City Hall Update: January 2025

Show Your Support for a Charter City - Sign our Petition and Register to Depute

At Executive Committee on Tuesday, January 28th, Councillor Jamaal Myers and I are moving a motion “Toward Municipal Autonomy and Effective Local Governance” and we need your help! Show your support for a charter city by signing our petition, registering to speak, and submitting written comments for the committee meeting. 

Doug Ford’s recent and unilateral overreaches into areas that most people consider municipal jurisdiction is another reminder that Canada's constitution not only doesn’t provide cities like Toronto any powers, it doesn’t even mention cities at all. Back when it was written in 1867, Canada was largely an agrarian society and cities were an afterthought, left as “creatures” of the provinces.    

The status quo of Toronto’s governance structure is untenable. In the 2021 Supreme Court decision regarding the legality of Ford’s outrageous council cut, Justices writing for the majority stated that “the province has absolute and unfettered legal power to legislate with respect to municipalities”. Through this ruling, the Supreme Court has confirmed that even large cities can be interfered with and overruled without recourse. If cities are to provide responsible, local governance, they can no longer be subject to the whims and political calculations of a provincial government’s worst instincts.   

The Province has handcuffed our city’s ability to fund needed programs by denying revenue tools, meddled in our local election, removed basic local planning powers, and even passed legislation to decide on how local roads are designed. A new model is needed that allows Toronto to thrive.  Any success that Toronto has had in the past couple of decades has been despite our system of government, not because of it. Regardless of whether a resident agrees or disagrees with a decision City Hall makes, they would expect their mayor and councillors to have the powers and accountability that comes along with being locally elected. Isn’t that true democracy?   

Toronto, along with other 21st century Canadian cities, needs a new arrangement with senior levels of government that ensures we have the autonomy and tools necessary to be successful and achieve results for residents.  

Given the provincial government we have today, a City Charter, or any other measure that would grant Toronto more autonomy, is unlikely to happen immediately given such a move would require support from Queen’s Park. However, it is important to start working now to envision how a stronger local government could be structured, and communicate the benefits to Torontonians, other municipalities, and senior levels of government.    

It’s time to start fighting for Toronto’s future. You can register to depute or submit written comments at Executive Committee on January 28th here and you can sign our petition to send a message to your local Councillor and Mayor here. 

TTC Budget Invests in Service and Safety

 This year’s TTC’s 2025 budget makes critical investments to address service quality and safety, freezes fares to maintain affordability for transit riders, and invests in state-of-good repair backlogs. For far too long under previous City administrations the TTC was allowed to decline, with service reduced and necessary capital investments neglected. I am glad to see a reversal of this trend in this budget.
 
As a part of the TTC Budget process, I spoke directly with transit riders about their priorities for the TTC. What I heard from riders was that they want better service, reliability, safety, and affordability. In fact, not a single person indicated that they were satisfied with the TTC, as delays and safety issues are still far too frequent. While this budget represents a positive step in the right direction, it is clear that much more needs to be done.
 
The root cause of these issues is the lack of a stable and predictable funding framework from higher levels of government. The TTC, more than any other major transit system in the world, relies on the fare box and property taxes for its operating funding – which is why the TTC has some of the most expensive fares in the world. We cannot keep relying on one-off agreements like the New Deal, when a fundamentally new funding model from the province and federal government is necessary. As a TTC Commissioner, I am committed to fighting for these priorities on your behalf. 

Read more about my motion addressing TTC delays at the link here. 

Report Show's Ford's Ontario Place Plan will Have Significant Traffic Impacts

This month, a report revealed that Doug Ford’s plan for a private spa at Ontario Place, and to rip the Science Centre out of Flemingdon Park, will lead to even more traffic chaos on Toronto’s waterfront. If Ford calls a snap election, let’s take a stand and fight for our city.

The TTC Needs a New Long-Term Funding Model from Higher Levels of Government

Unlike big cities around the world, transit funding in Toronto is unfairly left to the fare box and local residents’ property taxes, without support from senior levels of government. This has to change to deliver the reliable, safe and affordable TTC we all want.

Have Your Say on Mayor Olivia Chow’s 2025 City of Toronto Budget

Last week, Mayor Chow and City Staff officially began the 2025 Budget process with a staff-prepared budget with $94 million in new investments in the operating budget and a $9.8 billion increase to the capital budget.

These investments are proposed to be paid for by a 6.9% increase in property taxes (which includes a 1.5% City Building levy for capital investments). The City offers property tax increase relief programs for eligible low-income seniors and people with disabilities. More details about these programs are available on the City’s Tax and Utility Relief website.

In total, the staff-prepared operating budget of $18.8 billion and a 2025-2034 capital budget and plan totaling $59.6 billion presented to the City’s Budget Committee includes funding to:

• Feed 8,000 more students through school food programs 
• Support 300 more households through the Rent Bank program 
• Increase transit service hours by 5.8 per cent (approximately half a million hours)  
• Add more Traffic Agents to address blocked intersections, improve travel times in key corridors and decrease collisions
• Add 276 more Emergency Services positions (fire, police and paramedics)  
• Invest in youth violence prevention programs 
• Expand road safety programs 
• Extend Sunday service hours at 67 Toronto Public Libraries 
• Expand hours for outdoor pools by two hours daily