Action on Coyotes in our Communities

May 13: Update on Coyotes in Liberty Village and Fort York

Today, we received a significant update from City of Toronto staff regarding the serious issue of coyotes in our downtown communities especially affecting residents in Liberty Village and Fort York.

The City’s wildlife experts determined two specific coyotes were responsible for the majority of incidents and removed them. You can find the City’s news release here to learn more.This step was not taken lightly but was a necessary step. It followed all escalation protocols, including aversion attempts to force the coyotes out of the community, balancing safety and humane considerations. 

I know this has been a very challenging situation for our neighbourhoods. As I have continued to raise with City staff, our downtown is unique, and the issue with coyotes is unprecedented for Toronto. Our communities, with limited greenspace and significant development including at Ontario Place displacing wildlife, require a tailored approach.

Over the past several months, City staff mobilized, at my request, to:

  • be present on the ground, averting coyotes and doing public education;
  • remove waste and food sources;
  • fix fencing and improve lighting;
  • and get expert advice to create clear escalation protocols and ensure they have all the information and tools they need to take action.

Following the recommendations of an expert panel commissioned by the City early this year, two coyote expert companies were hired to engage in specialized aversion activities onsite.

Recent Advocacy

Since this issue first came to my attention, I brought your concerns to City Hall, advocated on behalf of the local community and worked with City staff to address the understandable concerns about coyotes and dangers to pets in Fort York and Liberty Village. This work has included: 

  • Moving forward and overseeing implementation of a specialized Downtown Coyote Action Plan, with the intent of developing clear protocols and resources in place for these situations in our downtown. 
    • This plan was recently approved at the May meeting of the Economic and Community Development Committee, where I moved forward additional direction to make it more responsive to community feedback (see more in my recent update below)
    • This plan will also inform the City’s planned Coyote Strategy later in 2025.
  • Engagement with neighbourhood stakeholders, including:
    • A dedicated Coyote town hall meeting with hundreds of neighbours in attendance
    • Ongoing meetings with key community stakeholders, including the Coyote Safety Coalition, to secure increased patrols, signage, lighting, and fencing repairs in key areas. 

I want to acknowledge and address the heartbreaking loss of pets in our neighbourhoods including Amber, Chico and other beloved dogs. I share your grief and have appreciated the ongoing advocacy of community residents who have worked with my office on strengthening this important work together.

You can find further detail on previous updates on this work at ausmamalik.ca/coyotes. 

Next Steps

Measures continue to be in place to support our downtown neighbours including coyote-specific signage and continued monitoring of the area by bylaw officers and City animal experts. We will continue to be vigilant and encourage residents to continue to be aware and report any new sightings to 311 and my office.

The City will continue to implement the Downtown Coyote Action Plan that I have been driving forward and strengthened at Committee last week: addressing waste management, property maintenance, bylaw enforcement, site modifications, and public education to ensure we continue to be well-prepared to address any new incidents. I also look forward to this work informing the broader Coyote Response Strategy coming next quarter.

Thank you to you everyone who has shared your input and experiences with me and my team. I appreciate your commitment to a safe and thriving community and welcome your feedback to shape the future of Liberty Village with the current neighbourhood study Liberty For All at ausmamalik.ca/libertyforall. 

 

May 6: Downtown Coyote Action Plan Approved and Strengthened

The situation with coyotes in our downtown communities is unprecedented in Toronto and is a result of the Province’s destruction of habitat at Ontario Place with no Environmental Assessment to understand the impacts, or allow the City and community to prepare.

In February, I intensified the call for City staff to act. City Council approved my recommendation to develop the targeted Downtown Coyote Action Plan that came before the Economic and Community Development Committee today. This Action Plan will ensure that there is a playbook with clear protocols and resources in place for the City to respond without delay – in a targeted and responsive way – to these situations when they arise in our downtown neighbourhoods. 

These are important new recommendations. And I know more can be done to strengthen the Downtown Coyote Action Plan and ultimately, push forward a resolution. The Committee approved my additional direction to make the plan more responsive to community concerns and the experience of coyote attacks and incidents, including:

  • Improving 311 reporting to include all types of coyote behaviors and feeding
  • Consult with experts and other municipalities on a possible reproductive control plan for coyotes in Ward 10 as an outcome of the loss of habitat
  • Reviewing increasing fines for direct feeding of coyotes
  • Reviewing restaurant and businesses approach to better waste management
  • Establishing a more pet-friendly approach to curb interactions with wildlife 
  • Asking the Province to share the costs that have come out of its clearing of Ontario Place without an Environmental Assessment.

I also prioritized City staff keeping reliable and responsible channels for updates related to coyote incidents. For reference, please find my remarks at Committee, here.

While I am encouraged to have this framework move forward, I continue to look for immediate action in our community. You can read the most recent update from City staff on the implementation of the Downtown Response Expert Panel’s recommendations, and the assessment of the identified coyote involved in many of the incidents.

 

May 2: Update from City Staff About On-going Actions & Coyote Assessment

Find the most recent update by City staff on some of the progress made to meet the Downtown Coyote Expert Response Panel’s recommendations, including the coyote assessment.

Our neighbourhood must be safe for pets, and people.

Back in February, I moved forward the development of a Downtown Coyote Action Plan which will be at Economic and Community Development Committee on Tuesday May 6. I share your urgency to act on this issue without delay now and long-term.

