On Tuesday, January 28, Toronto’s Executive Committee will receive an update on the Commercial Parking Levy—a potential new revenue tool that could generate over $100 million  a year in new funding for climate action, a better transit system, and other critical services. Unfortunately, the future of this tool is currently at risk due to corporate lobbying from multinational corporations like Shell and Walmart, and delays caused by the board of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, which is made up mostly of real estate and finance executives. City Hall is currently considering not moving forward with this revenue tool, along with another critical tool focused on Stormwater Charges. We cannot afford to lose these opportunities to fund a better city, and we need your help to take action and call on the City to save the levy.

On Friday, January 24, the Budget Committee will hold its final wrap up meeting on the 2025 City budget. It’s an important meeting. The committee will identify priorities and make recommendations to the Mayor for the preparation of the Mayor’s budget. The wrap up meeting follows the Budget Committee’s three-day review of the Staff-Prepared 2025 City Budget and two days of public hearings where community members identified their priorities for the city. 

As the City of Toronto deliberates the proposed 2025 budget, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) has requested a $46.2 million increase to their net operating budget. This would bring their net annual total to $1.22 billion—a 3.9% rise from 2024. This increase would be funded by property taxes. (The gross budget, which doesn’t include revenues, will be $1.418 billion, or a 4.2% increase from last year.) The proposed police budget includes a multi-year hiring plan to recruit 720 officers over the next two years to enhance frontline services and expand the Neighbourhood Community Officer (NCO) Program into four additional neighbourhoods.

The budget increase will be even higher once a new collective agreement is reached between TPS and the Toronto Police Association. Our previous City Budget Watch blog post highlighted that a proposed multi-year hiring plan could lead to significant financial burdens on the City. With salaries and wages projected to increase by $38.8 million (4.3%) between 2024 and 2025 and additional costs anticipated from ongoing collective bargaining agreements, the long-term sustainability of this budget is questionable. The City's Chief Financial Officer has indicated that a 1% salary hike could add an additional $10 million to the budget.

On January 21 and 22, the Budget Committee will be holding meetings across the City to hear what is most important to Torontonians in the 2025 City Budget. SPT has been pouring through the Budget documents to see how the proposed budget responds to the urgent needs in our communities. 

In this post, we share our key priorities for this year’s budget to help you prepare your deputation to the Budget Committee. For more information on how to register to depute and additional resources and analysis from our partners, check out our recent blog post and Budget Town Hall video. 

Are you a renter in Toronto planning to speak to the Budget Committee at this week’s public hearings/deputation sessions? Check out the video recording and presentations from Social Planning Toronto’s 2025 Housing Deputation Workshop held January 17!

Are you planning to speak to the Budget Committee at next week’s public hearings/deputation sessions? Going to submit comments to the Budget Committee, or want to learn more about the City of Toronto’s 2025 Budget? Check out the video recording and presentations from Social Planning Toronto’s 2025 City Budget Town Hall held January 16!

On January 13, the City of Toronto’s Budget Committee launched the 2025 City Budget, prioritizing four key themes: making life affordable, getting Toronto moving, providing community services, and keeping people safe. The staff-prepared budget allocates funding for new and enhanced public and community services, preserves service levels, makes progress on the upkeep of city assets and infrastructure, and proposes a reasonable and responsible property tax increase to generate much-needed revenue. All steps in the right direction. 

The City of Toronto’s $18.8 billion budget supports the operation of a broad range of programs and services, from affordable housing, public transit, and community services to public libraries, parks and recreation, public health programs, and many more.

City funding supports the work required to advance our collective commitments to reconciliation, equity, and human rights. 

In recent months, the Toronto Police Service Board has publicly released and asked for feedback on its multi-year hiring plan. The plan projects the hiring of an additional 388 officers in 2024 and another 360 annually in 2025 and 2026. (See the table below for the full hiring plan through 2029.) The multiyear hiring plan and the police budget raise serious questions about the social and economic implications of having a record number of police officers in coming years.

Hundreds of residents took part in the “Fund Our City” rally in front of City Hall on the morning of February 14. Community members sent a strong message to Toronto City Council to support the Mayor’s budget, including proposed funding increases for critical programs, services, and infrastructure and the recommended property tax increase to raise much-needed revenue. Many participants urged Council to reverse years of underfunding of key services and expressed disappointment with Council’s plan to give the police a larger budget increase.