{"id":883441,"date":"2026-09-04T20:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/883441\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T20:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:12:14","slug":"toronto-election-chow-to-keep-property-taxes-at-or-around-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/883441\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto election: Chow to keep property taxes at or around inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Olivia Chow will keep property taxes \u201cat or around\u201d the inflation rate if she is re-elected as Toronto mayor, her campaign office has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In a statement to CP24 on Friday, campaign spokesperson Shirven Rezvany said Chow is making the pledge now that the city is in a \u201cmore sustainable financial position\u201d after fixing the budget over the last three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rezvany pointed out that when Chow took office in 2023, Toronto faced a budget hole of nearly $2 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">During her first term, property owners saw their tax bill go up, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/news\/2024\/01\/31\/chow-to-trim-tax-hike-to-95-per-cent-in-toronto-budget-set-to-be-unveiled-thursday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/news\/2024\/01\/31\/chow-to-trim-tax-hike-to-95-per-cent-in-toronto-budget-set-to-be-unveiled-thursday\/\">9.5 per cent hike<\/a> \u2013 the largest increase the city had seen since amalgamation. In 2025, Chow\u2019s budget included a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/politics\/toronto-city-hall\/2025\/01\/30\/chows-finalized-budget-keeps-69-per-cent-property-tax-hike-in-tact-but-expands-relief-for-seniors-people-with-disabilities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/politics\/toronto-city-hall\/2025\/01\/30\/chows-finalized-budget-keeps-69-per-cent-property-tax-hike-in-tact-but-expands-relief-for-seniors-people-with-disabilities\/\">6.9 per cent<\/a> tax bump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cTorontonians helped get the city\u2019s finances back on track, and after three years of work fixing the city budget, the city is now in a more sustainable financial position. Mayor Chow\u2019s plan is to hold the line at or around inflation,\u201d Rezvany with Chow\u2019s campaign said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This year, Chow\u2019s budget included a tax increase of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/01\/07\/city-staff-to-propose-22-per-cent-tax-bump-for-property-owners-in-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cp24.com\/local\/toronto\/2026\/01\/07\/city-staff-to-propose-22-per-cent-tax-bump-for-property-owners-in-2026\/\">2.2 per cent<\/a>, which was slightly below the inflation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rezvany said Chow\u2019s work has resulted in the city being back on the path to stable and sustainable finances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cOlivia Chow didn\u2019t create Toronto\u2019s financial crisis but took responsibility to fix it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Bradford responds<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mayoral candidate Brad Bradford has previously slammed Chow\u2019s tax increases, saying she has made life \u201cvery expensive\u201d for Toronto residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In a statement to CP24 on Thursday, a spokesperson for Bradford\u2019s campaign said Chow didn\u2019t keep her last election promise of \u201cmodest\u201d tax increases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cVoters have every reason not to take her word for it this time either,\u201d the spokesperson said, noting that Bradford will announce his plan \u201cin due course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alexander pledges zero tax hike in 1st year<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mayoral candidate Chris Alexander called Chow\u2019s tax policy a \u201cflimsy campaign promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He then announced that, if elected, there will be no tax increases during his first year in office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In his second year, Alexander promised property taxes would rise at a rate lower than inflation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cProperty taxes have been sky-rocketing, while new housing goes unbuilt and services continue to disappoint. We haven\u2019t yet heard how either the current mayor or council will actually fix this fiscal failure,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Chow will keep property taxes \u201cat or around\u201d the inflation rate if she is re-elected as Toronto&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-883441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}