City Councillors must vote to increase funding for the MURA Program.

Toronto is losing private market, affordable rental housing faster than it is being built. Investing in preserving existing affordable housing is one of the most cost-effective ways Toronto can ensure secure affordable housing for people who need it. The Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program (MURA) is City Council’s ongoing rental housing acquisition program with dedicated funding to help purchase and convert at-risk private market affordable housing to permanently affordable rental homes to be run by non-profit housing organizations, community land trusts, and Indigenous organizations. MURA also helps to improve the conditions of affordable housing.

City Council must vote to adequately fund and implement Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan. 

With input from First Nations, Inuit and Métis community members, organizations such as Toronto Aboriginal Support Services and its member agencies, Elders, Knowledge Carriers, youth, and Indigenous employees working at the City, Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan 2022 - 2032 was developed and adopted by Toronto City Council. Its vision includes a city where future Indigenous generations exercise their rights to self-determination, self-governance, and land stewardship in a context of right relations with all relatives, and a city where Indigenous Peoples in Toronto have multiple pathways to prosperity and wellness. The Reconciliation Action Plan includes strategic actions to restore truth, to achieve justice, to right relations and share power, to make financial reparations such as improving Indigenous economic development, and to enhance the City’s Indigenous Affairs office.

City Councillors must support the City’s acquisition of properties through both purchasing and head lease agreements, including locally in their ward.

The City provides housing allowances to those who are chronically unhoused to help them find permanent affordable housing. However, in Toronto’s private rental housing market, there are some big problems: there just aren’t enough affordable units available. In addition, the available units are so expensive that the housing allowance isn’t enough. There is an opportunity for the City to acquire apartment buildings either through purchasing them or through head lease agreements with large landlords. This would allow the City to improve the operations and maintenance of buildings and to make units permanently affordable.

City Councillors must help prevent renovictions, support renters, and advocate to the Province for real rent control.

The lack of real rent control in Toronto has worsened the problem of renovictions. In response, City Council voted to implement an anti-renovictions by-law. This by-law has effectively reduced bad-faith renovictions to zero. The success of this by-law is an opportunity to be creative about using the city’s existing powers to limit other bad-faith actions from landlords that increase evictions and make life more unaffordable for the ~50% of Torontonians who rent.

City Council must support a city-wide bylaw for multi-tenant houses.

After years of research and consultation, the City of Toronto has proposed a new regulatory framework for multi-tenant houses, to regulate a vital part of Toronto’s affordable housing stock. A city-wide bylaw for multi-tenant houses must continue enabling regulatory oversight and effective enforcement. This bylaw allows for people across the city to live in safer and more adequate multi-tenant housing.

City Councillors must support proven alternative non-police responses, like the Toronto Community Crisis, and vote to redirect funding to rapidly expand alternative response services and community programs.

Toronto’s Auditor General, who helps to hold City Council accountable to Toronto taxpayers—including reviewing city services and how public funds are used—released a report in June 2022 titled Review of Toronto Police Service - Opportunities to Support More Effective Responses to Calls for Service. The Auditor General found that 40% of the calls for police service they reviewed could possibly have been handled through an alternative response (85,000 hours of policing over five years). The Auditor General recommended alternative non-police responses where appropriate, with the shared goal to improve outcomes for all those in need.

Community safety is being reimagined in Toronto. Toronto expanded the Toronto Community Crisis Service—a community-based approach to mental health crisis—to cover the whole city. It is now the city’s fourth emergency service. Alternative non-police responses are being deployed to help better address a range of issues by providing supports for survivors experiencing gender-based violence, people experiencing homelessness, overpoliced youth, and people experiencing mental health crises.

City Councillors must support the continued expansion of supportive housing units across the city and support them locally in their own wards.

The 2025 Toronto Streets Needs Assessment discovered that 12,196 people in our city are experiencing homelessness. Of those, 1,446 people can't access shelter and therefore live outside. The City’s own data shows that each night, too many people are denied shelter. Advocates say many more are turned away.

Over the years, Progress Toronto has successfully campaigned for thousands of units of supportive housing in Toronto to help address chronic homelessness. Toronto City Council has committed to creating 2,000 units of supportive housing annually. Supportive housing is not only affordable, but it also provides necessary services like mental health and harm reduction supports that help people stay housed. Supportive housing is a cost-effective solution to the crisis.

