27 Jun2023

Olivia Chow will be the next mayor of Toronto

Former city councillor and MP Olivia Chow will be the next mayor of Toronto, after capturing over 37 per cent of the vote in the mayoral byelection. She has become Toronto’s first woman of colour elected mayor, first female mayor since amalgamation and only the third woman in the city’s history.

Chow, who was born in Hong Kong and came to Toronto at age 13, will become the third woman and first racialized person to serve as mayor in the city's history. She steps into the top spot as it grapples with a massive budget shortfall, an affordability crisis and public safety concerns.

“Whether you voted for me or not, we are united in our love of this great city. I pledge to you I will dedicate myself to work tirelessly in building a city that’s more caring, affordable, and safe for everyone,” Chow said in her victory speech.

“If you ever doubted what’s possible, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer,” she continued.

The city clerk’s office says the election results will be certified by Wednesday and Chow will officially take over as mayor on July 12. The mayor-elect requested to take office on that date, according the city’s clerk.

Chow immigrated to Canada when she was 13 and first entered politics in 1985 when she was elected as a school trustee. She then spent 13 years as a city councillor before heading into federal politics as an NDP MP.

Chow first ran for mayor in 2014 but finished third behind former Mayor John Tory and Doug Ford. Her win as a progressive candidate ends more than a decade of conservative rule at city hall.

“Keep speaking out with your ideas, keep helping out, keep caring for each other, because what we’ve won today is opportunity,” said Chow.

Chow has made some promises that signal a significant policy shift from Tory :

BUILDING MORE HOMES YOU CAN AFFORD

Olivia will help address Toronto’s housing crisis by enabling the City of Toronto to build 25,000 new rental homes in the next 8 years.

Her City Homes Plan will allow the City to act as a developer to build 25,000 rent-controlled homes on city-owned land. There will be a minimum of 7,500 affordable units, including at least 2,500 rent-geared-to-income units.

With Olivia's plan, we don't have to only rely on private developers to build the homes we need, we can do it ourselves and keep homes affordable.

Olivia's plan complements existing housing programs such as Housing Now, which has struggled to get shovels in the ground but aims to build 40,000 homes through the private and non-profit sectors, as well as the City's recent decision to allow for four storey, four unit multiplexes. Olivia would streamline, coordinate and simplify the approval process for housing so we can get more built, faster.

PREVENTING RENOVICTIONS

It’s a renter’s worst nightmare, you're being renovicted and you can’t find an apartment below $3,000 a month. Fortunately, with Olivia Chow as your new mayor the City of Toronto can step in to help.

Olivia will create the Secure Affordable Homes Fund to help buy affordable units and transfer them to non-profits, like land-trusts.

With an annual investment of $100 million, we can keep thousands of homes affordable and secure by taking them off the private market and giving them to not-for-profits, community land trusts, and Indigenous housing providers. It’s a model that works to keep us from losing the affordable housing we have.

Olivia will also work to secure the right of first refusal so the City can help buy affordable buildings before it’s too late. By having this right to buy properties listed for sale, the City can step in and secure even more affordable units. Montreal does this, Toronto can too.

Olivia is committed to developing a strong City of Toronto Anti-Renovictions Bylaw that will leverage the City’s authorities to deter renovictions.

BETTER CRISIS RESPONSE

To ensure people get the help they need in a crisis, Olivia Chow will expand community crisis teams city-wide and improve 911 wait times.

The Toronto Community Crisis Service is a community-based service of trained teams of crisis workers who respond to mental health and other calls made to 211 or 911. Olivia will make this service available to everyone in the city.

Olivia will also establish an Emergency Response Transformation Team, which will explore additional ways to improve 911 response times, because no one in a life-threatening emergency should be stuck on hold. That includes better streamlining the Toronto Community Crisis Service and better diverting non-emergency calls from 911.

SUPPORT FOR RENTERS

As a renter, you deserve a home that’s affordable, safe and well-maintained and when times are tough, you should be able to rely on the City for help staying in your home.

