Toronto city councillors have voted unanimously to pursue a deal to save Toronto’s money-losing Bixi bike sharing service.

Council has given city staff confidential instructions to negotiate a deal that would put the program, which started operations in 2011, on a sounder financial footing.

“I think there is general support across this council to save the public bike-share program if it’s affordable and at the right price,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.

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Negotiations with the Montreal company that founded Bixi have been difficult, Minnan-Wong said.

“I remain hopeful but not certain until the deal is signed,” he said. “I hope that happens, because I don’t want to see the public bike-share program in the city of Toronto go bankrupt.”

The city has a financial stake, in that it is on the hook for much of a $4.5 million startup loan guaranteed by council.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, a big Bixi booster, said odds of Bixi’s survival are 50/50.

“Our legal staff have been given very specific instructions, and if they can’t get a deal done within that envelope, it’s dead,” De Baeremaeker said.

“It’s still on the brink of collapse. It’s losing money.”

De Baeremaeker said that to thrive the program desperately needs to be expanded to as many as 5,000 bikes from about 1,000 bikes now that are concentrated downtown.

“There should be bikes in High Park, there should be bikes at the Humber River where all the new condos are, there should be bikes along the boardwalk in the Beach community,” he said.

The city could expand Bixi by giving developers incentives to install bike stations in their underground parking at a cost of about $30,000 per 10-bike station, council was told.

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The city will let developers reduce their underground parking — saving them money — if they provide spaces for car share companies, and that incentive could be extended to Bixi, said Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale).

“Almost every development application I deal with, the developers ask for relief from the parking standards,” Wong-Tam said. “They feel they cannot sell the spaces, even though the city requires them to build them.”

Council voted 35-2 to have staff report on an incentive program to the Feb. 27 planning and growth management committee meeting.

But first Bixi needs a financial rescue, and whether that’s possible should be known before the year is over, De Baeremaeker said.

“If we can save the program from going belly up, I think there’s a lot of possibilities for the future,’ he said. “I think we can grow the system at little or no cost to the taxpayer.”