The policy answer: hunger is an income problem.

People aren’t going hungry in Toronto because there’s no food. They’re going hungry because rent takes everything and nothing is left for groceries. So my food-security plan starts with what’s draining people’s pockets, and it’s a plan, not a slogan.

• Create more job opportunities through the city of Toronto programs.
• Cut the biggest bills the city controls.
  • Free TTC puts transit money back into every household’s grocery budget.
  • Affordable homes on public land and cutting the child-care subsidy waitlist do the same.
• Make the Student Nutrition Program universal. Every child in every school gets a healthy meal, funded properly and stacked with federal school-food dollars.
• Turn city spaces into food hubs. Libraries, rec centres, community housing and vacant city buildings become places for low-cost markets, community kitchens and food bank distribution.
• Grow food on public land. Expand community gardens and urban farms, and permit neighbourhood markets in food deserts, especially in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke.
• Fund the people already doing the work. Food banks and community agencies get stable multi-year funding, not year-to-year scrambles.

What I’ll fight for (not a mayor’s power): raising Ontario Works and ODSP rates, which are provincial; more federal disability and income supports; and real grocery competition, which is federal.

How I’ll help people now:

• In my first budget, emergency food funding for food banks and community agencies is protected and stable from day one.
• Rec centres and libraries open until 2 a.m. as distribution points, so no one has to cross the city for help.
• And 311 becomes one number that connects anyone who’s hungry to the nearest food, rent help and income support that day.

” Toronto will no longer throw its people away.”

I’ll protect Toronto the way an engineer protects a structure: know where the load comes from, and make sure it never lands on the people inside.

My rule with Queen’s Park is simple. Where our interests meet, I’ll be the best partner they’ve ever had. Where they reach into what belongs to Toronto, I’ll push back firmly.

Partnership means bringing the province ready-to-build projects, not complaints: transit, housing on public land, repairing schools. Those are wins they can share in, and wins Toronto needs funded.

Pushing back means four things. First, evidence: every provincial decision that affects Toronto gets a public impact report on cost, safety, and who pays. Second, the law: when a decision puts residents at risk or breaks the rules, the city will defend itself in court, as residents successfully did on bike lanes. Third, allies: I’ll work with mayors across Ontario, because overreach in Toronto today is overreach in their towns tomorrow. Fourth, the people: I’ll consult communities first, so when I tell the premier no, I’m speaking with a mandate.

A good relationship doesn’t mean the premier likes the mayor. It means Toronto gets what it’s owed. Public land stays public. Our streets are designed by our residents. And no deal gets made behind closed doors.

Residents are right. Too often consultation happens after the decision is already made. People are shown a finished plan, given two minutes at a microphone, and never hear back. That isn’t consultation. It’s notification.

As mayor, I’ll change four things.

• Consult first, decide second. Communities are brought in at the start, when the shape of a project can still change, not at the end when only the paint colour is left.
• Real time and plain language. Meetings in the evening and on weekends, in the languages people speak, with information written for residents, not lawyers. And I’ll go door to door to reach renters, newcomers and shift workers, not only those who can attend a Tuesday afternoon meeting.
• A public report back. After every consultation, the city publishes what residents said and exactly how it changed the outcome. If a suggestion wasn’t adopted, residents deserve to know why.
• Community benefits in writing. When a development comes in, the community helps decide what it gets in return: affordable units, parks, child care, local jobs. Those commitments are written into the agreement, not left as promises.

People lead the government. Government serves the people. That starts with listening before deciding.

In a city this rich, no one should go without care because they don’t speak English, can’t read a form, can’t afford the bus, or are afraid to ask.

Hospitals and doctors are funded by the province, and I’ll push hard for more of them in the neighbourhoods that have too few. But the city runs services that keep people healthy every day, and I’ll make sure they reach everyone.

• Bring services to people. Mobile health and public-health clinics in underserved neighbourhoods, in partnership with hospitals, universities and community health centres. Services in libraries and community hubs, where people already go.
• One door, real help. Plain-language information in the languages Torontonians speak, and trained navigators who help people find and access the services they need, not just a phone number.
• Care in a crisis. Expand the mental-health crisis response, so a person in distress is met by a trained responder, and keep paramedics properly staffed.
• Access for all, without fear. Residents can use city services regardless of immigration status. Seniors and people with disabilities get accessible transit, help to age at home, and quality city-run long-term care. And free transit means no one misses an appointment because they can’t pay the fare.

My pledge is simple: every resident valued equally, regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender or colour. Equal access is how that pledge becomes real.

Housing is the crisis behind every other crisis in this city. I’ll act on two tracks: build what we need for the long term, and help people today.

Long term, the city builds.

• Public land stays public. I will never sell or give city land to developers. We’ll build homes on it through community land trusts and long-term land leases, so families can own a home at a fraction of the market price while the land stays public forever.
• Affordable homes come first. Approvals move faster for projects that deliver real affordability.
• Tiny homes and modular homes, built fast. Well-designed tiny homes in backyards, alongside garden and laneway suites, and small-home communities on vacant city land, with proper heat, water, safety and support services.
• Innovation that builds faster, cheaper and better. I’m an engineer who researches stronger, longer-lasting building materials. Factory-built homes assembled in months, pre-approved designs that skip months of permitting, empty offices turned into homes, and Toronto as a testing ground where our universities and local builders pilot new methods on public land.
• Speculators pay their share. A stronger vacant-home tax and higher taxes on luxury properties and high-value sales, with every dollar going to affordable housing.

Right now, we help people stay housed.

• Eviction prevention: emergency rent help and free legal support for tenants facing eviction or bad-faith renovictions.
• Rent supports for families on the edge, and faster access to social and supportive housing.
• Work with the people already doing this work. Faith groups, non-profits, co-ops and neighbourhood organizations get land, faster permits and real partnership from the city.
• A one-year freeze on residential property taxes, and free transit that puts money back in people’s pockets every month.

Toronto will no longer throw its people away. A home is not a luxury. It’s the foundation of every life in this city.

I’ve heard the concerns: higher hydro bills, noise, diesel fumes, water use, and deals made behind closed doors. Those concerns are real, and residents deserve to be heard before anything is decided, not after.

So my approach is caution first, people first.

• No approval without consultation. Before any data centre is approved, the people who live and work nearby are consulted at the start, with plain-language information about how much power and water it will use, how much noise it will make, and what it means for their bills. And the city reports back on what was heard and how it changed the decision.
• No secret deals. Every agreement is made public.
• Residents never pay the cost. If a project goes ahead, the company pays for any grid upgrades, not families through their hydro bills. And it can never take power capacity we need for homes, transit and schools.
• Protect health and neighbourhoods. Kept away from homes, strict limits on noise and backup generators, and no strain on our water supply.

If it doesn’t serve Toronto, the answer is no. Any project must show real benefits for the community, such as local jobs, waste heat used to warm homes and community centres, and a fair return to the city.

I’m an engineer. I’ll judge every proposal on the evidence and on what the affected community tells us. Not on what the company wants.

Newcomers build this city. They drive our buses, care for our seniors, build our homes and start our businesses. My pledge is to value every resident equally, and that includes every newcomer, whatever their status.

• Services without fear. Every city service, from shelters and libraries to recreation, child care and public health, will be open to all residents regardless of immigration status. No one will be asked for papers to get help, and the city will not share residents’ status information.
• One door for settlement. Newcomer hubs in libraries and community centres, with trained navigators who speak residents’ languages and help with health care, housing, jobs, school registration and legal support, working with the settlement agencies and community groups already doing this work.
• Health care for the uninsured. Strengthen city support for community health centres that serve people without health coverage, and press the province to end gaps in coverage.
• Fair work. I taught international students in Ontario’s colleges, and I earned my first engineering degree abroad. I know what it means when skills go unrecognized. The city will hire on skills, offer paid placements and mentorship, and press the province and professional bodies to recognize foreign credentials fairly. We’ll fund legal clinics that help migrant workers recover stolen wages.
• Safe housing. Crack down on landlords who exploit students and newcomers with unsafe, overcrowded rentals, and give tenants support to report abuse without fear.
• Refugees. Toronto will welcome refugee claimants with dignity, and I’ll insist Ottawa pay its fair share of the cost of shelter and support.

Food insecurity is both an immediate emergency and a long-term affordability problem; both need to be addressed.

An action I would take right away is strengthening the City’s coordination with the local food banks like Daily Bread Food Bank, FoodReach, Second Harvest, shelters, and other organizations on the front lines of this issue.

I would also work with the federal and provincial governments to ensure Toronto’s Student Nutrition Programme is universally accessible and sustainable so that young people are not going through the school day hungry.

However, food banks cannot be a permanent solution to people struggling with finances. As mayor, I would use my previous connections and parliamentary work to press Ottawa and Queen’s Park to raise benefits such as Ontario Works, ODSP, the Canadian Disability Benefit, OAS, and GIS so people relying on them can afford nutritious food.

At the municipal level, I’ll increase of Ontario-grown and Canadian food purchased for shelters, schools, and city-supported programs.

