Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's executive committee has adopted a plan that includes a number of revenue-generating measures the city could implement to address the financial pressures it is facing.
On Thursday, the committee considered a report from city staff that recommends exploring a municipal sales tax, a parking levy and hikes in existing taxes like the vacant home tax and land transfer tax on luxury homes.
After hearing from several speakers who opined on the recommendations, members of the committee unanimously voted in favour of the report, which will now head to city council next month for approval.
Thursday's special meeting of the Executive Committee was called by Mayor Chow shortly after her election in order to deal with Toronto's troubled finances.
During the meeting, Toronto's city manager warned that the crushing financial pressure facing the city could hamper the growth of transit infrastructure, which could stall ridership recovery.
"While our overall ridership on transit continues to inch up -- it currently sits at about 76 per cent of our pre-pandemic levels -- the number that says to me… that we are not yet recovered when it comes to transit and we may be a long way off from recovery when it comes to transit is the number of frequent weekday riders, the commuters that use TTC: 56 per cent of the pre-pandemic level," City Manager Paul Johnson told the city's Executive Committee Thursday.
"That is the change in our work environment that is unlikely to change in the next couple of weeks or months. Whether it gets back to the way we worked prior to the pandemic or not is a question that no one can fully answer. But we do know that that is keeping us from being back at our pre-pandemic levels around transit."
Lower transit ridership has been one of the major factors draining money from the city's operating budget, along with higher inflation rates and shelter costs.
Transit also makes up more than half of unfunded capital costs over the next decade, Johnson said. Of Toronto's $29.5 billion in net unfunded capital needs over the next 10 years, unfunded transit infrastructure accounts for $16.9 billion, the largest single area.
"These are important investments that we want to make, not only to keep the infrastructure that we have in good working order to be able to be used well by the folks who live, work, play and learn in Toronto, but also the growth that we need in our capital needs so that we can continue to meet the growing demands on this community," Johnson said.
City officials have warned that none of the revenue tools being contemplated will be enough to plug the whole, and have said that urgent help is needed from other levels of government, particularly for areas where they have responsibility, such as refugees and housing.
The city also warned last week that absent a new funding formula for transit, it may have to pause negotiations on provincial priority transit projects and future provincial transit expansion projects.
The warning from the city manager comes the same day the city announced that the troubled Line 3 (Scarborough RT) will remain closed for good after a derailment shuttered the line last month. The line was scheduled to close in November anyhow, to be replaced by bus service on existing roads. But the rickety, problem-plagued line has served as an example of the need for constant transit investment.
COMMITTEE ENDORSES AFFORDABLE HOUSING TARGET
The Executive Committee also approved a recommendation from Mayor Chow to direct staff to draw up a plan for creating 25,000 new rent-controlled homes.
“We are waiting but we urgently need to take action ourselves,” Chow told the committee, saying the Toronto can’t wait for other levels of government to do more. She added “we have to build more, we have to do it faster.”
The pan calls for increasing the affordable housing target by a minimum of 7,500 affordable homes, including a minimum of 2,500 new rent-geared-to-income homes, and 17,500 rent-controlled homes.
The goal is above and beyond the 40,000 affordable homes in the city’s existing HousingTO Action Plan.
“It is my top priority, really,” Chow said.
She also said more needs to be done to make sure various city agencies are working together smoothly.
“We have four or five teams working. I want to make sure they coordinate it. A bit of a one-stop shop approach,” she said.
She said she wants to see the deputy city manager come back with a report before the end of the year on a coordinated approach.
Coun. Shelley Carroll said she’d also like to see the federal government do more to encourage developers to build in an environment of unstable interest rates.
“At end of day, we still have the problem of the economy. I’m sitting on dozens of applications which aren’t proceeding because of interest rates and the state of the economy,” Carroll said, noting that when costs become unpredictable for projects “developers just stop.”
