working on shared economic development priorities

 On September 14, I was delighted to welcome some of Canada’s business and community leaders arriving in Toronto at the Royal York Hotel for the Canada Investment Summit 2026, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney.

This important summit was a key part of the federal government’s plan for stimulating investment in Canada over the next five years. In a time of global economic uncertainty, Canada remains a safe and reliable destination for global investment. 

What better place to welcome visitors to Toronto and showcase Canada’s strengths than right here in Ward 10, Spadina-Fort York, the economic, cultural and creative heart of Toronto? 

I was recently contacted by a resident of the Ward concerning the rampant use of illicit drugs in his neighbourhood near Queen West and Bathurst streets. Drug use in the area includes meth, crack cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat facing our communities, driving a staggering global surge in fatal overdoses and severe public health crises.

A crisis situation

The situation at Bathurst and Queen has become so bad that it’s creating an increasingly dangerous and unsanitary environment. Drug users are living on the sidewalks and in the alleyways.They’re discarding used syringes everywhere and urinating in public. Before contacting me, the resident had exhausted all other channels in his attempts to get help from the City. His many desperate appeals for answers and solutions were all ignored by the current Councilor, the 311 system, and the Toronto Police Service. His partner, who works in the service industry and often has to come home from work in the early morning hours, feels seriously at risk. This echoes several complaints I’ve received from other residents who feel very unsafe just passing near the area on their way to the grocery store or the bus stop.

Shocked by what I saw

I walked through the area myself to see the conditions firsthand. I was in the area for only less than 10 minutes before I encountered a young man on the sidewalk experiencing a Fentanyl overdose. I was able to quickly help him. I think everyone should obtain and carry a free Naloxone kit, which can be used to temporarily reverse an opioid overdose.

After this, I witnessed a Fentanyl dealer plying his deadly trade on the sidewalk in broad daylight. When he noticed me watching him, he threatened me, then deposited his supply of Fentanyl into a public litter bin, presumably for later retrieval when the coast was clear. I moved on down the street and later spoke with a member of the indigenous homeless community. He suffered an overdose and heart attack last year after being sold bad Fentanyl in the area. He confirmed that drug dealers are exploiting the area's homeless and indigenous communities.

Inaction is not an option

The City’s inaction to this situation is totally unacceptable. Problems like these won’t just go away if ignored. And it appears that the City’s policy approach of ever-liberalized laws around drugs and drug possession aren’t working.

 The time for action is now: on October 26, please vote for change. 

Toronto's East-West Shuttle was supposed to be a community building project. A seasonal water transit service, the much-hyped project was meant to connect the central and western harbour with an area containing new luxury waterfront condos in the Port Lands. These expensive condos were supposed to be the "solution" to Toronto’s housing crisis. Really?

The route had three stops along the waterfront, including Portland, Yonge Slip, and the Ookwemin Minising island, a new 98-acre artificial island in the Port Lands, which cost taxpayers a whopping $1.4-billion. That’s more than Toronto's entire 2026 Budget shortfall!

We were told that the island would “solve some of Toronto’s biggest problems.” Really? Condos in the new Port Lands area typically start around $540,000 to $610,000 for smaller 1-to-2 bedroom units and reach total costs upwards of $1.5 million to over $2 million.

The water shuttle was scheduled to run only in the summer from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Each boat would carry up to 12 passengers. The failed project was set to run for an initial three-year term to test real-world demand. However, its launch was not timed to coincide with completion of the condos but instead with the 2026 Toronto municipal election.

The launch ceremony was celebrated by Mayor Olivia Chow and Councilor Ausma Malik, Ward 10, Spadina-Fort York, who are both up for re-election in October. Both claimed that the water shuttle was a “practical, people-centred solution to bring Toronto closer together.” Really?

The private company that won the contract to operate the shuttle said that if it ended up taking 7,000 to 10,000 passengers over the summer months, it would be considered successful.

Fast forward to August 2026, and the boats sit largely empty and idle. It’s become abundantly clear that the project was a failure and little more than a pre-election publicity gimmick that cost taxpayers a lot of dollars.

All that the boats have done, as they sit there idle or mindlessly running their route empty of passengers, is to enrich a private company and further pollute our once-beauiful harbour, which taxpayers have already paid billions to revitalize.

Pre-election publicity gimmicks are not the solution to Toronto’s most pressing problems. Toronto needs to get serious about truly solving its problems: a major housing crisis, an unprecedented public safety crisis, and a worsening public transit crisis.

It’s clear that Toronto, the largest city in Canada, has a serious infrastructure problem when every thunderstorm, like the one on September 2, causes widespread flooding, power outages and other damage. 

Our economic and social and well-being depend on the proper functioning of pipes in the ground, wires overhead, and the roads and transit services we use every day. Toronto’s infrastructure is in deplorable decline and has been for many years. It’s time for City Council to take Toronto’s infrastructure deficit seriously. Our infrastructure is in bad shape and desperately needs attention now. Our roads, sewers and public transit networks are being allowed to fall apart. The city’s infrastructure needs to be repaired and improved to sustain the demands of today and the likely impacts of further population growth and climate change. Continued inaction is not a viable option.The longer City Hall ignores the problem, the more the gap will widen between current funding and what will be needed in future to maintain a state of good repair. And when the city’s infrastructure fails, we all pay the price. We pay for it in increased property taxes; we pay for it in the time we lose to delayed travel; and we pay for it in the damage done to our vehicles by potholes. If we don’t start taking our infrastructure deficit seriously now, we’ll find ourselves in a very deep hole one day.

Toronto saw a 7 percent property tax increase in 2023. Toronto’s 2024 budget saw a 9.5 percent property tax increase, which was the highest in 25 years. In 2025, the budget saw another 6.9 percent increase. Still, the City is projecting an unfavourable net financial operating variance of $97.4 million for December 31, 2026. Another 2.2 percent property tax increase has been proposed for 2026. That’s more than 18 percent in tax hikes over the last three years. When will it end?

Continued high property tax increases threaten the well-being of Toronto’s economy. The city’s economy still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic. Office vacancies remain high. Commercial and industrial building permits are low. Toronto is in the grips of a cost-of-living crisis and a housing affordability crisis. And we suffer from almost 9 percent unemployment.

In this economic environment, we just can’t afford continued uncontrolled property tax increases.

When new U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods were implemented in August, the Canadian government announced dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on hundreds of U.S. products, ranging from 15 to 50 percent. As the Canada-U.S. trade war continues, Toronto’s businesses, both large and small, are feeling the impact. Tariffs are squeezing small businesses and are making it difficult for all businesses to effectively plan and manage uncertainty.

According to researchers at the University of Toronto, more than 200,000 employees who work in Toronto are likely impacted by the tariffs. Businesses across the city say they need support from City Hall.

Ways the City could support local businesses

There are many ways City Hall can take action to strengthen Toronto's economy. It could, for example, offer financing programs to protect jobs and businesses in sectors impacted by the trade war. It could also use its $18 billion operating budget to procure local goods and services. In addition, City Hall could implement tax cuts for businesses and develop support programs to help businesses understand and navigate complicated tariff codes.

On the positive side of the ledger

Despite the ongoing trade war, American visitors have been flooding into Canada this year. Also, Canadians are increasingly staying local and looking for ways to support businesses at home. A renewed appetite for Canadian-made products and services is creating an opportunity for smaller Canadian companies to get more attention. It’s putting a spotlight on a lot of great Toronto companies that Canadians previously didn’t even know existed. This is an opportunity for City Hall to support local businesses expand sustainably by streamlining permits and offering financial incentives and other resources.