Olivia Chow is running in the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election. From 1985 to 1991, she began her political service as a Toronto Board of Education School Trustee. In 1991, Ms. Chow became the first Asian-born woman elected as a Metro Toronto councillor; Chow held her seat until 2005.
Later, she became the NDP Member of Parliament for the Trinity-Spadina riding from 2006 to 2014. During her time in Ottawa, Olivia Chow introduced legislation for universal childcare and called on all levels of government to work together on a National Transit Strategy. In 2014, she joined Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) as a distinguished visiting professor.
As part of Excalibur’s election coverage, Olivia Chow participated in a Zoom interview on May 13 to discuss her plans as a mayoral candidate.
What are the biggest issues facing Torontonians in 2023?
Chow: The biggest one is affordability. I don’t know how students do it, because I also teach and some of the students come into class looking exhausted. And I ask, “What’s going on?” and they say “Well, I just spent two hours getting to class…” “Why?” “Well, I have to live with my parents, I can’t afford anything else.” Some of them even have to work two jobs because [Doug] Ford cut the grant portion of OSAP. They end up having to work second jobs or a job that is not just 20 hours, but 30 hours a week. They’re exhausted. And then when they graduate, most people have debt. How are you going to pay the debt with that kind of housing unaffordability? You can have a really good job, but still – almost half of the income would go into paying rent.
Housing affordability is a huge issue, and no wonder! The City of Toronto has not built any affordable housing. They’ve been partnering with the private sector and non-profit sector, building in small numbers, but direct building? It’s stopped. And before, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, the City of Toronto built 32,000 units of affordable housing. All over St. Lawrence neighborhood are co-ops, and it works really well. And then it stopped. So that’s a top priority for me, affordability.
Students deal with a variety of challenges, ranging from financial constraints, mental health issues, safety concerns, to commuting difficulties. What policies do you plan to implement that would help students live in the city?
Chow: The mental health one is serious. It’s because of distress, right? Because of the unaffordability. [We’re] out of COVID, [but the] isolation [remains.] The feeling that you don’t belong anywhere, it’s deep. There’s a multi-pronged approach. I will stop the evictions by providing financial and social support. The city has a Rent Bank; if, by the end of the financial month, you desperately don’t have enough, it provides financial support.
The EPIC (Eviction Prevention in Community) program provides shelter support, because sometimes it’s not just money. We will have inspectors to back up tenants so that if their landlord won’t fix the elevator or the hot water, they have city hall [to back them up]. And occasionally, the rent increase might be illegal. So, we’ll go to the Metro Tenants’ Association and provide more funding for them to organize the tenants so that they can come together with the city’s legal assistants to get justice, so [the landlords] obey the law. [Sometimes, the landlords] decide to renovate and evict everybody because the rent control law says that if your building is from after 2018, it’s not rent-controlled. Some of the [landlords in] older buildings, the more affordable buildings, are evicting the tenants to renovate. Then they bring in new people and jack up the rent rate.
So we’re going to help tenants to come together and make a land trust, a bigger co-operative, so that their housing is secure. We have two pilots, there’s one in Parkdale and one in Kensington Market, working really well. And we’re going to increase that pocket by 10 times so that students and tenants will have the possibility to manage their own homes and have a secure home.
And I spoke earlier about the city not building housing. We’ll be back to building housing. We’ll build 25,000 units of housing on city land, and a good number of them will be affordable. I think it’s really important that the city gets back into the affordable housing business. If not, we’re just asking for trouble. We’re seeing it on the street: almost 10,000 people are homeless, and some of them are young people. And people are just a few paycheques away from losing their housing.
I’ll have these centres, it’s sort of a drop-in centre but also a respite. If you find yourself homeless, there is a place for you to go get a shower, make sure you got your IDs, get internet access, and maybe help you find a job and have a meal. And if you have to stay overnight, there’s a bed for you. So that one-stop-shop kind of thing can get people back on their feet, and those that need to move into shelters, they would learn how to do that. And then I would provide a thousand units of housing for people that are stuck in shelters to open up more space for the shelter. And then there’s rent subsidies. For example, if you can only afford $800 rent, and rent is $1,200 or $1,300, we’d pay the extra so that you would get a unit of housing. If you need some mental health support, or addiction support, there’ll be wrap-around services to support you so you stay housed.
