Toronto's newly elected Mayor Olivia Chow celebrates her win at an election night event in Toronto on Monday June 26, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Toronto’s next mayor and Ontario’s premier vowed Tuesday to set aside their political differences to get much-needed housing built in the city, although there were early indications Olivia Chow and Doug Ford could clash on other issues in the future.
The two traded barbs earlier this month before Chow won Toronto’s mayoral byelection on Monday night ““ Ford previously said her mayoralty would be an “unmitigated disaster,” while Chow cast Ontario’s “strong mayor” policies as undemocratic interference in city politics.
A day after the election, both politicians had softened their stances.
“I can absolutely work with Premier Doug Ford. We love this city,” Chow said as she arrived for meetings at city hall Tuesday afternoon.
“There will be common ground.”
Ford, who had supported former police chief Mark Saunders in the race, had the same message.
“She’s been in politics long enough, and during the election you throw some mud back and forth, but I’ll tell you one thing, people expect us to work together and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” he said after an unrelated announcement in southwestern Ontario.
“We’re going to find common ground when we sit down because she’s actually quite a nice person.”
Housing is a likely area where Ford and Chow will find some mutual understanding. Both have promised to build vast amounts, though the methods and specifics may differ.
But other areas might see confrontations between the two leaders.
Chow has come out strongly opposed to the province’s plan to move the Ontario Science Centre from its east Toronto location to Ontario Place, on the city’s waterfront. She’s also against Ford’s plan to see a spa built at Ontario Place.
While Chow has said she would not give up a parcel of city-owned land on the provincial site, Ford suggested Tuesday the project is plowing ahead regardless.
“This is moving down the tracks pretty quickly right now,” Ford said. “I respect that the host city is Toronto “¦ but this is a provincial site and we’re going to do what’s right for the province.”
Chow reiterated Tuesday she wants Ontario Place kept public, adding she would discuss the future of the project with Ford. A city committee voted in April to defer a decision on a proposed land transfer until the province provided a copy of its lease with the tenant for the part of the site earmarked for the spa.
Chow also dismissed questions Tuesday about whether she would reconsider her stance against so-called strong mayor powers if faced with resistance on council. She has criticized the provincially granted powers, which permit the mayor to veto bylaws and pass a budget with one-third council support.
“I do not want to violate the principle of democracy because that is pretty sacred,” she said.
Chow, who captured 37 per cent of the vote according to unofficial results, is set to officially take office on July 12.
One immediate challenge for the 66-year-old will be tackling a nearly $1-billion pandemic-related budget shortfall, partly driven by reduced transit revenue and increased shelter costs.
The former NDP parliamentarian and past city councillor – also the first person of colour elected as Toronto mayor – will have to tackle issues of housing unaffordability and public safety concerns as well.
City hall watchers say Chow will quickly have to make tough decisions.
“You look at the period of John Tory as mayor, you know, he bent over backwards to avoid any kind of residential property tax increase,” said Zack Taylor, political science professor at Western University.
“And now we’re at the point where instead of a bunch of incremental rises, it’s probably going to have to be a pretty substantial increase.”
Chow ran on a platform to have the city build new social housing and invest millions in a program to acquire and preserve affordable units as part of a larger suite of renter protections.
She has also vowed to reverse cuts to transit service and to extend mental health crisis response teams citywide in an effort to reduce 911 wait times and divert calls from police.
Her campaign also pledged to expand rent supplements to 1,000 homes and boost the number of 24-7 respite homeless shelters, promises to be funded by an expanded tax on homes purchased for $3 million and above.
Underpinning her platform is a promise to work with other big city mayors to strike a new deal to address what’s seen as a longstanding fiscal imbalance with the provincial and federal governments.
Toronto has been made to pay more for services such as transit and housing in the absence of new tools to raise revenue, said Enid Slack, director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto’s school of cities.
“This city is in a dire financial situation and there are lots of decisions that have to be made,” she said.
Chow’s critics repeatedly dogged her campaign with questions about how high she would raise property taxes. In response, Chow said a budget should be built around the city’s needs, pledging any tax increases would be modest.
It stands as a reversal of the orthodoxy of Chow’s conservative forerunners. Previous mayors pledged to keep property taxes below the rate of inflation, or freeze them altogether, and then worked backwards to figure out how to pay for services, Slack said.
“(Toronto) is going to have to raise property taxes and maybe some other taxes and user fees, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough,” Slack said. “It is going to have to talk about a new fiscal deal.”
Toronto’s mayoral byelection was triggered after Tory resigned in February, just months into his third term, following his admission of an affair with a staffer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.