City Council must protect Torontonian’s constitutional freedom to protest.

The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These rights are what allow us to make our voices heard through protests, pickets, and rallies. As we have seen threats to Canada's sovereignty—and eroding free speech within the United States—it is critical that we protect the freedoms our own democracy is built on.

Municipal by-laws restricting protest face Charter challenges and are being refuted by civil liberties experts. Constitutional lawyers have shared that concerns of intimidation, harassment, and assault are already illegal in the criminal code, and this type of bylaw risks restricting constitutional freedoms.

City Council must increase Toronto’s Vacant Homes Tax to 5%.

Progress Toronto advocated for, and won, a Vacant Homes Tax in Toronto. For too long, speculators have been allowed to buy up Toronto’s housing and leave it vacant even as renters struggle more than ever to find affordable homes. The Vacant Homes Tax is one tool to pressure speculators to turn their vacant units into occupied homes. It applies to units that are not a principal residence and that have been left vacant for more than six months. It includes important exemptions for situations like major renovations. Toronto’s current Vacant Homes Tax rate was set at 3% in 2024. This higher rate should incentivize more speculators to get tenants into their units

City council must fund stormwater reduction and flood proofing projects. Ensuring commercial and industrial landlords pay their fair share for these investments.

Flooding events have washed out transit stations, roads, and basements year after year, and we saw this again just this past week. They’re proof of why it is so important to reduce stormwater runoff and prevent flooding from storms that are now more frequent and damaging as a result of climate change. We need to invest in grey and green infrastructure improvements to better manage stormwater and prevent flooding. Neighbouring cities like Mississauga have successfully benefited from a dedicated stormwater fee.

City Council needs to support and fund the priorities as outlined in the city's culture plan.

Toronto is home to 40,000 artists and 350 non-profit arts organizations, and Toronto arts and culture audiences reach millions each year. The City of Toronto approved an ambitious 10-year culture plan (Culture Connects) to support artists and arts/cultural workers, and their organizations and industries.

When private contracts expire, City Council should require reports on potential savings and benefits of the City and support publicly delivering public services.

Many city services are currently contracted out to private companies. As those contracts expire, we have an opportunity to study whether it is in the city’s interest to bring those services back in-house as publicly delivered public services.

For instance, garbage collection West of Yonge is privatized; but a new report is considering bringing it in-house once the contract expires to save money, improve oversight, and improve working conditions for garbage collectors.

City Council must ensure Community Benefits Agreements are included in major public construction, development, and infrastructure projects.

Community Benefit Agreements are an approach to secure investments and supports that address the needs of local residents, including training and good jobs, as part of the construction of housing and major infrastructure projects. Working with community-based organizations, labour, and other partners, Community Benefits Agreements provide equitable economic opportunities to promote economic inclusion for Toronto residents, contribute to sustainable communities, and expand opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities.

City Councillors must expand library hours and keep librarians and library workers delivering our world class library services, so that when our libraries are open our librarians are there to serve.

Toronto Public Libraries and Toronto library workers are world class. We have one of the highest rates of per capita visits and circulations in the world. Demand for more library hours and library service is high, but there are conservatives on City Council who think we can have libraries without librarians and library workers. This means the library would be open but with only security cameras and security guards. Librarians are a fundamental part of our high quality library services in Toronto. They are part of our communities, they connect people to the information they need, and they create intentional, welcoming public spaces.

City Council must protect access to park washrooms, water fountains, trails, paths, wading pools and splash pads.

From shelter to shade and from play to exercise, Torontonians turn to our public parks for many uses year round. The COVID-19 pandemic helped to shine light on some of the inadequacies and accessibility issues with our parks. Just a few years ago, park bathrooms and water fountains weren’t available to people, public and wading pools and splash pads were in need of upgrades and opened long after the first heat waves of the summer, and paths and trails weren’t maintained in the winter. Recently, pool season and its hours were expanded.

City council needs to pursue opportunities to develop new revenues to fund city services and protect our public services (such as child care, recreation, and transit) even if that means additional revenue from property taxes is needed.

