Toronto Expands Plans for Amplified Courtyard Music in 2022 – Toronto | The Canadian News

Cafes and bars will be able to fill Toronto’s streets and sidewalks again for the third consecutive summer, Toronto Mayor John Tory announced Monday.

Tory made the announcement on a gray day at The Emmet Ray on College Street. He promised a summer in which local restaurants, bars and cafes could finally begin to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayor, joined by city staff and council members, confirmed that the CafeTO program, first introduced in 2020, would return in 2022.

“This will be the first year that restaurants and bars can use their extended outdoor dining space alongside their indoor space at full capacity because the two have never been brought together (before),” Tory said Monday.

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In a press release, the city said it had received more than 1,000 requests for cafes to extend to sidewalks and the sidewalk lane. Toronto has waived all fees for 2022, as it has in previous years.

Toronto will also expand its program to allow amplified music in the courtyards in a pilot from four pavilions to eight. Participating districts include Beaches-East York, Davenport, and Parkdale-High Park.

“Soon the streets of Toronto will be filled with music and people hanging out with friends and family to have a good time,” Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão said in a statement.

A temporary zoning statute will allow businesses to expand yards on public and private property. It will include the option of “larger outdoor patios than would normally be allowed” and parking yards.

“Please shop local, dine local,” Tory said. “Many people think that the pandemic is over, it is not. But we are coming out of the pandemic.”