Council resumed

City Council has resumed.

It has adopted item EY8.50 headed "Request for Attendance at Rooming House Licensing Hearing - 1723-1725 Dufferin Street" with amendments.

City council is now debating item GM5.13 headed "Local Food Procurement".

Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon has moved the following amendment:

Motion to Amend Item (Additional) moved by Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (Final)
That City Council adopt the recommendations contained in the report (June 14, 2011) from the Director, Toronto Environment Office, amended to now read as follows:

1. City Council adopt the Local Food Procurement Policy as presented in Appendix A to the report (June 14, 2011) from the Director, Toronto Environment Office, with the Policy amended by revising the third sentence in the section headed "Implementation" to read:

More specifically, all RFPs and RFQs to purchase food for City operations will include language indicating that it is a policy objective of the City to increase the percentage of food that is grown locally when all factors, including costs, quality and availability are equal.

2. City Council forward this report to the Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and request that OMAFRA amend the Foodland Ontario processed food definition to require only that the following two criteria be met:

a. products be made with a majority of Ontario ingredients (51% or greater); and

b. 80% of the direct processing costs be returned to Ontario,

thereby acknowledging the economic importance of local food processors and the impact they can have on increasing local food procurement.

3. City Council, in order to support local economic activity in the food sector, request the Director of the Toronto Environment Office to re-negotiate the work plan under the existing funding agreement for the Local Food Procurement Project with the Greenbelt Fund in order to help achieve lower costs in the City's provision of meals to its clients and to improve customer service through better quality food and response to dietary needs by:

a. purchasing equipment to process fresh local food, which will reduce labour costs; and

b. training staff to identify local food options when making purchases and to operate new processing equipment.