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Affordability isn't one issue — it touches housing, food, and the basics of daily life, and it needs a plan that meets people where they are. Rising costs are pushing people out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in. Kids are being sent to school hungry because parents make the tough decision to pay rent instead of buying groceries. We can do more.

• More affordable housing, built faster and community-owned.
  • Expand resources to community land trusts, non-profit and supportive housing, and require real affordability in new development on public land.
  • Prioritize all Ward 11 development applications that include affordable housing.
  • Use available funding and financial incentives as a means for achieving policy objectives, including family-size units, in addition to affordability.
• Protection for tenants.
  • Ensure the rent bank and eviction protection program are fully funded so we can keep people in their homes.
  • Educate renters and ensure compliance to Rental Renovation License Bylaw.
  • Secure fair compensation for rental replacement.
  • Fast-track projects under the Rental Housing Supply Program.
  • Institute a Speculation Watch List, so we can anticipate renovictions and rental replacement and take early action to empower, educate, and prepare residents.
  • Have the City carry out inspections and repairs, stepping in earlier to make repairs in buildings that demonstrate chronic deficiencies.
  • Advocate for stronger enforcement by the Landlord Tenant Board and reinstatement and expansion of rent control.
• Make property taxes fair for tenants. The tax rate for tenants in multi-unit buildings is much higher than single family homes – we need to make property taxes fair for all residents of Toronto.
• Protect important cultural institutions.
  • Support city and community efforts to protect cultural heritage neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Kensington Market.
  • Explore making the city a development partner to protect cultural hotspots like Sneaky Dee's and Hot Docs Cinema so we don't lose the places that make Toronto great.
  • Increase investments in the Toronto Arts Council to support arts workers and organizations.
• Keep transit affordable.
  • Support weekly fare capping.
  • Find a solution for affordable transit fares for students including single ride fares.
• Bring food security home.
  • Support for local, public-facing solutions that get fresh, affordable food into the neighbourhoods that need it most, including co-ops.
  • Expand city camp food nutrition programs to address child and youth food insecurity during summer months.
  • Expansion of school breakfast programs to bring universal lunch to all schools by 2030.
• Uphold and update the City's fair wage policy so Toronto is a model employer and people who work for the city can afford to live in the city.
• A human-centred, compassionate approach to addressing homelessness. We need solutions to address homelessness that put people in housing that meets their needs, which needs advocacy to the province for a great investment in supportive housing and the city to support the development of that housing.

I've spent my career proving that fighting climate change and building a stronger economy aren't opposing goals — they work together. As the province bulldozes environmental protections and leaves us more exposed to flooding and extreme heat, Toronto has to be a stronghold for local climate action. Now is the time to go further.

Fixing up our buildings and cutting emissions

• Heat pumps in every building, solar on every rooftop. Scale up retrofit programs and Building Emissions Performance Standards so every home and workplace can cut energy costs and emissions — while creating good, local jobs for the next generation.
• A green jobs pipeline for youth. Build retrofit and clean-energy training programs that put young Torontonians to work building the low-carbon city we need.
• Smart guardrails on new data centre development. Pause approvals of data centres until the City has a clear framework, including ensuring high environmental quality, no impact on local utilities, and community benefits.
• Bring forward new sustainability standards for new buildings after the province gutted the Toronto Green Standard.

Keeping people safe from climate impacts

• Protect people from dangerous heat. Bring in an effective, equitable maximum temperature bylaw for rental units, expand the City's free air conditioner and heat pump program, and update our Heat Relief Strategy every year as it gets hotter.
• More trees, more shade. Develop a street tree resiliency strategy, keep growing the budget for tree planting and care, and prioritize new tree canopy in the hot, under-shaded neighbourhoods that need it most.
• Protect people from floods. Increase funding for green, flood-absorbing infrastructure like the Green Streets program, keep supporting basement flooding relief in hard-hit areas, and make water bills fairer by charging owners of large paved parking lots for the runoff they create.
• Fund community climate resilience. Support climate grants for neighbours helping neighbours — emergency planning, wellness checks, local gardens, food security — and fund physical hubs where people can cool off and connect during extreme heat.

