Mayor Olivia is welcoming a new chief of staff in early February.
On Monday morning, Chow announced longtime NDP strategist Karla Webber-Gallagher will take over from Michal Hay on Feb. 4, right before Hay goes on parental leave.
The Toronto Star first reported the move.
"Over the last one and a half years, Michal has been an indispensable part of my office," Chow said in a statement. "Her contributions to my office in securing more funding for important public services will impact generations of Torontonians."
Webber-Gallagher will start working in the mayor's office this month before assuming the full-time role shortly before Chow's 2025 budget goes to council.
"It is an incredible honour to serve Mayor Chow as chief of staff following in the footsteps of Michal Hay and I am eager to get to work for Toronto. These are big shoes to fill but I know I can count on Michal’s wise counsel and an excellent team at city hall,” she said in a statement.
Webber-Gallagher's most recent political job was as chief of staff to Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath, where she served from November 2022 to May 2024. She also ran Horwath's 2023 mayoral election campaign.
Before working in municipal politics, Webber-Gallagher had a long stint in provincial politics where she held increasingly influential roles in the NDP.
From 2015 to 2018, she was a provincial director and served as deputy campaign director in an election that saw the party win 40 seats and official opposition status, its best showing since the 1990s.
She was also Horwath's principal secretary at Queen's Park from 2018 to 2022 and co-chaired the party's 2022 election campaign. After Horwath resigned the party leadership following the 2022 election, Webber-Gallagher followed her to Hamilton.
"Karla’s leadership and experience working in a city with similar challenges — and opportunities — as ours will help her hit the ground running," Chow said.
Hay's departure means Chow will be without one of her closest allies.
Hay cut her teeth at city hall in the early 2010s when she was former councillor Mike Layton's executive assistant. Chow is Layton's stepmother.
When Chow ran in the 2014 mayoral election, Hay was co-director of field operations. Hay then returned to Layton's office as chief of staff.
In 2017, she jumped to federal politics to lead Jagmeet Singh's successful bid to lead the NDP following Tom Mulcair's ouster.
She then turned her attention back to Toronto and launched the progressive advocacy organization Progress Toronto, where she served as executive director from 2018 to 2023. Hay was Chow's campaign director in the byelection to replace John Tory. She's been Chow's top staffer ever since.
Hay's departure is the latest example of staff churn in the mayor's office, nearly two years into Chow's term. Late last year, Shirven Rezvany, her communications director, and Arianne Robinson, her press secretary, left city hall. Bradley Hammond, a former communications staffer in the Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne Liberal governments, took over from Rezvany.
Webber-Gallagher isn't the only top Hamilton civil servant taking a big job in Toronto in the new year.
Jason Thorne became Toronto's chief planner at the beginning of the year. He previously worked as Hamilton's general manager of planning and economic development from 2014 to 2024.
