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LILLEY: Toronto desperately needs change at City Hall

No one can look at the current state of the city and say that Olivia Chow deserves to be re-elected

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It’s pothole at the end of your street that isn’t being fixed, it’s the overflowing public garbage cans on every street corner, it’s a TTC that doesn’t work except as a homeless shelter. It’s the never-ending congestion, the rising costs despite diminished service, it’s the rising crime.

LILLEY: Toronto desperately needs change at City Hall Back to video

It’s didn’t used to be this way – and it doesn’t have to continue.

To fix things though, we need a change in leadership at City Hall. That doesn’t just mean replacing Mayor Olivia Chow with someone who will fight for better; it means we need large-scale change around the council table as well.

It’s great news that Councillor Gord Perks has announced he’s not running again in Parkdale-High Park. We need more than just one councillor changed though – we need to remove councillors who are accepting of Toronto’s decline, or worse encouraging it.

Councillor Anthony Peruzza, who recently called for the city to open government-run grocery stores, has been in elected office for North York since the 80s and on the current City Council since 2006 – it’s time for a change.

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Paula Fletcher, on the wrong side of most issues, has been there since 2003. We need to find new candidates to replace people who quite frankly are past their political best before date.

Why Toronto needs change at City Hall

Today, May 1, marks the first day that those seeking to run for council, or the mayor’s job, can register as candidates.

It seems like a good time to make the case for why we need change.

Despite claims that crime is down, the reality is that it’s up dramatically when looked at over the long term as opposed to just comparing it to record years.

In 2015, there were 3,285 auto thefts documented by the Toronto Police Service. By 2020, that figure had increased by 76% to 5,798, and by 2023, there were a record 12,539 auto thefts, almost four times as many thefts as eight years earlier.

In 2025, there were 7,363 cars stolen in Toronto.

It’s great that the number is lower than 2023, but this is more than double a decade ago. That’s unacceptable and needs to change, and that doesn’t happen by following the advice of officers who tell you to leave your keys by the front door.

Assaults are up almost 40% over the last decade, reported sexual violations have increased by 46% in that time, and theft over $5,000 – which doesn’t include autos – has effectively doubled.

It’s the same with shootings, down from record highs but still higher than a decade ago.

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Need leaders who don’t accept rising crime as inevitable

We need a mayor and councillors who won’t accept rising crime in Toronto as inevitable.

Homelessness is a growing problem in Toronto with the city estimating the homeless population at an average of more than 10,500 over the last three months.

A decade ago, we had roughly 4,000 shelter beds in the city, and the system was straining. After more than doubling capacity, the system is still straining, and we continue to expand shelters into virtually every corner of the city without making a dent in the problem.

This is clearly a file being mismanaged, but the Mayor and City Council take the view that we just need to spend more money.

Take a look at the shelter at 233 Carlton.

The city took possession of the leased building on Jan. 1, 2020, has spent more than $11 million on renovations, and it still doesn’t have an opening date. The city is currently in court after a group called the New Toronto Initiative challenged a proposed shelter at 66 Third St. claiming bad faith by the city.

We know the issue of homelessness is closely tied to addiction and on this front, Mayor Chow and her allies on council are hugely misguided. Chow endorsed what was called the Toronto Model and supported following British Columbia’s lead in getting the federal government to allow decriminalization of all drugs.

That short-lived experiment in B.C. was so bad that the NDP government of David Eby asked the feds to reverse course.

Impact of addiction on display daily in Toronto

Toronto has enough of a problem with open drug use, and the impact of addiction is on display daily. Anyone commuting into downtown through Union Station can see the people standing around the station in a stupor or hunched over in a zombie-like state.

The subway and streetcar system are also daily reminders of these problems.

We have garbage that is not properly collected in this city, public bins in the downtown core are regularly overflowing. The city is in a general state of disrepair as core services are ignored, but your taxes keep going up.

Over the last five years, property taxes have increased by more than 34%, mostly due to Oliva Chow. As mayor, Chow has also hiked parking fees and parking fines, boosted the water and solid waste rates by 25%, and increased the municipal land transfer tax.

No one can look at the current state of the city and say that Olivia Chow deserves to be re-elected.

We have just under six months to convince our neighbours of this – let’s get to work.

blilley@postmedia.com

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