Adedokun Waliyu 
Toronto’s massive budget shortfall is expected to be one of the topics discussed as Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford meet Monday for the first time since Chow took office.
Chow is expected to press Ford for funding help or possibly a new fiscal arrangement to help deal with the city’s ballooning budget shortfall, which is expected to top $1.5 billion over the next year.
City staff say at least $1 billion of the city’s annual budget is related to services downloaded to Toronto from other levels of government, including emergency shelters, housing, and other social services.
“My priority is to make sure the residents of Toronto have a good quality of life … to make life more affordable, so for me, the priority one is building affordable housing and making sure we have a good transit system, and the streets safer,” Chow explained on Breakfast Television on Monday.
“I inherited a $1.5-billion-dollar deficit … so it makes it hard to increase the TTC service … but that money, operating the TTC, used to be paid by the Province of Ontario — that got downloaded [to Toronto].”
Council recently voted to have different revenue tools installed, including increases to the municipal land-transfer tax on luxury homes worth $3 million or more and asking the province to bring in a Toronto-specific municipal sales tax.
The City has previously suggested that a municipal sales tax for Toronto would be a good way to raise funds, which would require the approval of the provincial government. In the past, Ford has suggested that is not something he is willing to do.
However, Chow told Breakfast Television she prefers “we don’t start new taxes” but instead, if the provincial government can allot a portion of the existing sales tax to Toronto, or upload some of the services they pushed onto the city.
“The City of Toronto is delivering all types of service … which is great, but we don’t have the financial means to pay for it, we only have the property tax but [that] doesn’t grow the economy, it’s also not progressive.”
The province’s plans to revitalize Ontario Place could also be on the agenda. Some of the land owned by the City is involved in the project, and Chow has expressed concern over the plan in the past.
The meeting will be held at Queen’s Park at 1 p.m., and they are expected to speak to the media at 2 p.m.
Chow and Ford have vowed to set aside their political differences after the two traded barbs before she won Toronto’s mayoral byelection in June.
Ford previously said her mayoralty would be an “unmitigated disaster,” while Chow casted Ontario’s “strong mayor” policies as undemocratic interference in city politics.
