John Tory

Mayor, City of Toronto

100 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Dear Mayor Tory,

Thank you for your letter on the City of Toronto’s priorities for the 2022 Provincial election. I
appreciate hearing directly from our municipal partners. I am proud of the strong relationships
our Ontario PC team built with all of Ontario’s 444 municipalities. We will continue to listen to
them to hear what tools and resources they need to address local challenges in their
communities.
Housing
All Ontarians deserve a place to call home. Over the last four years we have answered the call
for support from our municipal partners to address their local housing needs. We have
announced $3 billion in funding to help sustain, repair and grow community housing and
address homelessness in Ontario.
We have been a strong partner with the City in providing the resources they need to address
community housing and homelessness through the following programs:
● Homelessness Prevention Program, which is new program that consolidates three
previous homelessness programs and which began on April 1, 2022: City of Toronto’s
allocation is $169,165,500, which is a $6,464,683 increase over the previous year.
● Social Services Relief Funding $437,437,838, including $47 million through the most
recent fifth phase. This funding helps protect the health and safety of the province’s most
vulnerable during COVID-19.
● The province is committed to partnering with the City of Toronto on its housing plan. We
know that creating 3,000 permanent homes, 2,000 of which will be new supportive
housing, will create additional operating costs of $27 million for the remainder of 2022.
This additional funding will be made available to the City of Toronto for the 2022-23
fiscal year. We are also aware that the total annual cost of the program will grow to $48
million per year in ongoing operating funding when all units come online by the end of
2023. Our government will continue working collaboratively with the City of Toronto in
regards to addressing this need to support the operation of its new supportive housing
units.

To address the housing supply crisis, our government introduced legislative, regulatory, and
policy changes to help build new homes in Ontario through two pieces of legislation, More
Homes, More Choice Act and the More Homes for Everyone Act. We are fixing barriers to
building new homes, while protecting health, safety, the environment, the Greenbelt, and
agricultural lands. This approach is working. Our housing supply plan helped over 100,000 new
homes start construction last year, the highest in more than 30 years.
Addressing the housing supply crisis is a long-term strategy that requires long-term commitment
and partnership at all levels of government.
We established a Housing Task Force that issued a series of recommendations on how to
address the housing supply crisis. This report is our long-term housing roadmap. Similar to
Ontario’s approach with regular Red Tape Reduction bills, the province is committed to
implementing the Task Force’s recommendations with a housing supply action plan every year
over four years, starting in 2022–2023, with policies and tools that support multi-generational
homes and missing middle housing.
To ensure municipalities actively support these policies, we are establishing a Housing Supply
Working Group which will engage with the federal and municipal governments, partner
ministries, industry and associations to monitor progress and support improvements to our
annual housing supply action plans.
We also continue to call on the Federal Government to ensure Ontario receives its fair share of
funding under the National Housing Strategy and Reaching Home program. Currently, Ontario is
being underfunded $490 million based on our level of housing need. We need the Federal
government to support the province and give us our fair share of funding, I encourage you to
call on the Feds to ensure Ontario receives its fair share.
If re-elected, our Ontario PC team will continue to work with the City of Toronto to ensure it has
the supports it needs to provide the housing supports to its residents.
COVID-19 Operating Budget Relief Funding
Operating Budget Support

We understand the COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to our municipal

partners. That is why we stepped up and worked with all levels of government to provide
unprecedented funding to support municipalities to deliver $4 billion in support through the
historic Safe Restart Agreement (SRA), to help municipalities continue to deliver critical public
services.

Through various funding programs, the City of Toronto received:

● A total of $1,447,007,745 under all phases of SRA for Transit Operating Relief from the
Ministry of Transportation and the Federal Government.
● A total of $543,958,100 in Joint Provincial/Federal SRA Municipal Operating Funding
● A total of $164,006,045 Provincial COVID-19 Recovery Funding for Municipalities
In addition, over the last four years the City of Toronto has received funding from the Gas Tax
Program totalling $370,340,977.
It must also be noted that over the past year Ontario delivered more than $1.3 billion in
provincial financial relief – above and beyond the Safe Restart Agreement. Highlights of
Ontario’s support included:
 ● $562 million for municipal shelter supports through the Social Services Relief Fund;
● $500 million in additional municipal operating support funding; and
● $270 million in additional provincial supports for municipal transit services, including
$120 million in additional funding provided through Ontario’s Gas Tax Program.
Additionally, Ontario invested more than one billion dollars to support the continued safe
operation of Metrolinx regional transit services throughout the pandemic, ensuring that
interchange transportation services with the Toronto Transit Commission and surrounding
municipal and regional transit services continued to be there for the people of Toronto and all
Ontarians who needed them.
Finally, last month, in response to the federal budget which did not include additional funding for
municipal operating supports, Minister Bethlenfalvy issued a letter to the federal government
highlighting Ontario’s additional investments and indicating that we are ready and willing to
contribute more to support municipal partners, but Ontario cannot do this alone. We need to
have the federal government as a partner to ensure Ontario’s municipalities can continue to
deliver vital services in 2022. To that end, we have requested that the federal government
provide additional support that is aligned with the $1.3 billion in provincial investments we
already delivered since the Safe Restart Agreement and we have indicated to them, and to you,
that we are committed to working with the federal government to advance discussions for any
further support that is needed.

