Mayor Olivia Chow says softer tax increase coming in final year of her term
CBC
As Mayor Olivia Chow heads into what could be her final year leading Toronto — or final test before she asks voters to re-elect her in the fall — she’s reassuring ratepayers that they won’t see property taxes rise as sharply as they did earlier in her term.
Speaking to CBC Toronto in a year-end interview at city hall, the mayor refused to say if she’ll be running in October while touting an improvement in the city’s credit rating and plan to have the wealthiest Torontonians pay more taxes.
While the city still faces a roughly $1 billion dollar shortfall in its operating budget, the hole was at $1.8 billion when she took office in 2023, leading to a 9.5 per cent property tax hike in 2024. An increase will still be necessary in 2026, but the mayor said it will be softer.
“How much would it be? I haven’t finished the calculation,” said Chow, whose 2026 budget would be the freshest in voters’ minds if she chooses to run again.
Toronto's budget process kicks off next month, when city staff present their proposed spending. That begins a round of consultations. Then, the mayor takes all the feedback into account to put together her budget.
The city’s budget chief has warned the fiscal document in 2026 will be “leaner.” But in a series of pre-budget announcements about increases to her luxury home tax and fare capping on the TTC, the mayor has stressed the city is investing in affordability next year.
Achieving her goals within the city’s financial reality is “pretty tough,” Chow said, but she credits her working relationship with higher orders of government as something that makes it possible.
“We need more, of course, but because all we have is the poor property taxpayer, right, we only get like nine per cent of the taxes you pay to our every level of government,” she said.
After taking office in 2023, Chow signed the so-called new deal between Queen’s Park and Toronto, which saw Premier Doug Ford take the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway off the city’s hands. It was a move that freed up half a billion dollars for infrastructure upkeep at the TTC.
“We're fixing it, the tracks, the signals, by God, the stations,” she said. “It takes a bit of time to fix it, but it is great that we are able to fix it now.”
Looking ahead to 2026, the next deal on the mayor’s mind is one to fund the construction of the Waterfront East LRT. A rapid transit line that’s meant to serve tens of thousands of people who will eventually live in the Port Lands, where the city opened Biidaasige Park this past summer.
“That would be something that I'm working hard on right now. Hopefully, I don't know, landing it early in the new year.”
Heading into that new year, the mayor insisted to CBC Toronto that her focus is solely on her job and not the campaign to win it again.
“We are how many months [away]? Eleven months or whatever, it’s a long time.”
A water main break slowed the Friday afternoon commute for some Main Street motorists and prompted the City of Winnipeg to issue an advisory about possible sediment in drinking water.
The Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) is investigating what led to a man being found lying on the ground near the Prince Albert Victoria Hospital in a vulnerable state.
Parents across Regina are facing significant difficulties enrolling their children in city-run swimming lessons.
British Columbia’s premier says his government is working on a plan to offer loan guarantees for property owners and businesses in the Cowichan Aboriginal title area.
For the second time in just over a year, the Town of Three Rivers had to limit access to a public meeting after threats of violence.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) is accusing the province’s negotiating body of “bad-faith bargaining” regarding its commitment to hiring more teachers.
The man behind micro-shelters once placed in Toronto's St. James Park is continuing his work even after the city removed them — and for one unhoused man, it's made all the difference.
A phone call where the person on the other end can’t hear a word you're saying — that’s what Nathalie-Isabelle Richard says it's like trying to call someone in Iqaluit these days.
Ottawa will provide an additional $1.17 billion to Alberta in order to extend the federal-provincial subsidized child-care program for another year.
Toronto has cancelled an automated traffic enforcement pilot intended to help fight congestion in the wake of the provincial government’s ban on speed cameras in Ontario, CBC Toronto has learned.
Some Tahltan First Nation members in northern B.C. are raising concerns about the timing of an “upfront payment” from a mining company ahead of a crucial vote on the Eskay Creek mine.
To illustrate the incredible upheaval that federal politics in Canada has experienced over the last 12 months, one could do worse than to simply look at the last two Liberal caucus holiday parties.
Alberta’s auditor general says he was denied information he requested from the Department of Municipal Affairs while attempting to assess flood mitigation systems.