We also need to make sure that nutritious food is more accessible and less expensive for everyday Torontonians. My plan would be to double Toronto’s network of about 160 public markets by 2030. To also establish a Toronto Public Markets Corporation as a one-stop shop for vendors and community partners, reopen St. Patrick’s Market, and change the zoning and city rules to make it easier for local food retailers, markets, and producers to operate and succeed.

Food insecurity is also ultimately tied to the cost of housing and the amount of income residents have after paying their rent or mortgage. Our food strategy will be most effective alongside our plans for affordable housing, the unhoused, stronger neighbourhoods and growing business investment powering a strong job market that makes Toronto once again the economic engine of Canada. We will help people eat today, while setting conditions for stronger employment, rising incomes and a growing economy that ensure fewer people are dependent on emergency food in future.

Toronto needs a mayor who can stand up for the city without turning every disagreement with Queen’s Park into a political battle. The City of Toronto Act says the relationship between Toronto and Ontario should be based on mutual respect, consultation, and co-operation. I would start from those principles and aim to ensure that Toronto takes the decisions that matter to our neighbourhoods, streets, services, and municipal assets.

I will defend the City’s authority and its ability to make decisions for the well-being of our community, while insisting that Queen’s Park consult Toronto before exercising any overriding power. However, I will be realistic about the law. Provincial legislation can technically override municipal decisions. A mayor therefore needs to ensure we have good working relations with Queen’s Park, negotiated agreements when possible, and the ability to make Toronto’s case before decisions are imposed on us.

On the biggest challenges facing Toronto, we actually need Queen’s Park at the table. Supportive housing, transit, economic growth, infrastructure, mental health, and addiction treatment all require a partnership with the provincial government.

My New Way Home Plan for Toronto’s Unhoused, for example, specifically calls for Ontario Health-backed clinical supports, while my TTC Turnaround plan calls for a permanent funding framework that will also require funding from other governments.

I have taken the same approach on economic policy: Toronto succeeds when we work with Queen’s Park and the federal government in Ottawa, not around or against them. My tariff-response plan explicitly calls for coordinated action with both governments.

As mayor I will put Toronto’s priorities on the table early, then negotiate forcefully and effectively for resources and authority the city needs. We are committed to reporting publicly any commitments each government has made.

The problem with Toronto’s consultation system is that residents are often asked for their views after major decisions have effectively been made. I want to make consultation move upstream – to give power back to residents and neighbourhoods.

My Missing Middle plan would shift Toronto away from reactive, site-by-site negotiations toward neighbourhood-level planning; we need residents, small businesses and community organizations to help shape the rules in advance.

Neighbourhoods should have a major say in where growth should go, what it should look like, how our streetscapes evolve, where commercial uses belong, and what public improvements should accompany new housing. The ultimate goal is stronger neighbourhood input at a stage when it can actually change outcomes, not another meeting after the proposal was settled.

I would also put more City planners directly into communities rather than concentrating the majority of the decision-making at City Hall or in the Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough satellites. Residents should have a clear point of contact, understand what we can and cannot change, and be able to see how their feedback is reflected in the final plan. My housing policy specifically calls for more planners embedded in neighbourhoods and for community empowerment.

At the same time, meaningful consultation cannot mean that every time there is a compliant housing proposal it gets trapped in years of repetitive process. My plan would give compliant projects predictable approvals while focusing public participation on the larger decisions that actually shape a neighbourhood.

Consult earlier, show people what changed because they participated, set clear neighbourhood rules, then follow them.

No one should miss out on health care or an essential service because the system is too complicated to navigate.

The Mayor does not run Ontario’s health-care system, and I would not pretend otherwise. But Toronto does control important points of contact: Toronto Public Health, paramedics, shelters, crisis response, and many community services, and the Mayor has an obligation to make those systems work together with Ontario Health, hospitals, and community providers.

I would start with mental health. Toronto’s Community Crisis Service is already available 24 hours a day and helps residents not only through a crisis, but also with case management, referrals and navigation to health care, food, shelter and employment. I have proposed making that service permanent (as the Toronto Community Support Service), expanding its mandate and increasing its budget in 2027 to at least $45 million so people in crisis are connected to care rather than simply passed from one system to another.

We also need services to be accessible in practice. Toronto Public Health already has a mandate to reduce health inequities and focus additional support on communities facing systemic or structural barriers. As Mayor, I would expect City services to provide clear information, accessible points of contact, appropriate language support, and measurable service standards so residents know where to go and how long they should expect to wait.

Finally, I would use the Mayor’s office to bring the Province, hospitals, community agencies and City services to the same table and hold everyone, including the City, accountable for results.

Toronto will not solve housing affordability without building substantially more housing, but people struggling with rent today cannot wait ten years for supply to catch up. We need to do both.

First, we need to build at scale. My affordable housing plan would have Toronto act directly as a public builder, using public land, standardized mid-rise construction and federal housing programs to reach 3,000 affordable housing starts in my first year and up to 10,000 a year by 2029. The City would retain the land while completed housing would be operated by Toronto Community Housing, non-profits, co-ops, and land trusts.

Second, we need to make it much easier for everyone else to build. My Missing Middle plan would legalize more low-rise and multi-unit housing by right, replace unnecessarily complicated zoning rules with predictable building envelopes, provide pre-approved designs, and move compliant projects through approvals on a firm timetable.

For projects that meet the Official Plan, my goal is approval within 60 days rather than years of negotiation. For 100% affordable projects, the target would be even faster, 30-day approvals for projects meeting pre-approved standards.

For people who need help now, renters have to be part of the housing strategy. More than half of Toronto rents. I have committed to a Toronto Renter Strategy built around affordability targets, anti-displacement protections and stronger enforcement of housing standards, along with a public clock on every permit so residents and builders can see where applications are being delayed.

I have also committed to creating pathways to home ownership for young Torontonians and newcomers.

And for people at the sharpest end of the crisis, we have to stop treating emergency shelter as housing. My New Way Home plan would create a City landlord desk, portable housing support, guaranteed rent and a damage fund, with a target of securing 1,000 private-market units by summer 2027, while connecting people who need it to permanent supportive housing and health services.

The long-term answer is more supply of affordable, supportive housing. The immediate answer is protecting renters, speeding up housing that is ready to be built, and moving people out of expensive temporary accommodation into stable homes. Toronto needs to do all of these things at the same time.

Toronto should welcome the investment, technology and jobs that come with the digital economy, but data centres cannot get a blank cheque on electricity, water, employment land or neighbourhood impacts.

City Council has already ordered a comprehensive review of data centres, including their impact on electricity demand, Toronto Hydro, water and wastewater systems, noise, heat, climate, employment lands and surrounding communities. As Mayor, I would complete that work quickly and turn it into clear, predictable rules rather than dealing with major projects one at a time.

First, every major data-centre proposal should demonstrate that the electricity and water capacity it requires can be supplied without compromising reliability or shifting unreasonable infrastructure costs onto Toronto residents and businesses. I would work directly with Toronto Hydro and the Province on those assessments, because decisions about access to the electricity grid cannot be made by City Hall alone.

Secondly, location matters. Data centres can occupy significant employment land while creating relatively few permanent on-site jobs compared with some other uses. Our planning rules should consider the economic return, infrastructure requirements, noise and heat impacts, and compatibility with surrounding neighbourhoods before major facilities are approved.

Third, I want Toronto to benefit from this investment. My broader economic strategy is about attracting new industries and investment while strengthening Canadian technological capacity and digital sovereignty. Where data centres strengthen Canadian infrastructure, support Toronto-based innovation and create economic value here, the City should be able to move quickly. Where they impose disproportionate costs on the grid, water system, or local community, we should have clear grounds to require mitigation or say no.

Toronto succeeds when newcomers succeed.

The City cannot determine immigration status, issue work permits, or run Ontario’s health-care system, but it can make sure people are not lost between governments and agencies when they need help.

My first priority would be access and navigation. Toronto already has a Newcomer Office and settlement kiosks that connect residents with information on health care, employment, education, housing, language services, and other supports. I would strengthen that model, so newcomers have a clear point of entry into City and community services, with measurable standards for referrals and follow-up rather than simply handing people another phone number.

For undocumented Torontonians, the City already has the AccessTO policy, which says most municipal services should be available regardless of immigration status and without residents being asked for proof of status unless the law requires it. I would ensure that policy is applied consistently across City divisions, that front-line staff understand it, and that residents know where to go when they encounter barriers.

On employment, Toronto needs to do a better job of connecting newcomer talent with opportunity. My economic strategy focuses on making Toronto a place where careers advance, businesses grow, and newcomers can build better lives. I would use the City’s employment services, business partnerships, and relationships with major employers, universities, and colleges to improve connections between newcomers and jobs, while pressing Queen’s Park and Ottawa on barriers that are outside municipal jurisdiction, including credential recognition and work authorization.

My broader platform specifically identifies pathways for young Torontonians and new Canadians so we can make Toronto a place where careers can move forward.

Food insecurity requires helping people today while addressing the pressures that are pushing more families into crisis.

I will continue and build on Toronto’s school nutrition programs and support food banks, community organizations and the frontline services people rely on.

As Toronto grows, we also need to make sure our network of community and social supports grows with it. That means planning for enough neighbourhood services, community spaces and support capacity so population growth does not leave existing systems overwhelmed.