 

April 25: Update on Coyotes and Recommendations from Downtown Coyote Response Expert Panel

Many of you have reached out to me about attacks or close calls with coyotes and I share your alarm and urgency. You deserve to be able to enjoy your neighbourhood without fearing a run in with a coyote.

This situation is unprecedented in Toronto - to have coyotes in such a dense urban environment after losing their habitat at Ontario Place. This is the consequence of the Provincial government plowing ahead with that redevelopment without checking to see what the impact would be.

I have been working with City Staff on how to address this issue. City staff mobilized, at my request, to: 

  • Be present on the ground, averting coyotes and doing public education.
  • Remove waste and food sources 
  • Fix fencing and improving lighting 
  • Get expert advice to create clear escalation protocols and ensure they have all the information and tools they need to take action.  

Read their most recent update on some of the progress made to meet the Downtown Coyote Expert Response Panel’s recommendations.

Toronto Animal Services have confirmed there is one coyote in the Liberty Village & Fort York area that is responsible for several bad encounters with people and pets. We have experts in the field assessing this coyote. That expert will tell City staff what action is next.

I want immediate action. The goal is to make it safe again for our pets and for people.

 

March 19: Update on Recommendations from Downtown Coyote Response Expert Panel 

With the unprecedent number and nature of coyote incidents downtown, the City sought additional expertise, building on staff patrols, enhanced education and community engagement.

For the past three weeks, an expert third-party panel, the Downtown Coyote Response Panel, with decades of experience in wildlife and specialization in urban wildlife, has been working to assess the City’s response and conduct a comprehensive review of action taken between November 2024 and March 2025. This included a thorough review of incident, hearing residents experiences, visiting hotspots, and drawing on other jurisdictions.

I worked to ensure that the expert panel was on the ground in our communities and engaging with residents. Their report was released on March 18, 2025.

The Downtown Coyote Response Expert Panel recommended the City immediately:  

  • Procure a specialized team to assess these coyotes, apply adapted aversion techniques, monitor results and report back to City staff; 
  • Continue aversion techniques
  • Remove human food sources by continuing to enforce no dumping and no wildlife feeding bylaws;
  • Repair fences and improve lighting and sightlines (measures which I continue to champion and  escalate with City staff)
  • Continue our commitment to furthering public education, acknowledging the work that community members have been doing, and continue to do, to be aware and keep themselves, their neighbours, and pets safe

The City's urgent next steps to action these recommendations include: 

  • Hiring a specialized team to conduct advanced aversion techniques and monitoring progress
  • Daily evaluation for the necessity, at City staff’s discretion, of further escalation to lethal removal if significant and measurable progress is not being made.
    •  The panel has identified that relocation is not an option.

I continue to push to ensure that our community has clear timelines for this work, the resources required, and how this will continue to be progressed with urgency.

 

February 2025

We know that the safety of our neighbours and pets is critical. My team and I have been working with urgency to address the rise of coyotes in our communities as they have been displaced by development without proper consideration from their natural habitats like Ontario Place. 

It is very rare for coyotes to pose a risk to humans, but they may to small animals. Residents should always contact 311 to file reports to Animal Services, and can find more information and resources here, including a public education module sharing best practices to stay aware and safe.

I have heard and take seriously the issues that residents have shared with me and my team over the past weeks, including: 

  • Increased intensity, number, and frequency of coyote incidents
  • Increased fear and folks feeling like they have to make different choices around how they navigate the neighbourhood (eg. not going for walks at certain times of day)
  • Clear desire for more presence and accountability of officers doing patrols, and need for them to focus on their key duties related to public safety (rather than ticketing)
  • Desire for humane responses to handling coyotes and interest in understanding what relocation may look like in this context. 

My office is taking immediate action, working with City staff and local residents:

  • Confirming an immediate ceasing of all ticketing for dogs off leash in affected neighbourhoods, so staff onsite can focus on neighbourhood safety. 
  • Confirming additional patrol staffing from Animal Services and Bylaw will be added to increase capacity 
    • Up to 12 officers patrolling daily and hours will focus at dawn and dusk when most reports of incidents/sightings are received
    • This will mean increased coverage of coyote incident hotspots including Stanley Park, Liberty Village Park, Garrison Common, and other key areas nearby. 
  • Dedicated channels for residents to report coyote incidents and raise related concerns with a timely response are:
  • Held a town hall event on Feburary 13.
  • Weekly touchpoints with neighbourhood stakeholders in the most impacted areas to understand how these measures are landing in the community and ways to iterate and improve.

The City’s next immediate step in exploring all options for resolution in this unprecedented number of coyote incidents is convening a third-party Downtown Coyote Response Expert Panel, with experience in urban wildlife. The panel will review the work and investigations the City has conducted, engage with community stakeholders, visit hot spots, and deliver a public report with their recommendations on resolution in mid-March. 

I also advanced a Downtown Coyote Action Plan at the recent Economic and Community Development Committee today, informed by community feedback. This plan will assess best practices in other comparable urban jurisdictions, explore uses of technology and other tools for diversion, approach to broad public education, and determine a process to assess all options for coyote management. City staff will report back in May. It's a longer term piece of work to make sure we are learning from this new reality currently taking place in our downtown. The Expert Panel’s findings will also inform this report.

The following are suggestions of items and strategies recommended by City of Toronto Animal Services that may be of assistance to protect from and avert coyote encounters:

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