Shaping Toronto’s Future: Insights and Ideas From the Community on the 2025 City Budget

Last week, on January 21 and 22, 237 Toronto residents participated in public deputations at Budget Subcommittee meetings across the City. Local residents and members of community groups shared their priorities, concerns, and recommendations with committee members, providing personal and professional insights on the proposed City Budget. Key issues included the police budget, youth unemployment, food insecurity, housing and homelessness, the closure of safe consumption sites, climate change, community arts, public transit, and property taxes. 

Police Budget

Deputants raised concerns about the police budget increase slated at $46.2 million (to be funded by property taxes), a number which is expected to increase by tens of millions a new collective agreement is reached between TPS and the Toronto Police Association. (Read SPT’s analysis of the police budget and multi-year police hiring plan and the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition’s newsletter for more information.) Speakers noted that there is no research to show that increased spending on the police budget increases community safety and stressed that the funds should instead be spent on non-police services, such as the Toronto Community Crisis Service, mental health services, and housing.

Youth Employment

Several youth deputants spoke about the need for more youth employment opportunities, citing high levels of unemployment among young people. Speakers commented on the importance of youth employment to social engagement, participation, poverty reduction, and violence prevention. They spoke about their frustration around job searches, spending months applying for various positions without being able to secure employment. Speakers expressed how this significantly impacts their confidence and motivation to join the workforce. They requested additional funding for youth employment initiatives and a commitment by the city to create 10,000 new youth employment positions by the Summer 2026. (For more information on youth issues and the City budget, read the Toronto Youth Cabinet, Toronto District School Board, and Toronto Catholic District School Board Joint Statement Advocating for A Stronger Youth-Friendly Budget.) 

Food Insecurity

Deputants also brought up the issue of food insecurity. Speakers noted that more than 1 in 10 Torontonians are accessing food banks, with a record 3.49 million visits to Toronto food banks over the past year—an increase of nearly 1 million from the previous years. Residents explained how affordability is a key driver in food insecurity, with many families having to reduce their food intake to prioritize paying the rent and other bills. Deputants advocated for additional funding for school nutrition programs and to extend programs into the summer months. 

Homelessness and Drop-Ins

Homelessness was a serious concern for many deputants at every Budget Subcommittee meeting. Speakers cited new research from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) showing a 25% increase in the number of unhoused individuals in Ontario between 2022 and 2024. They pointed out that Toronto’s shelter system is full and central intake has been unable to secure a shelter space for an average of 200 people per day since April 2024. There were calls to increase the budget for affordable housing development, acquisition, and maintenance. Residents also spoke in support of the proposed increase to programs, such as Rent Bank and eviction prevention. 

The Staff-Prepared 2025 City budget includes $380,500 to fund increased service hours in drop-in centres as part of the City’s Winter Plan. Residents asked the city to go further in response to urgent needs and the closure of supervised consumption sites. Deputants asked the City for a $3.5 million increase to drop-in programs to respond to the closure of supervised consumption sites and anticipated increases in demand for services, and an additional $500,000 to provide mental health and wellness supports for all drop-in workers across the city. 

Speakers described drop-in centres as “the first point of contact” for individuals to access pivotal services, such as mental health supports and food banks, and safe spaces for some of Toronto’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents. Drop-in staff members work on the frontlines to provide these critical services to unhoused individuals, including those at great risk from the province’s decision to close down supervised consumption sites, an essential health care service. These workers and the communities that they serve urgently need more support. 

Climate Change

Residents also spoke about climate change, notably the impact of extreme heat which worsens each year with record temperatures in 2024. Deputants commented that there are an estimated 120 heat-related deaths in Toronto each year, disproportionately impacting seniors, low-income tenants, and individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. Despite this, it was mentioned that many tenants do not have air conditioning. Residents called for increased funding for home cooling subsidies for low-income tenants and homeowners. The Staff-Prepared 2025 City Budget includes $200,000 for a new cooling pilot project to provide an estimated 425 portable air-conditioning units for vulnerable households, but the need is clearly much greater.

Closure of Supervised Consumption Sites

Deputants raised serious concerns about the upcoming closure of supervised consumption sites. They spoke about how these services save lives and how their closure will result in more deaths, increased trauma, and further criminalization of people who already experience marginalization. Speakers also referred to the reduced use and cost of emergency services resulting from supervised consumption sites, as well as increased access to information about detox and treatment programs for service users. While it was noted that it’s the province that is closing supervised consumption sites, deputants urged the city to “step up and be proactive in supporting this community”.  

Community Arts

Several members of community arts organizations spoke in favour of the City of Toronto’s new culture plan, Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto (2025-2035). The plan makes important commitments to arts and culture in the city, including increasing access to community arts spaces, increasing resident access to arts and culture programs, investing an additional $35 million over the next 10 years “to retain, rebuild and reimagine culture in Toronto”, and supporting Toronto’s role as a global creative capital. Speakers endorsed the culture plan, including the $35 million commitment in new investment, emphasizing how valuable these programs are to economic development, social connectedness, and overall well-being of Toronto residents.  

