Council spent longer than most people do on portable toilets, circling the drains with puns for nearly fifteen minutes Monday as they approved four separate motions to install portable toilets at eight community parks across the city.
The parks are Cherry Heights Park, Albion Estates Park, Ferris Park, Green Acres Park, Paramount Park, Inch Park, Mount Hope Community Park, and Henry and Beatrice Warden Park.
Ward 10 Councillor Jeff Beattie kicked off the bathroom humor when presenting the first motion, thanking his seconder “for not allowing me to circle the drain there by myself.”
Committee Chair Esther Pauls (Ward 7) noted “the next three motions are going to the toilets,” sparking additional attempts at toilet humor from around the council table.
The levity ended and serious discussion began when Ward 1 Councillor Maureen Wilson, a longtime advocate for permanent public washrooms, used the discussion to call for a municipal strategy addressing what she called “the rediscovery and reinvestment in public washrooms.”
“As municipalities moved away from looking at public washrooms as public infrastructure,” Wilson said, referencing the closure of the historic Gore Park washrooms downtown decades ago, the city has failed to maintain adequate facilities.
With increasingly fewer public washroom facilities, more community groups are requesting Council to fund portable rentals.
The four motions, totaling $12,000 for portable toilet rentals this summer, passed unanimously 13-0.
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Published: June 11, 2025
Last updated: June 11, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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