In order to continue to deliver strong public services and meet the needs of Toronto’s growing population, the City needs to diversify and strengthen our mix of revenue tools. The City’s main revenue source is property tax, which does not grow with inflation, the economy, or even higher property values. Yet, City Council has to balance the budget in the face of rising costs every year. This means City Council either increases property taxes, tries to find more savings, or cuts services. A 1% increase to property tax is roughly an additional $32 per year for the average household. Importantly, there are property tax deferral and cancellation programs in place to support many low-income people who might not be able to afford the increase. We’ve also become reliant on a precarious and fluctuating Land Transfer Tax to balance our budget. The City has access to a host of revenue tools that even an independent KPMG report recommended and the City can engage the Province to expand access to more tools.

City Councillors must make sure the Child Care Growth Strategy is fully implemented, including continuing to expand subsidies and the number licensed child care spaces offered through non-profit and city-operated providers. 

As we wait for the implementation of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement to lower child care fees to $10 a day by 2025, Toronto remains one of the most expensive cities for child care. With only enough licensed spaces in Toronto for 30% of children under four and 17,000 children waiting for a child care subsidy, more high-quality and affordable child care is needed. Even with the implementation of a flat fee for child care, thousands of families will still require access to a subsidy in order to afford the child care space. As we grow the system, we need to ensure we offer high-quality child care that guarantees high-quality jobs that attract and retain the best child care professionals for Toronto’s children.

City Council must support the Toronto Medical Officer of Health’s call to decriminalize simple possession for personal use and expand harm reduction services.

Drug poisoning is a public health crisis in Toronto. It’s estimated that well over 500 Torontonians were killed by drug poisoning in 2021. This significant loss of life each year is leaving thousands grieving. Overdose deaths are preventable and due in large part to criminalization and an unregulated drug supply. It’s been shown that addressing the possession of drugs for personal use through a public health approach, rather than the criminal justice system, is better for public health and safety. In January 2022, Toronto’s Medical Office of Health submitted a request to Health Canada to decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal use, which would improve timely access to voluntary services that can save lives. Other activities associated with drug trafficking would still remain illegal. British Columbia is implementing a similar model. Toronto Police, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police support decriminalizing simple possession as a more effective way to address public health and safety. City Council must support the Medical Officer of Health’s call to decriminalize simple possession for personal use and, working alongside the harm reduction community, expand and fund harm reduction and treatment services and safer supply options.

City Council must support alternative non-police responses to overdose calls and treat overdose calls as calls for emergency medical assistance.

Research is showing that a significant number of people are afraid to seek emergency medical assistance in the event of an overdose because it is routine for the police to attend, despite it being a medical intervention. Systemic racism and discrimination in policing, combined with the threat of criminal charges, are a few reasons why people are deterred from seeking life-saving help.

City council needs to oppose any attempts to privatize social housing units and instead vote to invest in repairs and maintenance.

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) manages 2,100 buildings and provides social housing to 110,000 people across Toronto, with close to 90% of those units being deeply-affordable housing. The cost of the needed repairs to TCHC housing is currently over $1.5 billion. With over 80,000 households on the waiting list for affordable housing and many tenants living in unacceptable conditions, the last thing we need in Toronto is to lose more of our social housing stock due to lack of repair.

City Council must create and implement a new Toronto Food Charter.

One in five households in Toronto are food insecure, and for Black and Indigenous households, that number is one in three. Since the pandemic, calls for emergency food services have increased dramatically. Food bank use is at record levels. People have a right to be free from hunger — we have a right to food. That’s why Toronto adopted a Food Charter. That charter is more than 20 years old. Thanks to the advocacy of organizations and community leaders, in April 2022 the City of Toronto agreed to update the Food Charter. City Council needs to implement a new Toronto Food Charter that centres and is written by those most affected by food insecurity and poverty — Black, Indigenous and racialized people, people with disabilities, workers, and renters; and which includes accountability mechanisms and resources.

City Council needs to keep its agencies, corporations, and services city-owned and publicly delivered.

