A customer walks into a 400-square-foot grocery store on a residential street near Hillcrest Park, in Toronto, on April 20, 2009.Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail
Canadian cities often fail the popsicle test. Under this urban planning standard, a good neighbourhood is one where a child is able to walk to a corner store, buy a frozen treat and get home before it melts.
Passing the test requires safe streets, which Canadian cities generally have. It also needs plenty of small shops scattered throughout residential areas. These can’t thrive without enough customers, requiring the urban density that Canadians often reject. And, most importantly, these stores have to exist in the first place.
This is where Canadian cities fall flat. Most prohibit new corner stores in residential neighbourhoods, though older ones are generally allowed to continue operating. This grandfathering has created one of those recurring paradoxes of modern zoning: an urban amenity that people enjoy but would be illegal to replicate today.
Efforts to fix this have been slow and subject to reverses.
Vancouver launched public consultations in 2023 around loosening convenience store rules, which staff said elicited strong support for the change. But it will be late this year before residents learn what regulatory changes might result.
In Toronto, councillors blinked in December when given the chance to modify the regulations to permit new stores. Under the existing rules, the city has not allowed any additional such stores in decades. Hundreds have closed and, in some areas, they are so rare they might better be called inconvenience stores.
In most of the city, convenience stores are small shops attached to gas stations, as opposed to local destinations a quick walk away.
This is a loss not only for popsicle-seeking children but also for adults, for whom such stores make it easy to duck out for essentials or a snack. And it’s at odds with Toronto’s stated commitment to reduce climate impact by making it less necessary to drive for daily errands. In theory, the city wants to create neighbourhoods where it’s easy to get around on foot or bike. In practice, it finds this hard.
The decline in retail options in Toronto’s local neighbourhoods – which are down 34 per cent from 1989 through 2019, according to city data – is not solely the fault of municipal rules. It also reflects real-estate values. A lot of these stores disappeared because the high cost of land made the space more attractive to use as a home.
But if someone did want to start such a business, they could only replace an existing retail space. They could not simply buy or rent a spot and hang out their shingle.
Staff worked for months to bring forward recommendations for loosening these rules. Their report noted that Toronto’s ban dated to 1959 and had been kept over the decades and incorporated into successive sets of zoning rules.
Such a prohibition is increasingly difficult to defend. Particularly after recent surveying by the city showed that a staggering 90 per cent of people wanted more commercial options in neighbourhoods. Given the fractious nature of city politics, that is North Korean levels of support.
But politicians tend to listen to those who have their ear. And in Toronto, angry resident associations lined up to argue against change.
Critics worried about the effect on their property values, apparently oblivious to the idea that there are some people who would prefer to move into a walkable community. Others raised concerns about whether a change to allow neighbourhood retail could lead to music, or maybe even a bar. Some were upset about the possibility of having cannabis sold on a street where families live.
In the end, council couldn’t agree on a way forward. So it decided to consult some more. The city will go back to the public and also, specifically, the very residents’ associations that have been speaking out already against the change.
Instead of re-airing grievances, residents could take solace in the fact that noise bylaws already exist. They could acknowledge that children see shops selling legal cannabis by the hundreds on Toronto’s main streets, making a moral panic about such stores on local roads seem futile at best.
Toronto’s unwillingness to make a decision has an unpleasant ring of bowing to the loudest voices. Change is delayed because of ginned-up problems that might ensue.
Unfortunately Toronto city’s council listened to the fearmongers, who are so determined to keep children away from cannabis they’re ready to deprive them of popsicles as well.