Item - 2020.EX16.3

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the City Manager to undertake Round 1 of the Dundas Street consultation and communications plan as described in Attachment 1 to the report (September 8, 2020) from the City Manager.
 

2. City Council direct the City Manager to report back to the Executive Committee in the first quarter of 2021 on the consultation findings and recommendations relating to:
 

a. a preferred option for responding to the petition to rename Dundas Street and, by extension, addressing other civic assets with the Dundas name;
 

b. a work plan with estimated costs to implement Recommendation 2.a. above;
 

c. revisions to the City's commemorative policies and programs, including the Property Naming Policy, the Street Naming Policy, and the Public Art and Monuments Donation Policy, and programs relating to civic honours, awards, and tributes; and
 

d. an overall commemorative framework for the City, including guiding principles for naming/renaming and other forms of recognition, developed in consultation with City divisions, agencies, and corporations.
 

3. Subject to the adoption of Recommendation 2.c. above, City Council direct that no new applications to name or rename streets or other civic properties (including parks) or requests to remove City monuments received on or after October 1, 2020 be considered until the review of policies and programs has been completed; this direction to apply to those agencies which are City boards under the City of Toronto Act, while the Board of Health, Police Services Board and Public Library Board are requested to comply with this direction.

The City of Toronto is committed to addressing how systematic racism and discrimination are embedded in City assets, commemorative programs, and naming policies.

In response to a June 2020 petition calling for Dundas Street to be renamed, Mayor John Tory asked City Manager Chris Murray to form a working group including the City’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit and Indigenous Affairs Office to recommend potential next steps.

A decision to rename a major arterial road like Dundas requires careful consideration and an equitable and inclusive public process that considers Black and Indigenous perspectives as well as those of the broader community.

The City Manager committed to bringing forward this report to provide a background on the community petition calling for the renaming of Dundas Street, the street's namesake (Scottish MP Henry Dundas), and the street's development since the 1790s.

Staff reviewed historical sources, recent media and webinars, materials provided by historical societies, written submissions and letters to the City, and started discussions with over a dozen scholars and subject matter experts. Staff also reviewed 256 recent case studies relating to street and place renamings and monument removals generated world-wide. This information along will additional research will form the basis of the communication and engagement strategies.

The question is how the City of Toronto should respond to these findings.

This report outlines a process to assess four options:

- do nothing
- retain the legal street names with additional interpretation and recognitions
- retain the legal street names but rename those civic assets with Dundas in their name, except TTC facilities
- rename the streets and all other civic assets now carrying the Dundas name.
 

For the renaming option, the report estimates the costs to City divisions and agencies, and potential impacts to businesses, organizations, property owners, and residents with a street address on Dundas as well as any service or directory that maps or shows addresses on Dundas.

For the renaming option, the report outlines a community engagement strategy and integrated change management process to address all civic assets with the Dundas name by the end of 2021.

The report also outlines a framework to more broadly understand and respond to how systemic racism and discrimination may be embedded in City assets, commemorative programs, and naming policies.