E-Blast: Council Highlights - Tariff Response, RentSafeTO, and Operative Varience
- councillorcarroll
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
Last week, I wrote to you about two big priorities, expanding RapidTO and getting winter maintenance right, but those aren’t the only files we’ve been advancing. The July Council meeting tackled a wide range of initiatives that shape life in Toronto, from major economic updates to housing, safety, and environmental action. I wanted to take a moment to share a few highlights and show how Council is working to deliver real outcomes across the board.
As the White House pushes for a new trade deal with Canada—and President Trump spends more time on golf courses than at the negotiation table—Toronto is focused on protecting local jobs and supporting businesses feeling the pinch.
Barring some big update, starting tomorrow, August 1, the U.S. will impose a sweeping 35% tariff on all Canadian goods entering the country. This comes on top of existing tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles, energy, and any product deemed non-compliant with the CUSMA trade agreement.
City Council has unanimously supported the latest recommendations from the Mayor’s Economic Action Team to help local businesses navigate this growing economic pressure. We’re introducing enhanced incentives through existing programs, along with a plan to temporarily boost EDGE grant levels to accelerate private investment in job-creating projects through 2027. To ensure these projects can move quickly, the City will offer faster approvals and concierge-style service for industrial and manufacturing development applications.
At the same time, Toronto is working with partners like Toronto Hydro and The Atmospheric Fund on a new initiative called The Electrification Advantage—a plan to accelerate local renewable energy, improve energy security, and support clean-tech job growth. Council has also expanded the City’s tax deferral program to include mixed-use industrial sites, making it easier for more businesses to benefit.
All of this is backed by a commitment to closely monitor the evolving trade relationship with the U.S. and report back on progress in early 2026. This work will help keep Toronto’s economy resilient during a time of global uncertainty.
Over the past few years, we’ve asked a lot of residents through increased property tax contributions. It’s only natural to wonder where that money went—and whether it’s making a difference. The year-end Operating Variance Report gives us a chance to not only account for the dollars and cents, but to report back on the value Torontonians received in return. I’m proud to say that in 2024, the City delivered, across every division, for every neighbourhood.
Our 2024 Budget was about getting back on track, and we’ve made real progress.
On affordability, we made targeted investments to ease pressure and support people through difficult times. Over 600 renters received legal and housing support. Nearly 25,000 outreach and encampment engagements led to more than 1,000 shelter placements and 300 transitions to permanent housing. Almost 250,000 students accessed healthy food through the Student Nutrition Program. Affordable child care expanded, with 930 centres—87% of all providers—joining the national plan. We also improved access to local recreation, upgrading 123 facilities, refreshing seven more, and enhancing parks city-wide.
Public safety was another priority. In 2024, the Toronto Police Service cut average response times to Priority One calls by five minutes—despite a higher call volume. To maintain momentum, we’ve invested in more frontline staff: police, paramedics, firefighters, and crisis workers. We also strengthened RentSafeTO enforcement, increasing building audits by 575% and speeding up property standards responses.
We continue to tackle congestion by updating signal timing at over 1,700 intersections and deploying Traffic Agents. At King and Spadina, streetcar delays dropped from 65 minutes to just 21.
These results prove what smart, strategic investments can do. As we head into 2026 Budget planning, we’ll need to stay focused. The priorities haven’t changed, but the financial context has. Our job is to keep delivering results while keeping life affordable for everyone in Toronto.
I’m a convert. My husband and I recently replaced our leased furnace and air conditioner with a heat pump, and we couldn’t be happier, better home comfort and monthly costs that stayed about the same.
This motion is about making that kind of transition easier for more Torontonians. Over the next 15 to 20 years, hundreds of thousands of homes in Toronto will need a new furnace. For many, that will be a once-in-a-decade decision. Heat pumps offer a clean, energy-efficient alternative that can both heat and cool your home using electricity, not gas. This makes them a key tool in reducing household emissions and achieving the City’s net-zero climate goals.
But right now, homeowners face a confusing path. Between multiple incentive programs, inconsistent contractor advice, and technical jargon online, many people default to installing another gas furnace—even if they’re open to cleaner options. Heat pumps often have higher upfront costs too, which can deter families who want to make the switch but aren’t sure how.
That’s why Council have asked City staff in partnership with Toronto Hydro, to develop a program that would help people make their homes more energy-efficient, reduce their bills and provide local installation jobs. It would provide personalized energy coaching services and information and tools to help homeowners make decisions and complete an installation quickly and easily. For those of you whoa re interested, there are still home energy- efficiency rebates available up to $12,000 if you want to upgrade now.
I wrote extensively about this plan to build more, and better, shelters for the homeless. Toronto’s emergency shelter system wasn’t built to rely on hotels. These spaces aren’t designed for long-term support, and they’re often too large to be effective.
