In December 2015, City Council – exhausted by extensive and contentious budget debates – delegated their authority to the Mayor, the City Manager and the Chair of the Transit Commission to make the decision on what kind of toilets would be installed at the Bayview and Hurdman LRT stations, including revisiting pay for use. All necessary decisions can now be made by this tiny group. Only if the recommendation is pay-for-use will it go back to City Council for a decision.
The actual motion states:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT City Council delegate the authority to the Mayor, Chair of the Transit Commission, and the City Manager to evaluate the options for the installation of public washrooms at the Bayview and Hurdman Stations and approve an alternative to the proposal in the Stage 1 and Stage 2 of Light Rail Transit (LRT) – Provision of Public Washrooms report (ACS2015-CMR-OCM-0031) report that reduces the capital and operating costs to the greatest extent possible while maintaining the location within the fare paid zone, as described in this motion; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that City Council delegate the authority to the City Manager to undertake all necessary actions to implement the decisions made as part of this process, in consultation with the City Solicitor, including whether to implement a user pay option and the potential social impacts of such an option, and report back to Committee and Council on the exercise of this delegated authority on the understanding that, should the user pay option be recommended, the recommendation would be presented to City Council for final approval.
We understand that the city is currently collecting the data and constructing the municipally funded public toilet app.
GottaGo! is continuing to try to track these developments and to press for the extensive network of toilets that we want: including more access to existing business and public toilets, signage and changes to public policy.
Today’s Ottawa Citizen carries an excellent column by Adam Feibel, Public toilets are a public good and should be publicly funded
