Final 2026 City Budget Makes Targeted Investments in Key Services

On February 10, Toronto City Council met for final budget votes on the 2026 City Budget. Members of Council debated and voted on amendments to the Mayor’s Budget, property tax rates, and policy motions.

The final 2026 City Budget maintains all program and service enhancements proposed in the Mayor’s Budget and the Staff-Prepared Budget, adds $2 million more to support a broad range of service enhancements, protects a transit fare freeze for a third year in a row, and makes critical investments in infrastructure.

By our calculation, the final 2026 City Budget invests $30.445 million (including $26.087 million from property taxes) in new and enhanced programs and services.

City Council Adds $2 Million in Service Enhancements

The Mayor’s Budget allocated $2 million for City Council to decide how to use. Councillor Carroll moved a motion applying this $2 million to support 18 separate programs, services, and initiatives. Her motion passed with a vote of 23-2; Councillors Crisanti and Holyday voted against the motion.

In a joint letter, SPT, community partners, and workers called on City Council to support critical investments included in the Mayor’s Budget while also going further with some additional enhancements to better support our most marginalized neighbours and address deep social and economic inequities in our city.

The letter was developed with our City Budget Coalition partners, many of whom have been advocating year round for increased program supports. We are grateful for Council members and staff who have been meeting with community partners, and who helped push for further investments during today’s Council meeting. By the time we formally submitted our letter to Council (nearly 200 signatories), work was underway to introduce several vital motions.

We are glad to share that the Mayor and City Council are listening to communities and that they agreed with points raised in the letter, supporting additional investment in legal services for tenants and measures to ensure the continuation of federal community safety initiatives. In addition, City Council increased investment in resources for unhoused residents through Toronto drop-in centres, a youth-focused innovation hub, the MyMalvern community initiative facilitated by Toronto Community Benefits Network and Native Child and Family Centre, Neighbourhood Climate Action Grants, and several other initiatives.

$2 MIllion in Service Enhancements Added by City Council:

$185,000 to increase legal services provided through the Toronto Tenant Support Program—SPT, community partners, and workers called for this increased investment in a joint letter to City Council. We appreciate Council’s support for this essential tenant service;
$100,000 to support the City’s funded and unfunded drop-in centres for bulk purchases of winter and hygiene supplies to be distributed to all drop-ins through a partnership with the Toronto Drop-In Network;
$300,000 for a youth-focused innovation hub at the Scarborough Civic Centre in collaboration with educational and other stakeholders;
$80,000 to continue funding for the MyMalvern community initiative facilitated by the Toronto Community Benefits Network and Native Child and Family Centre; this initiative “engages Malvern residents, businesses, and community groups through meetings, forums, and pop-ups to identify community priorities and co-create a vision for Malvern’s future and the Malvern Town Centre redevelopment.”
$100,000 to increase Community Service Partnership funding for Cecil Street Community Centre;
$30,000 to support the Weston Area Emergency Support organization;
$75,000 to support the Weston Community Association;
$200,000 to support the Complimentary Zoo School Trips for Toronto Students Pilot, adding to the $100,000 included in the Mayor’s Budget;
$32,000 to increase the amount available through the Neighbourhood Climate Action Grants; These grants “offer funding up to $7,500 to support resident-led climate action projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions; educate and engage the public on climate change and climate action; and advance the goals of TransformTO Net Zero Strategy and the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy.”
$90,000 to fund a pilot approach in partnership with Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation for a comprehensive pest removal strategy tailored to the unique needs of residents living in their buildings;
$355,000 to initiate implementation of the Rat Response Plan and Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy;
$150,000 to support a pilot project to promote Scarborough’s food scene and culinary tourism to the area, working with local nonprofits and Business Improvement Areas;
$50,000 to support a demonstration pilot for micromobility parking and loading in relation to food delivery in the Greektown Business Improvement Area in partnership with the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA);
$150,000 to address rehabilitation needs for parks in Ward 15 Don Valley West;
$7,000 to support the Thorncliffe Park Sports Association;
$35,000 to fund a Canada Day celebration and fireworks display at Mel Lastman Square;
$45,000 for street pole banners in Little Iran;
$15,000 for physical infrastructure upgrades on City-owned land installed as part of a vehicle theft prevention pilot project in the Brookside neighbourhood.