I also propose Crunch & Munch Toronto: using recoverable heat from data centers and other suitable infrastructure to support privately operated, year-round greenhouses and local food production. The City would help enable the infrastructure, approvals and partnerships, while farmers and businesses grow and sell the food.

The goal is to help people now, strengthen the support systems they depend on, and build a more resilient and affordable Toronto for the future.

Toronto must be prepared to stand up for itself, but I do not believe that means being in constant conflict with the Province.

As mayor, I would establish a professional, predictable working relationship with the Ontario government, with regular meetings between senior officials and clear agreements on shared priorities such as housing, transit, infrastructure, public safety and healthcare. Where provincial action threatens Toronto’s interests or local decision-making, I would make our case firmly, publicly and with evidence, and use every appropriate legal and political tool available. But where we can work together, we should.

I also believe Toronto should work much more closely with other municipalities. Many of the challenges we face — housing, infrastructure, procurement, climate resilience, cybersecurity and the transition to AI and robotics — are not uniquely Toronto problems.

Toronto has an opportunity to become a leader in AI-enabled government and use that position to build a new kind of municipal cooperation. Rather than every municipality independently developing the same digital systems, we could develop open standards, share proven tools, coordinate procurement and allow other municipalities to adopt solutions that work.

That could benefit Toronto while also strengthening municipalities across Ontario and Canada. And if Toronto develops better ways to deliver services, reduce administrative costs or plan infrastructure, I want those improvements to be available to other governments—not locked away in a City Hall technology silo.

The same principle should apply to the provincial and federal governments. A more capable Toronto can help make government at every level more productive.

My objective would therefore be straightforward: protect Toronto’s ability to make local decisions, build strong working relationships with the Province and Ottawa, and make Toronto a municipality that others want to work with because we solve problems and share what works.

Technology should give us greater capacity to do that—but the objective is ultimately very practical: better government, lower costs and better services for people.

Residents should not have to wonder whether their feedback was considered or whether the important decisions were already made before they were consulted.

As mayor, I would make public consultation earlier, more accessible and more accountable.

I would build on Toronto’s existing development application system to create an interactive Toronto Building Map. Residents could see what is proposed in their neighbourhood, explore building designs, understand potential impacts on traffic, sunlight, parks and infrastructure, and follow how proposals change throughout the approval process.

I would also introduce an optional My Toronto AI assistant that residents could personalize to their neighbourhood and priorities. It could explain technical planning documents in plain language, translate information, notify residents of relevant proposals, help them explore alternatives and prepare feedback for their approval. Residents would remain in control, and participation would always be available without technology.

But accessibility is only half the solution. We need to close the feedback loop.

For significant developments, I would establish a public “You Said, We Did” record accompanying planning recommendations. It would identify the major concerns residents raised, what changes were made, what alternatives were considered and why certain requests could not be accommodated.

I would encourage developers to engage communities while designs are still flexible, rather than waiting until formal applications are submitted. We would pilot the improved process across different neighbourhoods, measure participation and track whether public input actually influences development outcomes.

Consultation cannot mean that everyone gets everything they ask for. We still have to balance housing, accessibility, infrastructure, environmental considerations and the broader public interest.

My goal is to make residents active participants in shaping Toronto—not simply an audience invited to comment on decisions already taking shape. Technology can help us accomplish that, while people remain responsible for the decisions.

I believe equitable health care begins with a simple question: can people actually get the help they need?

A hospital, clinic or mental health service may exist, but that means very little to someone who cannot afford the trip, does not know where to go or struggles to navigate the system.

While Ontario is primarily responsible for health care, Toronto can do much more to remove the barriers between residents and essential services.

First, I would make the TTC part of our health-care access strategy. Working with the Province and health-care providers, I would explore a targeted Health Travel Credit, offering discounted TTC fares up to a reasonable monthly limit for eligible residents attending medical appointments, treatments, rehabilitation or mental health services. We could build on existing fare assistance programs, beginning with people facing the greatest financial and mobility barriers.

Second, I would upgrade TTC navigation to help residents find health care, not just transit stops. Subway maps, station displays, the TTC trip planner and accessible printed information could identify nearby hospitals, community health centres, public health services, mental health resources and other essential services. Residents should be able to see how to reach these locations, including accessible routes, and where to find further assistance.

Third, I would connect these improvements to a broader citywide service navigation system. An optional My Toronto AI assistant could help residents find appropriate services, understand eligibility, plan accessible trips and complete applications in their preferred language. People would always have access to human assistance through existing community organizations, libraries and City services.

I would also work with hospitals, community health organizations and the Province to identify neighbourhoods where residents face the greatest gaps in access, then coordinate mobile services, community partnerships and transportation improvements.

We would start with practical pilots, establish clear costs and eligibility, and measure whether residents are reaching appointments more reliably and accessing services closer to home.

My goal is not simply to build more programs. It is to connect the services we already have so that Toronto becomes easier to navigate, especially for the people who need help the most.

Technology should help us remove barriers, transportation should connect people to opportunity and essential services, and no resident should be left behind because the system was too difficult or expensive to navigate.”

I believe Toronto’s housing affordability crisis needs to be addressed on two timelines: helping people find and keep affordable housing today, while building a much better-connected housing system for the future.

Affordability is not simply about reducing construction costs or approving buildings faster. It is also about where people can afford to live, how they reach those homes, and whether they can access employment, education, health care and opportunity without spending a fortune on transportation.

First, I would strengthen immediate housing assistance, eviction prevention, tenant protections and access to existing affordable housing. We need to make it easier for residents to find available housing, understand eligibility and navigate applications, with both human assistance and optional AI-supported services.

Second, I would connect our housing strategy directly to transportation planning through my Connected Corridors approach.

Toronto should work with neighbouring municipalities, Metrolinx, Ontario and the federal government to coordinate housing development with TTC, GO Transit, regional rail and future high-speed rail connections. This would expand the range of communities where families could realistically establish a home while remaining connected to employment and economic opportunities across the region.

That also means improving local transit connections, accessible stations and the final kilometres between people’s homes and the transportation network. A lower-cost home is not truly affordable if transportation consumes the savings.

Third, I would improve housing delivery by coordinating land availability, infrastructure, financing, approvals and construction. AI-assisted planning, prefabrication and robotics could help reduce delays and costs, while partnerships with non-profit, co-operative and private housing providers would expand the range of housing options.

I would also make better use of publicly owned land and prioritize mixed-income, family-sized and accessible housing near existing and planned transportation corridors.

Finally, I would measure affordability using more than the price of a home. We should examine combined housing and transportation costs, commuting time, housing availability and access to essential services.

My long-term GigaCity strategy is about creating a region where people have more choices—not forcing everyone to compete for housing within a limited number of expensive neighbourhoods.

The goal is not simply to build more housing. It is to make more places genuinely affordable to live in, while keeping people connected to the opportunities that make a good life possible.”

I believe data centres will become essential infrastructure for our economy, much like electricity and telecommunications. But we need to think much more creatively about where we build them, how we use them and what additional value they can provide to Toronto.

The question is not simply how many data centres we can attract. It is how we can turn computing infrastructure into more housing opportunities, more affordable energy, more jobs and a better city.

First, not every data centre needs to be located in Toronto. Our hospitals, universities, research institutions, financial sector and emerging quantum technologies will increasingly require specialized computing, sometimes close to where that computing is used.

However, large AI training facilities and many other computing operations can be located elsewhere in Ontario, connected through high-capacity fibre networks. Advances in distributed computing, AI-enabled telecommunications and eventually 6G should give us additional options as we approach the 2030s.

Second, I would explore underground data centres where the engineering and economics make sense.

Rather than automatically using valuable surface land for large computing facilities, we should examine opportunities to place some infrastructure below ground, potentially allowing the surface to support housing, parks, employment and other community uses.

Excavation also produces substantial quantities of earth and rock. Instead of treating all of that material as waste, we could investigate its safe reuse in land preparation, flood protection, infrastructure and potentially engineered land-expansion projects.

Toronto’s waterfront demonstrates how major infrastructure and land engineering can unlock opportunities for new communities. I want us to consider these possibilities together rather than planning each project in isolation.

Third, I would make data-centre heat recovery a major part of our energy strategy.

Data centres generate substantial heat. With appropriate heat pumps and district energy networks, that heat could help provide space heating and hot water for surrounding homes, apartments, offices and institutions.

We could also investigate heated sidewalks and pedestrian areas near hospitals, transit stations and other priority locations to help manage snow and ice during winter.

My longer-term Crunch & Munch Toronto concept would explore using recovered heat for year-round greenhouses and food production.

Imagine a new community where computing infrastructure supports research and employment while also contributing to lower building-heating costs and more reliable local energy services.

Fourth, I would connect this to the future of our natural gas industry.

As district energy and electrification reduce some local heating demand, we should work with energy companies such as Enbridge, Ontario and the federal government to explore other commercially viable uses for natural gas, including industrial applications and LNG export opportunities where appropriate.

I do not believe modernizing our energy system should mean abandoning the skilled workers and businesses that helped build it. We should create opportunities for them to participate in the next generation of energy infrastructure.

