You are one step closer to playing ball hockey on Toronto streets. Legally, that is.

Councillors on the public works committee unanimously voted Tuesday to work on legalizing ball hockey and other sports on city streets.

“I didn’t even know it was illegal,” said chair Glenn De Baeremaeker. “That means most of us have been breaking the law all our life.”

A bylaw dating to the 1970s levies a $55 fine for playing a ball sport on the road, but no one has ever been fined, said De Baeremaeker.

“City staff have to look at the road system . . . figure out where it is appropriate to play and what the code of conduct should be,” he said. “But we have to fix an anomaly of a bylaw passed a long time ago (that) makes no sense at all.”

Staff will prepare a report soon, but it will most likely fall to the new council to vote on it. De Baeremaeker dismissed concerns that the city could be liable for injuries sustained on public roads: “I think if I listened too closely to all the lawyers that we have in this building I wouldn’t leave my house in the morning.”

It’s wrong to have bylaws that outlaw “the active and healthy lifestyle that our government is actually trying to encourage,” said Matthew Blackett, publisher of Spacing Toronto, who has spearheaded the campaign to legalize street hockey since he discovered the bylaw in 2005.

Kingston also had a prohibitive bylaw until 2008. The city’s code of conduct now says street hockey can be played on streets between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. as long as visibility is good. It also says that parents “assume all risk related to activity.”

“We’ve never had a problem,” said Kim Leonard, manager for licensing and enforcement. “The city’s never been sued and there have been no fines handed out.”

Staff Sgt. Tim Burrows, of Toronto traffic services, remembers receiving only one complaint about street hockey, years ago. “It’s like one of those things where you have a law for it but don’t know how much it gets used or how much of a concern it actually is,” he said.

Not a whole lot, it seems.

Tuesday evening, five teens were playing on a quiet, leafy street northeast of Yonge St. and Davisville Rd.

“We play here pretty often in the summer — it’s never a problem,” said Christian Iriotakis, 13. A few cars passed, and each time the boys quickly moved the goalpost out of the way; most drivers smiled and waved. Christian and friend Owen Singer, also 13, just recently learned street hockey was illegal.

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“No, I don’t think it’s going to stop us,” Owen said.

Out with them was school Trustee Josh Matlow. “We need to be reasonable about what we decide to criminalize in our society,” he said as he hit a green ball into the net. “Canada’s national sport being played out in the city is part of our fabric and culture. Why is this illegal?”