What It Will Take to Build a Stronger Toronto with Mayor Olivia Chow

At the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s 2025 Annual Lunch, the message was clear: it’s time to create the conditions for growth.

This episode brings you into the room as we launched our bold new campaign, Stronger Starts Here, and heard directly from Mayor Olivia Chow about how Toronto is tackling congestion, accelerating housing, and preparing for the future.

In conversation with our president and CEO, Giles Gherson, Mayor Chow lays out her vision for a more affordable, connected, and prosperous city—including a new “traffic czar,” a second New Deal with the province, and coordinated efforts across all levels of government and business.

Join the movement at StrongerStartsHere.ca

Transcript

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From the Toronto Region Board of Trade, this is Toronto Talks. Toronto, let's talk about the critical conversations that took place at our 2025 annual lunch, including the launch of a new campaign and a fireside chat with our very special guest, Mayor Olivia Chow. We are Toronto's business leaders. we can turn pressure into progress. We don't wait for certainty. We create it. It's time to rally together, right here at the heart of Canada's economy. Join the mission because Stronger Starts Here.- Stronger Starts Here is a new campaign from the Toronto Region Board of Trade CEO-led Business Council of Toronto. We're calling on business to share their stories of ambition and reveal the barriers standing in the way. It's all so that we can work with elected officials to put growth first and create an environment where business can confidently grow and invest. Recent polling revealed residents are ready for change.- Our brand new Ipsos poll released earlier this week offers some startling but encouraging insights. 85% of residents say strong businesses are essential for strong communities. And 94% believe supporting economic growth should be a government priority with fully half calling for it to be a high priority. GTA residents are worried about good paying jobs, housing, standard of living their kids will have. Instead of abundance, will we have scarcity? Stronger Starts Here became a core theme that wove its way through our annual lunch. In her speech to business leaders, Mayor Chow shared how the city is making progress on key files like transit and housing, while recognizing there's more to do. We're turning a corner, but we're not done. Yes, we still have a short fall to tackle. I am actively working with the Premier on a second new deal, part two. Our first one ends sometime next year, and we have to maintain the momentum to set the city up on a long-term path to success. We will not repeat the past decades where we have fallen behind on building and fixing all the infrastructure that matters most, the roads, the transit, public housing, childcare centres. So to build a stronger Toronto, and thank you for that campaign, we must unleash the power of the level of government closest to the people. And we need to work together all levels of government and businesses to make it happen. We have the most dedicated workforce in the world. And because of our diversity and being a global beacon of hope, we are the fastest growing city in North America. Together, we are strong. We are optimistic. We are bold. We are acting now. We can do it, and we're ambitious. So together, let's build a more affordable and more prosperous and stronger Toronto. Following her address, the mayor joined our president and CEO, Giles Gerson, for a fireside chat focused on how the two partners can work together to make Toronto stronger. Here's that conversation. Thank you, Mayor Patrimer-Chall. That was terrific. You've been moving at speed. So the new mantra for every governor seems to be move fast and fix things. That seems to be the new mantra. You've caught it. Prime Minister Carney is talking about it. Premier Ford, same thing. So that's really good news for all of us, I think, that you really got your eye on some of these big questions. Now, I don't know how much time we have, probably not as much as we thought we had, but let me just go over some of the topics you mentioned. As you know, on top of our mind is the congestion issue. We think it's so important. You agree. First of all, I want to say how appreciative we were that you move so quickly to adopt formally the five recommendations that we made. And as you mentioned, the idea of a traffic czar, what we call a traffic commissioner, we think is a really important, it's partly a symbolic thing. So everyone knows there's somebody really, you're in charge, you're the mayor, but to have someone at your right hand who is fundamentally responsible for trying to fix the very complex. I don't think I'll make a very good traffic agent. No, but you're going to be in charge of the person who will, you're going to put in charge. And the question is, I think a lot of people wonder whether that person will have the authority that's needed and the accountability to support you in really being the person who coordinates right across the city and all the city departments to really try to have metrics on reducing traffic times to travel and speeding up speed. We have a very good workforce. And yes, we are appointing a person. Commissioner, SAR, Sarina we're doing it this is mid-June, yeah, shortly so yes, the person will be in charge there will be metrics, there will be targets and we will report out so it's transparent I already laid out some of the things we are doing