Olivia will keep people housed and prevent homelessness by:

Doubling the reach of Toronto’s Rent Bank to help 5,500 people each year and expand eligibility requirements to assist more tenants with grants to help cover rent.
Tripling the reach of the Eviction Prevention in the Community program to help over 3,000 people a year avoid eviction by providing case management, mediation with landlords and more.
Scaling up the Toronto Tenant Support Program to fight evictions and illegal rent increases and support tenant organizing initiatives
Giving RentSafeTO real teeth by investing in more by-law enforcement officers and staff to support investigations of unsafe conditions, more contractors so the city can fix the problems if the landlord has refused, and more staff to better enforce standards on landlords and hold them accountable.

IMPROVING PUBLIC TRANSIT

Olivia rides the TTC to get around and has depended on it her entire life here in Toronto. So she knows that public transit must be safe, convenient and affordable. She knows what it feels like when your bus is nowhere in sight, when you’re squeezed in with hundreds of commuters, and when fares keep going up as service declines.

Right now, transit riders are stuck paying more for less. Olivia is committed to reversing the recent service cuts and significantly improving transit service to make sure it is fast and reliable. Olivia will get cell service for everyone on the TTC and restore workers in TTC stations to be the eyes and ears of the system. She is also committed to expanding transit options in the city including making sure Scarborough transit riders are much better served with an off-road bus rapid transit route to replace the RT since it’s shutting down (saving people 20 minutes a day) and completing the loop in Scarborough with the Eglinton East LRT.

CHAMPIONING THE ARTS

Toronto’s arts and culture scene enriches our lives. Festivals, galleries and shows bring people together, expand how we think about our city and world, and build strong communities. Olivia has a plan to make our City even more of an arts and culture destination.

Olivia will:

Increase funding to the Toronto Arts Council by $10 million over 5 years.
Double the funding increases for the six Local Arts Service Organizations, to ensure people in every corner of our city have equitable access to participating in the arts
Protect and create arts and culture spaces by converting city-owned spaces into affordable, subsidized, and shared arts spaces for creators and organizations.
Improved tax breaks and incentives for existing arts and culture hubs—such as Daniels Spectrum, 401 Richmond, etc.—as well as workshops, studios, and creation spaces for individual artists.
Tackle the housing crisis so artists can afford to live and work in our city. 67% of Toronto artists earn less than a living wage - most are renters. To make Toronto more affordable for artists, Olivia will build thousands more affordable units on City-owned land, and boost programs that support renters financially and help keep units well-maintained.

The arts are an economic driver as well; each year 30 million people attend city-funded arts events. Olivia will fund her plan to support the arts by directing a portion of City Council's new 2% increase to the hotel tax to arts and culture.

LIBRARIES OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

Our public libraries are beloved places in our neighbourhoods for people of all ages to meet, study, and learn. Olivia will expand weekday library hours and ensure every Toronto Public Library branch is open seven days a week - including Sundays - so families can have more access to these important community hubs.

KEEP SCARBOROUGH TRANSIT RIDERS MOVING

Scarborough residents have some of the longest commutes in the city, they deserve reliable and convenient public transit.

Olivia Chow will make sure Scarborough transit riders can keep moving when the Scarborough RT closes by creating a dedicated, off-street bus rapid transit line – or busway – along the RT corridor.

The new busway would take buses off the road, and on to a dedicated corridor that runs from Kennedy Station to Ellesmere. It will save Scarborough transit riders 20 minutes each day.

GOOD LOCAL JOBS

Olivia will make sure that the City secures good local jobs through Community Benefit Agreements whenever it pursues construction projects, like building new transit.

Community Benefit Agreements are a way to bring local jobs and training as part of major infrastructure projects. The City can work with community organizations and other partners to develop these economic opportunities in ways that meet the community’s needs.

We can use the City’s leverage on big construction contracts to build more economic inclusion for Toronto residents, create more opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities and ensure that construction benefits people in more ways.