Finally, I would establish a Toronto Compute and Energy Strategy, coordinating land use, electricity capacity, cooling, water requirements, fibre connectivity, district heating and regional economic development.

I would work with Toronto Hydro, utilities, neighbouring municipalities, universities and private investors to identify potential sites, evaluate underground construction, map recoverable heat and pilot projects with measurable public benefits.

Major data centres should meet clear expectations for environmental performance, infrastructure costs and community impacts.

My objective is to make Toronto a global centre of intelligence without sacrificing the land, energy and resources our residents need.

We should be asking how one investment can solve several problems at once: computing for research, heat for buildings, better use of land, opportunities for new communities and more productive employment.

That is how I believe Toronto should plan for the future—not as a collection of separate projects, but as a connected city where infrastructure works harder for the people who live here.

I believe we need to rethink newcomer settlement as a long-term process, not simply something that happens when a person first arrives in Toronto.

Even residents born here can struggle to navigate our health care, housing, education and employment systems. For someone arriving in a new country, potentially learning a new language and adapting to different institutions, that transition can take years or even more than a decade.

First, I would start helping people before they arrive, wherever possible.

Through Toronto’s sister-city and international partnerships, we could work with educational institutions, employers and community organizations to provide reliable information about housing costs, transportation, employment, professional qualifications and essential services. This would help people make informed decisions while also preparing Toronto’s institutions and communities to welcome them.

Second, I would recognize that different newcomers need different pathways.

A permanent resident with professional qualifications may need credential recognition and employment connections. An international student may need housing, education and workplace guidance. Refugees may need immediate stability, health care and trauma-informed assistance. Migrant workers may need employment protections, while undocumented residents need confidential access to eligible services and legal information. Language assistance must be available across these groups.

Third, I would make navigating Toronto easier for everyone.

I would connect existing settlement agencies, libraries, community centres and City services through a more accessible navigation system. An optional, multilingual My Toronto AI assistant could help residents understand services, prepare applications and find appropriate assistance, with human support always available.

Most importantly, that assistance should not disappear after the first year. Someone may find employment initially but need retraining five years later, assistance when starting a family, or help navigating housing and health care as their circumstances change.

Fourth, I would connect settlement to long-term economic opportunity.

As Toronto becomes increasingly electrified and adopts AI, robotics and automation, we should provide practical access to modern tools, technical training, apprenticeships and entrepreneurship opportunities. Newcomers bring valuable knowledge and experience. Our responsibility is to help them apply and expand those abilities within our economy.

I would work with the provincial and federal governments, employers and settlement organizations to coordinate these services, reduce duplication and measure outcomes over time, including employment, housing stability, access to services and economic mobility.

My goal is not to create a separate system that people remain dependent on. It is to make Toronto’s systems easier to understand, easier to access and capable of supporting people as their lives evolve.

Whether someone arrived last month, ten years ago or was born here, they should be able to find the help they need and the opportunities to build a better future.

Food bank visits in this city are at record highs not because people have stopped working, but because incomes haven’t kept pace with rent, groceries, and transit. Any serious answer has to work on two timelines at once: what fixes the structural problem, and what gets someone through this week. We need to fix how the City finances itself — it needs revenue sources that are tied to economic growth — a property tax base is insufficient and inappropriate.

On policy:

• I will press the province to raise social assistance rates to reflect the real cost of living in Toronto, because no amount of food bank funding closes a gap that large on its own.
• I will protect and grow City funding for frontline agencies rather than treating it as the first line cut when budgets tighten, and I will change how that funding reaches the ground. Too much of it currently flows through intermediary layers that never reach the grassroots organizations actually serving residents, and I’ll push for direct-access funding streams so dollars land where the need is.
• I will accelerate deeply affordable and supportive housing using a Homes First policy because housing and food costs are the same math problem for most families.
• I will expand school nutrition funding, since hunger doesn’t wait for a family’s income to stabilize and it shows up first in how a kid performs in class.
• And I will defend transit affordability programs like Fair Pass, which quietly determine whether someone can get to a job or a food bank at all.

On helping people now: City Hall doesn’t have to wait for a provincial rate increase to act. I will direct emergency bridge funding to frontline agencies facing this fall and winter’s demand, use the City’s convening power to coordinate agencies and donors so capacity gets to the neighbourhoods with the worst gaps first, and publish neighbourhood-level reporting on where food security investment is actually landing, so funding announcements translate into services residents can point to, not just headlines.

Food insecurity is not a standalone problem. Any solution has to be combined with housing, employment, community outreach, mental health and addiction treatment access. A key is integrated coordination.

Food insecurity is a policy failure, not a charity file, and I’ll treat it as an outcome to measure and reduce rather than a service quietly outsourced to volunteers and donors.

The relationship with Queen’s Park has to run on two tracks: defend what belongs to the City, and pursue relentlessly what only the province can deliver. Too often those get treated as opposites, when the real failure mode is doing neither well.

I have spent four decades as an advocate for policy change and know how to achieve results. I have worked in 15 countries with presidents, prime ministers, ministers and senior staff implementing new laws and have represented a host of groups in Canada, successfully achieving legislative and regulatory changes.

On protecting Toronto: the pattern of the last few years has been the province legislating uniformly and letting municipalities absorb the consequences. And Bill 97 carved out a broad, retroactive exclusion for provincial political-office records while tightening rules at the municipal level. We are decades behind in transparency.

Provincial intervention in development approvals is a very real problem. At the municipal level, we have seen zoning changes that overrode neighbourhood secondary plans moved forward with minimal genuine consultation, and residents were left trying to inject their own voice into a process that had already been decided elsewhere. The elimination of parking minimums assumed a level of transit service that doesn’t exist yet in places like Scarborough, where a car isn’t a convenience, it’s how people get to work and get their kids to school. Yet, even when Council has acted to defend residents’ interests, recourse to the province can override Council’s decisions. We need to be public and loud on these issues.

I will resist policy that’s designed for downtown assumptions and applied to the whole city without regard to local conditions.

We have to distinguish what the City can do on its own versus what the province can do. Where we can fix things locally, we will do so. However, the fact is the City is a creation of the province. Ultimately, the province can override the City. For this reason, we need a mayor who knows how to influence other levels of government. I am that person.

On working productively: transit is the clearest case where partnership is the only path. The Eglinton East LRT and treating the Stouffville and Lakeshore East GO corridors as functional rapid transit now, not in 2030, both depend on provincial capital, and I will press for both relentlessly.

Same with social assistance rates that haven’t kept pace with the cost of living here. We also have to integrate health care supports at the City level — we have siloed programming that, with better central coordination, could be much more effective. We need a City-based coordinator that wraps in representatives from other governments where it makes sense to do so.

But I won’t build the City’s plan around provincial timelines I can’t control. Where a municipal lever exists, like arterial bus rapid transit, I’ll use it regardless of what the province decides, so residents aren’t left waiting on someone else’s schedule for basic service.

I’ve actively participated by deputing against development proposals that breach basic planning principles and have been opposed by residents’ associations. The complaint isn’t that consultation doesn’t happen. It’s that it doesn’t visibly change anything. One resident put it exactly right at a recent forum: even after reading staff reports, writing submissions, and showing up to open houses, the honest question people are left with is whether any of it actually moves the decision, or whether the process runs on a parallel track that converges on the same outcome regardless.

Four things need to change.

• First, adopted Secondary Plans have to be treated as binding direction in zoning and permit evaluation, not selectively applied reference material that gets set aside when a development doesn’t fit it. If a plan was adopted through a public process, it should carry weight in the next one.
• Second, the documentation developers submit to the Committee of Adjustment has to be accurate, with real consequences when it isn’t. I support closing that gap, because a consultation process is meaningless if decisions get made on submissions residents never had an accurate chance to respond to.
• Third, every major consultation should end with a published account of what specifically changed as a result of resident input, or a clear explanation of why it didn’t, not just a record that an open house occurred. Right now silence is the default response, and that’s what convinces people the process is theatre.
• Fourth, community associations and residents shouldn’t be expected to have planning-department-level expertise to meaningfully participate; the City should resource plain-language summaries of technical reports so people are engaging with the substance of a proposal, not just its jargon.

None of this slows down housing that genuinely fits a neighbourhood’s plan. It makes sure the plan means something before a shovel goes in the ground.

Access to care in this city breaks down less often at the front door of a hospital and more in the maze before it. A person has to figure out which of a dozen agencies handles your need, in a language you’re comfortable in, without a car, without paid time off to sit in a waiting room. That navigation burden falls hardest on newcomers, seniors, people with disabilities, and anyone already stretched thin, and it’s largely invisible to a system built assuming people know how to find their way through it.

Hospitals and OHIP are provincial. But the City runs public health, funds community health centres and supportive housing, coordinates settlement services, and controls transit. These levers matter more than they get credit for. I will protect and grow funding for frontline and preventative community services rather than treating them as the first cut in a tight budget, which is exactly backwards, since preventative care is what keeps people out of emergency systems in the first place. The fact is that funding that supports proactive treatment costs less than the reactive solutions we have been using.

I will fund settlement and newcomer services adequately rather than leaving community agencies to absorb rising demand on shrinking budgets. I will expand supportive housing with embedded mental health and addiction care, because housing stability is often the precondition for managing a health issue at all. And I will defend transit affordability programs like Fair Pass, because an appointment someone can’t physically get to isn’t access.