Transit Funding
Our Ontario PC team believes that building key infrastructure and expanding public transit is
vital for all Ontarians. Over the last four years we have made record investments in public transit
across Toronto and the GTA to ensure that Ontarians spend more time at home and with their
loved ones.
Our historic plan for transit in Toronto and the GTA includes the all-new Ontario Line, the
Scarborough Subway Extension, the Yonge North Subway Extension and the Eglinton
Crosstown West Extension. After years of delays and endless studies we are getting shovels in
the ground and finally expanding transit across Toronto and the GTA.
We welcomed the federal government’s agreement to provide $316.2 million in support for
municipal transit cost pressures which we matched dollar-for-dollar for a total of $632.4 million
in new funding to support our municipal partners.
Community Safety
Community safety is a top priority for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives and we are proud
of our record over the last four years investing in and working hand-in-hand with municipalities
and police associations to strengthen community safety across the province.
Last month, our government announced a landmark investment to provide the Toronto Police
Service (TPS) with significant new resources to safeguard the city’s diverse and growing
communities. Through the Community Safety and Policing Grant Program, TPS received over
$72 million for eight public safety initiatives focusing on local and provincial proprieties to help
build a safer Toronto for all those who work, visit or call the city home. These eight initiatives
include:
● $33 million for its Public Safety Response Team
● $13.3 million for its dedicated shooting response team
● $12.2 million for its Neighbourhood Community Officer program, a collaboration with
residents and community agencies.

In addition to the Community Safety and Policing Grant, our government allocated an additional
$14.7 million over three years to the TPS to continue the fight against gun and gang violence in
the City of Toronto.
We also provided the City of Toronto with a total of $1.5 million for the Victim Services Toronto’s
Exit Route program so victims and survivors of human trafficking and intimate partner violence
have quick and seamless access to services and supports during one of the most traumatic
times of their lives. This funding is in addition to over $6 million that was provided to Toronto
based organizations to increase services for child and youth victims and survivors of human
trafficking
A Ontario Progressive Conservative government will continue to invest in public safety to ensure
policing and community partners have the tools necessary to provide immediate response to
emergency situations and build safer communities in Toronto and across the province.
Mental Health
Many Ontarians are affected by mental health and addictions challenges. For far too long, those
struggling have had to wait too long for urgent care or have experienced unequal, inconsistent
services. Addressing our broken and fragmented mental health care system to ensure
Ontarians can access the quality care they need was a top priority for our government and if re-
elected, we will continue to work to build a more robust mental health care system across the
province.
In 2020, the Ontario Progressive Conservative government was proud to announce our
comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy a Roadmap to Wellness: A plan to Build
Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System.
To enable this plan, we invested $3.8 billion over 10 years to build a comprehensive and
connected mental health and addictions system that is sensitive to the needs of Ontario’s
diverse populations. This system ensures the people of Ontario find it easier to navigate and the
mental health care system to access the right level of care to meet their needs.
Our recent budget, Ontario’s Plan to Build, outlines our party’s investment, if re-elected to build
on the 2020 Roadmap to Wellness by committing an additional $204 million to expand existing
services, implement innovative solutions and improve access to mental health and addition
services.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are also committed to supporting the mental health of
first responders. That is why our government invested $1 million to support planning for
Runnymede Healthcare Centre’s First Responders Post Traumatic Stress Injury Rehabilitation
Centre in Toronto and Peel Region, which will serve first responders such as firefighters,
paramedics, nurses and police officers. I was pleased to have you attend that announcement
and look forward to future opportunities to work together to ensure our first responders have the
best-in-class treatments they deserve.
Ontarians deserve and government and a Premier with a plan. Our government’s record has
shown that we have delivered on affordability, emergency management, community safety and
mental health supports for the people of Ontario. We hope to once again gain the confidence of
the province’s electorate and continue to get it done for the people of Ontario for four more
years.
Thank you for sharing your priorities for the City of Toronto with me. It is vital that we continue
our strong partnership to ensure that we continue to get it done for all Torontonians.

Sincerely,

Doug Ford
Leader, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario