Mayor Tory keeps up his social housing tour
Campaign for repair funds aims to pressure province
Mayor John Tory toured one of the city’s subsidized apartment buildings Thursday as part of his campaign to pressure the province to help pay the $1.7 billion needed for social-housing repairs.
“Those who have the greatest ability to raise money have not stepped up,” Tory said referring to the provincial government, which has broad taxing powers and the ability to run deficits.
While the federal budget included new money that can be used toward social-housing repairs, there was “no new money in the Ontario budget whatsoever,” Tory said.
Unlike his weekend tour of a westend social-housing complex, Tory did not come armed with flyers featuring the local Liberal MPP’s headshot. The pamphlets asked residents to “Tell your MPP that Queen’s Park needs to help fix your housing now.”
While the stunt prompted Liberals to accuse him of crossing a line and campaigning against them, Tory said his only intention was to stand up for Torontonians, particularly the most vulnerable, and attract a “similar advocacy” from others, “including elected representatives who sit in the legislature.”
Tory led reporters and photographers on a short tour of 3171Eglinton Ave. E., a Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC) building, where four storeys of exterior bricks crashed to the ground in 2015.
He gave a running commentary on the problems inside a dilapidated two-bedroom unit, one of 24 in the 12-storey building currently vacant and awaiting repairs. Crews Thursday were outside replacing cladding and fixing balcony railings.
Tory said that the work underway is “good news” and a demonstration of where TCH spends its money, “almost exclusively by the city of Toronto,” compared to the province’s “tiny contribution.”
The mayor said the city has raised its share, “using every reasonable tool.”
While he acknowledged it’s a claim challenged by critics, some of whom argue property taxes — the lowest in the GTA — should be raised, Tory said “property taxes were never meant to fund multibillion dollar capital projects.”
Meanwhile, at Queen’s Park on Thursday, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown promised that if he succeeds Premier Kathleen Wynne after next year’s election, the city would get more money for social housing.
“Absolutely. Right now, they’re getting nothing. It’s very easy to exceed zero,” Brown told reporters Thursday.
“Queen’s Park and Premier Wynne can’t abandon the city of Toronto,” he said, stressing he would “not support new taxes” levied by the city, including a hotel tax.
“This is a huge cost to the city of Toronto. All levels of government have to be part of it.”
But Brown refused to say whether a Conservative government would upload social housing back to the province, reversing the downloading of former PC premier Mike Harris.
“That’s not an ‘ask’ right now of the city. They’re looking for help on paying for the cost. I certainly didn’t have a conversation about uploading with Mayor Tory. He was looking at help on a number of fronts,” he said.