Olivia Chow vowed to make Toronto kinder, more affordable and safer. We look at whether she’s kept her word

Standing inside city hall’s council chambers, wearing her signature yellow blazer, adorned with the chain of office, surrounded by bureaucrats, her new council, family and members of the public, the newly elected Chow encouraged residents to envision a more compassionate, safe and affordable Toronto under her watch.

“Together we can, and today we start.”

The progressive mayor had been elected in the wake of a John Tory scandal and his surprise resignation. Critics, including the premier, had said Chow would be an “unmitigated disaster,” that her campaign lacked detail and that she faced a daunting task post-pandemic to rescue a city in financial free fall.

Chow vowed to get new financial deals out of the city’s “reluctant partners” at Queen’s Park and Ottawa. She asked Torontonians to imagine more affordable homes, a reliable TTC, a city in which residents felt safe and support services are there for those in need of immediate mental health care.

In her words? “The needs of folks, whether they are public transit riders or tenants having a hard time, immigrant families barely making it — if you notice, what I focused on in the last three years are people that, in some ways, have been left behind.”

On the eve of the vote that will determine whether she continues her tenure, the Star offers an audit to help you decide your vote: We talk to Chow herself and others about how her record stacks up.

Chow pledged she would get local government back into the business of building affordable housing.

She promised to build 25,000 city-owned and nonprofit-run rent-controlled homes within eight years. She said there would be a minimum of 7,500 below-market affordable units, including at least 2,500 rent-geared-to-income units. 

There are currently 14,300 homes under construction by the city, according to its own figures, of which about 4,300 are affordable. Of these, about 6,600 homes, including about 3,300 affordable rental homes, are being developed on public land or by a public or non-profit organization.

Chow has also expanded a program to help non-profit housing providers purchase buildings and turn them into affordable housing. She strengthened rules to crack down on negligent landlords and rolled out new ones to curb so-called renovictions. 

“I’m actually building affordable housing using the city of Toronto, saying that ‘You give me 20 per cent of your building, I will fast track you, give you city land, and lower all your development charges,’” Chow told the Star. “No other mayors have used that as leverage to build affordable housing.”

There has been “a lot of progress,” said Carolyn Whitzman, a senior housing researcher and adjunct professor with the University of Toronto School of Cities.

But while government-backed housing projects are now a larger share of Toronto’s market, the private construction market has cratered, leaving many projects struggling to get off the ground unless they can access government support.

“I do think (Chow’s efforts) have picked up steam, but it’s a bit like turning around a supertanker,” said Whitzman, referring to how decades of reliance on private developers to build affordable housing has “damaged” Toronto’s ecosystem.

Chow noted that under her watch, wait times for approvals and permits have gone down. Site plan applications before July 2023 took an average of 816 days to reach a decision; now the average is 256 days, according to the city.

But there was also a missed opportunity, according to Whitzman: fulfilling the city’s agreement with the federal government to legalize sixplexes citywide.

“The mayor could have been stronger on that,” Whitzman said. “I don’t think that’s a good look.”

In 2023, Chow said homelessness should be treated “with urgency and compassion” and “as the emergency it is.” She promised funding for rent supplements, opening 24/7 indoor respite spaces and expanding existing programs to protect tenants.

Chow points to current data as proof of progress. According to the city, 98 per cent of parks were free of encampments as of September, and last year it moved about 5,000 people from the streets and shelters into permanent homes. Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office recently reported that Toronto’s known homeless population decreased by 8.2 per cent between 2022 and 2025, bucking a broader provincial trend that saw homelessness rise.

“I want to end homelessness,” Chow said, in a recent interview with the Star, referring to the roughly 12,200 people still in the shelter system.

“How do we do that? Supportive housing. Stuff like Dunn House,” Chow said. Dunn House is a 50-unit permanent housing program serving homeless people who frequent emergency departments. “We’re building Dunn House two, three, four, five. Probably to 10. There’s hope around the corner. It will change. But it’s not (going to happen in) one day.”

Greg Cook, a longtime outreach worker, said there are fewer park encampments, but it’s because Chow’s administration has been efficient in clearing them — not because everyone is getting housing. People are also still being turned away from the shelter system, he added, which saw its budget cut this year. 

Transit problems persist as Chow’s first, truncated term concludes.

Ridership is still down, compared to pre-pandemic levels. The TTC subway system’s slow zones, which predate Chow, remain. The frequency of bus service in Scarborough is worse than before the pandemic, and while bus hours may be up, the frequency of routes is not as high as it used to be. 

Transit expert Steve Munro said he would give Chow a grade of B- on transit reliability.

There have been wins for the incumbent mayor.

