Olivia Chow is Toronto's new mayor. What does her transition say about her priorities?

Fresh off an election win, Olivia Chow is assembling her team and making plans at city hall.

Toronto's new mayor-elect told reporters Thursday that she has hired a chief-of-staff, has been immersed in meetings for the past several days, and has three immediate priorities as she transitions into the role.

There will be no blue-ribbon panels and reports. Instead, there will be consultations with experts and then movement, she said. 

"I've learned a lot and, certainly, I'm very ready to take action," Chow said.

The mayor-elect announced that she's hired her campaign director Michal Hay, a veteran of city hall, as chief of staff. Its the first major personnel decision of her young term, and probably the most important, as she fills her office.

Chow's team said she will meet with frontline experts, community leaders and the civil service to look for solutions to the city's "most urgent problems" in the coming days. Those meetings will focus on affordable housing and economic opportunities, community crisis response, and supportive housing and wrap around services.

She also announced that she has asked the city's executive committee to meet in August — and then city council to gather in early September — to discuss Toronto's long-term fiscal outlook. With a billion-dollar budget gap, Chow said she wants to get to work addressing that problem.

"I know, traditionally, city hall here takes a break in August," she said. "I don't intend to have a holiday. I intend to work right through the summer so that we can tackle some of the challenges and issues we face head-on."

Experts who follow city hall closely say this transition period will be different from previous changes in Toronto's top office. Former city councillor John Filion worked with Chow for a decade, sitting two seats away from her in the council chambers. He said he can already see signs of the councillor he knew in her early days in this new job.

"I thought she was brilliant behind the scenes," he said. "She was one of the few councillors who wasn't looking for a lot of credit. She just would quietly get things done and let somebody else take the glory for it."

He said Chow has hit the ground running already, and needs to, by necessity. 

"Usually you have a lot of time to get ready for taking office as a new mayor," he said. "This is going to be a big rush."

Former mayor John Tory's surprising resignation in February launched the byelection, which created a condensed timeline for the winner to take office. Chow said this week she will be sworn in on July 12, cutting the usual transition period by weeks. 

"She's doing all the right things, which is meeting with all of the councillors, because you need to build the coalition so that you're able to run with the ball from your first day in," he said. "And she's also meeting with the provincial and federal leaders, because she's going to need new sources of funding in order to get anything done."