it was at the start.”

The timing of the debacle has arrived at a prime time for mayoral candidates hoping to capitalize on cumbersome processes at City Hall, while promising to do better.

Olivia Chow held a campaign stop at a Queen Street West restaurant, assuring that if she becomes mayor, she will fix the program.

“Yes, make it safe on the street,” said Chow, “but simplify it.”

Speaking to the media from a podium, Mark Saunders echoed the call, saying the “red tape” cited as the number one problem with the program would be cut if he wins the election.

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Meanwhile, a member’s motion was introduced at city council’s Thursday meeting by Toronto-Danforth councillor Paula Fletcher, aimed to get city staff working on fixing issues ahead of election day.

“I want to move this to a business model, rather than just a City of Toronto divisional model,” she said.

For its part, the city’s communications division said the lengthy permit process experienced this year will lead to speedier renewals next year.

Jason Fisher has serious doubts the optimistic spin will come to fruition.

“You have to see the positive intent in trying to help, but I think they need to listen to us in that this process wasn’t helpful,” he said.