right thank you for that warm reception but that incredible introduction thank you for making us proud thank you for having faith in Scaro in Toronto and in Canada [Applause] yes it's a pleasure to be here my first Board of Trade May's lunch and joining all of you thank you Jiles for bringing all of us together today when we are connected to each other by a shared love of our city by a common resolve to fix the challenges we Face anything is possible anything and this is the moment where Solutions and action can take place and that's the power of the connection that we have together that I want to talk about today we do face a crisis of connection right now a crisis of belonging the Toronto vital science report outlines troubling patterns of social isolation economic stress from an escalating housing crisis and the need to get transit moving you know what I'm feeling too
tall I'm so not used to feeling Too Tall now I can't see
them tall that I am you know us Canadian needs to feel taller don't we yeah we're too shy too too humble right these talking about challenges this challenge has a big human cost if we let them break the ties That bound us consider the story of shab his frustration highlighted in the Toronto Star Story recent ly most nights this young man Pays His floor in his uh living room with his newborn daughter in his arms and he looks down and look into his eyes and her eyes he feels something more than the joy of a new dad he's worried he's worried about what kind of future he can give to his daughter because when she cries and you and I know that baby cries it wakes up her entire family the uncle the grandparents of course the mom and dad six people squeezed into a small apartment in region Park it's not enough space for his daughter to grow it's just too small but he can't see his way out his parents secure a rent gear to income uh apartment which was affordable when he was just 8 years old offering the family stability but now at 28 with a little daughter this young parents wants to start a new life and have enough space for his growing family even with a job with a degree there's a huge gap between his paycheck and the skyrocketing R it makes it so hard close to impossible for him to find a new home we just stuck he told a tto star and this young man looks around to see his brother's commute it takes two hours on a good day leaving very little room for for the brother to connect with anybody he doesn't see much hope among the tenants and all the Neighbors in his building eater and when people like chasb and his little girl feel stuck the potential is held back they cannot grow they hurt our productivity the time spend worrying about how to find a an affordable place to live rather than have him looking for a job a better job having more job skills they spend time in traffic rather than connecting with friends they have less disposable income to spend in local
shops and people are not only less involved in their communities they have fewer social ties the vital signs report Hammer home this harmful Trend they're less hopeful about the future in previous years they are more likely to feel lonely isolated with little sense of belonging and less connection to their communities now you ask me why should the Board of Trade TR tto's business Community CEOs worried about connection and belonging friends you and I know that people who feel they belong have more Social Capital they're more likely to volunteer they are helping to build a stronger safer and healthier neighborhoods they are more productive they innovate and the city with a deeper sense of belonging attracts top diverse and creative talents and I am sure when you and I were growing up Jay we felt sort of belonged I belonged in St jamest town you in Scaro it's okay right we didn't our parents did not have the challenges that our younger Generations now feel they are feeling it they need it they need that sense of security so to build such a city a connected City we need three ingredients affordable housing complete neighborhoods where people can connect with each other and good Transit because if we have congestion productivity what costing us 11 billion dollar according to the Toronto Board of Trade am I right in that number yes 11 billion that's huge so first and foremost we need to build more housing now out okay both the private and the public sector together for private Builders the city has enabled Multiplex and laneway Suits we're are giving people the freedom to build six-story 60 units on Major Street as of right no need to apply for approval just go and build with building permits of course uh go without saying maybe a bit of site plan but but we're looking at the same 41 stories on Avenue I represented downtown for a long time know the development industry well we have removed up to 200 days for sing approvals commit of adjustment approvals are are down to under 60 days maybe still too long but you know we're working on it we're helping developers and homeowners build more housing faster yeah it's about time isn't it we are also unlocking huge pieces of vacant land for housing over a hundred years ago East Harbor was home to the leafy Levy Levy Levy Brothers I used to call them I still call them uni lever okay this it's called a Ley Brothers sunlight Soap Company Factory they make everything from soap to margerine they employed the waves of new immigrants landing on our Shores in search of a new life like our mom and dad and they found it in East Harbor a good paying job allowing them to find an affordable place to live near the other working class homes and factories self of Queen it was a place of transformation the launch pad for future Generations it held the same kind of Promise chp's parents saw in their affordable region Park apartment decades ago a promise their son and granddaughter now see fading away friends we do have a tremendous opportunity before us and yes we need to be determined we need to take bold action we need to connect the promise of the eastw front held a 100 years ago to our City's future prosperity to to help families like shash charge a new course the plans for Toronto Eastern Waterfront from East Harbor to vilers Islands will build homes for wait for it 130,000 residents 130,000 residents that's two