Cutting waste

• Cut single-use trash. Support businesses as we move Toronto's Single Use Strategy to meet international standards for take-out, and dine-in restaurants, and get single-use items out of the City's own buildings.
• Don't burn our garbage. Oppose toxic, climate-harming incineration and invest instead in diverting waste to blue bin and green bin, along with circular-economy tools like deconstruction requirements.

While on City Council, I fought for smart transit investment, funding for state-of-good-repair to keep vehicles running on time, for winter snow clearing of sidewalks across the city, and for lower vehicle speeds on residents' streets, because I believe how people move through this city shapes everything else about it.

• Finish the cycling network by standing firm against provincial attempts to rip out or limit bike lanes and support the prioritization and implementation of the City's Cycling Network Plan in every ward.
• Speed up buses and streetcars with more RapidTO transit priority measures with concrete plans to improve travel times on College and Dundas West surface routes so getting across town doesn't mean sitting in gridlock.
• Keep subways moving reliably by addressing reduced speed zones on the TTC, including at Bay/Bloor and between Bloor/Yonge and Rosedale Stations, and advocating for delivery and operation of the new Line 2 subway cars on time and on budget.
• Keep transit riders safe by expanding the pilot program to bring trained crisis workers onto Line 1 to more subway stations in Ward 11 and to consider them on streetcars.
• Expand fare capping.
• Defend TTC's autonomy from provincial interference.
• Dedicate more space to pedestrians in our public squares and streets and create a process to help communities pedestrianize their streets.
• Make streets safer with smarter traffic design and technology that reduces gridlock and protects pedestrians and cyclists alike. Build neighbourhood street safety plans.
• Fight back against provincial overreach on automated speed enforcement.
• Make our winter seasons safer by supporting a City-led snow shovelling program modelled on the success of New York City.
• Oppose Island airport expansion, which would mean more traffic, pollution, and lost waterfront green space, and work with communities and businesses to support more pedestrianized streets in Ward 11.

Strong public services are what make a city fair. They're not a line item to be cut — they're the foundation everything else is built on.

• Properly fund and staff the services people rely on.
  • From libraries and community centres to shelters and long-term care, ensure we are getting the best value for money and accountability with our contracted-out services.
  • Stop spending money on contracting out work from city staff who have proven their ability to do the work better and faster.
• Improve and build fantastic public parks.
  • Work with community members to build plans for our parks to make them fun, safe and accessible for a wide range of users.
  • Keep existing park washrooms open and well-maintained year-round, including in Christie Pits Park and Bellevue Square Park, and ensuring new parks have washrooms wherever possible.
  • Improving and creating new dog off-leash areas through the Dog Off-Leash Area Strategy.
  • Pushing for new parks to be sustainable and accessible year-round with shade options.
  • Championing design excellence and community engagement, including the Queens Park North Revitalization and the midtown ravines.
• Time for new garbage bins - it's time to review the Astral street furniture and garbage contract and install bins that work!
• Improve the public realm by creating more dynamic main streets and public spaces, fix broken street furniture, and expand options for seating and waste collection to meet the needs of a neighbourhood, and championing a public washroom strategy.
• Invest in childcare, youth, and seniors programs that give every family in Toronto a real shot at getting ahead and seniors the opportunity to engage with their community.
• Build and support our community centres with a focus on the Ramsden Recreation Centre and creating a long-term plan for the Bickford Centre that meets the needs of the community and other underutilized public spaces.
• Expand community-based crisis response, pairing trained community workers with the people who need support most — on transit and in neighbourhoods.

For 12 years, I prided myself on my approach to responding to community needs. We worked with neighbourhoods to develop road safety plans as traffic patterns changed. We worked with neighbourhoods on permits for street events. We worked with BIAs on unique streetscaping options. While I didn't always have the answer people wanted to hear - I listened. Calls got answered and I gave honest answers.

Here's my commitment: As the city sets its priorities every year - I want to hear yours. Working neighbourhood by neighbourhood, street by street, we will set our local priorities together.

Councillor's Office Commitment:

• Building neighbourhood priority plans for road safety, parks, and public services.
• Meeting regularly with community associations to get ahead of development applications by identifying and providing proactive feedback on development sites.
• Institute my previous 24-hour constituent service response time for inquiries.
• Show up locally - Community office hours and regular walking tours.
• Report back annually on progress towards our shared priorities and actions taken!