5 Ways Toronto’s Incoming Council can ‘Hit Go’ on Growth

The countdown is on. The municipal election is just six weeks away, and we’re using this time to shine a light on 5 ways our incoming municipal government can boost our region’s growth and competitiveness. We’re calling on Toronto’s incoming council to “hit go” because time is of the essence. And we’re calling on Torontonians to raise these priorities with their council candidates.

The pandemic showed us that things we thought were impossible to achieve for years, were in fact possible. 

 Overnight, council stood up vaccine clinics that proved to be world-leading; patios on streets appeared across communities, allowing businesses to stay open; and coordination between all three levels of government became seamless and addressed with urgency.

 Today, the growth challenges that existed prior to the pandemic remain. We face pressing issues that threaten our economy and quality of life like a lack of housing, a warming climate, and labour shortages. We need the same sense of urgency that motivated us during the pandemic to cut through the inertia and get things done.  

 We have a lot of work to do if we want to remain competitive, and Toronto, responsible for 20% of Canada’s GDP, needs to lead the way for our region.  

 We, at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, have identified five priority areas our incoming council must move forward on to grow our region’s economy, and support our businesses and workers. 

 1. It’s time to hit go on building formal mechanisms for regional coordination so we can unlock our full economic potential as a region.

First, it’s time to “think like a region.” The municipalities that make up the Toronto region are siloed, often duplicating efforts or designing incompatible plans on things like transit, land use planning, or attracting investments.

2. It’s time to hit go on fast, frequent and integrated transit as well as electric vehicle infrastructure.

Second, transportation produces 35 percent of the Toronto region’s emissions. We need to make it easy for people to get out of their cars, and, when that’s not an option, we need to make it easy for people to switch their cars to electric.

3. It’s time to hit go on housing and remove antiquated zoning laws that prohibit multiple units in favour of single detached homes.  

Third, businesses have been clear: they need workers to meet demand and Toronto’s housing affordability crisis is pricing out talent and contributing to a labour shortage. 

4. It’s time to hit go on “buying local” and have the City of Toronto procure from our home-grown innovators.

Fourth, while The New York Times dubbed Toronto the quietly booming tech town we don’t support our very own tech startups and help them scale. World-class cities, that produce globally recognized technology companies, incentivize businesses to test and grow their products domestically by procuring from them. In contrast, Toronto region municipalities spend billions of dollars procuring from international companies instead of supporting local. 

5. It’s time to hit go on cutting red tape by coordinating with other municipalities and the province to make starting and growing a business easy.

Finally, businesses are our job creators, and we always say we have their backs. And yet businesses face piles of needless and overlapping regulatory red tape between different municipalities and the province. 

We know the challenges we face. We have the solutions at hand. We are asking voters, candidates and the incoming council to hit go on growth and unlock our region’s economic potential.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey, share your thoughts on the future of our region, and, of course, vote on October 24th. To learn more, visit our campaign page at bot.com and follow us on Twitter @TorontoRBOT #HitGo.