THE EXPERT Shelley Carroll

Ward 17 Don Valley North First elected 2003

The city hall press gallery spent a day in January pursuing a single, unusual task: trying to get Shelley Carroll to define the word “substantial.”

The day before, Carroll had tipped her hand about the upcoming city budget by revealing to the CBC that it would include a “substantial” tax increase. The comment was a departure from Chow’s promise of only a “modest” hike, and threatened to overshadow the launch of the mayor’s first budget with speculation about sky-high rates.

Carroll stood fast, not even repeating the word “substantial” in front of the cameras.

But the brief conflagration her words ignited was part of a wider pattern for Carroll, the city hall veteran who as budget chief has become an invaluable member of Chow’s administration despite not always being in lockstep with the mayor.

In July, shortly before being appointed budget chair, Carroll caught Chow’s office flat-footed when she declared the city couldn’t afford to rename Dundas Street, long before the mayor publicly endorsed the change. Four months later, Carroll inflamed tensions with Liberal MPs during Chow’s crucial negotiations with Ottawa for refugee funding when she labelled a potential six per cent property tax hike in the 2024 budget as a “federal impacts levy.”

Although her public comments have sometimes caused headaches for the mayor’s office, in an interview Carroll insisted her relationship with Chow is one of “solid, trust-based collaboration.”

“I’ve never been called into the office and lectured for being offside,” she said, asserting that she always tells the mayor ahead of time when she might have to publicly disagree with her on an issue.

Over her two decades on council, Carroll has become widely respected at city hall for her intelligence and detailed knowledge of council business. As budget chief, she’s not shy about flexing her procedural muscle, and will show up at committee meetings to press colleagues and staff about how they plan to pay for their proposals.

A left-leaning Liberal who ran unsuccessfully for the provincial party in 2018, Carroll was David Miller’s budget chief from 2006 to 2010. She said that when Chow approached her last summer about reprising the demanding role, she wasn’t sure she wanted it.

But Carroll was confident that while she’s not perfectly politically aligned with Chow, a lifelong NDPer, the pair share a conviction around key issues like Toronto’s need for a new fiscal framework with the senior levels of government.

Perhaps more importantly, Carroll concedes, she ended up as Chow’s lead on the budget file in part because the mayor had few alternatives. Many of the councillors who most closely share Chow’s politics are rookie progressives elected for the first time in 2022. They weren’t prepared to take up the task of repairing the $17-billion budget of a city still reeling from COVID-19.

What to watch Carroll was close enough to Tory to be named to his executive committee, but she’s now budget chief in Chow’s progressive administration.

Carroll offers vital experience, but her willingness to publicly differ from Chow could strain their relationship.

‘‘ I’ve never been called into the office and lectured for being offside.

SHELLEY CARROLL WARD 17 DON VALLEY NORTH