Toronto boasts numerous colleges and universities. The TTC plays a crucial role as many students rely on public transit. As a mayoral candidate, how do you intend to manage the TTC?
Chow: On the TTC, the price went up. And we’re waiting longer for buses, which makes no sense. I’ll restore the cuts so that we will have better services. Yesterday, I was on Bloor Street, I was biking and all these people were flooding Bloor Street and all the shuttle buses are going because the subway shut down again. So, the TTC needs a lot more investment.
A long time ago, I helped create the university student pass, I helped create the high school student pass. I’m open to ideas as to how to make it more affordable for students. And looking into Express buses, which is happening. Until we get another level of government coming back in to financially support it, it’s hard for the city to do it. So we’ll push, I will put in a lot more funding for the TTC so that you don’t have to wait as long for the bus. But as to the passes. I’m investigating whether we could make them cheaper.
It’s still 40-plus days left for the campaign. I haven’t rolled out my big TTC thing yet, so I don’t want to pre-empt myself. But I’m an all-year commuter and cyclist, I go everywhere with my PRESTO Card. It matters a lot. And I get it, I totally get it.
I was the youth advocate at the City of Toronto a while ago, and I started the Toronto Youth Cabinet to help inform City Hall’s policies. It would be great if some of the York students could work with the Toronto Youth Council to come up with some really clear ideas. I also work with TTC riders on how to make the TTC more accessible. But getting creative ideas, and getting common sense ideas on how services can be improved would be a really good thing to do.
I think it’s important that you have a city hall that opens itself up for any negotiation, any ideas involving the public, because my concept has always been: together, we’re stronger. And it’s not just one mayor. It’s not just one city council. It’s really about all of us coming together. For me, the vision of a city is that together we can build a city that’s more caring, safer, affordable, where everyone belongs. I think if we do that, especially on the caring part and the affordability part, we can do so much more.
How does your background and experience prepare you for the responsibilities of being the mayor of Canada’s largest city?
Chow: I’ve gotten things done before. Whether it is having decent food in schools, in children’s nutrition programs which now feed two-hundred thousand people, in dental care, [or] 911 speaking 240 languages so when you’re desperate, you can get through. And I’ve been on the Budget Committee for 10 years and have balanced the budget. I’ve been a Member of Parliament, so I know how to negotiate with the federal government. I represented downtown Toronto and it’s booming. I wish it was more affordable, but it’s doing well, [though] we need to deal with the homeless situation. In many ways, experience matters so it’s not just all talk. It’s easy for me to promise the sky, but then you have to go do it. So, I have a very good track record of getting things done. I’m practical – I don’t make grand promises. I’m that kind of person; just get it done. Just do it with other people and you don’t have to talk. That is the advantage that I have. Experience matters because it’s pretty complex in terms of all the services the city provides.
Advance voting runs from June 8-13, with the election on June 26. Voters can find more information on the city of Toronto website.
They in fact lived in a federally subsidized, co-op apartment building and paid a modest rent of $800-a-month for their three-bedroom-plus-den apartment, considering they had a combined income, 24 years ago, of $120,000 annually.
As first reported by the late, great Tom Kerr of the Toronto Star in June, 1990 — a veteran, highly respected municipal reporter — Layton was earning $61,900 annually as a city councillor, one third-tax free, making his salary equivalent to $70,000 annually for someone paying taxes, plus about $5,000 a year as a U of T lecturer.
Chow was earning $47,000 annually as a school trustee, one-third tax free, the equivalent of $52,000.
Layton and Chow were given a three-bedroom apartment in the Hazelburn Co-op when they married in July, 1988, with Layton’s two children, then 12 and 14, staying with them on weekends.
(Previously, Layton and Chow had been living in separate, two-bedroom apartments from the time the co-op opened in 1985, Chow and her mother on the fifth floor, Layton on the tenth.) The Star noted Layton’s and Chow’s combined income was more than double what was considered a “moderate” family income in 1990.