we will make sure that people understand and already there is a coordination office, a construction coordination office, but we also are using AI for the traffic lights. There's three companies that are testing, TELUS, Rogers, and Bell. They're all doing a different kind of technology to ease our congestion. We'll see which one is the best. So there are lots of these initiatives that's happening. in special events we are moving the traffic in a different way so this person will coordinate all of that and report out to the public and one of the things that was one of our recommendations and i know you're very supportive of and i think we've got some work to do with other levels of government but is this whole idea of automated enforcement on uh on our major arteries i don't think we're talking about it everywhere but we're from our perspective it's these major roads to make them move faster. You've got people parking in no stopping zones. You've got people pulling U-turns in the middle of the block and stopping traffic on both sides, that kind of thing. But do you see that as being part of what you want to bring to the public? Yes, the city council said, yes, that is what we want. But it's not up to us alone. We have requested the provincial government to allowed us to do that. They have not said yes. So those of you that believe that it's a good idea, call up your, let them know. So again, thinking about a year, a year from now, we'll be sitting here, I hope. And we'll have had the traffic commissioning. A year from now, World Cup will be here. That's right. Yeah, the world is coming to Toronto. And hopefully there will be smooth traffic flow during that time. So what do you expect to see? I know it's a tall order. That's a very tall order. It might be a bit challenging. Maybe that's asking for too much. But what do you want to see in a year's time on the congestion funder? Are there certain things that you would have as parameters for making progress? A year from now. Hopefully we have made a commitment to build the waterfront LRT East. Yes? Yeah, yes, do it. We're designing it now. We just need the other two levels government to partner with us, right? And to East traffic in the Scarborough area, there is the long-awaited Scarborough-Ankington LRT East. Let's have that bill. Yeah, Missy Hunter is clapping because you're from Scarborough. You know how much is needed, right? it's not fair there isn't one um so on uh our tdc ceo is going to doing his magic enough of the unreliability and the tracks and the signals are fixed so that it's more reliable and the buses and the streetcar will not bunch so much so that is they actually show up on time and for the AI and the use of technology and the traffic signals and all that probably will be implemented by then and there will be a lot more traffic agents directing traffic so you better not block the box because it'll cost you a bit of money quite a bit of money there are let me think what else the construction construction stones will be less now I can't control Ontario lines how fast they built but Premier Ford said they are just going as quickly as possible with great speed and yes I could tell that they are to the extent that some of the local residents are complaining because it's noisy. But they are moving ahead. Construction will be a lot faster and it will be coordinated. So you don't have this business. You're a lot of bunching right now. Yeah, yes, exactly. So we would be able to solve that. Because there will be more police officers, some of the people that are violating, we may or may not have the cameras, but certainly some of the officers would be able to, because we're hiring more of them, actually 720 more this year and next year. So it's 360 every year for the next five years in terms of police, which means that safer city, but also those that are violating traffic laws, stopping to get a team needs and blocking all the traffic, all the bus and everything behind, will get ticketed. So all of those coming together would help. I mean, I do think, I think that's very remarkable when you think, I mean, one of the issues we don't talk a lot about is safer city, you know, trying to get the crime rate down. I know it's troubling a lot of people. It was probably a factor in the last federal election, in fact, from what we heard. So that's actually helpful to hear that I think you're expanding the police force. And the chief tells me, it doesn't feel that way, but the chief tells me the numbers. Are coming down? Has come down, right? In terms of shootings and breaking down, car thefts down by 34%, et cetera. So we're doing better. That's great. One of the things you mentioned in your remarks was the fiscal deal, the new deal part two. The new deal part one was a kind of a landmark agreement that you reached with the province. But as you said, it had time expiry on it. So it was only a couple of years, three years, I think it was. Do you look at the next deal as being sort of just a renewal existing deal or are you looking for other other parts of it? We are sorting out the terms and reference I'll be able to answer that. We could offer you advice if you told us we would be able to offer you our best advice. Well we could talk. Okay good I'll make a note. Housing you talk I mean that's one of you you are passionate about housing and you've in your remarks you mentioned how much you've actually done to try to grow the number of housing units. It's been a tough environment as you pointed out. One of the things we talked a bit about this is in the condo market you've