Market crafts vendor says city department wants all of them out

David Gareau —

Independent vendors sell various craft items at St. Lawrence Market

Amidst what can only be described as a malicious and tactical move, the St. Lawrence Market has announced it is evicting as many as 40 craft vendors as part of its plans for re-development of the Market’s north building.

Using the excuse that it doesn’t have room for the vendors during the upcoming renovations, the Market is taking this opportunity to clean house.

In an e-mail sent out Dec. 22 (three days before Christmas) the Market announced that it is cancelling the program which has isolated the craft vendors from the rest of the market operations. In spite of a well-publicized policy of welcoming the vendors for the past 27 years, Market manager Nick Simos said Jan. 14 he wants all non-food vendors out. And the participants of the Market Cart Program are the first to go. In some cases the space restriction reason is accurate, but in many others it just doesn’t make sense.

Some of the vendors operate well-established long full-time businesses in the lower level of the south building, far away from the construction. According to Simos, they have to go as well. And the space they now occupy will simply sit un-used and vacant.

It is now apparent that the plan for elimination of the vendors from the Market was master-minded as many as 3 – 4 years ago. The first move was the firing of long-time Market manager George Carvallo, for no publicly explained reason. Then 16 months ago came the imposition of unfair and arbitrary rules and rent increases that were totally contrary to the Market’s classification of the craft vendors in the past.  The weakest of the vendors caved under this pressure, but for those who stayed, the Dec. 22 e-mail has simply told them to get out.

These vendors have been given three months notice, until March 31, to vacate.

The Market is administered by the City of Toronto’s Real Estate Department, headed by Joe Casali. There is no public oversight organization questioning any of his decisions regarding the Market, nor requiring reasons or the power to approve them.

A temporary structure is currently being built to house the Saturday Farmer’s Market south of the St. Lawrence Market, with less space than the previous North Market building. So the craft vendors are first to go on the expendable list even though other locations at the Market that could easily host them are sitting empty and un-developed, locations that have actually been used for these vendors in the past.

For many of the craft vendors, their business at the Market has been the core of their operations for a long time so this termination will leave them drastically impacted.

One full-time vendor located in another building and almost a block away from the construction has participated at the Market for almost 27 years and is now being kicked out. He obviously feels it is unfair and being done for questionable and secretive reasons.

For the past 27 years Toronto council and the City of Toronto have said they welcomed the participation of the craft vendors to reinforce the community nature of the Market. With this participation, the Market was recently designated as “The Best Food Market in the World” by National Geographic Magazine. And until recently, the Market has even said so on its web site. As a result many vendors have made huge financial commitment there. To now kick them out only to have their spaces sit vacant is at best, questionable.

But because of the structure of the city real-estate authority, there is no one to ask these questions to and expect an answer.

“We are no where near any of the construction so the explanation of space limitation doesn’t hold water here. We have obeyed every questionable rule for 27 years, have always paid our rent, and feel we have made a unique contribution to the city’s publicized community goals of the Market.

We offer products that aren’t available anywhere else in Toronto, and after all of that we are being kicked out? When Market people hear this they are always shocked and then the first question is always “why?”