By Aisha Duldul
The City of Toronto is set to launch a new 2025 budget plan. The plan is looking to prioritize investments that make life more affordable, improve transportation, keep the public safe and provide community services.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow will present the budget on Feb. 1, while the city council will meet to review it on Feb. 11. Chow said the budget will mean change for Torontonians’ lives.
The new budget plan is set to be the city’s largest in history, with a 10-year capital budget of $59.6 billion. According to the City of Toronto’s website, it includes new investments of $94 million to reflect the needs of Toronto residents during consultations last October.
The city promises this plan will ensure affordability for students and an increase in funding for youth violence protection programs. The city also promises that Sunday service is to be extended at 67 Toronto Public Library branches.
Asmaa Mohamed, a first-year social work student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) said Toronto “isn’t affordable for anyone.”
“If [students] have food insecurity, housing insecurity and don’t have adequate food and living, who’s to say that they’re actually going to show up to school?” she said.
Mohamed added that this new plan would have positive outcomes for students, helping to ensure they would be able to succeed in their learning.
The city’s plan includes an increase in transit agents for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), as well as a 5.8 per cent increase in transit service hours.
Melody Ghominejad, a second-year psychology student at TMU, uses the TTC regularly. She said making the transit system more reliable is a big step towards helping students.
“I had to make it to work on time, but everything was shuttle buses, and every road was closed because of construction. I was over an hour late to work because of the TTC and I even left [my apartment] earlier,” Ghominejad recalled.
She believes the TTC’s number one priority should be investing in faster commute times and ensuring safety measures rather than focusing on fare inspections.
Eduardo Souza-Rodrigues, associate chair and economics professor at the University of Toronto, said school food programs could help with affordability for students and their families.
“For quality of life, the three most important [necessities] are safety, health and access to mental health services and reducing commuting time. The three big things for Toronto,” said Rodrigues.
A 2024 study from the United States National Library of Medicine found that children and adults who received food assistance saw an improvement in their overall well-being.
Rodrigues suggests that reallocating the budget to add cash transfer programs, a type of government assistance program, could help solve issues like rent affordability.
“Cash transfer programs are more helpful because if someone needs more money to pay rent so they can live closer to their university, and [the city gives] them a food stamp, maybe that’s not a problem that person has [anymore],” said Rodrigues.
He added that investing in youth violence prevention programs may be highly ineffective if the city conducts the programs as seminars due to their optional nature.
Lisa Marie Tontodonati, a second-year history and English student at TMU, said the budget plan is a good start to making Toronto affordable, but is still not enough.
“If I want to take the GO train, it’ll still cost me sometimes between eight to 10 dollars a day … When you’re going to school about three to four days a week, that does add up,” Tontodonati said.
The city’s website encourages Toronto residents to stay tuned in to updates regarding the new budget plan, and continue attending city council meetings posted to their website to share their input.
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