Last month, Toronto City Council unanimously adopted Councillor Dianne Saxe’s “The More Great Eats” motion to set up a pilot program in the University-Rosedale neighbourhood next year. This will temporarily ease the rules surrounding mobile vending licences.
Street food trucks are extremely popular on the University of Toronto grounds, especially the St. George campus, but their numbers are limited because city bylaws require that they be independently motorized. This makes it illegal to operate less-polluting, less-expensive mobile refreshment vehicles, like a trailer that is towed by a car or a bike.
Just look at the case involving Anastasiia Alieksieiehuk. The 27-year-old, who came to Canada in 2022 after fleeing the war in Ukraine, was forced to shut down her popular coffee and baked goods trailer last month near U of T.
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Even though Alieksieiehuk has a non-motorized refreshment vehicle licence, she was frequently ticketed because she doesn’t have a mobile vending permit. According to the current by-law, her trailer would need to have a motor in order for her to obtain the correct permit (Alieksieiehuk tows her trailer from behind her car).
Saxe’s motion essentially ends this restriction by recommending that licensed motorless trailers be allowed to receive a mobile food vending permit to park and sell refreshments in parking spots where a mobile food vendor is permitted.
“No municipal interest is served by requiring on-road mobile food vendors to operate trucks, rather than unmotorized trailers, providing that the vehicle bears a Highway Traffic Act licence, and therefore can be securely identified, bear insurance and fulfil the other requirements” of the municipal code, Saxe stated in her motion, adding that the city thrives when small businesses do.
“Selling affordable street foods from a mobile vehicle is a low-barrier small business which reduces the cost of living for residents and adds vibrancy to our streets.”
The City will present a report on proposed changes to the by-laws to the Economic and Community Development Committee by the end of February.
As for Alieksieichuk, she told the Star that she’s excited to get back to her customers.
“Every day I was going into work worried bylaw officers would come up to me,” she stated. “But I wasn’t trying to break the law … I just wanted to do something unique.”