Munro also said Chow getting the Scarborough Busway built a year ahead of schedule was a major win.

Andrew Pulsifer, the executive director for advocacy group TTCriders, said improvements such as the subway train coming every 2.5 minutes during rush hour on Lines 1 and 2, and every five minutes or less on the weekends, are “huge” wins. At their worst post-pandemic, wait times during rush hour were up to five minutes, and up to 10 or more on weekends. 

Pulsifer, who used to work in Chow’s office, also said that given the city’s pandemic-ravaged finances, he was pleased to see consecutive TTC fare freezes.

Perhaps the most widespread administrative headache of Chow’s tenure was the chaotic rollout of the Vacant Home Tax’s second year, where residents got hit with hefty bills they shouldn’t have. The city subsequently revamped the system.

“You can argue the stats, but I still think there’s a pervasive feeling that the city isn’t safer,” said Amanda Galbraith, a former John Tory spokesperson and campaign veteran.

“If you’re a mom with a stroller, you avoid taking the TTC. And some of that is the fentanyl crisis,” added Galbraith, who isn’t working on any election campaigns but whose business partner is working on Brad Bradford’s.

Chow told the Star the province putting an end to supervised consumption sites, with no robust backup plan, has brought drug users into public spaces and likely affected people’s sense of safety. Various kinds of disorderly behaviour also contribute the most to TTC subway delays.

“We’ve increased the number of (workers) on TTC to bring people out that don’t belong there … but it’s hard. It’s really hard,” said Chow.

Chow has faced persistent, intense scrutiny for her handling of the local reverberations of the war in Gaza. Namely, that she’s been insufficiently empathetic to Toronto’s rising antisemitism after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.

She’s also faced criticism from those protesting Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, including for supporting the “bubble zones” around places of worship and schools.

The former has arguably shaped the election more than the latter, with various advocacy groups organizing against Chow.

Chow said she has repeatedly denounced antisemitism, attended most vigils, visited Jewish schools that have been targeted in shootings, and has gone to events such as the Nova Massacre exhibit. She’s also pointed to significant police resources deployed to protect Jewish institutions.

She said the “only thing” she hasn’t done was attend the Walk for Israel, “because I do not agree with what the Israeli government is doing,” said Chow, who has called Israel’s attack on Gaza a genocide. “That does not have anything to do with the Jewish community here in Toronto … I do as much as I can in supporting them.”

Chow has been able to forge unexpectedly productive relationships. 

Five months after her inaugural speech, Chow clinched a historic financial deal with the province that provided the city with $8.8 billion in predictable money for the its operating budget by uploading the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway.

“Has the city of Toronto been able to get this much attention and financial partnership with other levels of government — and in this speed? No, I don’t think so,” said Chow. 

That so-called “new deal” with the Ford government would set the stage for the rest of her mayoralty.

Galbraith praised Chow for “going after the feds” to get $163 million for supports for refugees — sleeping outside shelter intake offices — by threatening a whopping 16.5 per cent property tax, of which six would have been labelled a federal levy. Chow “made both the politicians and the city uncomfortable with the realities of what these people were facing,” said Galbraith.

However, her positive relationship with Ford has been a double-edged sword, with some charging she was too timid when the premier interfered in municipal affairs — a perception Chow rejects.

The province has “just shoved us aside … They came in and took (Ontario Place land),” she said. With speed cameras, “I was mounting a fight. I was organizing … but the province did it with speed and aggression.”

Chow said her work with other governments has certainly been some of her proudest — but so was creating the citywide school nutrition program.

“Every kid in every school. That’s 300,000,” said Chow. “For a family that can’t afford to buy groceries, it matters. They can either face eviction or stop buying protein for their kids.” 

Chow also took office facing a historic $1.8-billion budget shortfall going into 2024. Several moves brought that number down to $1.3 billion in 2026, including creating a multi-year fiscal plan anchored by an unpopular property tax rate hike of 9.5 per cent in 2024.

The move improved Toronto’s credit rating for the first time in 23 years to AA+ and gave her significant leverage when asking Ottawa and Queen’s Park to contribute their fair share for local services like refugee housing.

Chow has undeniably achieved political victories. She has displayed her ability to work with those from different parts of the political spectrum. She has also seen setbacks at council and faced criticism over some services. 

“In a very disruptive period, I think she has done a pretty good job to stabilize the city and ticking off a bunch of achievable accomplishments,” said Zachary Spicer, an associate professor at York University’s school of public policy and administration.

“Chow has a very quiet way of working with folks at different levels of government, who have different ideologies and outlooks.”

The question that now looms for Chow at the polls is whether voters in this city have seen and felt the results of her changes — on housing, on financing, on social services.