The final version of Mayor Olivia Chow’s 2025 city budget preserves the proposed 6.9 per cent property tax increase, but expands relief programs for low-income homeowners who might struggle to pay the higher rate, and sets aside $3 million for council to quarrel over at its meeting next month.
Chow’s budget is largely unchanged from the staff proposal she helped launch more than two weeks ago at the start of the annual budget process. It consists of an operating plan of almost $19 billion and a $60 billion 10-year capital budget, and will go to council Feb 11.
The mayor formally unveiled her version at a press conference Thursday in front of the St. James Town apartment building where she grew up after emigrating from Hong Kong in the 1970s.
Chow said the setting reminded her of the childhood she spent without adequate financial means, but which was improved by access to free or affordable city services — skating rinks, libraries, transit — that she said need continued investment.
“A family today deserves no less,” she said.
In a press release, her office highlighted proposed investments she said would directly improve lives of the most vulnerable residents: feeding 21,500 more kids through school programs, freezing TTC fares and boosting transit service, extending Sunday hours at 67 library branches, and investing $1 million in the rent bank to help an additional 2,700 households stay in their homes.
There’s also an additional $46 million for the $1.2 billion police budget to support a multi-year hiring plan, and money for the $2.3 billion purchase of new subway trains for Line 2, thanks in part to the “new deal” Chow struck with the province in 2023.
Chow said that for years her predecessors “papered over budget shortfalls, raided reserves and avoided hard choices about property taxes,” while for average Torontonians “life got harder,” but she was taking a different approach.
“It is clear the residents of Toronto have asked me as their mayor to act now to make changes,” she said.
The 6.9 per cent tax increase that will help fund the budget is made up of a 5.4 per cent hike to residential rates for city operations, and 1.5 per cent for the city building fund dedicated to housing and transit infrastructure.
The higher tax rate will generate about $320 million in additional revenue this year, and cost the average homeowner about $268 more than last year. It would follow the record-high 9.5 per cent raise Chow imposed in her first budget in 2024.
Ariella Kimmel, head of the recently launched self-described “centrist” political advocacy group A Better City Toronto, said she was disappointed Chow didn’t lower this year’s proposed tax hike.
“It feels like she just didn’t listen to anyone who came to the budget consultations,” said Kimmel, a communications executive who has worked in federal and provincial Conservative governments.
Dozens of homeowners took part in public deputations last week saying the property tax increase was unaffordable. For Kimmel, those meetings now “feel like almost just a sham.”
That was echoed by Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19, Beaches—East York), who said “clearly (Chow) hasn’t been listening.”
Residents’ “number one issue is affordability. This budget does not respond to that, but makes life in Toronto more expensive,” he said, asserting that the spending plan “really sticks it to the middle class.”
In a letter outlining her budget, the mayor said she recognized the tax increase would be “challenging for many across the city.”
To help homeowners on fixed incomes, she said the budget would increase the income eligibility threshold for property tax increase deferrals and cancellations by five per cent, to $60,000. That would expand the tax relief programs for vulnerable seniors or people with disabilities to an additional 2,300 households, for a total of about 12,300, according to city staff — a slightly lower estimate than the 13,000 provided by the mayor’s office.
“This budget proposes a modest (tax) increase but will make a huge impact on the cleanliness, vibrancy, safety and livability of our city,” Coun. Chris Moise (Ward 13, Toronto Centre) said in a statement.
In addition to criticism over the tax rate, Chow’s budget came under fire from Stephen Mensah, executive director of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, who called her decision not to invest more in youth employment initiatives “ridiculous.”
The group had called for more than $46 million to go to programs for young people, including $17.5 million for youth employment to create 4,500 jobs. Mensah said that by not including that full funding the mayor’s budget would “ensure” that young people will continue to be forced into committing crime to make ends meet.
“The reality is simple: if the public is tired of hearing young people rob jewelry stores, this budget ensures that will continue to happen,” he claimed.
In her letter, Chow said her plan “makes significant investments in youth,” including new youth hubs and $5 million for anti-violence initiatives.
Chow also defended the lack of significant updates in her budget, despite hundreds of disputants asking for investment increases to various services. She told reporters Thursday that staff largely “got it right” in the first draft.
“We are feeding more kids, we’re opening library hours, those are the things people said,” she said.
Chow’s letter also revealed that her budget includes $3 million in unallocated spending that councillors can decide at their meeting next month to put toward “additional priorities they would like to see reflected in the city budget.” Last year, the mayor set aside $8 million for council priorities.
Bradford said letting councillors debate how to use just $3 million out of a budget of almost $19 billion amounted to a “councillor Hunger Games,” and showed Chow didn’t want to engage in “meaningful conversations” about the spending plan.
Under the province’s strong-mayor legislation, Toronto’s mayor is responsible for proposing the city budget each year.
The version released Jan. 13, which first proposed the 6.9 per cent tax hike, was technically prepared by city staff, although the mayor and her budget chief Coun. Shelley Carroll (Ward 17, Don Valley North) worked closely with them to draft it. Under the legislation Chow had until Feb. 1 to formally propose her own version.
If councillors decide amend Chow’s spending plan at the meeting next month, the mayor will have up to 10 days to veto the changes. She has promised not to use her strong-mayor powers to override council, however.