On navigation specifically: I want culturally and linguistically responsive system navigators embedded in community hubs. We have frontline agencies already doing this work in Scarborough. The goal is to have one trusted person to ask, rather than being expected to independently identify and qualify for a dozen disconnected programs.

We have many of the pieces but we have not integrated them in a way that makes it simple for a person to access. A critical part of the fix is to have an integrated system with one contact to direct the person for the services that person needs. I’ll make sure investment in this reaches every part of the city equitably; North Scarborough deserves the same infrastructure and the same access as any other neighbourhood, not what’s left over after downtown is served.

Housing affordability in this city is really two problems stacked on top of each other: not enough supply at prices people can actually afford, and a development process residents don’t trust to deliver housing responsibly even when it does get built. A serious answer has to fix both.

On policy:

• I will accelerate deeply affordable and supportive housing, because market-rate intensification alone doesn’t reach the families who are already doubling up or one unexpected expense from homelessness. It is a HOMES FIRST policy that I am supporting — provide housing unconditionally and then work on the other issues — mental health, employment, addiction. We need to up public housing to 100,000 units — follow the lead of success stories such as in Vienna. But we have to fix our ability to finance by allowing for new revenue streams: tax increment financing, project-specific bonds, a sales or income tax and congestion pricing. The goal is to construct housing that is priced to be both affordable and sustainable.
• I will push to clarify and properly enforce the distinction between duplexes and secondary suites, so gentle density adds real, countable housing supply instead of getting tangled in ambiguous applications that serve neither residents nor renters well. I will require accurate supporting documentation at the Committee of Adjustment, so approvals are made on real numbers rather than submissions nobody had an honest chance to verify.
• I will treat adopted Secondary Plans as binding direction rather than optional reference material, and apply context-sensitive standards instead of uniform downtown assumptions, so density in Scarborough comes paired with the transit and infrastructure capacity to support it, not stripped of it. And I will tie development approvals to measurable community reinvestment, so growth comes with the child care spaces, community supports, and transit that neighbourhoods need to absorb it, not just more units.
• I will ban the sale of public land for private development and mandate that public lands be used for public purposes including public housing.

On helping people now:

• I will protect and expand existing supportive housing and shelter capacity rather than letting it erode while longer-term supply comes online.
• I will push for living-wage and decent-work standards on city contracts, because affordability is as much about income keeping pace as it is about rent.
• I will defend transit affordability programs like Fair Pass, since housing cost and commuting cost are the same household budget.
• And I will direct funding to frontline housing and family-support agencies directly, rather than through intermediary layers that don’t reach the ground, so people facing overcrowding or imminent homelessness get help this winter, not next term.

Data centres are showing up faster than the City’s tools for evaluating them. Council already dealt with a live example this year when it reviewed a proposed expansion on Danforth Avenue in Scarborough Southwest, where the motion that passed raised exactly the right questions: what it does to grid capacity, what it does to local water systems and noise levels, whether it actually creates the jobs promised on land zoned for employment, and whether residents got a real say before it moved forward. That last point is the one I keep coming back to: it passed unanimously precisely because Council agreed the consultation process around it hadn’t been good enough, which is the same complaint I hear about development approvals generally.

My position: I don’t think Toronto needs to choose between economic development and protecting residents, but right now the framework to properly evaluate data centres doesn’t exist, and approving them case by case in that gap isn’t good governance.

I support Ontario’s move to charge large facilities a separate, higher electricity rate and require them to fund their own grid upgrades rather than push those costs onto household ratepayers, and I’d push further and encourage on-site power generation so new data centres aren’t drawing down capacity that housing and transit electrification will also need.

I want independent, peer-reviewed noise and water studies completed before approval, not after. I want job-creation and community-benefit commitments that are enforceable, not promotional. And given how many of these facilities are foreign-owned and storing Canadian data, I want the City pressing the province on data sovereignty exposure, not treating it as someone else’s file.

Until Toronto has that framework in place, I’d support a measured pause on new approvals, the way Mississauga and Oakville have done, rather than approving projects ahead of the rules meant to govern them.

First, I have been directly involved in the rescue and integration of refugees. I have housed seven refugees in my home. I have raised funds to help internally displaced refugees in Ukraine and provided assistance to refugees through charities here in Toronto. Immigrants enrich our country and, when people are facing war and death, it is our duty to help.

The City already commits, on paper, that anyone can access municipal services regardless of immigration status, with narrow exceptions where the City administers a provincial program, like Ontario Works or housing subsidies, that has its own requirements. The problem is that a policy on paper doesn’t help someone who doesn’t know it exists, or who meets a frontline worker who hasn’t been trained on it. I will make sure every City service point, and every City-funded community agency, actually implements this consistently, publicizes it in the languages our communities speak, and has a clear, working complaint process when someone is turned away who shouldn’t have been.

Beyond that baseline, the common thread across undocumented residents, PR holders, refugees, international students, and migrant workers is the same one I’ve raised on health care access: settlement services are overwhelmed, chronically underfunded, and often the first thing cut when budgets tighten, even as demand climbs. I will protect and grow that funding rather than treat it as discretionary, and direct it to the frontline agencies actually doing this work rather than through layers that don’t reach the ground. I will extend the same culturally and linguistically responsive navigator model I’ve proposed for health care into settlement generally, so someone doesn’t have to independently figure out housing, ESL, employment bridging, and credential recognition as four separate mazes.

My advocacy experience matters. Much of what the City incurs is actually provincial and/or federal responsibilities. We need a funding framework that sources funds from the other governments based on the actual spending needs. It should not be up to the City to subsidize provincial and federal funding responsibilities. And the allocation of funds should be formulaic and predictable.

A few things need targeted attention: international students in this city have been targeted by predatory rental practices, and I want tenant protection outreach specifically aimed at them. Refugees need trauma-informed intake, not just a housing list. And migrant workers on closed work permits are structurally vulnerable to exploitation; the City can’t rewrite federal permit rules, but it can fund labour-rights outreach and make sure bylaw and licensing enforcement doesn’t look away from workplaces where they’re employed.

From Policy perspective probably nothing. How I will help people is donating food to charity and buying people meals when they are in need.

Be boss and call big carnshakur on the game plan.

Depends how valid the feedback is — I want this city built good and quick as possible. What’s currently happening is not acceptable.

I want a more privatized health care. It’s better and i will help citizens get good insurance.

I will take no actions, people don’t realize its an economy issue not a rental price issue — we need to bring up our economy and everything else will follow. A recession happens when people promise rental freezes or tax freezes. I want to lower taxes never remove them. Just look into what happens before a recession. How will I help people now ? Through thenorafoundation.com my charity.

Make sure regulations are followed.

Why would I take concrete actions to support undocumented people? Defeats the purpose of becoming documented. Quite frankly not many concrete actions for any of the above, I prioritize our citizens above all. There is to many things to be done first before I can say a concrete action on supporting non citizens.

No one, and especially no child should ever go hungry.

I would work with food banks, charities, local businesses, and community organizations to expand food distribution, especially for struggling families and children. I would remove unnecessary municipal barriers to food donations, support school nutrition initiatives, and encourage community gardens and local food production.

My priority would be to provide immediate assistance to those in need while helping families build long-term financial independence and ensuring children grow up healthy and secure.

I would defend Toronto’s interests by advocating for greater local decision-making and opposing unnecessary provincial interference in municipal affairs.

At the same time, I would maintain a constructive working relationship with the Ontario government, emphasizing cooperation, transparency, and respect for each government’s responsibilities. I would also work with the province and local police to combat violent crime and keep neighbourhoods and children safe, while supporting high standards of professionalism, transparency, and public accountability in policing.

Residents deserve a meaningful voice in developments affecting their neighbourhoods, particularly when children’s safety and family well-being are at stake.

I would promote earlier and more accessible consultations, clearer explanations of planning decisions, and greater transparency about how public feedback influences outcomes, while maintaining reasonable timelines for development approvals.

Development should respect property rights and encourage responsible investment while considering neighbourhood safety, access to schools, parks, and essential services. I would remove unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles while ensuring communities, especially children, are protected from drug trafficking, violence, and other public safety risks.

I would improve access to health care, mental health services, addiction treatment, and community supports by reducing bureaucracy and strengthening partnerships with service providers.

For those struggling with drug addiction, particularly people experiencing homelessness, my priority would be helping them overcome addiction rather than leaving them in a cycle of dependency. This means providing appropriate medical treatment, rehabilitation, counselling, and ongoing support so they can rebuild stable, independent, and self-sufficient lives.

Protecting children from exposure to drugs, violence, and exploitation would remain a central priority.

I would improve housing affordability by removing unnecessary zoning restrictions, accelerating development approvals, and encouraging private and nonprofit housing construction.

I would also strengthen existing community housing programs by improving access to caseworkers who can help residents navigate addiction treatment, mental and physical health challenges, and financial difficulties, helping them regain stability and independence.

Public housing must also be safe and clean, especially for children, with stronger efforts to prevent drug trafficking, gang activity, and violence. Everyone deserves the opportunity to rebuild their lives in a secure, supportive environment.

