Toronto Poster Laws

An interesting development here in Toronto regarding poster laws. As I have mentioned previously postering in Toronto is pretty rampant and you can basically stick a poster on any telephone pole in the city and well, everyone does! It’s pretty crazy how many posters are out there. The same certainly can’t be said for other cities in the world. In my hometown Brisbane if you stick up posters on public property chances are the city council will fine you so it’s not a wide spread practice.

It appears that Toronto is heading the same way as the city council has been slowly debating and now implementing new poster laws to restrict the amount and type of posters allowed. Currently the plan looks to be restricting postering to approximately 2% of the total telephone poles in Toronto. As you would expect there has been an uproar against the plans and a campaign was launched to fight the polices. Most of the complaints are about restricting freedom of speech and making it so only corporate business can afford to advertise (referring to billboards, buses and other outdoor advertising options).

I find this an interesting development because of my relationship and past contacts with some of the postering businesses in Toronto. If this law was passed and enforced fiercely I can see poster businesses really hurting.

Personally I do think something needs to be done to curb the somewhat ruthless and excessive postering going on in downtown Toronto but the current proposals do not seem adequate. You can read what some of the local GTA bloggers are saying too.