Josh Matlow has represented Ward 12 (Toronto-St. Paul’s) on City Council since 2010. He feels his pragmatic approach is a winning solution to improve services that have declined: “I want a city that works.”
For Matlow, that means things like opening libraries on Sundays, and opening schools after hours, on weekends and holidays for programming for seniors and families. It also means investing in housing.
Four years after the city’s Housing Now program started, Matlow still hasn’t seen a shovel in the ground. He proposes a city agency to build rent-controlled homes on city-owned lands. “The biggest difference between my plan and the one that others have supported is that mine would get built.” Why? “Their plan relies on an assumption that the private development industry would be willing to take on the risk of putting in money up front. It also means that money is lost [to] developer profits.”
Vienna’s “third sector” housing inspired Matlow’s strategy. “It’s not social housing and it’s not private. It’s a combination of deeply affordable, below-market, and market rental properties.”
On transit, “I’m determined to have a TTC that is safe, reliable, and affordable. If you’re waiting longer in the dark for your bus to arrive or on the platform to get onto the subway, it’s not safer.”
“The root causes of violence [on the TTC] have not been addressed in years,” Matlow says. “Our governments have been reacting, but it’s time to invest in housing, poverty, addressing racism, healing trauma and mental health support.”
Matlow is “very concerned” about the province’s Ontario Line construction on every community it passes through, including the Downtown East. “Congestion has made some neighbourhoods entirely dysfunctional. Small businesses have either suffered or closed completely. Metrolinx treats communities like collateral damage.”
Matlow hopes to get additional support for social housing and transit operating costs, and wants to ensure that the province doesn’t “simply privatize our waterfront in Ontario Place or move the Science Centre without talking with our communities.”
“The mayor needs to stand up for Toronto, not just go along to get along.”
Improving Torontonians’ quality of life will come at a cost, Matlow acknowledges. “Anyone who is elected mayor will have to increase the property tax. It’s been suppressed artificially lower in comparison to other GTA municipalities by draining reserves.”
To address the city’s looming deficit, he proposes a tax increase of about $5.55 a month for the average homeowner.
“I really believe a better Toronto is possible, but we need to invest in our priorities.”
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