Toronto Region Board of Trade congratulates Mayor Chow, calls for faster progress on housing, congestion and City finances

TORONTO, October 26, 2026 — Toronto Region Board of Trade congratulates Mayor Olivia Chow on her re-election. We look forward to working with the Mayor and Council to move faster on the issues holding Toronto back and make this a city where more people can afford to build their future.

We thank Brad Bradford for his vigorous campaign and his service on Council, along with every candidate who put their name forward and every resident who voted. We also congratulate the councillors elected and re-elected to City Council.

Through our What’s at Stake? campaign, the Board worked to keep the economy at the centre of this election. We focused on three connected priorities: reducing congestion, making room for both homes and jobs, and putting the City on a sustainable financial footing.

“Having come into office partway through the last term, Mayor Chow now has a full four years to build on her work to date with a more ambitious economic agenda,” said Giles Gherson, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. “Congestion, housing and the City’s finances will decide whether a business can expand here, whether a young professional can afford to stay, and whether families get back the time they now spend sitting in traffic.”

“Residents want to see City Hall take on these problems more aggressively and deliver outcomes they can point to,” Gherson continued. “A lot of sensible ideas came out of this campaign from across the field of candidates, and we’d encourage the Mayor and Council to draw on the best of them. Toronto’s business community is ready to be a strong partner in that work, so our city can take its place at the centre of Canada’s great economic rebuild.”

On housing, the coming term should remove barriers to construction and make approvals faster and more predictable, while protecting the space businesses need to operate and grow. On congestion, early priorities should include more reliable transit and bold action to make it easier to move people and goods across the region.

None of this holds up without a lasting fix to the City’s finances. The agreement that saw the province take on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway was an important step. Toronto now needs a permanent funding arrangement with the provincial and federal governments that better reflects the services the City provides and the scale of its contribution to the provincial and national economies. It must also do more to unlock the value of public assets to expand Toronto’s fiscal capacity directly in order to pay for the high quality of infrastructure and services residents want.

With U.S. tariffs and trade uncertainty weighing on local employers, City Hall also has a part to play in making it easier for businesses to invest, expand and hire. A growing economy gives residents more ways to get ahead and builds the tax base that pays for the services and infrastructure they rely on.

The Board and our members are ready to work with Mayor Chow, Council and our partners across government to make real progress over the next four years. That includes supporting a productive working relationship between the City, Queen’s Park and Ottawa, which much of this agenda depends on.