In 2016, it was reported that senior staff and advisors to Mayor John Tory and senior Toronto Hydro officials initiated analysis and research on the potential sale of the City’s stake in Hydro. A privatized Toronto Hydro means the loss of public control over our electricity and increased property taxes to cover the lost annual dividend that is paid to the City from Toronto Hydro. Waste collection west of Yonge, which represents half of the city’s districts, is privatized. This has resulted in reduced public accountability and oversight. Waste collection east of Yonge remains publicly delivered, but there are continued efforts by private lobbyists to get the City to privatize it. City staff studied this option and recommended against further contracting out of waste collection. Recently, it was shown that the City isn’t realizing any savings through contracted out waste, as the private providers have increased their fees. City Councillors should oppose proposals to sell off or privatize City agencies, corporations and services such as Toronto Hydro, TCHC, the Toronto Parking Authority, the TTC, waste collection and diversion programs, and Long Term Care Homes and instead vote to keep them City-owned and publicly delivered.

Recreation program spaces and centres must be expanded across the city and City Council should explore bringing back universally free recreation programming.

Publicly funded recreation programming is a key part of building healthy and socially-connected communities. Prior to amalgamation, each former municipality had different fees for recreation programs - including universally-free programming in the old City of Toronto. Today, there are almost 40 community recreation centres that are free centres where all City-delivered programs, fitness centre passes, and space bookings for local non-profit groups are free. The City operates 136 community centres city-wide. The City also offers the welcome policy, a means-tested recreation fee subsidy. While there are many benefits to community centre access and recreation programs, like swimming lessons, fees create a significant barrier and prevent people from participating. Space availability also creates a barrier to participation with long waitlists for program spaces. In 2013, the City explored bringing back universally free recreation programming.

Councillors should oppose cuts to transit service, the deferral of capital projects, and fare increases.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant loss of ridership on the TTC. At some points in 2020 there was an 85% drop in daily rides. Ridership levels are improving and in June 2022 the TTC was up to one million average weekday rides, but this is still far below the 1.7 million average weekday rides pre-pandemic. The TTC’s overreliance on fares to provide service means that this has had a significant impact on the TTC’s operating funding. Given these conditions, conservatives might make the case for service cuts, but we know that reduced service levels only further decreases ridership and this would cause a downward spiral for our public transit system.

The 10-minutes-or-better bus service network must be expanded to all routes across Toronto and bus and streetcar priority corridors must be implemented.

Long commute times, reliability, and crowding have big impacts on the number of people who choose to use the TTC. With ridership returning, now we need to expand the TTC’s 10-minutes-or-better service across the entire network. Expanded service would mean shorter wait times and more reliable service for users. And with 70% of all trips on the TTC taking place on surface transit (bus and/or streetcar), providing bus and streetcar priority corridors with measures like traffic signal priority and bus lanes are cost-effective and fast ways to significantly improve reliability and commute times, increasing ridership.

Amenities at TTC stops must be improved with better snow and ice clearing, seating, shelter, and safer midblock crossings.

With long commutes, transfers, inadequate service levels and 70% of all trips on the TTC taking place on surface transit, people are exposed to challenging and unsafe weather conditions while they wait for the bus or streetcar. Riders deserve accessible stops, free from ice and snow, with shelter and seating so they can wait and board safely and with dignity.

City Council must help meet our climate targets by expanding access to transit, including free transit for youth under 18, and advocating for long term sustainable funding from other levels of government. 

The serious impacts of climate change on people's health, our economy, and the City's infrastructure are already being felt. As part of TransformTO, the City’s Net Zero Strategy sets out a pathway to reaching net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for Toronto by 2040. The transportation sector in Toronto is one of the largest contributors to emissions, representing 36% of the city’s emissions. A big shift in modes of transportation is needed for Toronto to meet its targets The City report says that free, widespread transit is an “equity and efficiency measure at the heart of the net zero scenarios.” City Council can help meet our climate targets by voting to fully fund the third phase of the Fair Pass program, oppose fare-by-distance models, and continue to roll out the implementation of fare free public transit, starting with people who receive social assistance and youth 12-18 (kids 0-12 already ride free), while advocating to other levels of government for long term sustainable public transit funding.

City Council must end the harmful and costly TTC fare inspector program at the TTC.

TTC Fare inspectors cost the city millions of dollars to police and ticket people for not paying their TTC fares. Some people (kids 0-12) are able to ride the TTC for free, some people are offered discounted rates (fare pass program), and others are policed if they can’t pay. Videos of fare inspectors violently engaging riders have surfaced over the years and advocates have pointed out that racial profiling and anti-Black racism is taking place in fare enforcement. Fines for TTC fare evasion cost riders between $235 to $425, while parking tickets are $50. TTC fare inspectors do more harm than good and the City’s own climate strategy, adopted by City Council, depends on moving towards free transit to meet the City’s climate targets. 

