What will the new mayor do to Toronto?
Who Olivia Chow is and what she plans to do as mayor.
Usually people preparing to immigrate to Canada are not interested in the news of individual localities and their administration. But for Toronto, an exception can be made: this city attracts people from all over the world and many immigrants dream about it.
Toronto recently elected a new mayor. Olivia Chow of the New Democratic Party was elected. The city's standard of living, budget, development priorities and problems will now depend on her. Whether it gets better or worse is her responsibility.
The new mayor has already announced what she plans to do about public safety, prices, housing affordability and other pressing issues. Chow's program has sparked debate among residents across Ontario: some approve of her plans, while others find them appalling.
Expenditures and budget
Toronto is currently CAD 1 billion short of its budget. The mayor faces the challenge of either finding where to get it, or cutting spending in certain areas of city life. Chow has no intention of cutting funding for most of them. Instead, she wants to slightly increase the property tax and raise the tax on vacant homes to 3%. She has also proposed raising the municipal land transfer tax for homes that cost more than CAD 3,000,000. The latter applies to purchases of any property in Toronto in addition to the provincial land transfer tax. A new cost item Chow plans to introduce is affordable housing for renters.
Many people like the idea of raising taxes on the rich and wealthy, so Chow's plan met with no resistance. But some Torontonians were embarrassed by the idea of a small increase with no concrete figures. It's a subjective estimate that could mean a lot — 1%, as much as 10%, or even more. However, the citizens decided to give Chow a chance and rely on her discretion.
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