On February 11, Toronto City Council met for an 11-hour marathon session on the 2025 City Budget. They debated and voted on amendments to the Mayor’s Budget, property tax rates, and policy motions (including an anti-Tesla measure in response to the Trump trade war). 

The final 2025 City Budget safeguards all program and service enhancements proposed in the Mayor’s Budget (including those first identified in the Staff-Prepared Budget), adds $3 million more in service enhancements, protects a transit fare freeze for a second year in a row (despite attempts to increase fares), and makes critical investments in infrastructure.

On the eve of the February 11 Council meeting to determine the Toronto's 2025 City Budget, 50 community and faith-based organizations co-signed a letter to Mayor Chow and the members of Toronto City Council urging them to support key investments in affordable housing, transit, youth employment, poverty reduction, and more.

Read the full letter below. Send your own letter to Council using the template provided, and join us tomorrow at City Hall for the Fund Our City Rally. 

Toronto City Council’s final meeting of the 2025 City Budget process will take place on Tuesday, February 11. The proposed budget, put forth by Mayor Chow on January 30, invests in and expands critical programs and services. But these investments are at risk. 

Councillors can decide to reverse important measures such as the TTC fare freeze, the expansion of the student food program to feed an additional 21,500 students annually, the introduction of the camp food program to feed up to 31,085 children and youth, the expansion of winter hours in drop-in centres, the construction of new emergency shelters, the addition of open library hours across the City, investments in youth and family programs and services, and more. 

On January 30, Mayor Chow released the Mayor’s 2025 City Budget. The Mayor’s Budget maintains the program and service enhancements included in the Staff-Prepared Budget and increases support for tenants facing renovictions. It also holds firm on the proposed residential property tax increase (5.4% residential property tax increase + 1.5% increase for the City Building Fund, for a total increase of 6.9%), ensuring more funding for critical services, while also expanding the City’s property tax relief and water and solid waste rebate programs. The Mayor’s Budget also includes $3 million in unallocated funding that Council will decide how to use at its February 11 meeting.

The Executive Committee met on January 28 to review some key issues pertinent to the City’s revenue-generating powers and fiscal situation, including an update on a commercial parking levy and stormwater charge as two potential new revenue tools, and the creation of an Advisory Body on Municipal Autonomy and Effective Local Governance.

On January 24, the Budget Committee met for its wrap up meeting where it provided advice to the Mayor. (The Mayor is preparing to release her 2025 City Budget on January 30.) This advice was provided following the Budget Committee’s three-day review of all of the City’s divisional and agency budgets and two days of public deputation sessions where residents and community groups shared their priorities for the City. 

At its meeting, the Budget Committee provided advice to the Mayor through a series of motions which were supported unanimously by all committee members. The committee’s recommendations for the 2025 City budget focused on youth employment, the shelter system, and drop-in centres. The motions did not recommend any cuts to existing services or proposed enhancements included in the Staff-Prepared budget. Several members spoke positively about aspects of the Staff-Prepared budget, while also reflecting on the ongoing funding challenges of the city.

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. 

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.