Mayor Olivia Chow tours key sites, discussing strategies to enhance Toronto’s waterfront area.
Breakfast with Mayor Olivia Chow was the catalyst for many topics concerning the city.
Hosted by the Waterfront Business Improvement Area (BIA) Nov. 7, Chow was joined by many within the city to discuss improvements for the future.
During the breakfast networking event, Chow touched upon the importance of collaborative governance, citing her improved relationship with Premier Doug Ford, and the need for strong partnerships at all government levels.
One of headline topics of the morning was housing within the city.
“The economy is going down a bit, interest rates too high. Life is not very affordable. And when people pay so much in rent, they don’t have much money left to go and eat out and buy stuff,” said Chow. “For three decades, we have not built. We used to build housing, we built 32,000 units of homes across the city, a lot of them are in the old city, and then we stopped. Now we’re back, we’re going to build and build and build and we have a roadmap to build 65,000 units of housing in the next seven years so that life can be affordable.”
A report published by the Toronto City Council, estimated cost for these homes is at least $28-billion – later raised to $36-billion – and is expected to be funded by the federal and provincial governments.
In her address to the gathering, Chow highlighted the need for investment in public transit, housing, and infrastructure. She also responded to questions about walkability, garbage management, and support for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
“In the old days before the provincial government walked away, the provincial government helped funds the public transit. We are the only transit agency in North America, in fact around the world that our funding only comes from your property tax base and from the farebox, which is why it’s expensive to take the TTC.”
Chow said that lowering the cost of taking the TTC is an issue to which she is working on a solution.
Following breakfast, Chow and others embarked on a one-hour tour, preceding a Toronto City Council decision regarding $65 million designated for planning the proposed Waterfront East light-rail transit (LRT) line.
This LRT line is planned to pass directly by George Brown College’s (GBC) three Waterfront Campus buildings and its student residence, The George.
Waterfront Toronto, created in 2001, is a project backed by Canada’s federal, provincial, and city governments. The project’s main goal is to transform Toronto’s waterfront into a world-class destination.