had a real almost collapse of the financial model of building financing condo developments and so I know you're making you know through the DC deferrals through property tax reductions you're really trying to gin it up again but do you see are you happy with where things are do you think that maybe the industry has to be working with you to really see whether there's a different financial model out there? We are, in fact, working very closely with the industry because I have an industry group that has the top 10, 15 home builders in the room. Some of them I see here. They're here. And they provide advice. I set that up right at the beginning of the term. I'm also, I have another team that are looking at affordable housing, the non-market group. So both of the teams are meeting. And can we do a lot more? Absolutely. Absolutely. As I said, when last December, last November, actually, when we started that incentive program where we accept the development charges. In one month, 77 developers, home builders, came in and put the application in. That's how popular it was. Yeah, people said, oh, deleting or exempting the development charge is the way to go. Except we can't afford more. Well, the point is that you pointed out, that pays for infrastructure. Exactly. So it's a bit of a trade-off either way. but it does account for, I mean, they do account for something like 20 to 30% of the cost of a unit is now development charges. But as you say, it's a real trade-off. One of the things we're excited about at the board, we've been doing a bit of work in this area, is modular manufactured housing. Ah, yes. And, you know, in terms of building homes quicker, very high quality, I think, and you've got a standardized quality because it's factory built in many ways, and lower cost. So that's a trifecta that you kind of want to see. What are you seeing happening on that front? A great deal. I've had my staff team working with Peter Gilgan of the Madden Me Homes, in fact. I had an announcement the other day. Exactly, in the Globe, yeah. He's, of course, the CEO. The CEO of Madden Me, he's the founder, is part of our home builders team. And so we work very closely with them. and we're trying to persuade them to locate their big factory in Toronto. Please. I hope so. Well, we're competing with another GTA region, a city. So we've been having conversation. We have some challenges. You know, we have some traffic congestion question, right? You're solving it, so that should make things easier. So we'll talk to Peter. We'll let him. Please talk to Peter and said that he knows because the last conversation was, in fact, two Sundays ago while we were doing the ride for brain health. And I kept like, come on, Peter, build it here in Toronto. So you know what you have to do? You have to protect our employment lands as well. That's what's going to get Peter. Absolutely. This is going to get Peter to build the factory here. Yes, absolutely. You know, the film studio, okay? Speaking about employment land, our film industry is $2.6 billion, employing 40,000 people, 40,000 jobs. That's huge. Right here in Toronto is a huge industry. I was down in Los Angeles trying to get the business coming in. It was very effective. They are coming in. The good news is they are arriving. They are coming because we have world-class sound studio through the employment lens, especially by the Portland. We have top-rate diverse talents, and we have very competitive, generous, and stable tax credit. You were so effective that President Trump, shortly after your visit, said, we've got to stop Canada producing films. Except they haven't done anything yet. Don't tell him. Yes, he talked about it. Don't remind him. It hasn't been enacted. And last time I checked, a lot of the big studios are still, they are committing to several seasons of filming in Toronto. And because we need to diversify, And next month, I am going to Dublin and London, England, to drum up some business so that in case things get a bit strange, we have other people coming in to make films. Well, that's great. You got that covered. That's fantastic. Look, I could go on for another 20 or 30 minutes, and I know you could as well. But we have to get people back to their offices. We promise to let them out by two. So with that, I'm going to thank you very much for your remarks and for being part of this conversation. Thanks so much. Also during our annual lunch, our outgoing chair, Young Wu, offered these thoughts in support of our new campaign, Stronger Starts Here. We must be market makers, not market takers. We as a business community must continue to lead. We have to shape our own future. We have to take ownership of our destiny as a region. We cannot afford complacency. cannot afford to let forces outside of our control dictate our future. Toronto Region Board of Trade will continue to be that platform for bold thinking, real action. That's all for this episode of Toronto Talks. You should really let a friend know about the podcast, but don't take our word for it. Here's Poya Zingeneng, Scotiabank's Senior Vice President of Small Business Banking. If you haven't already subscribed, I highly recommend it. This is a fact. I checked Joe Rogan podcast rating 4.6. Toronto talks with Giles 5.0. So definitely self-credited. Thanks again so much for listening. And remember, Stronger Starts with you. Please visit StrongerStartsHere.ca to complete our three-minute business survey. Your voice is critical in helping us advocate for the policies and solutions we need to build a stronger, more prosperous future.