In 2006, after four years of debate, the City finally agreed on the wording for a bylaw that regulates postering across the six former municipalities of Metro Toronto. While the proposal is much better than former attempts to ban postering, because it differentiates between commercial and community postering, it is actually worse than the current bylaw that the former City of Toronto has in place and is therefore a step backward for postering in Toronto.

We met with the Mayor's office earlier in 2006 to express our concerns about the new draft bylaw. Simply put, the bylaw was far too restrictive and the fines were too high. We were happy to see a few changes made to the bylaw based on our recommendations, but the final version adopted by Council still includes elements that we cannot support (see below).

Luckily, City Council has not actually adopted the bylaw. Because they cannot ban commercial postering outright, they will not be able to formally adopt the bylaw until they have installed new
postering kiosks where commercial postering will be allowed. This is not expected for quite some time.

In the meantime, the old bylaws remain in place. So get out your tape, staplegun and wheatpaste brush! Anywhere within the former city of Toronto, it is still legal to place a letter-sized poster on any utility pole.

Our concerns with the adopted draft bylaw:

OVERLAP
The draft bylaw states that "a poster may not cover or overlap another poster or community poster, in whole or in part. Posters or community posters can be only one layer thick." We understand the motivation – no one wants the unsightly buildup that can happen in major postering corridors. But we don't believe that this approach is an enforceable or workable solution.

In order to put up a poster, one will be required to remove an existing one. Not only is this unlikely to actually happen, we are concerned about the potential for conflict on the streets as people are removing other people's posters in order to post their own. Street cleaning and maintenance should be carried out by city staff on a scheduled basis. Posterers could be 'encouraged' to remove outdated posters, but creating an obligation to remove other posters is unnecessary and problematic.

REMOVAL:
The draft bylaw states that "the community poster is displayed for not more than...five days after the end of the advertised event." In general, this makes sense. But again, we find this is an unrealistic request and makes it difficult to be a law-abiding citizen. Posters are routinely covered by other posters, and even those who make a reasonable effort in good faith to remove their posters may be unable to determine whether any still remain.

FINE:
The new bylaw states that "Any person who contravenes any provision of this article is guilty of an offence. ...The sign removal fee payable to the City under is $60 per sign." The idea that a community group could be charged $600 for a minor violation, such as putting up ten posters that overlap on top of other posters, is absurd. Individuals and groups who rely on community postering often do not have much money. (That's why they are postering! Meanwhile a similar fine to a corporation would still be cheaper than buying a billboard.) This is the LAST group of people who should be a target for City revenue through bylaw enforcement. A small fine is sensible, to ensure compliance. But it should be a one-time fee applied to the group, rather than multiplied for each poster.

Download a copy of the new draft bylaw: [Word .doc ] [Acrobat .pdf]
Click here for a history of the Anti-Postering Bylaw