Mayor Olivia Chow chose to stand firm on a 6.9 per cent property tax increase when she launched her version of the 2025 city budget on Thursday.
“The city budget is always about choices and, as mayor, I refuse to avoid the hard ones,” Chow said in a press release. “We must choose to fix what’s broken.”
The only significant change to the updated budget is an expanded property tax relief program.
Currently, seniors and people with disabilities can defer or cancel property tax increases if their home is worth less than $975,000 and their combined household income is under $57,112.
Chow is raising the income threshold by five per cent to $60,000.
“This will mean thousands more qualify for support,” Chow said.
The earlier version of the budget, released on January 13, was technically prepared by city staff. Chow and her fellow councillors have gone through weeks of budget hearings to refine the final product, which has to be launched by Feb. 1 under the province’s strong mayor legislation.
Councillors will debate it at a Feb. 11 meeting where they have the chance to propose changes. Chow’s strong mayor powers allow her to veto any alternations within 10 days but councillors can override the veto with a two-thirds vote.
Coun. Brad Bradford, Chow’s most vocal critic on council, dismissed the budget hearings as performative and said the mayor’s spending plan doesn’t meet the needs of Torontonians.
“I would have expected Mayor Chow to take that feedback that I’m sure she’s heard: that people cannot afford a tax increase that is triple the rate of inflation and reflect that in her revised budget,” he told TorontoToday.
Chow also set aside $3 million for councillors to allocate during the Feb. 11 council meeting, which is less than the $8 million provided last year. Councillors will decide among themselves how to spend the extra money.
Bradford said the $3 million should go back to taxpayers instead of having “councillor Hunger Games fighting on the floor of council.”
Last year, city staff recommended a 10.5 per cent property tax hike. When Chow presented her 2024 budget, she cut it down to 9.5 per cent, which was still a record increase.
The 2025 tax increase is split into two parts. A 5.4 per cent property tax increase, which can fund the city’s operating budget, and a 1.5 per cent increase to the city building fund, which is meant to fund housing and transit infrastructure.
Taken together, the two measures will raise over $300 million.
Big ticket spending items in the 2025 budget include more money to hire police officers, paramedics, firefighters and traffic agents, freeze TTC fares and bolster transit service, increase library opening hours, expand rental housing protection programs, launch a new rental housing construction initiative and more.
“This budget continues our path forward to a better financial footing, while working to make real improvements in people’s daily lives after decades of neglect,” Chow said.
Editor's note: This story was updated to include comments from Coun. Brad Bradford