That’s why I strongly supported this next step in our Homelessness Services Capital Strategy. Council approved the development of six new shelter sites—tailored, community-based facilities that provide better care. We also accepted local councillor-led amendments that incorporated community feedback. This is a smart, compassionate shift in how we support our most vulnerable residents.
In addition to supporting people experiencing homelessness, the City continues to make progress on addressing the housing crisis across all income levels. This report updates Council on the City’s work to transform Toronto’s housing system and deliver more homes across the full housing continuum.
Since 2023, the City has expanded the HousingTO Plan, introduced new funding tools like the Community Housing Pre-Development Fund and Rental Housing Supply Program, and adopted policies to accelerate and diversify housing development.
To date, 39 projects are moving ahead, representing over 10,800 new homes—including nearly 4,000 affordable, rent-controlled, and rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units. The report also highlights 46 additional projects—nearly 16,000 rental homes—that are ready to break ground within two years, pending provincial funding.
Too many Torontonians are living with serious repair issues in their homes, whether that’s mold, pests, broken appliances, or a lack of heat. That’s why I was glad to support Councillor Matlow’s motion to finally move ahead with a stronger, more transparent accountability tool: colour-coded RentSafeTO signs.
The signs will be posted at the entrance of apartment buildings and on the City’s website, showing the results of building inspections using a simple red-yellow-green system. A green sign indicates a building is in good repair. Yellow shows that there are some issues that need addressing. Red points to serious health and safety violations.
This approach is modeled after our successful DineSafe program for restaurants. It gives tenants and visitors a clear sense of the conditions inside, and it gives landlords a public incentive to act quickly on maintenance and repairs. Some landlords have argued that these signs would stigmatize tenants—but tenants have made it clear: it’s the mold and cockroaches that are stigmatizing, not the signage.
The motion also takes aim at improving how we score buildings in the first place. Too much weight has been given to cosmetic features like working laundry machines or clean lobbies, while major health and safety issues haven’t been given enough priority. These changes will fix that, aligning building scores with what tenants actually experience day-to-day.
Finally, Council asked staff to accelerate the implementation of Administrative Monetary Penalties, which will give the City more power to fine landlords who ignore property standards violations.
It’s a smart, long-overdue update to a program that has the potential to drive real change, and I’m proud to support it.
This motion directs $700,000 each to Scarborough and Rexdale for mentorship and employment programs designed to reduce youth violence.
We know that community-led, youth-focused programming works—but many of these initiatives have seen their funding from other levels of government dry up. Council acted decisively, using funds we set aside during the 2025 Budget process to meet this urgent need. Results will be tracked and reported ahead of the 2026 Budget.
Earlier this year, two coyotes were euthanized in our city, and many residents rightly asked whether that outcome could have been prevented. In response, Council committed to reviewing how we manage coyote interactions in our neighbourhoods—and this week, we took action.
Council has approved a strengthened Coyote Coexistence and Response Strategy, including the creation of a dedicated Wildlife Response Team within Toronto Animal Services. This team will take a proactive, data-driven approach—monitoring hotspots, addressing conflict through signage, enforcement, and education, and working directly with communities to promote coexistence.
We’ve also called on the Province to step up. That includes funding support for the costs cities are already shouldering, and changes to provincial laws that haven’t kept pace with urban growth. If we’re going to protect public safety and support humane, science-based wildlife management, we need modern rules that reflect the realities of living in a city where people and wildlife share space.
Council has adopted Toronto’s Early Years and Child Care Service Plan, 2025–2030, which lays out a clear, coordinated roadmap for building a stronger child care system over the next five years. The plan is a major step forward, it aligns funding, access, and quality standards across the sector, and thanks to federal and provincial investments, fees for children aged 0–5 have dropped to around $22/day, a remarkable 75% reduction.
But there’s still work to do. As children age out of the 0–5 system, fees jump to around $30/day, and no additional funding has been committed for school-aged care. That gap puts pressure on families and risks undoing some of the progress we’ve made. We need to continue to push the Province to allocate dedicated funding for school-aged children, and in the meantime, the City is working to identify families who may qualify for a subsidy to ease that transition.
A robust child care system is essential, not just for children’s development, but for parents’ ability to work, study, and contribute to our economy. We’re in a much better place thanks to this plan, but we must keep advocating, especially for the growing number of families who rely on affordable, high-quality care for children aged 6–12.
As you can see, Council is advancing important work on many fronts, from economic resilience to housing, safety, and sustainability. While the headlines often focus on the biggest debates, the day-to-day work of good government continues in every corner of our city. I’ll keep sharing these updates to ensure you know where we’re headed, and how these decisions are shaping the future of Toronto.
