Toronto voters want action on affordability, housing ahead of municipal election

As Toronto’s leading mayoral candidates criss-cross the city, pitching their vision ahead of this month’s municipal elections, voters say affordability, housing, public safety and transit are the top issues they want to see addressed.

More than 50 people are vying to lead Canada’s largest city for the next four years, but polls suggest it will be a tight race between incumbent Olivia Chow and councillor Brad Bradford in the Oct. 26 vote.

Chow’s key promises include measures to help lower grocery prices in the city, free lunches in schools and building more affordable housing units, while Bradford has pledged to freeze property tax rates in his first year as mayor and scrap the land transfer tax for homes under $1.1 million.

Ilham Saydna, who has lived in Toronto for 30 years, said many in the city are struggling financially and she will vote for anyone whose top priority is to make life more affordable.

“I am looking to see who is going to be having a good platform for food security because a lot of people are hungry right now, and people are going to food banks and they cannot afford to pay rent,” the North York resident said.

Saydna, who is a tenant, also said the city needs to do more to support renters, including redefining what affordable housing means.

While some voters have expressed public safety concerns, Saydna said she feels safe in the city because the crime rate is trending downward. Toronto police data show homicides, shootings and robberies have decreased this year.

Saydna believes homelessness is a far greater issue.

“If we tackle poverty and people’s needs, crime will go down,” she said. “If people are not properly housed and they live on the streets, you can’t blame them for trying to survive.”

Terry Chamberlain, who lives in the Don Mills area, said the city should do more to encourage building new housing.

“As long as the development is done in a reasonable manner and it fits into the area, I’m all for it,” he said.

Chamberlain said his neighbourhood is in need of a community centre and more facilities for children.

He said while public transit in the area is “quite good” and reliable, the city should lobby the province to extend the 15.6-kilometre Ontario Line subway currently under construction beyond Eglinton Avenue.

Ross Rowlands, who lives in the Beaches, said he will vote for a candidate who stands up to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whom he criticized for his controversial decisions to ban municipal speed cameras and remove some bike lanes on stretches of major city roads.

“It’s terrible,” Rowlands, who cycles regularly, said of the planned bike lane removals. “It’s unsafe, and despite all the empirical studies that have been done showing that it makes roads safer.”

While Chow has strongly opposed the Ford government’s speed camera and bike lane removals, she and the premier have worked closely on many issues and Ford has described their relationship as “phenomenal.”

Rowlands also said he wants the next mayor to invest in preventive measures when it comes to crime and mental health, rather than spend money on what he called reactionary policing.

The homelessness crisis is another key issue in municipal elections across the province, but Toronto’s 10-year plan to open more shelters, including some outside the downtown core, has received mixed reactions, with some living in communities hosting them raising safety concerns.

One was built two years ago near Patty Wegrzyn’s home in Scarborough, and she isn’t happy about it.

“Everybody has a right to have a home,” she said. “But do not put homeless shelters where there are small children and families.”

Chow has said that her approach to reducing homelessness has been working, while Bradford said that his strategy would include more supportive and transitional housing.

Wegrzyn, who said she sold her home because she could no longer afford property tax increases, added that she will vote for any candidate who is more sympathetic to Toronto’s ratepayers.

“We’re all still coming out of the pandemic, half (of) these families … are struggling themselves trying to keep everything afloat, why raise taxes?” she asked.

Peter Formica, a Scarborough resident who lives in senior co-operative housing, said the city could sell the underused high-value properties it owns to address the issue of affordable housing for seniors. The city could also increase the supply of affordable housing by freeing up larger, underused units, he suggested.

Chow and Bradford have faced off in several debates so far, including one focused on issues in Scarborough, a district of more than 600,000 people often described as a “transit desert.”

The Toronto Transit Commission recently opened a four-kilometre Scarborough Busway connecting Kennedy Station and Scarborough Town Centre, replacing Line 3 train service that was shut down after a derailment more than three years ago.

The city hailed the bus-only roadway as a major achievement because it opened six months ahead of schedule. But for many Scarborough residents, that’s too little, too late.

Leonel Juan said he can’t wrap his head around why a subway line has been extended as far as Vaughan in the north, but Scarborough has not yet been fully integrated in Toronto’s transit system, nearly three decades after amalgamation.

The long-awaited Scarborough subway extension line is still years away from opening.

The Scarborough East Rapid Transit, an 18.6-kilometre light-rail transit, which connects Kennedy to Malvern Town Centre via the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, is still in the design phase nearly two decades after it was first proposed.

Formerly known as the Eglinton East LRT, the project has been marred by significant delays due to lack of funding and political disagreements, and Juan said the next mayor should expedite the work on it.

The city needs to address Scarborough’s housing shortage by allowing more development in the district’s waterfront areas, Juan said.

“Downtown Toronto or other areas of Toronto are being prioritized more so,” he said. “I think a lot of focus should also be placed on Scarborough.”