Olivia Chow listed it as one of her first priorities after being re-elected as Toronto’s mayor: getting a new funding deal with the province. But it appears Ontario’s Premier isn’t in a giving mood.
After giving billions of dollars to the city in Chow’s first term, Premier Doug Ford says there will be no new deal this time around.
“We have to find a path forward for a structural financial solution because not being able to sustain it in the long term is always a problem,” said Chow during an unrelated announcement on Friday.
Whatever the path forward is, it won’t involve one of those big novelty checks from Doug Ford. In 2023, Chow secured a massive cash transfer from the province – $7.6 billion for capital funding, and $1.2 billion for transit and shelter operations, rescuing Toronto’s finances that were decimated during the pandemic. But that all expires in March.
“We’ve given Toronto $9 billion, with a B, $9 billion dollars. They have to be responsible for their own budget,” said Ford. “We’re there to support them, we uploaded the Gardiner [Expressway], we uploaded the DVP to support them. But we’re on the same page, the mayor and I, when it comes to creating opportunities and growth. But you can’t always rely on the province. We’re in tough times right now, really tough times.”
Being responsible for a municipal budget is easier said than done with only a handful of revenue tools at your disposal, and a municipal campaign promise to keep property taxes around inflation.
“I believe so,” Chow said when asked if that was still doable, adding there will still be conversations with the provincial and federal governments.
“There’s a lot of funding arrangements through both levels of government, and you can count on me as the mayor of Toronto to work hard on behalf of the residents to say to other levels of government, ‘If you want the city to be successful, if you want to keep life affordable for folks in Toronto and keep the city moving and keep it safe, you have to invest in this city.’”
While the Ford government isn’t extending a new deal to Toronto, he does seem to expect Chow will keep her promise on property taxes.
“I don’t believe in raising taxes, never have, never will, right mayor?” said Ford. “I love the mayor by the way, and everyone knows it, we get along very, very well.”
For now, Chow says she’s looking to tighten the belt at City Hall with another hiring freeze as she faces down a billion dollar shortfall.
“We are continuing to hire all frontline people, however, anything that is not frontline, we have a freeze in place so that we can, like last year, do a line-by-line review to find the savings.”
No new deal doesn’t necessarily mean no money. Ford seems to be open to giving Toronto cash for certain priorities and discussions around those priorities are expected to be held in the coming weeks after Chow is sworn in for her second term.
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