LUXURY HOMES TAX

Olivia Chow will ask the wealthiest to chip in more through a luxury homes tax. She will raise the Municipal Land Transfer Tax on luxury homes, with new graduated rates on purchases of homes valued at over $3 million, $5 million, $20 million and so on. She'll use the money to support people experiencing homelessness and help people stay housed.

This new luxury homes tax takes place on less than 2% of home sales each year and allows the city to help make sure thousands more have a place to call home.

TAXING SPECULATORS

Housing should be lived in, not sit empty as a commodity for speculators. The City's Vacant Homes Tax is designed to reduce the number of empty homes and make more homes available to rent.

Olivia will raise the Vacant Homes Tax from 1% to 3% to make more homes available, and she will use the funds from the tax for affordable housing initiatives.

The City’s Vacant Home Tax is meant to increase the supply of housing by creating an incentive for owners to ensure their unit is occupied and not sitting empty. Homeowners who choose to keep their properties empty for six months or more (exemptions exist) pay the vacant homes tax and this funding is used to secure affordable housing for all Torontonians.

The 2023 rollout of the Vacant Home Tax created confusion and challenges for many homeowners in Toronto, particularly those who do not speak English. As Mayor, Olivia will develop a new implementation strategy, created in partnership with seniors, people who speak English as a second language, and public education facilitators. The goal will be to provide materials in additional languages, better educate Torontonians about the tax, provide an information hotline and options for people to file non-electronically.

GIVING RENTERS POWER AT CITY HALL

Olivia is committed to elevating and incorporating the voice of renters – nearly half of residents – into City decisions. Renters deserve a seat at the table.

Olivia will establish Toronto’s Renters Action Committee composed of renters, housing providers, advocates, councillors and the mayor. The Renters Action Committee will work to improve fairness for renters, protect tenant rights, prevent illegitimate evictions and homelessness, address the affordable rental housing shortage, and improve existing city programs and services for renters

This committee will report to the Planning and Housing Committee and will be a space where renters can finally be heard, put new ideas directly onto the City’s agenda, improve existing city programs and services, and hold the City accountable.

The immediate tasks of the Renters Action Committee with include:

Developing a strong City of Toronto Anti-Renovictions Bylaw that will leverage the City’s authorities to deter renovictions.
Work to launch an advocacy campaign to preserve affordability for renters by urging the Ontario government to institute real rent control for all rental units, that’s tied to the unit and not just the tenant.
Reviewing existing City policies and programs related to renters, and holding the City accountable on its commitments to renters.

KEEP ONTARIO PLACE PUBLIC

Olivia is opposed to the provincial government’s backroom deal to build a private luxury mega-spa on the Ontario Place site. This is a once in a generation opportunity to build a magnificent public park that is open to everyone. The hundreds of millions in proposed spending to ready the land for the luxury mega-spa project would be better spent upgrading Ontario Place to serve as a park for all Torontonians for generations to come.

Olivia will not yield the land Toronto owns to the provincial government so she can prevent the province from cutting down 800 mature trees and paving over our beautiful waterfront.

SAVE THE SCIENCE CENTRE

Olivia is opposed to ripping the Ontario Science Centre out of the Flemingdon and Thorncliffe neighbourhoods. It is a precious space for local kids to gather, play and explore, and for parents to share the wonders of the world with their children. It is also a source of good local jobs in a community that is often left out of economic opportunity. Moving the Science Centre out of those communities, to put it downtown and reduce the number of exhibits, is the wrong choice.

RESPECTING LOCAL DEMOCRACY

Olivia supports majority rule at city hall and believes in the power of local city councillors to represent Torontonians. She is committed to strengthening local democracy and does not support the undemocratic strong mayor powers.

Olivia will never veto council decisions. She will always consult with Torontonians and City Council before negotiating fundamental changes to governance and procedures at city hall.

Under the previous Mayor the City’s Budget process became less and less democratic. Olivia is committed to building a city budget alongside Torontonians and City Council so that it is ambitious and best serves the needs of our city.