ArchiveDecember 2015

City of Toronto budget binders in the press gallery at Toronto city hall. Since I started obsessively following things, the City of Toronto’s budget process has, most years, been a lot like going to a boring restaurant with a fixed menu. City hall bureaucrats would present a balanced budget, complete with much of the new spending council had previously requested. Then, the mayor and councillors...

Jennifer Keesmaat. Last week, in the midst of yet another Toronto City Council debate about a strategy to deal with the city’s affordable housing crisis, Coun. Joe Cressy turned to chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat and asked her to help with some math. At the core of Cressy’s query was the issue of inclusionary zoning, which used in more 200 communities in North America — but not Toronto — to build...

If the city is going to successfully tackle the issue of gridlock and faltering transit, council is going to have to find a way to cover the bill. Mayor John Tory took a big step forward last week when he announced the creation of a new fund to pay for transit and affordable housing in Toronto. By endorsing the introduction of a new residential property tax levy, Tory shifted the conversation at...