Public Transit

Public transit was also brought up several times over the two days of hearings, with many expressing support for the fare freeze. Several other issues, particularly safety, accessibility, and reliability were also raised. Residents were also frustrated with the cancellation of free wi-fi access on the TTC, noting that it was especially impacting marginalized and low-income individuals who rely on this service. Deputants stressed the importance of re-implementing free wi-fi on the TTC. Calls were also made to make transit more affordable for low-income riders and to increase the two-hour free transfer window to three hours. The Staff-Prepared 2025 City budget anticipates increased use of the TTC Fair Pass Program which provides TTC fares and passes at discounted rates for eligible residents. However, the budget does not include funds to fully implement the program and as a result, continues to exclude many low-income residents. (For more information on the TTC budget, visit the TTCriders’ website and transit expert Steve Munro’s website.)

Property Taxes

While some deputants expressed frustration with the proposed property tax increase of 6.9%, many supported the increase as a means to better fund critical public and community services. Speakers stated that knowing the money was going to programs, such as eviction prevention, transit services, and community programs, made it worthwhile. Interestingly, some deputants called for even higher increases to property taxes to improve life in the city. Toronto’s property tax rate remains one of the lowest among Ontario municipalities.

Several participants expressed gratitude for the opportunity to make deputations at the meetings and recognized that city councillors have a tough job. Many residents were hopeful that their voices would be heard and that the Mayor and City Council would deepen investments to address urgent issues in the community.  

Many thanks to TMU social work student and SPT placement student Michelle Nykolaiszyn for writing this post. 

 

Social Planning Toronto Deputation Supports New Investments in Budget and Calls for Deeper Investment in Vital Public Services

SPT Director of Engagement and Strategic Initiatives Melissa Wong called on the Budget Committee to support new investment to public services included in the Staff-Prepared 2025 City Budget and recommend deeper investments in critical areas in response to urgent community needs. Her deputation, delivered to members of the Budget Committee at its January 21 session at the Scarborough Civic Centre, advocated for funding to non-police service responses that address structural issues impacting community safety, over a costly and reactive police response.  

“Members of the Budget Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today and thank you for the many opportunities for the public to share their input in this year’s budget. It is welcome and an important part of ensuring an open and democratic process.

My name is Melissa Wong, I am the Director of Engagement & Strategic Initiatives at Social Planning Toronto. We are a community-based organization that has been bringing together diverse groups of organizations, community leaders, and advocates for many years to drive action on solutions and research that address the root causes of poverty. 

City Budgets are important to us at SPT because it is the process where City Council makes the important decisions about what services get funded and those that don’t—it’s the process that decides who gets left behind and who is supported to thrive. Last fall, Social Planning Toronto, with the input of many community partners, shared a letter with the Mayor asking her to focus on poverty reduction in the 2025 City Budget. We are pleased to see that this year’s budget includes many of these vital programs and services. For that, we thank you. To name a few key investments that will make a tangible impact in the lives of low-income Torontonians:

  • $6M to feed an additional 21,500 students and over $8M to fund youth violence prevention and other programming to engage youth and give them jobs.

  • Funding to keep people housed, warm, and sheltered including increases to prevent evictions for more than 450 additional households; funding to support outreach to people living in encampments, increased drop-in hours in the winter months and over $168M in capital investments to build new shelter sites. 

  • $3.6M to broaden access on Sundays and during the week to the largest public library system in North America (and arguably the best) and additional funding to expand financial empowerment programs and mental health supports in libraries 

  • Significant investments to ensure better, faster transit and a fare freeze so that transit riders bear less of the costs.

But the needs are growing. Our 2024 Child & Family Poverty Report Card found Toronto is once again the Child Poverty Capital of Canada with a 25.3% rate in our City, some neighbourhoods seeing upwards of 60% of children living in poverty. The drug toxicity crisis is continuing to grow and will expand further as supervised consumption sites close this year. Homelessness is soaring and more and more people are living outside as our shelters turn people away. Youth unemployment is at one of the highest rates we’ve seen in years. 

My message today is that this is no time to even consider cuts. What we need is City Council to invest more. We need to keep people housed and sheltered with two times the increase to the Rent Bank and Eviction Prevention programs, $3.5M for drop-ins to respond to the closure of the supervised consumption sites and $500K for mental health supports for drop-in workers. With only one warming centre in all of Scarborough and none in Etobicoke, we need additional warming centre spaces to serve these communities and we need more women+ only shelter spaces to provide safe, trauma-informed care. 

We need further investments in community services that address the root causes of poverty with an additional $5M to fund grassroots organizations that support Black, Indigenous and other racialized and newcomer communities, as well as further funding to support youth employment. 

We need City Council to make responsible, evidence-informed decisions that will support non-police community-led safety solutions that prevent violence, rather than funding more costly reactive police responses.

We need to freeze fees for recreation programs so that families can continue to afford to send their kids to camp and soccer classes and we need rec workers to make more than minimum wage. We need Council to meet its commitments to accessibility in new housing and we need them to prioritize progress on the Reconciliation Action Plan.

We need Council to establish a capital funding strategy to support building more non-profit and public child care and a workforce strategy to address the disparity in wages and benefits among child care workers. We also need funding for subsidies to help the almost 20,000 families on the child care waitlist. 

We need City Council to fully fund the Fair Pass transit program and deliver a deeper discount for riders and to introduce fare capping to make transit more affordable for everyone. 

As a property owner, it wasn’t easy to see my new property tax bill, but it was worth it to know that this money was going to prevent homelessness, protect tenants, improve transit, feed students, and fund vital community programs. It’s a bill that I’m glad to pay. After years of underinvestment, we cannot stop rebuilding when there is still so much work ahead of us. We cannot cut services when the needs are only growing. We need City Council to invest more now for a better City for all of us.” 

 

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