By The Editor | The Star
Toronto councillors Josh Colle and Mary-Margaret McMahon celebrated the upcoming Aug. 1 launch of a two-month food truck pilot program by having lunch in Nathan Phillips Square on July 25, 2013.
If City of Toronto bureaucrats can unravel the red tape around food trucks for two months this summer, then surely they can permanently open the roads to future gastronomical pleasures.
It’s not to say that the 15 food trucks chosen to participatein the city’s pilot project won’t provide a welcome respite from the ubiquitous hot dog and french fry vendors. But, after tasting these foodie delights, it will be near impossible to return to Toronto’s typical milquetoast fare. No bureaucrat should be allowed to foist that fate upon a city that craves roaming delights.
Unfortunately, Toronto’s previous efforts to encourage food entrepreneurs failed in a miserable tangle of rules and ill-placed fears about competition, so the cynicismdirected at this latest small but welcome effort is not a surprise.
What matters now is that a report due next spring by the Municipal Licensing and Standards office finds a solution to the patchwork of regulations left over from pre-amalgamation days. Torontonians have the right to — finally — join the rest of North America and embrace the culinary joys invented by chefs on wheels.