City Council should accelerate the Cycling Network Plan and treat complete streets as the default design for all new roadway resurfacing and reconstruction.

As more cycling infrastructure has been built in Toronto, the number of people cycling has been increasing. And that’s a very good thing. According to the City of Toronto’s climate action strategy, we need a big shift away from motor vehicles if we are going to meet our greenhouse gas emissions targets. That’s why a key goal in the plan is for active transportation (cycling and walking) to account for 75% of trips under 5km. Right now that number is only 37%. Cycling infrastructure also makes our roads safer and saves lives. While cycling infrastructure has been expanding in the last few years, many areas of the city have historically received less investment and continue to have many unsafe roads. Toronto’s Cycling Network Plan must be built faster across the city. This can be done by streamlining the process, and requiring all road reconstruction to be complete streets, sharing publicly completion targets and progress information, and ensuring adequate staffing to complete the projects.

Snow and ice clearing on city sidewalks and bike lanes must be significantly improved. 

In the face of proposed cuts to winter maintenance service, Progress Toronto successfully advocated for increased snow and ice clearing on city sidewalks, including for parts of Toronto that didn’t have the City clearing their sidewalks before. This is key for building an accessible city for people with disabilities. The major snowfall in January 2022 however highlighted that much more needs to be done. The City needs to prohibit snowplows from storing snow and ice in bike lanes and on narrow sidewalks creating additional accessibility barriers and it needs to ensure adequate funding to meet its snow and ice clearing service levels.

City Councillors must stand up for Toronto’s local democracy and ensure Torontonians have a say in how they are governed.

Since his election in 2018, Premier Doug Ford has been trying to run Toronto from Queen’s Park. In 2018 it was his slashing of wards in the middle of the election. He put forward huge cuts to critical services, including Public Health funding. And now he is centralizing City Council’s power in the mayor’s office so that the mayor can fulfill the provincial government’s priorities. This takes power away from local City Councillors and the constituents who elect them.

Roads should be built by design to reduce speeds, community safety zones should be expanded and the installation of speed cameras should be accelerated.

As a city we have a goal of zero fatalities from traffic collisions but we are not anywhere close to meeting this goal. In 2021, 28 cyclists and pedestrians were killed and 108 were seriously injured. Studies have shown that speed matters. If a driver is going over 50km/hour, there is a much greater chance of death. Lower speeds save lives but simply lowering the speed limits isn’t enough. Changing our road design is the most effective way to improve driver behaviour and reduce speeds. Automated Speed Enforcement cameras have also been proven to reduce the number of speeding drivers. Toronto roads should be built in ways that by design both reduce speeds and provide safe infrastructure for all road users.  City Council should vote to expand community safety zones and significantly accelerate the installation of Automated Speed Enforcement cameras.

A City-owned municipal broadband network that helps provide affordable high-speed internet access should be supported and implemented.

Internet access is necessary for people to participate in the economy, education, and day-to-day life. But with the high cost of internet services, the digital divide in our city is growing. Research shows that low income households will divert money away from food and other necessities to keep the internet going at home, and that racialized communities have to choose between having internet at home or mobile services. The City’s ConnectTO Program originally proposed helping to address this through the creation of a City of Toronto Municipal Broadband Network. The expansion of the City-owned fibre network would eliminate the need for the City to lease fibre from the private sector, reducing costs and improving security for the City. It would also allow the City to provide more equitable internet access. 

City Council must take ambitious actions to reduce waste and help us meet our goal of becoming a zero waste city.

The City of Toronto manages over 900,000 tonnes of waste a year, with most of that ending up in landfill. There are more steps we can take as a city to move towards zero waste, preventing pollution, creating local jobs, and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from extracting and wasting resources. City Council must support the elimination of unnecessary single-use items and require a shift to reusable foodware, supporting small businesses through the transition. They must help ensure Torontonians have access to waste diversion like recycling and green bin programs no matter what building they live in and vote to maintain the City’s commitment to waste diversion rather than sending Toronto’s garbage for toxic incineration.