I would welcome responsible investment in data centres while ensuring they meet reasonable environmental, infrastructure, and community safety standards. Operators should be accountable for their electricity demands, water consumption where applicable, and impacts on surrounding neighbourhoods, without unfairly burdening residents.

I would also consider the well-being of nearby families and communities when assessing proposed locations. My approach would support technological innovation, private investment, and economic opportunity without unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions or preferential corporate treatment.

I would work with community organizations and settlement services to help newcomers navigate employment, housing, education, health care, and other essential services. I would prioritize helping individuals and families achieve stability, independence, and meaningful participation in their communities, while making existing municipal services easier to access and navigate.

By removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers, respecting the responsibilities of each level of government, and strengthening cooperation between service providers, we can encourage successful integration, self-sufficiency, and stronger communities for everyone.

I would protect school meal programs, and work with food banks and neighbourhood groups to get more meals and groceries to people who need them. I’d also look at using City spaces for community kitchens and food programs, especially where affordable groceries are hard to reach.

I want more opportunities to grow food in the city, too. That means making it easier for residents to start community gardens and finding space for urban farms on suitable City land. A garden won’t replace an affordable grocery store, but it can provide fresh food and give neighbours a place to come together.

The bigger issue is affordability. When rent takes most of your paycheque, groceries become the thing you cut back on. My housing plan focuses on building more affordable homes and helping people stay housed. I would also push the province to raise ODSP and other income supports so people can afford the basics.

Toronto needs to be able to make decisions for Toronto. My plan has a whole section called “Standing Up for Toronto” because I want the province to give us the powers and funding to deal with the challenges we face. I also support pursuing a city charter that gives Toronto a stronger say over its own future.

When the province overrides a local decision, I would say clearly what it means for residents, bring Council and other municipalities together where we can, and challenge it when there is a sound legal case. A mayor cannot simply stop Queen’s Park from passing a law, but we can make it harder to ignore the people affected by one.

I would still work with the province wherever we can get something useful done. Mental health and addictions are a good example. Provincial restrictions have closed supervised consumption sites in Toronto, while people still need care. I would press Ontario to fund the services it is responsible for, and use the City’s role through Toronto Public Health to help build more Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams with hospitals and community providers.

We can disagree strongly with a provincial decision and still work together to get people help. Toronto should be willing to do both.

Too often, residents are shown a nearly finished proposal, asked what they think, and never hear what happened to their feedback. I would bring people in earlier, while there is still room to change the plan.

For larger developments, the City should be clear about what residents can influence, then publish a simple summary of what people asked for, what changed, and why some suggestions could not be made.

I would also make it easier for renters, young people and local businesses to take part, beyond a single weekday meeting.

Toronto needs more housing, and listening to residents can help us build better projects. People deserve a meaningful say and an honest explanation of the final decision.

Health care is mainly a provincial responsibility, and I would push Ontario to make it easier to get care. But Toronto has its own role through Toronto Public Health. I would expand vaccination outreach and education, bring more services into neighbourhoods, and make information easier to find. I also want to look at covering recommended vaccines that people currently have to pay for if they miss an age cutoff or do not have private insurance.

Housing is part of health, too. I want to scale up supportive housing, including larger projects that bring homes together with mental health care, addiction support and other services people can actually access.

Our environment affects our health as well. I would plant more trees, especially in hotter neighbourhoods, keep moving City lawn equipment to electric, and work toward phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers and mowers. Cleaner air and more shade make daily life healthier.

Toronto needs more homes, but we also need the right kinds of homes.

I would allow more multiplexes, townhouses and courtyard housing across the city, speed up approvals, and make it easier for nonprofit and co-op providers to build.

On larger condo projects, I would push for more genuinely family sized three bedroom units. Families should not have to leave Toronto just because their children need another bedroom.

My Toronto Campus Housing Partnership would bring colleges, universities and the City together to plan new housing on underused campus land. The goal is 20,000 student, faculty and affordable homes and beds over ten years. That would also ease some of the pressure on the wider rental market.

The City should use its own land and funding partnerships to scale up affordable and supportive housing.

For people struggling right now, I would strengthen the Toronto Rent Bank, eviction prevention and access to legal help. Keeping people in the homes they already have is one of the fastest ways we can help.

I would not make attracting data centres a priority for Toronto or offer City land or incentives to bring them here.

If a proposal comes forward, I would use the City’s planning and servicing powers to examine its energy and water use, noise, climate impact and costs before any decision is made. The company should pay for the infrastructure it needs, rather than passing those costs on to residents.

If another level of government tries to override Toronto, I would make the impacts public and push back for a meaningful local say.

Toronto is a city where people from many cultures live together, and that is one of its strengths. I want newcomers to be able to find their way around the services already here, whether they need help with housing, health care, work or school.

The City can make a practical difference. I would strengthen multilingual service information, settlement support in libraries and community spaces, and staff training on Toronto’s AccessTO policy, which lets residents use City services regardless of immigration status. My campus housing plan would also help international students find more appropriate housing options.

Immigration rules, health care and much of settlement funding sit with Ottawa and Queen’s Park. I would work with both governments to improve those services, but if they expect Toronto to take on more, they need to provide the funding.

As mayor, I would continue the free school lunch program. I would also work with existing NGOs to immediately scale up urban agriculture, rooftop and community gardens and create local food hubs where affordable local food can be distributed. I would also continue to invest in Community Markets which increase access to high quality, culturally-relevant, affordable produce in neighbourhoods where it might not otherwise be available. A network of food hubs and community markets have significant buying power and can offer food at discounted prices while still being economically viable.

The citizens of Toronto are never afraid to protest and voice their discontent when the province interferes with our local democracy, our streets and our waterfront. Because Toronto is still, constitutionally-speaking, a “creature of the province”, we’ve seen there are legal limits to the City’s ability to fight provincial overreach.

I would demonstrate to the province that cooperation with the City would lead to positive outcomes for both levels of government. For example, provincial money spent on supportive housing in Toronto provides immediate cost savings to our provincial hospital and criminal justice systems. There are a lot of mutual wins and economic savings to be found when we work together. I would be very clear about how both parties can benefit from cooperation.

At all times, I would be a vocal advocate for Toronto’s autonomy. I support moves to make Toronto a Charter City, acknowledging that such an exercise would necessarily involve provincial cooperation and a constitutional amendment.

In my career as a land use planning lawyer, I found that attendees of community consultations often do not reflect the community as a whole. Many times, the same people attend with the same (often anti-development) perspectives while others are either unaware of the development, uninterested, or simply too busy to pay attention.

The Official Plan and the Provincial Planning Statement contain the criteria against which proposed developments are to be evaluated. Community input is important but ultimately, I trust the professional planners at the City to take community feedback into account when making recommendations to Council about whether a particular development should be approved.

The City should prioritize review, approval and completion of necessary development agreements for those projects which demonstrate they have taken community feedback into account.

I would expand mobile, neighborhood-based care, scale up funding for the Toronto Community Crisis Service and ensure transit remains affordable for lower income residents.

Improving transit reliability, including Wheel-Trans, in underserved neighbourhoods, will also connect people directly to medical appointments and social services.

The province has a role to play in healthcare funding and I would be a vocal advocate for Toronto receiving its fair share of provincial dollars for health care related matters.

Getting more affordable housing actually built, not just approved, would be my priority as mayor.

As a former land use planning lawyer, I know that getting a project approved and getting a building permit issued are two very different things. Good development projects, including projects containing affordable housing, are often delayed for months, sometimes years, because the legal agreements required for obtaining a building permit have not been executed. There is no formal process at the City for negotiating these legal agreements, which require input from multiple City departments. This means massive delays in the construction of affordable housing.

I would create a streamlined process for development agreements wherein the required departments meet with the project owner on a pre-determined day to negotiate the agreement in person. The expectation would be that the necessary agreements would be completed by the end of that meeting or shortly thereafter.

Projects containing affordable housing would be prioritized. The City would monitor and publicly report on the status of building permits issued for affordable housing, not approvals granted.

I would place a moratorium on new data centres in the city until more information is known about their electricity and water consumption needs in order to evaluate their overall impact.

My sense is that establishing more data centres in the city would not be in the best interest of Torontonians. They generate little employment and present real environmental concerns.

As mayor, I would be committed to ensuring Toronto is a welcoming, safe, and supportive home for everyone, regardless of immigration status.

Building on the Toronto Newcomer Strategy, my administration would expand municipal funding for Community Health Centres to ensure undocumented residents, migrant workers, and refugee claimants access safe medical care without fear.

I would partner with local agencies to offer targeted workforce integration, expanded bridge training to help internationally trained skilled newcomers find jobs that match their international training , and entrepreneurship programs via the Toronto Public Library Newcomer Initiative to help permanent residents, international students, and temporary workers access stable jobs.

I would also support community-led orientation programs to help families navigate local schools, while strictly enforcing Toronto’s “Access To City Services Without Fear” policy across all municipal departments so that shelters, transit, and emergency services are fully and safely open to all.

On top of the above, I would urgently call on the Federal government to increase funding for refugees to ensure people fleeing unthinkable conditions are not forced onto Toronto’s streets and shelter system.

