Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #13, Tracey Cook
Tracey Cook
Executive director, Municipal Licensing and Standards
13City hall is rife with people who talk a lot and accomplish little. Tracey Cook, Toronto’s head of municipal licensing and standards, has a knack for the opposite. In 2016, she and her team of 470 staff settled two controversial files: Uber and pot dispensaries. Her new rules on Uber prompted rowdy demonstrations from cabbies outside city hall. And when her bylaw officers raided the city’s bumper crop of illegal marijuana dispensaries, the pot lobby threw a fit. As a former cop who’s accustomed to a bit of workplace conflict, she weathered both storms with calm and her signature self-deprecation. As long as everyone’s a little unhappy, she says, she’s doing her job right.
Up next:
Cook will try to regulate Airbnb, the room-sharing giant that’s shaking up Toronto’s hotel scene.
