TORONTO – Olivia Chow is playing all the “cards” at her disposal to restore Toronto’s budget: after the meeting with the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, and the “deal” with the Province that should allow the City to obtain aid from Queen’s Park, today she went to Ottawa for a series of meetings with political leaders, federal ministries and NDP colleagues, including the party leader, Jagmeet Singh, in the hope of finding valuable support to guarantee greater funding for Toronto, dealing with an increasingly short of money. 

Chow met, in particular, the federal Liberal MPs of Toronto with whom she had “a productive conversation about our city’s urgent priorities”, as the Mayor herself wrote on Twitter X, publishing a group photo together with the MPs.

Then she met with “some old NDP friends” and especially the party leader, Jagmeet Singh, with whom she discussed “what the NDP can do to advance Toronto’s needs, particularly affordable housing and transit”.

Also on Chow’s agenda were meetings with the federal ministries of Housing and Immigration. All aimed at trying to resolve the issues plaguing Toronto, in particular the heavy budget deficit (which is over 1 billion dollars), the refugees emergency and the lack of affordable housing.

On this last point in particular, just today the Mayor provided a much awaited update, relating to the RGI (Rent-Geared-to-Income). “I’ve seen the concerns surrounding the RGI housing waitlist changes. My office – she wrote on Twitter X – is working with staff, the chair and councillors on a motion for Planning and Housing committee tomorrow to ensure no one loses their place as we change to a faster and more transparent system. This includes extending the deadline and assessing the appropriateness of the new deadline as it approaches”.

In the pic above, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh during today’s meeting in Ottawa (from Twitter – @MayorOliviaChow)