The Core 4

I have lots of ideas running for City Council, but these are the 4 with the best ratio of impact//likelihood of success. I'm running on my firmest commitment to these 4 initiatives.

The full Stackhouse policy corollary will be released in entirety on October 1, 2026, stay tuned for policy drops each Tuesday in September.

Shade Sails for Danforth😎

2025: Shade sails installed at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal

Single-post style

Cantilever style

Cable-secured style

Shade is important for 3 reasons: managing heat warning health risks, driver safety, and place-making. There's no tree cover on Danforth, and 4:30 pm rolls around everyday. If you've found yourself on a sunny day travelling West in the early evening, you understand why we need shade sails for Danforth.

I'm not a power engineer, but if we can make the shades solar panels, that works for me!

Fairer Fines💵

If we can gear rent to income, we can gear fines to income.

Municipalities can't directly administer income-proportionate fines - we don't have access to your tax records. (Finland does this!) What we can do is increase fines and create an opt-in fine abatement program based on income information the guilty parties submit.

Fines geared to income look like:

(numbers for demonstration purposes only):

Current off-leash fine is $615. New fine: $5000

Abatement tier 1 - makes less than full-time minimum wage ($32 500 annual): pays legacy rate - $615

Abatement tier 2 - makes between full-time minimum wage and a Toronto living wage ($56 500 annual): pays 2x legacy rate - $1230

Abatement tier 3 - makes between living wage and $100 000 annual: pays half of new fine - $2500

(family size equivalencies would be tabled alongside)

Freedom from Harm for

Toronto's Animal Residents🦝

Toronto-Danforth has seen animal torture go unpunished. That's not the city I want to live in.

Toast

This is the kind of policy I wish I didn't have to run on, but those two cats in the center panel own me, and if they were to be subjected to human cruelty, I'd inspire movies with my vengeance.

Helix & Cedar

I will propose a by-law extending the right to freedom from harm (FFH) to the animal residents* of Toronto and establish the violation thereof as a fineable offence of 15K, doubling with reoccurrence.

*birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

Eduardo the Drifter

Making violence against animals a municipal offence makes the burden of proof a balance of odds, rather than beyond a shadow of a doubt, and with no legacy rate, only up to half of the fine could be abated by the previous proposal.

What would Jimothy do?

Common Sense Heritage Conservation

There are 3 fundamental flaws with how we do heritage conservation. First, we require public debate of what counts as heritage--what could possibly go wrong?

Second, as of 2025 in Ontario, including people with (dis)abilities is a nonnegotiable part of our heritage.

My personal and professional opinion is that the City cannot legally issue a new heritage designation to properties that are not AODA compliant. We can't be dedicating grants and incentives to programs that explicitly physically exclude (dis)abled people. We can grandfather up to 2025, but there's no case of competing rights. People with (dis)abilities have rights, and buildings do not. The AODA rewrites the expectations of heritage conservation as cyborg taxidermy--authentic shells with synthetic interiors.

Third, Toronto requires heritage permits separate from construction permits. Enforcement costs in terms of administration and construction delays are absolutely bonkers.

There is a better way: visual identity standards (VIS). VIS are informed by heritage at the outset and upon review, but they never try to decide what does and doesn't count as heritage. VIS are very specific building appearance by-laws that enforce the goals of heritage conservation by punishment instead of permission. We should just state the visual identity requirements on the construction application and heavily fine non-compliance.

American Home Owners' Associations (HOAs) give VIS a bad reputation, but they're regrettably overlooked municipal policy tools. VIS are not limited to heritage applications. These by-laws can prescribe things like: states of good repair, color schemes, facades, and outdoor lighting requirements. Transitioning from heritage permits to VIS fines would speed up housing development and save the city money.

♿ I will propose amendments to the City's Official Plan to write visual identity standards that balance Toronto's accessibility, development, and heritage goals 👷🏻‍♀️

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