Finding a good bowl of shark fin soup is about to get a whole lot more challenging.
After several hours of debate, the city's licensing and standards committee threw their support behind a plan to outlaw the sale of all shark fin products Thursday afternoon.
The bylaw, which still needs to be approved at a full council meeting later this month, would provide businesses selling shark fin products with a six month grace period to sell of their excess stock, before being subjected to steep fines.
Under the plan, businesses would face a $5,000 fine for a first offence, a $25,000 fine for a second offence and a $100,000 fine for all offences thereafter.
The proposed ban is similar to ones implemented in Mississauga, Brampton and Oakville.
Coun. Michelle Berardinetti told CP24 that her hope is that more municipalities follow suit.
"Toronto is our major city and what we do has an impact and I can tell you that there is movement afoot to implement a ban at the provincial level and that is what needs to happen," she said.
The idea of banning the sale of shark fin products began with city councilors Glenn De Baeremaeker and Kristyn Wong-Tam.
Over the last several months the pair have repeatedly pushed for an end to the harvesting practice, which sees many sharks thrown back to die after their fins are removed, calling it "barbaric" and "cruel."
On Thursday, 72 speakers addressed the committee.
Some expressed concern that the ban could result in a backlash against the Asian community, but Berardinetti said people need to realize shark fin soup is only consumed by a small subset of the community.
"I have a lot of Asian Canadians and newcomers in my ward and the majority of them support the ban as well," she said.
