City committee proposes only 14 days for election candidates to display signs

City staff had proposed making the campaign signs legal for 21 days, but members of the Licensing and Standards Committee opted for 14 instead.

"I think it’s 14 days too many," added Glenn De Baeremaeker, a Scarborough councillor who argued such signs are an outdated technology and "just pollution."

Provincial and federal governments allow campaign signs in the city from the moment after the writ is issued, which gives candidates 25 days.

In Toronto, where the campaign period starts in January, city councillors in 2010 allowed the signs for 21 days, a period shorter than in the past, because of a religious festival.

Removing and storing campaign signs placed illegally uses the equivalent of 30 full-time city workers and costs about $207,000 over four weeks, the committee was told.

Candidates in past elections have paid a refundable $250 fee if they wanted to put up signs, and the committee voted to replace this with a $125 flat fee, this one non-refundable.

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If all the 409 municipal candidates registered – 65 running for mayor, 250 for councillor, and 94 for trustee – paid the fee, this would raise $51,000 for the city.

Those who don’t pay would be charged $125 if they posted a sign which was removed.

An individual, meanwhile, could also choose to put up a campaign sign – even one urging people not to vote for a certain candidate – on their own property, provided they paid the city $25.

Candidates would also pay an additional $25 for each sign removed, under this proposal, either before Oct. 13 or after 9 p.m. on Oct. 30, three days beyond this fall’s vote.

De Baeremaeker and fellow committee member Ron Moeser said they’d ban campaign signs outright if they could.

"What purpose do they serve other than consuming precious natural resources?" said De Baeremaeker, who allowed some people to take signs because they want stakes for their tomatoes.

Such signs, and the resources the city spends policing them, are a waste, he added. "If anybody really wants to know about you, they will Google you."

Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby of Etobicoke said she doesn’t "believe" in campaign signs, arguing they aren’t effective. It’s more important for candidates to give out literature and talk to residents, turning each citizen into "an educated voter," she said.

The committee heard, however, from people, including some candidates, who thought its decision was wrong and self-serving.

Any election sign bylaw is an infringement on freedom of expression, said Alan Kasperski, representing the Green Party of Toronto, adding the proposed two-week election sign period, "if challenged by the court, would be ruled unconstitutional," because it shortens period for federal and provincial campaign signs.

The city should shorten its election period, which is too long, but it shouldn’t give incumbents – which includes the committee members - an advantage by shortening the time in which opponents can put up signs, Kasperski said.

The bylaw, he also argued, is applied inconsistently: mayoral candidate John Tory and John Filion, a councillor seeking reelection, were "displaying" campaign signs last Friday, Kasperski said, by holding them up at a campaign event.

Annette Hutcheon, running for council in Etobicoke’s Ward 3, said there should be no restrictions on posting signs during the campaign.

The committee’s move to restrict them is a "self-serving opportunity for councillors to protect their own jobs," and only incumbents, including "a few Nervous Nellies" on council who fear their opponents, will benefit, she said.

Candidates who put up signs will suffer if residents decide there is too much "visual pollution" – but that should be up to the residents, said Hutcheon.

Mary Hynes, seeking the council seat in Ward 34, said $250 – the original amount suggested for a non-refundable sign fee – was a major expense for the "low-resource campaigns" she has worked on in the past.

Hynes said present rules on campaign signs are hard to interpret, but introducing new rules so close to an election is unfair.

The committee’s proposals don’t make major changes to rules on where election signs can go, but clarify such signs cannot block sightlines for pedestrians, motorists or cyclists.

Opinion was split on whether the shortened sign period will pass at a city council meeting next week. Chin Lee, a Scarborough councillor, predicted it would not, but De Baeremaeker said he thought his colleagues would be comfortable approving it.