Councillor Carroll put forward a separate motion, supported by Council (no recorded vote), allocating $6.2 million for federal youth violence prevention initiatives, such as TO Wards Peace program in Scarborough, to be funded through federal contributions from the 2026 federal budget. If these funds are not provided through the federal budget, the City will use funds from the Tax Stabilization Reserve account. Councillor Carroll moved a related motion requesting the Government of Canada to continue to fully fund youth violence prevention initiatives through the Building Safer Communities Fund and the Crime Prevention Action Fund.

SPT and our community partners thank City Council for safeguarding this critical service, and for once again, stepping up when other levels of government have not.

Budget Highlights

In addition to the $2 million in service enhancements added by City Council, the 2026 City budget funds investments in many public and community services.

Affordable Housing and Tenant Supports

$2.6 million increase for the Rent Bank program which provides grants to low-income individuals and families behind on their rent or in need of help with a rental deposit, bringing the total budget to $10.8 million to support 2,800 tenancies.
$996,500 in additional funding for the RentSafeTO program which “seeks to positively impact lower-income and vulnerable individuals and families by ensuring apartment building owners comply with building maintenance standards, thereby improving living conditions within apartment buildings.” The funding increase will be used to hire additional staff, including municipal standards officers, and to implement a colour-coded rating system for apartment buildings. The budget increase is fully funded by user fees paid by building owners.
$1 million to expand the Air Conditioner Pilot Program, providing more than 1,000 AC units to vulnerable households in multi-unit residential buildings; this enhancement builds on the successful pilot program which provided nearly 500 air conditioners to low-income vulnerable seniors.

Nutrition Programs Supporting Children and Youth

$6 million to expand the Student Nutrition Program to “155 new school communities with an additional reach to 62,000+ students for phase 3 and phase 4 of the Universal Student Nutrition Program in Toronto, and to support sustainability of existing student nutrition programs facing a projected 1.9% participant growth rate for the 2026/27 school year.”
$500,000 to expand the Universal Camp Nutrition Program to increase the number of participants and locations receiving a midmorning snack from 54,000 to 115,000 participants and from 89 to 185 camp locations. This funding will allow the expansion of the CampTO Nutrition Program to all of the City’s holiday and summer camp locations serving children and youth.

Seniors Services

Reallocation of $1.2 million from existing budgets to expand seniors services, including Homemakers and Nurses Services (to eliminate the waiting list for these home care support services), Extreme Cleaning, and financial management support services for vulnerable seniors. This item was added in the Mayor’s Budget.
Introduction of Toronto Public Library’s Reducing Seniors’ Social Isolation program to expand “library services in community-based locations where seniors live, to help seniors remain independent and connected.”

Public Transit

A third year of transit fare freezes;
$3.0013 million for the introduction of the TTC’s fare capping program, starting September 1, 2026. The TTC anticipates a revenue reduction of $3.1 million in 2026 to support the introduction of fare capping. Fare capping allows riders to have the benefits of a monthly pass without having to pay the full cost upfront for a pass at the same time major expenses like rent are due. After 47 paid trips in a calendar month, all additional rides will be free. The TTC plans to reduce the cap to 40 taps in 2027, deepening transit affordability.
Expansion of public transit services on TTC conventional and Wheel-Trans service;
$1.8035 million to support the Toronto Community Crisis Service—TTC Pilot program to increase crisis prevention services on the TTC

Read SPT and TTCriders’ joint post on the benefit of fare capping for low-income riders.

Check out TTCriders’ analysis of the 2026 City Budget.

Toronto Public Library

The budget supports the third and final year of the Toronto Public Library’s Open Hours Plan, expanding service hours in 17 more branches. By the Summer of 2026, all 100 branches will be open 7 days per week. Library open hours are expected to increase to 323,187 total hours in 2026, from a projected 296,311 in 2025.
$2.239 million, including $565,000 from City revenues, for three Toronto Public Library programs
Reducing Seniors’ Social Isolation program: As mentioned above under seniors services, this new program will expand “library services in community-based locations where seniors live, to help seniors remain independent and connected.”
Financial Empowerment Service: This service provides one-on-one, in-person support from community agency expert partners providing in-depth and personalized counselling to Torontonians on topics such as filing taxes, savings and debt levels, credit and budgeting, all within library branches. The service will expand to two additional library branches in 2026.
Social and Crisis Support Service: This service brings “essential mental health and crisis supports directly to vulnerable library customers”. It is delivered in partnership with Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) anchor partners. In 2026, it will be expanded to library branches in Scarborough and outside the downtown core.

