The City of Toronto launched its ethnic street food vendors program earlier this year with much pomp and circumstance, but look around now and they’re nowhere to be found.

The “Toronto A La Cart” program allows eight ethnic food vendors to set up shop on the streets of eight city hotspots, giving competition to the hotdog vendors.

Yet a search of locations like Metro Hall and Nathan Phillips Square to speak to vendors about how business is progressing six months into the program came up fruitless last month.

The beginning of the fall and winter season is the main reason vendors aren’t on the street anymore, says Pad Thai vendor Nancy Senawong, who used to set up shop at Mel Lastman Square.

Senawong blames the city for not “allowing” her to set up an enclosure, which is why she says she is no longer on the street as the weather gets colder.

“They [city] said we’re going to work on that maybe next year – that really disappointed me because when they start the program they should think about it,” she says.

“First they don’t allow me to have the enclosure, second they’re not allowing me to have a heater, and we’ve paid for the location fee for the whole year, and we paid for the cart – it’s expensive.”

However, City Councillor John Filion says it’s up to the vendors to get enclosures approved by the city and the vendors are allowed to use enclosures that meet the city’s guidelines.

“They’re eight independent businesses. People have said the city tried to control it too much, which is a myth,” Filion says.

“When I last met them in the summer they were going to approve a common design for enclosures within the city guidelines, they haven’t done that and I don’t know if some of them are proceeding individually.”

Filion says in some cases the vendors are making bad business decisions.

“I’ve put in a lot of hours to give them advice, but some of them don’t take the advice and then say it’s the city’s fault,” he says.

Yvonne De Vit of Toronto Public Health, who drew up the guidelines for enclosures, says none of the vendors have submitted applications to get them.

“The ability to request enclosures for hot dog vendors was approved by council on April 30. I modelled specifications for A La Cart vendors after the existing bylaw that council had approved,” she says.

De Vit says the carts don’t have to have uniform enclosures as suggested by the city and the approval process for enclosures would be “very quick.”

She says it’s very common for street vendors to shut down at this point in the season with a number of hotdog vendors closing up shop as well.

However, according to Senawong, who is also the owner of Scarborough restaurant “Thai Angels,” other restrictions from the city are also making it difficult to run a business on the street.

“We can’t change the menu. I serve Pad Thai and cashew nut chicken everyday. Customers like that, but they cannot eat that everyday,” she says.

“The cart is really heavy. I can not pull the cart by myself, and I need two people. They don’t allow an assistant to work unless they have the licence,” she says. The cost of a licence is $600 per person.

The confusion between the A La Cart street vendors and the city is evident, which may have a role in preventing vendors from getting enclosures.

Coun. Filion says the lack of control over the vendors is sometimes a problem.

“It’s very frustrating that some of these folks can’t get their act together and then say it’s the city that’s some how impeding them.” he says.

The city will be meeting with the ethic street vendors in the next couple of weeks as they prepare to present an update to the Toronto Board of Health.

Meanwhile, the vendors have their licence for a three-year period that started in May, which is also the duration of the pilot project.