On Friday, Olivia Chow marked her one-year anniversary as Toronto’s mayor, a year that has been filled with major triumphs in pushing the city towards a better financial outlook but also marred by growing pains for a mayor who came onto the job several months after a mandate would typically begin.
The sudden scandal-plagued departure of John Tory from the mayor’s office saw a hotly contested byelection where Chow emerged victorious by pitching a change-based message to improve city services.
In an interview with Global News, Chow said she’s still working on making life better for Torontonians, including plans to push forward more affordable and rental housing, but acknowledged there have been some missteps that will require attention in her next year.
Chow quickly developed a strong working relationship with Premier Doug Ford, which included successful negotiations to upload the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to the provincial government.
The move effectively took billions of dollars of capital costs off the city’s beleaguered books that it can direct to other areas — money that is now beginning to flow.
“That money that we’re able to free up from uploading the Gardiner and the DVP is so precious,” Chow said.
“But we need to do more.”
The city remains in a financial pit, especially when it comes to aging infrastructure, which is seeing many key city assets enter the red zone when it comes to their long-term reliability.
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Chow said while the province provided three years’ worth of operating funding for the TTC, she said ongoing talks with upper levels of government need to address the next stage.
A major issue that has gripped city streets and feels like it’s getting worse by the month is traffic congestion.
“At the root of it is not enough public transit,” said Chow, who conceded the city isn’t doing enough to make it better.
But Chow said she’s expecting that a major report due in September will lay out a comprehensive plan focusing on co-ordinating construction projects and adding more traffic agents to make improvements.
“We are taking steps towards it and yes, we can do a lot more,” she said.
Another report Chow said she’s looking forward to will outline changes to the city’s problematic vacant home tax policy, which has proven to be the biggest scandal in her time in office. The botched rollout of the program in its second year saw tens of thousands of mistakes on property bills, raising the ire of residents and city councillors alike.
It prompted not only an apology from the city but also days of in-person efforts to rectify the mistakes.
Chow said the blame was partly on the design of the program, which occurred under the watch of Tory’s office, but the buck ultimately stops with her.
“The design of the program was the previous administration,” she said. “But hey, I’m now the mayor.”
Chow is guaranteeing the process will be better next year and said she’ll be getting a briefing from staff on next year’s rollout soon.
Still, Beaches-East York Coun. Brad Bradford said Chow should have taken note of warning signs spotted in the first year of the program and paused it before needlessly creating anxiety for taxpayers.
Bradford said it wasn’t the only misstep made by Chow in her first year and said other issues she’s made priorities haven’t made life easier for residents.
“When there’s a problem, she’s very quick to retreat and say ‘I inherited this mess’ and for most people that doesn’t square,” he said.
Despite his assertion that the honeymoon phase may be over for the mayor, a recent poll from Liaison Strategies found 59 per cent of respondents were happy with Chow’s performance, while 32 per cent disapproved.
Chow said the job of running the city isn’t just about her and pointed to the years of experience city councillors have.
“They know what needs to be done,” she said.
“There is also room for improvement, but we’re stronger together.”
That is why the mayor is looking ahead to the next two years on the job, much like she began, with the spirit of working together to make the city a better place.
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