Recreation

The City will expand early local registration for registered recreation programs to all 39 of its free centres by the Fall, building on the success of its pilot program. In 2025, early local registration was introduced at 10 free centres, boosting local participation in registered recreation programs from 24% to 67%. Free centres are located in lower income communities. Many residents in these areas have not been able to access registered recreation programs in their local centres. Early local registration was implemented to address this problem.
Recreation fees will be increased by an average of 2%---below the rate of inflation which is 2.5% for Toronto. Recreation fees are not charged at the City’s 39 free centres. In other City recreation centres, fees apply for registered programs, while drop-in programs remain free.

Nonprofit Community Services and Arts and Culture Sector

$782,900 inflationary increase, or 2.5%, for the Community Partnership and Investment Program (CPIP) to support community services delivered by nonprofit organizations. The total CPIP budget is $33.4065 million. The City supports over 225 nonprofits and 238 resident-led projects to deliver social services that “strengthen equity, safety, and local leadership” through CPIP.
$2 million to continue improving access to culture by increasing Toronto Arts Council (TAC) funding
$379,000 to continue to grow cultural programming through Local Arts Service Organizations (LASOs)
$224,200 to continue improving support for culture by providing an inflationary increase

Read SPT’s post on the 2026 City Budget’s contributions to nonprofit community services and community-based arts and culture programs.

Additional Areas

Reallocation of $542,000 from existing budgets to fully fund the Downtown East Action Plan. This item was added in the Mayor’s Budget.
$4.731 million increase, including $2.365 million from City revenues, to support the Multi-Year Staffing Plan for the Toronto Paramedic Services. The plan calls for “the addition of 362 positions between 2025 and 2028, including 347 front line positions (331 paramedics and 16 supervisors) to enhance emergency response capacity and better serve Torontonians.” The plan was created to address increased demand for paramedic services, related to the growth and aging of the population.
An increase to the property tax discount for small businesses to 20%—up from the current 15% discount—using property tax revenues from larger businesses. This increase was added in the Mayor’s Budget.
$300,000 for complimentary school trips for Toronto students to the Toronto Zoo; $100,000 included in the Mayor’s Budget and an additional $200,000 added by City Council.
$386,500 for the Stormwater Management Pilot Program to support access to rain barrels and incentivize green infrastructure for stormwater collection and management. The program will “improve the residents’ ability to reduce their water bills in the summer months and increase resilience against the risk of flooding.”
$1.2191 million to hire an additional 27 Traffic Agents to “better manage traffic flow within intersections and improve travel time across the city”, increasing the staff complement to 127 Traffic Agents in 2026 in support of the City’s Congestion Management Plan
Other budgets with new and enhanced services include the City Clerk’s Office, City Manager’s Office, Transportation Services, and Non-Program Expenditures

Read Toronto Environmental Alliance’s budget breakdown on what’s in the budget for the environment.

Police Budget Receives Another Substantial Increase

Despite continued community calls to reign in the police budget, the 2026 City budget includes another significant increase—an additional $93.8 million from the property tax base, amounting to a total net budget of $1.43 billion. The Toronto Police Service budget is the city’s second largest budget, after the TTC. Nearly one in every five property tax dollars go to the police—roughly equivalent to the combined tax funding for:

Parks & Recreation;
Toronto Shelter and Support Services;
Children's Services;
Seniors Services and Long-Term Care;
Social Development, Finance & Administration;
Toronto Public Health;
Toronto Public Library;
Toronto Zoo; and
Municipal Licensing & Standards.

Prioritizing the police budget leaves limited funding for other critical services, including non-police initiatives with proven track records at proactively supporting community safety. A small fraction of the police funding increase would have gone a long way to expand initiatives that get to the root causes of violence in our communities, facilitate youth employment and training, and support community well-being. These options were not considered in Council’s budget debate—despite strong community calls for a reallocation of police funding, particularly in light of the emerging corruption scandal within the Toronto Police Service.

For more on the police budget, read SPT’s post, Toronto Police Service: The One City Budget Line That Never Stops Growing.

