Mayor Olivia Chow presented a mostly unchanged final version of her 2025 city budget Thursday, which keeps a proposed 6.9 per cent tax for homeowners, saying Torontonians want improved city services and a better quality of life — and they’re willing to pay for them.
The updated version of the mayor’s first budget proposal from Jan. 13 includes an operating budget of $18.8 billion, as well as a $60-billion 10-year capital plan.
The proposed budget would pay for services including transit improvements, expanded school meal programs, protections for renters and increased spending on affordable housing programs, Chow said at a news conference Thursday morning in the city’s St. James Town neighbourhood.
Money would also go toward expanding library hours, the TTC fare freeze and the hiring of more emergency responders and traffic agents.
“Tough choices have to be made as we continue to climb out of a decade of neglect,” Chow told reporters, defending the proposed tax increase. “We cannot balance our budget on the backs of cuts to the city services people rely on.”
The proposed budget also has $680 million in “reductions and offsets,” Chow said. She said the city has worked vigorously to secure funding from the provincial and federal governments for a variety of city needs, but Toronto still has to find money to improve services and help overcome a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.
The only major change from the first version of the budget, Chow said, is the expansion of property tax relief for seniors and people with disabilities. It raises the property tax deferral and cancellation income threshold for those groups by five per cent to $60,000. That would support an additional 2,300 households, Chow’s office said in a release.
Chow said the lack of changes to her final budget was in response to what she heard in budget consultations with the public since Jan. 13.
“What they said really confirmed the proposed budget that we launched,” she said. “We must invest to make life easier.”
The proposed tax hike drew some pushback when it was first announced earlier this month, with Coun. Brad Bradford saying then that it would only make life less affordable in the city, while services stagnated.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has released a proposed 2025 city budget that includes a 5.4 per cent property tax increase and the annual 1.5 per cent “city building levy.” CBC’s Sarah MacMillan breaks down what Toronto residents need to know.
Last year’s budget raised the property tax by 9.5 per cent, the highest increase in decades.
In a letter Chow wrote Thursday to outline her budget, she acknowledged another increase would be “challenging for many across the city.”
This year’s proposal includes a 5.4 per cent property tax hike in addition to the annual 1.5 per cent “city building fund” levy, which goes toward major infrastructure projects.
The increases would amount to an additional $268 annually for the average Toronto homeowner, according to budget documents released earlier this month.
Chow’s proposed budget is set to go to council on Feb. 11.