"I will Conduct an assessment of current assets to ensure that vacant or unoccupied City owned properties are being used to address the needs of Torontonians, and where feasible, repurpose existing assets to provide necessary shelter or housing space."
Celina Caesar-Chavannes
Question from TRREB
Q1: In your opinion, what are the two greatest challenges facing the City of Toronto today?
candidate response
Accessing different revenue streams to create sustainable and predictable funding for social assistance programs and social housing. (Two areas, one major problem with both). I plan on tackling both by negotiating with the federal government for 1% of the GST. If these programs have been downloaded to the municipalities, we should have predictable, sustainable funding that grows with the economy, to pay for them. See more here.
Q2: If elected, will you support and accelerate the commitments made in the 2023 Housing Action Plan, including ending municipal exclusionary zoning by-laws and policies in Toronto that will allow and encourage more medium-density housing and purpose-built rental units?
Yes
Q3: If elected, would you support reducing approval times and other red tape barriers that limit the building of new housing in Toronto, thereby speeding up development?
Yes
Q4: If elected, would you push for more investment in critical infrastructure, such as transportation, to facilitate growth and housing by finding creative ways to secure funding from the provincial and federal governments?
Yes
Q5: If elected, would you commit to capping municipal costs added to new housing in order to limit further affordability erosion, and instead work together with the higher levels of government in finding new and sustainable funding mechanisms?
Yes
Q6: The City’s biggest and main source of revenue is property taxes. What would you support by way of annual property tax increases to maintain and/or improve the current services and programs the City provides?
Pegged to inflation
Q7: If elected, would you be willing to explore reform or adjustments to the Municipal Land Transfer Tax in Toronto? This might include increasing the first-time buyer rebate and indexing the MLTT rebate and tax thresholds to account for housing price inflation.
Yes
Q8: If you become the next mayor of Toronto, what is your top priority that you want to accomplish in the first 100 days in office?
Conduct an assessment of current assets to ensure that vacant or unoccupied City owned properties are being used to address the needs of Torontonians, and where feasible, repurpose existing assets to provide necessary shelter or housing space. We cannot talk about housing, if we do not have an understanding of what we own, where we will put additional unit, and what type of units will go where.
If elected, will you use the “strong mayor powers” to modify the budget to pay for your key priorities?
Yes