Council Deepens Discount for Small Businesses

As announced in the Mayor’s Budget, small businesses will be receiving a deeper discount on their property taxes in 2026. Councillor Carroll moved a motion, supported by Council, to increase the discount to 20%, from its current rate of 15%. It will be funded through a 0.76% increase to property taxes on larger businesses. See the City’s Briefing Note for more on the small business tax discount.

Policy Motions

As part of its February 10 meeting, City Council passed other policy-related motions of note, including:

Councillor Morley moved motions on wages in the drop-in sector and enhanced snow clearing support for seniors and residents with disabilities:

City Council request the General Manager, Toronto Shelter and Support Services, to work with the drop-in sector to assemble a working group to review core wage principles, adequate resourcing and overall stabilization of the sector to help inform the 2027 budget, with a progress report back to the June 9, 2026 meeting of the Economic and Community Development Committee.
City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services, in consultation with relevant City Divisions, to report to the June 10, 2026 meeting of the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, on the feasibility, potential costs, and implementation considerations of providing enhanced snow clearing support for seniors and residents living with disabilities during declared major snow events, including options such as City-delivered services and financial assistance programs for eligible residents, with a pilot in 2027.

Councillor Matlow moved a motion on negotiating a share of the HST:

City Council request the City Manager to commence negotiations, in collaboration with other municipalities, with the Provincial and Federal governments for a share of the Harmonized Sales Tax commensurate with service downloads and municipal contributions to the economy in order to lessen reliance on property and land transfer taxes for social and civic infrastructure that benefits the entire country.

Councillor Bravo moved a motion regarding the Toronto Police Service:

City Council request the Toronto Police Service Board, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, and the Executive Director, Social Development, to provide, as part of its annual budget submission, starting with the 2027 budget, an accounting of budget impacts, including efficiencies and cost savings, from the following areas:
a. the approximately 40,000 crisis calls responded to by the Toronto Community Crisis Service since launching in 2022, which contributed to a 4.5 per cent decrease in overall mental health-related 911 calls;
b. the transfer to the City of the crossing guard program through Transportation Services;
c. redirecting the response to some noise complaints from Toronto Police Service to Municipal Licensing and Standards; and
d. increased traffic control done by the City through the traffic agents program.

Councillor Crisanti moved a motion regarding increasing affordability for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over:

City Council request the Toronto Transit Commission Board to explore fare scenarios to increase affordability for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over, including fare options ranging from free to $1 for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over during off-peak hours (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) on weekdays and all day on weekends, and to report back on options and associated financial and equity implications for consideration as part of the 2027 Budget process.

2026 City Budget Concludes With More Work To Do and Elections Ahead

The 2026 City Budget is the final budget in this term of Council, with the City of Toronto municipal election set to take place on October 26, 2026. Over the past three years, the Mayor and Council have supported more than $297 million in new and enhanced services, including investments of $227 million from City revenues. (See SPT’s budget highlights from 2024 and 2025.)

Strong community advocacy has been essential to these victories. For many years, SPT has worked with incredible residents, grassroots groups, and community organizations, supporting engagement and advocacy in the annual budget process. Collectively, we have called for and won better budgets that move us toward a more livable, equitable, and sustainable city for all. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue this work together.

On February 10, approximately 250 residents and community partners joined the 2026 Fund Our City Rally at City Hall, calling on Toronto City Council to support vital community programs and services in this year’s city budget, and to go farther to deepen investment in critical programs and services to fund a city where everyone can thrive.

A big thank you to the event co-sponsors: ACORN Toronto, Campaign 2000 End Child & Family Poverty, Centre for Independent Living in Toronto, Don Valley Community Legal Services, Family Service Toronto, Federation of Metro Tenants’ Association, GTA Disability Coalition, North York Harvest Food Bank, South Asian Women’s Rights Organization, TNG Community Services, Toronto and York Region Labour Council, Toronto Community Benefits Network, Toronto Public Library Workers Union CUPE 4948, TTCriders, YWCA Toronto, and others. Many thanks to everyone who braved the cold to send a strong message to Toronto City Council.

We recognize the important investments in public and community services in the 2026 City Budget and the significant enhancements introduced in recent years and safeguarded in this year’s budget. We are on the right path to build a better, more equitable and livable city. But there is more work to do to address the multiple crises impacting communities across Toronto. We look forward to continuing our collective work to advocate for policies and priorities–at all levels of government–that address the deep social and economic inequities in our city and help create a Toronto where everyone can thrive.