Within the first 100 days I commit to doing the following:

(1) launching a fleet of City operated Food Trucks that offer Healthy Food staples to across all 25 City Wards with a 3x increased representation in Wards with disproportionately lower median household incomes and or scare affordable grocery store options,

(2) launching a Monthly Care Package consisting of core food staples, like potatoes, rice, dark leafy green vegetables, canned fish, 12-24 cartons of eggs, and in season fruits, for Single Parents, Youth 27 and Under and Low Income Residents on Fixed Incomes; it would be comparable to 10 meals,

(3) repurposing city real estate, and launch Hydroponic Towers (eg., for vertical urban farming) on under utilized city owned rooftops and enclosed spaces to grow healthy vegetables and produce; this would then be distributed to single parent households, school lunch programs in lower income wards, and lower income households throughout Toronto.

I would form a non-partisan Council of City Mayors to act as a Municipal Opposition and Diplomacy Team to Doug Ford’s PC Government, and leverage our microcosmic cabal to legally challenge The Ontario Government in instances where provincial policy causes undue harm, distress or compromises the well being of residents (ex., with a specific focus on economic working class, marginalized communities and at risk groups). The Diplomatic face of this Council would be used to work collaboratively on policy ideation and implementation with the province when economic opportunity, safety and cost of living solutions can be made available to Working Class residents.

I would adopt an efficiency focused framework built around shorter project sprints following this cadence: plan, do, review, revise and reimplement. 

I would ensure that all city projects had a single to three ward piloted version that we could scale within 90 days, defined key performance indicators built around the interests of the working class resident, a line by line accounting of budgetary spend, and a model to scale KPI successful projects into expanded forms.

I would work with the Province to audit health care and essential service accessibility, and then partner to remedy instances of barrier or obstruction. I would start with city wards that have been traditionally underfunded or are home to median household incomes on the lowest end of the economic strata within Toronto, and then scale toward higher income neighbourhoods. This way we prioritize those who are most vulnerable while still maintaining a city wide focus for long term ROI.

I would prioritize the repurposing under utilized city real estate assets into residential properties priced at the median household income of the city ward, and then affix pre-defined rental caps on annual rent restricted by inflation and a hard upper ceiling to prevent price increases beyond that point (ex., even if inflation grew beyond it).

I would use this same model for the acquisition of 2-3 story houses and convert them into self contained bedrooms for students, young professionals and those navigating being unhoused; and then the mid-term focus on developing 5-10 story buildings in dense urban environments, rather than 40 story skyscrapers (ex., a 5-10 story building scales faster, is cheaper, places less demand on city infrastructure like sewage, is more insulated from market cycles like recession, and would allow us to offer actionable solutions that would be meaningful).

A city that becomes the landlord protects residents from predatory landlords.

I would draft and issue a motion to pause their development for 6-12 months, and then use that time to collaborate with community leaders, residents and industry experts to create a more environmentally sustainable model that enables technological innovation without: sacrificing quality of life for residents, jeopardizing environmental well being, introducing corporate cronyism and or increasing road congestion (ex., during the construction phase of these data centres). 

I would also work with the Provincial and Federal government on this solution, and ensure that we move in the direction of government alignment at a municipal, provincial and federal level.

Some of the concrete ways this would look like:

• helping to finance Health Clinics in Toronto operating as non-profits for people both with and without OHIP coverage for HIV prevention, abortion and women’s reproductive health management,
• youth focused educational scholarships
• economic opportunities in the form of part-time jobs, skills development and entrepreneurial grants (ex., the scholarship and entrepreneurial grant would be contingent on going to school in Toronto, and head quartering business in Toronto).

Let’s be honest, food prices are a result of inflation caused by bad economic policy far above the office of Toronto’s mayor. A Hartley administration would solve this by finding a more patriotic benefactor to buy Loblaws, and work with the government to run as a nonprofit.

We will threaten secession from Ontario!

End consultations. Developers will build what people will buy.

Yet another provincial issue on the healthcare side. See my website for issues on improving accessibility, better public transit, and roads to reach healthcare.

GTFO of the way in terms of overrestrictive zoning. Cut the red tape and let developers build.

By not allowing any of them, because the public does not want them.

Toronto needs to focus its resources on our current citizens, we cannot afford to support more growth of people who are not here.

Food security means access to fresh, nutritious food with dignity.

I would support small businesses, lower municipal taxes and fees, and speed up permits for suitable four- or five-storey homes to create jobs and ease housing costs. I would encourage greenhouses and vertical farms to grow fresh food locally year-round, and urge federal MPs to redirect overseas funding toward needs in Canada.

The goal is reliable incomes and healthy, affordable food—not simply something to eat.

Toronto, Ontario and the federal government should work in harmony, like instruments in an orchestra, each fulfilling its role and complementing the others. As mayor, I would defend Toronto’s local decisions while working constructively with Ontario to serve residents.

Voters play a central role by choosing representatives at every level whose policies serve citizens, the city and the country. Our elected officials should prioritize people’s needs here in Canada over personal interests or political agendas abroad. Cooperation must serve the public, and disagreement must never prevent us from working for their well-being.

I would involve residents early and publish how their feedback changes final plans. Clear planning rules should enable suitable four-storey homes, preserve neighbourhood character and simplify approvals. I would encourage more above-ground housing so families can live with dignity and owners can earn rental income to help cover taxes and bills.

Good leadership means listening to residents and turning their needs into practical policies that reduce unnecessary barriers.

We need action beyond guidance: multilingual, accessible services and real jobs in engineering, industry and hospitals. I would work with other governments to connect skilled newcomers with employers and speed up recognition of qualifications while maintaining safety standards. Professional interpreters and translation technology can reduce language barriers. Everyone deserves fair access to healthcare and the opportunity to work in their field with dignity.

I would speed up permits for suitable four-storey homes, lower municipal taxes and fees and help owners build on their land. More homes above ground would give families dignity and owners rental income. For immediate relief, I would seek rent support and help residents at risk of losing their homes.

I would support data centres that create jobs and serve Toronto, with clear rules on energy and water use, noise and location. They should respect neighbourhoods and avoid displacing housing. I would work with industry and other governments to ensure growth benefits residents and protects resources.

I would support accessible, multilingual services for newcomers, regardless of status, and work with other governments to improve access to healthcare, education and jobs. We need real projects in engineering and hospitals, faster recognition of qualifications and opportunities to work with dignity.

In my first 30 days I will do a comprehensive inventory of all existing City-owned buildings for immediate release into cooperative ownership models for housing and grocery. Working with residents, community groups, non-profits, and food banks we will build these grocery co-ops in the most food insecure neighbourhoods first, with the goal of expanding across the city.

I will pilot hydroponic vertical farming towers as well as increasing community gardens, again, by returning existing City-owned buildings and land. By pooling resources, making overhead cheaper and introducing local supply we can achieve economies of scale to compete with the grocery monopolies.

I will also employ public education campaigns about how to avoid being price-surveilled at the grocery store.

We have committed to community-led planning which puts power and resources back into the hands of residents who know what their community needs.

We lost half our representatives in 2018 and with Bill 98 we are losing significant land-use planning power. Residents and non-profits have been filling in the gaps and I will recognize those efforts by restructuring how city planning operates by allocating funding directly to neighbourhoods so they can manage their own long-term planning with security.

It is imperative that the mayor have a productive working relationship with all levels of government. All levels of government are aligned to prioritize building a Canada that’s prepared for the future so I will prioritize strong partnerships with the Province on building infrastructure, creating jobs, and training workers.

This is exactly why we support the work done by the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRDC) and pledge to restructure the planning process by diverting resources to communities who can form community assemblies and direct the flow of resources where they are most needed. Beginning with these neighbourhoods, but expanding all over the city by 2030, we are committed to funding community-led planning.

Currently there is far too much top down planning and money spent on community engagement that is both missing too many stakeholders or producing outcomes that don’t reflect the public feedback collected at planning meetings and presentations. By returning assets and power back to communities and restoring the social contract, Toronto can be the beacon of culturally rich and dignified democratic governance that attracts investment, tourism, and admiration from all over the world.

Restructuring the delivery of housing by releasing existing stock into cooperative ownership models will then free up more affordable rental housing for those currently unable to afford housing.

The approach recommended by organizations like the UHN which promotes a housing first strategy to health care can be supported by the city with programs that make these currently unused spaces available for public good.

Continuing to prioritize housing with wraparound supports like Dunn House is also required to bring dignity and equity of health care to every resident.

I would inventory the unused or underused publicly-owned spaces and divert a substantial section of the planning departments activities into supporting the delivery of these public assets into cooperative ownership models. There is currently a waitlist of 110,000 people on the cooperative housing waitlist and delivering housing in this model will compete with for-profit supply, release an equal amount of units as people move into co-ops, and open up the housing market beyond the current finanicalized model.

Unhoused people should have access to temporary dwelling space in any available City-owned buildings while the cooperative model is expanded and more affordable units are made available. The City should be tackling this issue with urgency and cut red tape preventing an immediate system of shelter and support while we work diligently to make existing spaces available for affordable and permanently affordable housing.

