LILLEY: Toronto stalls as taxes soar under Olivia Chow’s mayoralty

Spending at Toronto City Hall is climbing fast, but riders, drivers and taxpayers aren't seeing the results

Published Sep 24, 2026  •  3 minute read

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow discusses matters with Councillors James Pasternak and Brad Bradford in council chambers. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun files

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Taxes have gone up by a cumulative 28% since 2023, yet Torontonians would be hard-pressed to point to equivalent improvements in the services they receive. That figure includes the last tax hike pushed through by former mayor John Tory, but just since Olivia Chow took office, property taxes are up by more than 20%.

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That’s outrageous, yet she still thinks she deserves to be re-elected and that she represents real change going forward.

Chow has failed on all fronts as Toronto’s mayor. She is a nice woman who is not qualified for the job she holds and needs to be replaced.

Crime is up under her watch. Her claim that crime is down is based on the fact that the current year’s crime rate is lower than the previous two years, which were record highs. Overall, though, the last three years have been among the highest on record for Toronto.

She claims it’s easier to get around town, even as subways can’t deliver due to “emergencies on the tracks,” and there are constant shutdowns of subway, streetcar and bus lines for various reasons.

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From left, Toronto mayoral candidates Olivia Chow, Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander. Photo by Postmedia Network files

Taxes up, results down

Over the last several years, though, Chow has increased taxes dramatically while not improving services.

Spending on transit increased by $647 million (about 27%) between 2023 and 2026, but as a regular transit user I’m not seeing a 27% improvement. Riders are still dealing with delays, service disruptions and overcrowding despite the increased spending.

The TTC isn’t even close to being the biggest percentage increase in spending with emergency management up 48.3% since Chow took office, the city clerk’s office up 48.2% and municipal licensing and standards up 43.6%. Don’t worry, though, Toronto is doing just fine and living up to its full potential.

During this week’s debate, Chow and her stalking horse candidate Chris Alexander, in the race to take votes away from Brad Bradford and assure a Chow win, attacked Bradford, saying his call for a line-by-line audit of city spending is new.

It’s not.

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The audit Chow doesn’t want

Bradford has called for this kind of review several times and Chow has opposed it at every turn.

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In early September 2023, Bradford called for a “core services review” that would have seen elected politicians carefully review where money is spent. That motion passed through council and was then shut down behind the scenes by Chow when it came time to report to the executive committee that she controls.

In the debate earlier this week, Bradford pointed out examples of waste that need to be stamped out.

“The city last year under Mayor Chow’s leadership spent $11 million on Microsoft Office licences for people who had retired. So don’t tell me that there’s no savings. We just have to do the hard work to find it,” Bradford said.

If we are spending $11 million on software for retired people, how much are we spending on cellphones, media subscriptions and more for people who no longer work for the city?

Toronto auditor general’s annual report on the fraud and waste hotline. Photo by Graphic

Follow the money

The city will claim that each year staff looks at every budget item and that this amounts to a line-by-line audit or a core services review, but it fundamentally does not. What we need are elected officials, not staff whose jobs are tied to government spending, going through each and every program.

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Just because a program was established and funded 20 or 30 years ago doesn’t mean we still need it now or that it is delivering as expected. We find that out when elected officials ask tough questions in committee or council meetings rather than rubber-stamping spending.

The fact that Chow and her allies are allergic to a core spending review or line-by-line audit carried out by elected officials tells us that we desperately need one.

We won’t get one if we re-elect Chow. We will if we wisely replace her with Bradford.

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