Mayoral rivals clashed Friday over who could take credit for protecting tenants at one of Toronto’s most notorious apartment buildings, with Olivia Chow asserting that a crackdown on the property’s landlord was the result of her decisions as mayor, and Brad Bradford accusing her of misrepresenting her record.
At a press conference outside the apartment building at 500 Dawes Road on Friday, Chow, who is seeking a second term in the Oct. 26 vote, announced that if re-elected she would set up a new task force to lead “aggressive, proactive enforcement” of negligent property owners.
The team would consist of bylaw enforcement officers and lawyers, and be given “a clear mandate to pursue the worst buildings and landlords” her campaign said in a press release. The initiative would cost just over $2 million a year and be funded by fines against property owners and the RentSafeTO program.
Dawes property a flashpoint in mayoral election
The building at 500 Dawes Road has become infamous for its poor conditions, with tenants complaining of cockroach and bedbug infestations, mould, broken down elevators, leaking ceilings and other issues that have gone unaddressed.
It’s also become a political football ahead of the fall election. The tower near Victoria Park Avenue and St. Clair Avenue East is in Bradford’s Beaches—East York ward, and Chow and her supporters have attempted to use problems there as evidence that the two-term councillor has been unresponsive to vulnerable constituents — an accusation he rejects.
On Friday, Chow said she was announcing her task force there because after a previous tour she told tenants she would take action. “I promised … that their complaints would finally be heard and their landlord would face real consequences. And I kept that promise,” she said.
Chow noted that the city had taken the landlord to court over 500 Dawes Road and another building she owned, and she had been fined about $1 million and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
“I will protect renters. I won’t stop until every renter in this city has a safe, clean home,” the mayor said.
Enforcement predates Chow’s action, Bradford claims
But in a statement, Bradford’s campaign said the penalties the Dawes landlord has faced stemmed from enforcement underway before the mayor introduced a council motion in March 2026 about cracking down on irresponsible property owners. A more than $1 million fine imposed earlier this year on the Dawes owner was related to inspections from 2025, according to the city. The jail sentence, which officials announced in May, was related to charges for fire code violations at the landlord’s property at nearby 608 Dawes, which were laid in January 2024.
Those penalties were the result of “staff and the courts doing their jobs” and should be commended, read the statement from Bradford’s campaign. But it “isn’t a mayor’s record.”
His team pointed out that remedial action — when the city undertakes overdue repairs and bills the landlord for the work — had been conducted at 500 Dawes before Chow took office. The city confirmed that it had done work at the property three times going back to 2015.
Bradford also accused Chow of failing to take action on Dawes until an election year. The mayor “should answer for why she only acted when it was politically convenient,” he said.
Mayor says she demanded action on landlord
Chow didn’t directly answer a question Friday about whether she was taking credit for policies that predated her. But she said “the reason why (enforcement) at Dawes Road was successful” was because she brought together different city offices such as the legal division, fire department, public health, and building standards, and told them “I need action now.”
She said she initially deferred to the local councillor to take up tenants’ concerns, but after they invited her into the building last year she saw the “horrendous” living conditions and started focusing on the problem.
Her March council motion, which Bradford supported, directed city staff to undertake new remedial repairs at 500 Dawes, create a database to track properties with multiple complaints and better co-ordinate enforcement of repeat offenders. A month later the city undertook $120,000 in repairs to the Dawes building.
Bradford rejects claims he didn’t help tenants
Dawes Road tenants who joined the mayor Friday accused Bradford of not working with them to improve their living conditions.
“We never saw him,” said Linda Hume, who has been at the building for 26 years.
Bradford’s spokesperson Mark Pelayo said in a statement he the councillor had met with residents and their advocates “repeatedly over the years and has consistently pushed the city to act on their behalf.” That included encouraging staff to make remedial repairs, working to restore mail service when it was cut off, and asking the city to explore taking over the building, according to the campaign.
Mayoral candidate Chris Alexander said in a post to social media that Chow had “fumbled the housing file” over her three years in office, asserting that property values “collapsed” while rents and taxes “skyrocketed” and not enough new housing was built.
“Olivia Chow is herself the bad landlord,” he wrote.
The owner of the Dawes property, Carolyn Krebs, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
With files from Mahdis Habibinia
