Olivia Chow requests to take office July 12, says first order of business is housing

Toronto mayor-elect Olivia Chow says she’s grateful Torontonians have put their faith in her to lead this city and is eager to get to work.

“My heart is full because it's so exciting to be given this opportunity to serve, to work with others, and to grow and to learn, but really to get something done for people,” she said during an interview early Tuesday morning on CP24 Breakfast.

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“I've heard so many stories about how much they need City Hall, whether it's getting more affordable housing, fixing the TTC. … You know, very ordinary things that are really important for a whole lot of people.”

Typically, a new mayor takes several weeks to be sworn in, but Chow has already been in communication with the City Clerk and has requested to take office on July 12, pending the certification of the official results.

In a June 27 statement, John D. Elvidge said that task should be complete no later than Wednesday.

Chow will then make the Declaration of Office with the City Clerk. Details about when that ceremony will take place have yet to be determined.

The city’s new mayor already plans to be at City Hall this afternoon to meet with the city manager for a briefing. She’ll also be doing media scrum and photo opportunity there at 2 p.m.

Chow, who reiterated that she will not be using ‘Strong Mayor’ powers, also told CP24 that she intends to meet with all city councillors in the near future in an effort to foster connections with newer ones and rebuild relationships with those with whom she’s worked previously.

“Normally it takes five, six weeks to get sworn in. I thought, I need to get to work now. So I said two weeks, two weeks. Let me get sworn in in two weeks,” she told CP24.

Chow said her first order of business will be “housing, housing, housing, housing.”

• Olivia Chow will be Toronto’s next mayor. Here's what she promised

“Let's get the housing, especially there are some social housing from non-profit organizations. They have been waiting for two years to get approved,” she said.

“So they got the money, they got the land, they got the building, everything's ready. They just need the approvals shuffled and hit the ground. So we're gonna say, ‘let's get this moving.’”

On the issue of raising property taxes and the municipal land transfer tax, a concern raised by many voters during the campaign, Chow has urged Torontonians to not be “worried.”

Chow said there’s “quite a bit of time” to consider what raising property taxes would entail, noting that’s an issue that would be handled during the city’s budget process next March.

Toronto's newly elected Mayor Olivia Chow celebrates her win at an election night event in Toronto, on Monday June 26, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

In the meantime, she said that Toronto would be “coming together” with the provincial and federal governments to make the case for more support so that the property tax increase is reasonable.

“(Toronto) is the heart, the economic engine of Canada. And we have so many people living here, right, it's the third biggest city in North America,” she said, adding calls will be made for more help with public transit, highways, and funds to address the homelessness crisis, so that those responsibilities don’t fall solely on Toronto.

“We need some kind of revenue that will grow with the economy. … We just had Pride weekend. We're going to have Caribana. Think of the economic benefits of those big parties, big parades. The city won't get a penny of it. That's not fair.”

As for the municipal land transfer tax, she said only two per cent of homeowners would be impacted. She also noted that a federal grant is available for first-time homebuyers to ease that burden.

Further, Chow said she wants to make it “easy and fast” for those who want to “build up” their single-family, often detached, homes to address what is known as the “missing middle” due to a history of “red tape” around zoning.

“What I’m saying is ‘build, build, build, build,’ up to four storeys if you want to have four units,” she said. “You can rent out three of them and some money right. Then you are creating more housing, and you’re earning some extra dollars,” she continued.

“So I want to unleash the power of the homeowner and say to them, ‘go build it,’ because we need housing right here now.”

Chow, who is the first woman elected to lead Toronto since amalgamation and the city’s first racialized mayor, won the mayoral byelection with 269,372 votes. Former Toronto councillor Ana Bailao finished in second place with 235,175 votes, while Mark Saunders, the city’s chief of police from 2015 to 2020, came in third place with 62,167 votes.