Sign By-Law

Planning and Growth Management Committee meeting, November 4 2009

More than 50 Torontonians deputed before the Committee. Here are some of the highlights:

Devon Ostrom, BCA

...Billboards are one of the only forms of advertising where the audience does not get anything, or very little in return for their attention. For example if we look at TV, you get 45 minutes of content for every 15 minutes of advertising, a newspaper or magazine – usually 50 % content / 50 % advertising. With the public sphere and billboards there is a form market of failure, people don’t have a choice in viewing the messages so there is no need to support content... We are asking you to do something wonderful for your city and improve the quality of life for your constituents. I can promise you that it will be an innovate step forward. One that will be celebrated around the world in making cities more livable and vibrant places. You have the will of the people behind you, the research backing it -- all it needs is your leadership to carry it forward.

Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, BCA

Knowing that the vast majority of residents – 7 out of 10 according to two polls – support what Beautiful City is asking you to do, billboard companies know that all they can do is delay, delay, delay. ...On behalf of the Beautiful City Alliance, I ask you to refuse to reward this industry’s deceit with yet another delay. Instead, reward the hard work of the young Torotonians who identified a set of problems in our city, came up with a solution and then built support neighbourhood by neighbourhood until it was embraced by this municipal government. ...With an amendment to increase the revenue from this tax to $18 million and another amendment to see that this money goes to support new and enhanced arts programming, as well as enforcement of the by-law, I urge you to send the staff recommendations on to Council with your unanimous support.

Claire Hopkinson, Toronto Arts Council

We at Toronto Arts Council support the new by-law. We agree with provisions to eliminate illegal signs and regulate legal ones. Most specifically, we agree with the spirit of the initiative: that advertising should have a public benefit attached to it. We are very pleased with the recommendation that net revenues generated from the tax should be used in support of the arts in Toronto. This funding will help public access to arts activities, it will help youth engage in the arts, it will help beautify our environment, and have an overall impact of improving the livability and, ultimately, the economy of our city.

John Van Burek, Pleiades Theatre

Like many in this room, I can recall when there were few if any billboards in our city…. Today, we are assaulted by shilling everywhere we turn. But it would seem to me that the landscape and the view of the city, like the airwaves for television and radio, are not there for the picking for whoever has the wherewithal to seize them and load ‘em up with images and noise. There is publicly owned and shares space between the wall of Mme. X’s building and Mr. Y’s eyes.

By the same token, we all know that the wheels of commerce are oiled by marketing and publicity, so things like billboards in the city are not going to go away. Therefore, let us look upon this proposed by-law is an excellent opportunity for the City to extract some benefit from blight by generating revenue from the unsightly and raucous cityscape and using that revenue to create harmony and –dare I say, beauty—that will contribute to the well-being of all. The tax revenue that stands to be generated by this law could and should be directed toward the beautification of Toronto through its arts and culture budgets.

Karin Eaton, Mural Routes

I feel sure the members of the committee and members of Council are fully aware of the benefits that art and culture bring to the City. I urged them that when they pass the New Regulation and Revenue Strategy that they remember to direct the net surplus from the taxes to arts and culture programs, with an emphasis on art in the public realm.

Toronto Arts Foundation is a proud member of the Beautiful City Aliance. The BCA consists of more than 50 arts and advocacy organizations and associations: 411 Initiative for Change, ACS Student Union, Agents of Change, Art City, Art Gallery of Ontario, Artreach Toronto, Arts Network for Children and Youth, Artstarts, Artsvote, Canadian Youth Arts Network, CARFAC Ontario, Centre for Information & Community Services of Ontario, Centre for Integral Economics, Dandyhorse Magazine, Elementary Teachers of Toronto, Eva's Initiatives, Evergreen, Fairlawn Neighbourhood Centre, Grassroots Youth Collaborative, Illegalsigns.ca, Kate Henderson Intellectual Property & Trademark, Lakeshore Arts, Lotus Leaf, Manifesto, Mural Routes, No.9 Contemporary Art & the Environment, OpenCity Projects, Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre, Ryerson Students' Union, Scarborough Arts Council, Schools Without Borders, Social Planning Toronto, Sketch, Spacing Magazine, Style in Progress, Sunnyside Community Association, TakingITGlobal, The Faculty Of, The Gladstone Hotel, The Remix Project, The Stop Community Food Centre, them.ca, Threads 4 Humanity, Toronto Arts Foundation, Toronto Cyclists Union, Toronto Public Space Committee, Toronto Youth Cabinet, University of Toronto Student Union, Urban Arts, Well and Good Art Space, Why Not Theatre, Youth Action Network