Nearing the end of her first full calendar year in office, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says the upcoming year will continue to see her focused housing, affordability for renters, and dependable municipal services, but acknowledges the city’s longstanding issues will require some time yet to fix.
In a year-end interview with Global News, Chow spoke about Toronto’s ongoing challenges in addressing infrastructure repairs and the need to address public safety concerns in the upcoming budget period.
As she has in the past, the mayor is keeping her intentions for property taxes under wraps and wouldn’t say whether there would be a repeat of last year’s property tax increase, the city’s biggest in more than two decades.
While Chow maintains those increases will be dictated by the services Torontonians demand during budget consultations, she has hinted at the direction she’s veering towards. Particularly protecting the financial interests of renters, which make up about half of Toronto residents.
“We have changed that tax rate, and we’re doing it again to protect the tenants,” Chow said.
The mayor also acknowledged that homeowners who may be house rich and cash poor will also deserve a break.
“But last year I inherited this huge $1.8 billion budget hole,” Chow said, noting some of those financial pressures continue to hang over the city.
“All of our infrastructure is old: the roof is leaking, the TTC tracks, the signals, all of that requires investment,” she said.
This past year also saw Chow’s budget chief, Coun. Shelley Carroll, working closely with Toronto police.
Looking to avoid a repeat of last year’s tense budget negotiations with service, both Chow and Carroll said the police needed to put forward a hiring plan to back up their budget asks. The police delivered, and both civic leaders are satisfied granting the force more money.
“The police are saying because of all the demonstrations and all of the challenges, they need a bit more,” Chow said.
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Still, the mayor said it’s also necessary to find areas where the city can find efficiencies in the budget and cut spending elsewhere.
Chow also said she will continue to press the issue of funding more housing on upper levels of government.
The final city council meeting of the year saw the mayor’s allies celebrating the success of a new plan looking to unlock stalled housing projects.
By waiving development fees in exchange for housing developers committing to build rental units, the city has guaranteed thousands of new homes will be built. The next phase of the plan requires buy-in from governments with deeper pockets.
“If the provincial and the federal government can partner with us, we can do at least 20-30,000 units, because 77 developers came in, home builders said, ‘We are ready to build, we just need a bit of help,’” Chow said.
Chow said she’s spoken with the provincial minster in charge of housing to explain the merits of the plan. But ultimately, she said it will be up to the Treasury Board to decide.
But dealing with the provincial government in the coming year will require Chow and her fellow councillors to walk a difficult tightrope.
This past year saw the Ford government meddle in municipal matters at an unprecedented level and in the coming months, new legislation will see the province tear out several kilometers of bike lanes in the name of congestion management.
“They have complete control,” Chow said, conceding that the City of Toronto Act gives the Ford
Government the legal power to do what it wants. Even the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favor of the province, Chow said.
Chow remains hopeful she can convince Ford to change his mind by offering to add an extra lane of traffic where there are existing bike lanes.
“I have not given up yet, so we will see whether we can find some compromise,” she said.
That argument may be most effectively resolved by action in the city’s own efforts to manage the construction it says is causing the most congestion. But as confident as she is that it will work, Chow said the only thing that will reel in infuriating traffic, is investing in reliable transit options.
“Is it a complete solve? No, until we have real investment in public transit, where there is no alternative, people are going to drive,” said Chow.
With an already compressed mandate, Chow who will enter her final full calendar year of her mandate, said she isn’t considering another term yet.
The city’s priorities will remain her top focus, so for now, she won’t answer whether she’s going to run for re-election.