There should be a moratorium on data centres until there is clarity about the impact they have on communities and residents. Once these potential risks to the public are understood the city should ensure that these centres are not using our potable water supply for machine cooling or industrial use.

I would launch a program of grey water capture to be sold for industrial use, including data centres, to create a new fiscal revenue stream for the municipality.

I would look to the successful ZooShare Biogas hub model to fund and structure these treatment centres so residents can take ownership and keep profit circulating locally instead of being contracted out to private industry alone.

Data centres should be mandated to use a closed loop cooling system and internally generate the excess power or contribute fees to develop the infrastructure required for their operations.

Community-led planning requires a neighbourhood coalition that can be used to extend welcome to newcomers in the area, address their immediate needs, and invite them to participate in their community governance.

Using existing publicly owned buildings for cooperative grocery stores, managed and run by residents in co-op models, as well as increasing the number of community gardens and piloting vertical farming provide opportunities for newcomers to participate in the social infrastructure of our city.

The universal nature of a basic need like food can bridge divides that can be felt for those who are new to our city. Food is a great unifier and the coop model allows for belonging and active participation in the upkeep and delivery of this community benefit.

In addition to addressing the root causes of food insecurity (housing, domestic violence) and cost of living by making TTC fares free for seniors, students and youth, I would also do the following to address food insecurity:

• Provide support to the CFTO and Feed It Forward to increase the amount of community fridges/pantries/meals/groceries across the city
• Advocate for the protection of income supports and removal of tax on all groceries
• Support for the City’s existing plans for grocery stores in food deserts, as well as a subsidy program for existing independent food sellers across Toronto to continue serving their communities
• Reallocate the Percent for Public Art funding to community food sovereignty projects including food gardens to provide education and skill sharing, and meal prep services for vulnerable neighbours
• Develop more urban in-ground farming projects to increase our local food production
• Subsidize more local food markets
• Investment in more community-based meal programs such as The Corktown Cook
• Incentivize creating home food gardens on front lawns

If elected, I will initiate consultations on preparing a City Charter draft to present to the Provincial and Federal governments. I am also looking forward to finding ways to ensure regional visitors to the city — i.e. people who come in to work or use our amenities but don’t pay property tax and therefore do not contribute to our infrastructure — are meaningfully supporting Toronto’s growth!

I am also fed up with Post-It Note consultations. If I’m elected, I will create not only better mechanisms for interactions with the City (newsletters, podcast, new website, app) but ensure that communities feel that they are collaborating in decisions made by City Hall.

I have signed the CRDC’s pledge for this election’s candidates regarding community-led planning, and I will launch a monthly safety-focused meeting program within every ward in 2027.

I will initiate immediate funding to support both more and meaningfully-built supportive housing within Toronto to ensure that our vulnerable citizens are getting the adequate care they need for safety and recovery. This includes more community paramedicine programming, and installing community leaders as point people to address acute issues including toxic drug supplies, assaults and hazardous areas. I will also fund installing hygiene pantries in neighbourhoods with menstruation products, bandaids and gauze, and other safety essentials.

City Hall needs to install more concrete enforcement around landlord activities and also needs to invest in more co-op, rent-to-own and other subsidized residential opportunities. I will also champion support for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, meaning that Torontonians can age-in-place in a space better suited to their practical and lifestyle needs; this means more housing will become available if seniors are more inclined to downsize!

I support an as-long-as-needed moratorium on the building and extensions of existing data centres in Toronto; I also advocate for the placement of stringent regulations on the industry’s operations. And I will immediately review the City’s reliance on AI to ensure it is essential – otherwise it’s changing to something else.

We need to build more community centres dedicated to specific needs such as employment, skill building, documentation review and more. Right now our communities centres are catch-alls, and can be difficult for folks to navigate. The City’s website and comms strategy also needs a total overhaul to be more accessible, modern and relevant.

The City of Toronto must reduce food insecurity and protect the rights of the people to appropriate nutrition that is affordable, nutritionally balanced, and culturally suitable.

Poverty is at the root of food insecurity and all three levels of government must work together to end this all too common hardship by making sure that permanent housing is affordable and that people can get to work, school and interviews without it cutting into their food budget. The cost of taking TTC must be fully by government, thereby freeing up money for the purchase of food. It is one of my priorities along with making sure that everyone has safe housing that is within their budget.

The guarantee of proper nutrition and food security is an essential human right.

The provincial government must be made to realize that much of the money that supports the rest of Ontario comes from Toronto. In turn, Toronto must be provided with proper funding to be able to support the people. It is our money, it is our right to flourish and we must work together to accomplish this.

The consensus of the people should be what guides the Councillors and the Mayor to make decisions in the best interest of the citizens. Community meeting with their representatives and forums direct policy are an important part of following the will of the people. They will be put in place and respected by the government that I will oversee.

Serious discussions with the province are essential to return the level of healthcare that Ontario used to receive and have been denied for the past three decades. Healthcare includes that for those with mental health issues, drug dependencies and those who are older members of the community. They must be given respect and appropriate care to their needs.

My full efforts for this will be revealed mid-October but the city has vacant builds that should be retrofitted to be suitable for people to have community living buildings. These must be created without delay and offered with the option to “rent to own”. The city, along with the province, must make more money available for social housing or rent subsidies for Toronto residents who are struggling to pay the rent or whom are homeless.

By making the TTC fully covered by government and lowering property taxes immediately, housing will be more affordable as that money reduced gives people more control over the money they earn.

Data centres are still a complicated matter that require much discussion. There are environmental issues (water, air quality…) and the stain on utilizes is a definable concern.

Anyone proposing them must “give back” to the city and possibly money received can help Toronto to more quickly achieve the goals of universal housing and food security, but we must not jump at this without full discussions with experts AND residents. Further, any areas chosen must be done so as to not negatively impact people, parks and wildlife. This will be a “tricky” matter, but the long term effects have to be properly addressed before moving forward. Anyone proposing them must be required to cover the cost of the investigation, without being in control of the body doing the research.

These issues must have the support of both Federal and Provincial government. The former being responsible for immigration policies and the the latter being responsible for healthcare, and some of the aspects of seduction. Each group mentioned has its own particulars and cannot be lumped into just one answer. A 40 page document might cover it. Everyone must have support appropriate to their needs and to their accountability to the level of government that addresses their issues.

We need to limit how much grocery stores can charge if they are charging too much money then they’re going to have to get their product from somewhere else where it’s cheaper to resell it.

We need to work together with the provincial government but they cannot overstep their bounds so just we can have a constant flow of communication going back between the two.

We need someone to monitor the situation if a project is being developed everybody must know about it ahead of time.

Have people fill out surveys to see if they’re getting adequate health Care and if not you need to find out who isn’t getting it and what can we do to change that.

The interest rates for buying a property are too high they’ve been too high for too long the Bank of Canada doesn’t seem to understand the situation they continually raise rates year after year and have destroyed the economy because of it. If you have a lower income or bad credit that shouldn’t disqualify you from getting a mortgage with an A bank (TD, Royal, CIBC). The lendors need to look at your covenant. If you have a good history of making mortgage payments on time that must be considered.

Not sure how to answer this question is there a problem with it?

I need to communicate with him call them up email them and find out what their needs are if their needs are being met.

I do not have a locked food-security plank and will not invent one. My locked priorities are violent crime first; fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council — cut waste; Sankofa back to Yonge and Dundas; axe the tax by cutting the tax burden; and build the houses with actual units. Housing supply and a lower tax burden are the only relevant locked actions here.

I have no separate locked plank on provincial relations and will not invent one. I will protect Toronto by enforcing fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council—cut waste—and by refusing cost-shifting that undermines safety, housing supply, or a lower tax burden.

I will work with Ontario where it delivers results on violent crime, actual housing units, and municipal services, while defending Toronto’s authority and demanding accountability.

I have no separate locked consultation plank and will not invent one. Feedback should be judged against the locked priorities: violent crime first; fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council—cut waste; Sankofa back to Yonge and Dundas; axe the tax; and build the houses with actual units. I will not virtue-signal or promise spending without results; decisions should be accountable to safety, lower waste, a lower tax burden, and delivered housing.

I have no locked health-care or essential-services plank and will not invent one. I will apply the locked standard: fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council—cut waste—and axe the tax burden rather than promise new spending without results. I will keep violent crime first, build the houses with actual units, and be clear about what is and is not a municipal responsibility.

Build the houses: deliver actual units, not slogans, and do not invent a unit target or funding number. Axe the tax by cutting the tax burden so households keep more of their money. The standard is simple—real housing supply and affordability results, with no virtue-signalling spending without results.

I have no locked data-centre plank and will not invent one. Any decision must meet fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council—cut waste—alongside violent-crime-first safety and building the houses with actual units. I will reject virtue-signalling spending without results and will not invent a climate platform, tax, price tag, or megaproject promise.

I have no locked newcomers or settlement-services plan and will not invent one. I will not promise specific programs, funding, or numbers here. The locked priorities remain violent crime first; fiscal discipline for agencies, boards and council — cut waste; Sankofa back to Yonge and Dundas; axe the tax; and build the houses with actual units. Any city action must be judged by safety, accountability, housing delivered, and tax burden — not virtue signalling.