The City of Toronto has finalized its 2025 budget which it says will improve affordability, safety and community services.
It was formally adopted by Mayor Olivia Chow on Tuesday after she opted not to exercise her right to veto.
The newly approved $18.8 billion in funding comes in conjunction with a $59.6 billion 10-year capital budget.
“We are building a more affordable, caring and safer city together,” Chow said in a press release on Tuesday.
“The 2025 Budget invests in what matters most: building more homes faster, feeding more kids and getting Toronto moving. After a decade of neglect, now is the time to work together and rebuild a stronger city for everyone,” she continued.
The #CityOfTO’s 2025 Budget includes new & enhanced investments to deliver what matters to you, to:
— City of Toronto 🇨🇦 (@cityoftoronto) February 12, 2025
💰 Make life more affordable
🚋 Get us moving
🚨 Keep us safe
📚 Provide community services
Thanks to everyone for your input into this year's budget!
More:… pic.twitter.com/rJAo7nTC0A
Here is a breakdown of its central features.
In total, the city will invest $4.9 billion for transit and mobility, $2 billion for housing and community improvements and $2.9 billion for other initiatives, including flood protection and net-zero efforts.
Affordability
The city will expand its school food program to reach over 257,000 students during the 2024-25 school year, which is 21,500 more than the previous year and equates to 48.4 million meals.
The program will also provide healthy snacks to 31,000 campers at 45 CampTO locations.
To improve access to affordable housing, the city will allocate $1 million to the Rent Bank to assist up to 2,700 households in financial need, and invest an additional $800,000 in eviction prevention programs.
In addition, the budget includes a new by-law that protects tenants from unfair evictions and is launching a pilot program to provide 400 air conditioning units to low income and vulnerable residents in multi-family buildings.
Transit
The city is freezing TTC fares for the second consecutive year across the network and adding about 500,000 more service hours. It has also purchased 55 new subway cars to modernize and improve service on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth.
It will also launch a new pilot program on 11 high-ridership bus routes to reduce ‘bus bunching’ and improve travel efficiency, and deploy 100 traffic agents by the end of 2025 to help reduce congestion.
Safety
Toronto is adding 263 new front-line emergency service positions across its fire, police and paramedic departments, will expand its youth violence prevention programs and bolster its road safety initiatives.
Community services
The city is extending Sunday service hours at all 100 Toronto Public Library branches, enhancing cleaning at recreational facilities, expanding outdoor pool hours by two hours daily and increasing access to local arts, festivals and cultural events.
It also plans to increase drop-in services for people experiencing homelessness, support community food security programs and food banks, expand its pickleball program and other city run certification efforts including its first aid initiative.
Property Taxes
The city’s operating budget is supported by a 5.4 per cent property tax increase for residential properties.
According to the city, this will result in an increase of $210 annually for the average assessed value of a Toronto home, or approximately $17.50 per month.
It also includes a base property tax increase of 2.7 per cent for multi-residential and commercial properties and 5.4 per cent for industrial properties.
The 2025 Budget also introduces a 15 per cent reduction in property tax rates for new multi-residential properties.
Waste Management
To support essential services the city is raising the cost of solid waste removal bins, the new prices are as follows:
- Small bin: $306.36 (an increase of $11.07)
- Medium bin: $371.91 (an increase of $13.44)
- Large bin: $505.12 (an increase of $18.26)
- Extra-large bin: $585.89 (an increase of $21.18)
For more information about the City of Toronto’s 2025 budget click here
By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.
