Toronto Won't Be Enjoying Multicultural Street Food This Summer

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The idea of street foods for Toronto isn't new, which makes the current attitude all the more pathetic. The traditional city council hem and hew that all is well and good when that crew is confronted with a new idea. Indeed, we've come to expect no less.

But efforts to put more than hot dogs on the street have been lurking around City Hall for more than two decades. Sadly, in all that time, few advances have been made, and it is still whispered at committee meetings that to dare a street samosa or spring roll is to dare all.
So it was no surprise the paranoia is alive and well when City Hall this week announced the plan to put diverse food on the street this summer had strangled on red tape.

The latest idea – dubbed Toronto à la Cart – is going to launch next April with 13 vendors. Honest. Really. It would be part of a pilot project lasting five long years so that vendors who invest in specialized carts can recoup their costs.

As to why the initial plan, meant to have gotten in gear last year, isn't even close, there are few specifics.

A number of city councillors themselves are among the puzzled, led by George Ashton and John Filion, the latter a veteran advocate for street food. Filion told the Toronto Star: "It's my biggest disappointment after 26 years in politics – that a good idea is having so much trouble getting off the ground," Filion said.

He wants to see the five-year pilot limited to six months next spring and summer. He also wants the cart financing method changed to ensure the city or its agency has control.

Filion argues a three- or five-year lease makes it prohibitively expensive for the street-food entrepreneurs the city wants to target, such as new immigrants with food experience but little capital.

Councillor Brian Ashton said the latest proposal reveals a city bogged down in regulation.

"We're not creative, we're regulators," Ashton said. "Risk is one of our biggest fears."

Now there's a guy with his finger on the earnest pulse of our town, where you can never be too careful. Think of all the people who drop dead every day from eating street food in New York, right?

Last summer, when Health Minister George Smitherman amended provincial law to allow for a wider variety of foods to be sold on the street, Toronto decided to hold off on opening up the menu until a firm plan was in place

Wonder what would happen if they asked the actual people of Toronto to vote on street grunting?