What to know
- City Council passed Mayor Olivia Chow’s 2026 operating budget, which includes TTC fare freezes, school nutrition funding and affordability-focused investments, alongside a property tax increase.
- Toronto Police Service’s budget will grow to $1.43B, with 258 new emergency positions added, despite recent arrests of several officers in a corruption and organized crime investigation and a province-wide review of police forces.
- Some Torontonians are questioning the funding hike in light of the scandal, while others argue increased investment is necessary.
City Council just approved Mayor Olivia Chow’s final budget for 2026, including a hike in police investments that many Torontonians are questioning after a corruption and organized crime scandal involving multiple officers.
The city announced the $18.9-billion operating budget approval on Tuesday, after Chow issued a Mayoral Decision saying she would not veto any proposed amendments. According to the mayor, the budget aims to deliver affordability relief through measures such as transit fare freezes, school nutrition programs, and a series of investments.
“City Council adopted a 2026 Budget that helps Torontonians with the rising cost of living while protecting the services people count on,” she said in a statement. “It also strengthens community safety and invests in the housing, transit and infrastructure Toronto needs. Together, we’re building a more affordable, safe and caring city.”
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Budget includes increased police funding
As part of this year’s budget, the city is granting Toronto Police Service (TPS) an increase of $93 million, bringing its total funding to $1.43 billion.
The city says it is also adding 258 new emergency positions, which will include police officers and paramedics.
The decision to increase funding comes less than a week after seven officers and one retired officer were arrested after a murder plot investigation linked them to serious crimes including corruption and organized crime.
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Following the police scandal, Ontario’s Inspector General Ryan Teschner also announced an independent review of all police forces in the province on Monday.
Residents react to funding increase
The police budget increase is sparking reaction online, as some Torontonians take to social media to question the city’s decision, especially after the arrests.
“Do the police really deserve more money when so many of their officers were just revealed to be in bed with organized crime?” one Reddit user questioned.
“City Council deserves blame. Why are we giving more money to them? 1) they don’t prevent crime, they respond to it, 2) they already soak up way more of the budget than they should given the state of the city. That money is sorely needed elsewhere, not subsidizing our already very generously paid and equipped police force,” another person said.
“Shame on her and City Council for giving the police any money with no investigation,” a different user added.
Meanwhile, other residents are also defending the funding.
“The money isn’t going to pay for those police officers to get raises or anything…People moan about Toronto police being ineffective and laws not being properly enforced then refuse to give them a reasonable amount of money and officers,” one Redditor said.
“It is not actually that simple. Lots of soft politics that gets to the yes or no decision,” another person added.
“Anytime a politician tries to cut the police budget they get labelled ‘soft on crime,’” another user pointed out.
Speaking to reporters about the budget, TPS Chief Myron Demkiw said the budget increase is necessary for police to push its multi-year hiring plan, required to increase police capacity to deliver services.
“I’m confident we’re headed in the right direction and we’re going to continue to go in the right direction. As I said, two years ago, this is going to take some time for us to rebuild the capacity to get to where this city needs given the growth of this city and the complexities of the city. This budget is allowing us to continue moving our multi-year hiring plan forward which is essential for us meeting the needs of this city,” he said.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Chow said that the police funding was negotiated last year and needed to be honoured in the budget.
“The biggest chunk, huge percentage of the police budget is really the collective agreement which is what the budget mostly funds, it’s mostly human resources,” she said.
