Unsure voter? Toronto's board of trade can be your guide
· Toronto Sun
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With the city facing a “moment for significant change,” the Toronto Region Board of Trade has published a three-part election guide series, meant to inform voters about today’s economic struggles.
The “What’s At Stake” guides include policy recommendations backed by the board of trade. They’re available to download as PDFs from it’s website, with the last in the series going online Friday.
Giles Gherson, president of the board of trade, told the Toronto Sun that a recent Ipsos poll was telling: When asked about Toronto’s prosperity, 55% of respondents said the city is on the wrong track.
Gherson said while the current mayor and city council have done “a pretty good job,” the city still needs better.
The guides come at a “moment for some significant change,” he added, as Toronto’s economy needs “to take advantage of what looks like a massive Canadian rebuild.”
“The investment summit we just had in Toronto, what some people are calling the Toronto international financial festival, the second TIFF … what the federal government did was lay out basically half a trillion dollars’ worth of projects across the country – a number of them in the region of southern Ontario – and say look, we need investment. We need to do this fast. We need to turn the corner,” he said.
In just a few pages, the guides make a case for what’s going wrong and how to fix it. They’re packed with numbers and informational graphics about some of Toronto’s big issues.
They cover three major economic issues for this election campaign: congestion and transit, housing affordability and land use, and the funding of public services. All three are contributing to Toronto’s cost-of-living crisis, Gherson said.
Finances ‘outrun’ by population growth
“Between 2006 to 2025, the price of housing in Toronto has tripled,” the affordability guide says.
The board doesn’t leave anyone guessing as to the big causes: Development charges grew 50.9% just the past three years, the guide says.
“I think the city is really at an inflection point,” Gherson said. “We all know the GTA and the city itself has grown massively over the last two decades. The Toronto economy has been treading water over the same time.”
“Really, the growth in population has kind of outrun the city’s finances,” he added. “That was not good as it was. Now you’ve got the tariff war.”
Few would deny that affordability and congestion are big campaign issues, but the board’s guides go a bit deeper and offer solutions, some of them outside of Toronto’s typical political chatter.
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For example, the guides recommend more 24/7 construction and steeper lane closure fees to break up gridlock, and greater protections for employment lands to spur the local economy.
“Part of the lens we’ve got is like, look at 2040. Where will this city be like in 2040?” Gherson asked. “Are we building this city for our kids, that they will have the opportunities that many of us have had here?
“I’m reading that too many people are saying that my kids have moved here, my kids have moved there. … We’re very worried about the exodus of talent.”
The guides are available online at bot.com/Whats-At-Stake . Voters go to the polls on Oct. 26.