For Immediate Release
Toronto- November 27, 2025- Today, ABC Toronto is demanding the City modernize and make use of modern technologies to free up frontline officers and city workers to focus on real emergencies, not paperwork and busywork.
Over the last decade, City Hall has clung to outdated systems that waste taxpayer dollars, divert frontline workers from important tasks and delay basic services that should take minutes not weeks. If Toronto wants to be fibre-optic-era ready, it can’t operate on dial-up-era bureaucracy.
ABC is releasing a three-part modernization package, which would introduce Toronto to the 21st century, cut red tape, and divert staff away from administrivia and put them back to serving citizens. Our plan includes;
1. One-Stop Digital Portal & Real-Time Dashboards
No more scavenger hunts across ten different city websites. Toronto should have a one window/one platform user experience where citizens can get quick and easy access to permits, recreation sign-ups, property tax, 311, plus real-time dashboards for TTC alerts, waste pickup schedules, road closures, and repair timelines. Residents and commuters deserve real-time information—not guesswork.
2. Drones for Low-Priority Calls
Toronto continues to dispatch frontline officers to fender-benders and minor obstructions for calls which many U.S. cities now handle with drones that arrive in under three minutes and can assess severity and provide critical information to folks on the ground. This prevents police officers from being dispatched to low priority calls and focuses their efforts on violent crime, missing persons, lawlessness and other real emergencies.
3. Stationary Licence Plate Readers in Hotspot Corridors
Instead of cruisers idling all day watching for stolen vehicles, fixed cameras do the scanning automatically, freeing up police and bylaw officers, increasing recoveries, and targeting corridors where auto theft is actually happening.
Toronto cannot keep pretending that broken processes are inevitable. We live in the 21st century where proven technology used elsewhere exists that reduces costs and has results. Toronto needs someone who can show political will and leadership to change the status quo. As the economic engine of Canada, Toronto should be on the vanguard of deploying advanced technology to make our city safer and more livable. ABC calls on the City to adopt immediate reforms, publish implementation dashboards publicly, and stop burying modernization efforts under endless reviews, bureaucracy and committee delays.
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