Toronto can’t realize its ambitions without proper funding
Published by Toronto.com
By Sevaun Palvetzian
It’s no secret that Toronto is booming. In 2018, more than 77,000 new residents started calling Toronto home, making it the fastest-growing city in North America. The fact that people want to live here is a good thing. It does, however, require us to consider how to house our growing population, how to keep them moving, and if our aging infrastructure is actually up to the task.
As we enter the holiday season, these questions were top of mind for Mayor John Tory as he gave his holiday wish list to city council. What’s on it? Raising Toronto’s city-building levy to 1.5 per cent, from 0.5 per cent, for next year and each subsequent year, through to 2025.
Here’s what you need to know:
- What you’ll pay: It will cost the average household $43 for each increase.
- What we’ll get: $6.6 billion that would help fund a new plan to build 40,000 affordable housing units and the TTC’s ballooning state of good repair costs.
Like all of us, the city has bills to pay. But why has it come to this?
