T.O. retailers could be forced to open washrooms to public

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Retailers of every size and shape could be forced to open their washrooms to their customers, Toronto's licensing and standards committee decided Thursday, July 3.

The committee voted to hold public hearings this fall into changes to Toronto's property standards bylaw that would require store owners to open up existing restrooms to the public.

Those washrooms are required to be included as a part of the Ontario Building Code. But committee chair (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence) Howard Moscoe maintained that once in place, there's no mechanism to force retailers to actually open the washrooms to their customers or even inform customers that they exist.

"It's probably the best-kept secret in Ontario that you have a right to demand access to the washroom in the supermarket," said Moscoe, who brought the motion forward. "I don't think that you'll find very many citizens that realize retailers should provide public washrooms. It makes sense because of the basic public need. I'm getting on in years, I hang around a lot of drug stores - seniors do that - and the need for washrooms is huge."

While Moscoe said he was mainly interested in targeting large retailers like supermarkets and pharmacies, Lance Cummerbatch, the city's municipal licensing and standards director, told reporters that the Ontario Building Code casts a wider net. Technically, any retail establishment - no matter how small - is required to provide some form of washroom facility for its customers.

"They are all required to provide washrooms as a part of permit approval," said Cummerbatch, adding very few retailers actually do so and even fewer customers complain to the city or the retailer when they're told no washrooms are available.

"They're told either we don't have any or don't have any available, and people accept that," Cummerbatch said. "You do have more examples of people who are not ambulatory who'll go to the Ontario Human Rights Commission to make sure the issue's addressed. And it usually is."

Cummerbatch said staff will come forward with information about just how many retail establishments there are in Toronto in the fall. But he said it will be a big job gathering that information because Toronto only licenses a fraction of the businesses that are operating in the city.

The committee voted to go ahead with the hearings over the objections of its vice-chair, Ward 34 (Don Valley East) Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.

"I think that if most people have to go and use a washroom, they'll arrange their affairs beforehand," he said. "If they need to find a facility on an immediate basis, they can usually accommodate their concerns. But we've got a number of issues on our plate. Staff are overburdened, and we're putting something else on their plate that the public really haven't been asking for."