neighborhoods it will also create 50,000 jobs by 2014 Just 16 years away not that far okay it has the potential be to be transformative but we need to make sure that some of these housing these homes are affordable think of shab with his income they will continue to feel that they are stuck and they will be still stuck we just simply have to increase the number of affordable housing on site across the City so I need you to help me persuade The Province to be more flexible and allow the city to negotiate a higher percentage affordable homes at East Harbor and other Transit priority hubs we will build but we need some of it to be those homes to be affordable a recent report penned by the former conservative cabinet minister Lisa rate and Mark Carney former bank of can and the governor said that 40% that's four out of 10 buildings that we do it has to be non-market so they can be affordable to ordinary residents so it's high time the public sector gets back to building housing just as we did in Toronto some of you may remember in the 70s and the 80s affordable housing became a crisis and homelessness was declared a national disaster when we stopped building in the late '90s your city government though is now back in the business of building housing at the start of 2024 there are approximately 17 affordable rental housing projects under construction actually being built in May by may this number has increased to 30 so by the end of this year we expect to have have 4,600 rent control homes under construction we are doing it today is also a big day the planning and the housing committee is set to pass the new transformative rental housing Supply program we're taking the next big step to help Community providers nonprofits co-ops Church groups deliver affordable and rent controlled units 18 affordable rental housing projects will receive a total of 351 million in capital funding so construction can start in 2024 this year and 2025 yep it's this year and next year we're actually building it now so not 10 years from now this will build close to Six th000 new rent control homes almost half of them deeply affordable bason renters income and we haven't done that for a long time and no I'm not the Builder city is not the Builder we're just the developer right using city land already last year f a new deal with the province and the federal government we have unlocked Millions for housing this was followed by a massive housing investment in the federal budget with but with the rising cost of construction and the challenge of meeting 12 year weight list for the 80,000 households we're working with the federal government to float its investment faster because there's no time to waste the second ingredient for a connected city is a complete neighborhood whether it's a local pool you take your kids to in the middle of the heat wve a nice park libraries Community Center cers these are the spaces that transform people into neighbors and Friends a city into Community a neighborhood and we need it it is vital to how we stay connected to one another but where do we find the funds to build these public institutions jles talked about our financial challenges yes we had a severe one last year we still have one not as severe but because of the new deal and other measures but we still have a budget pressure of over a billion dollars in operating funds and a backlog of $26 billion worth of state of good repair what does that mean it means 40% of City's buildings are in poor shape we just don't have to money to build those complete neighborhoods now prior to the provincial Bill 23 we were able to use soning truths called section 37 many of you have heard of that but that's no longer available so what we need the province to do is to give the city the flexibility to negotiate up to 4% of community benefits instead of capping it to four okay with that F flexibility when the market can bear it we will build complete neighborhoods think shw shab at Region Park a place when he was young there was not much for him to do he saw all the kids around him gets into trouble but now with new development in region Park there's a new community center with a gorgeous big pool there are Gathering Place like Daniel spectrum and with fantastic Community programs all helping to make 20 23 last year a year with zero gun deaths in region Park okay that's what yeah that's safe
neighborhood that is what a neighborhood when people are feel they get connected they they feel a sense of belonging they contribute they volunteer they make the com the neighborhood safe and healthier the last inred medium public transit with 100,000 new resents expected to move into the wfront we cannot lag behind in transit we didn't do that on the west side of the Waterfront think about the traffic jams on the gardener but it's not too late because we haven't built out the East Waterfront now we have to build a waterfront LRT and up to scabo the long overdue scar aington East LRT yes some of the scarbo counsil and say don't forget the scarbo East LRT we've been talking about that for how many decades several decades right now the city is now designing both of them we need other levels of government to join in also and even more importantly we need new subway cars on BL line to and we need them yesterday I see former chair of TTC Deputy Mayor Mike Cole in those days we were thinking wait we need new subway cars on the young line we got it now we need it on the blue line and remember being stuck or maybe late for work over the last few months because the shutdowns on line to on the TDC the chaos the congestion we are an established City so some things are old the line is old and it needs an upgrade the subway cars are old we need an upgrade and beside if we order the subway cars it could be built in Ontario and creating thousands of jobs so already through the new deal with the provincial and the federal government the New Deal was with the provincial government we secured 758 million on top of our our equal contribution but it was conditional without the federal government we cannot unlock this $1.6 billion do so we cannot get the order in so I need your help help us to get the new subway cars right of course it's more than just housing Transit and social infrastructure what is at stake it's not just the details of this policy but who belongs in our city who feels that they are on the outside who feels they have been left behind a Greek city is where everyone feels they belong where they could contribute participate and be connected with one another building a connected city is about all a moral issue there's now a generation unless they have mom and dads that can help them out who feels they've been left behind because of the housing insecurity so we as leaders have a choice to make will we choose to build a brighter future for someone like shab and for his young daughter that he crados every night will we choose to make our city a place where people can live work and play will we choose to find common cost to overcome our Shar challenges because when we are connected with each other when we unleash the collective power in this room together I know we can build a more affordable more caring safer City more productive City a place where everyone but feel they belongs thank you so much for coming and joining me tonight today and let's open for some questions thank you
