Introducing Chloe Brown for Mayor Campaign’s Revenue Recovery Plan

TORONTO,  /CNW/ – The Chloe Brown for Mayor Campaign announced its revenue recovery plan to ensure both immediate and long-term financial stability for the city.

“By taking an active role in stewardship, residents can help rebuild our public trust fund for the working class ,”said Brown. “Public services are vital investments for the future prosperity of families. The simplest and best way to solve this problem is to enhance the value of existing assets while paving the way for future achievements.”

Main highlights include:

• Issuing bonds to finance repair and development projects,
• Focusing on city-owned mixed-residential, commercial, and light industrial properties such as TTC stations, libraries, and newly rezoned lands.
• Transforming the Gardiner into an eight-lane Lakeshore Boulevard at Cherry St

The goal of the plan is to establish the city as self-sustaining, operating with a surplus instead of relying on external government support.

The revenue plan encompasses the following categories:

Harness the Power of Social Finance:

• Establishing a $755 million Social Finance Fund (SFF) to accelerate Canada’s social finance market growth. The fund will provide flexible financing options to charities, non-profits, social enterprises, co-operatives, and other social purpose organizations.
• Issuing bonds to fund social impact projects like cooperative businesses, community land trusts, and others.
• The Campus of Care strategy will draw funding from ministries administering funding for health, employment, social development and disability to raise funding for accessible and workforce housing options that also integrate clinic spaces, cooperative healthcare business like child and eldercare into new multi-use developments

Land Value Reforms and Tax Fairness:

• Advocating for a dynamic tax system that incorporates secure forms of assessment and personalization, such as land value rather than property assessments. This approach will reflect changes in business cycles, sector needs, and neighborhood requirements.
• Adjusting property taxes annually based on land use, increasing by the rate of inflation plus 3% with half allocated to improving municipal services and the other half invested in creating affordable housing.
• Waiving development charges for every new affordable home, saving an average of $60,000 per home. Additionally, property taxes on new affordable rental homes will be waived, reducing monthly costs by approximately $300, provided that lease rates do not exceed 32% of median household income.
• Proposing property tax adjustments by the rate of inflation plus 6% for underused buildings and vacant lots that do not benefit the community.

Cost of Living Adjustments using Community Land Trusts:

• Collaborating with community groups and tenants associations to facilitate the transfer and acquisition of land for non-profit usage in new developments aimed at generating public wealth.
• Revitalizing various areas of Toronto, including Etobicoke and Scarborough, by empowering them to redevelop their uptown, midtown, and downtown centers with new multi-use developments that attract businesses, residents, and visitors.
• Promoting nutritional security through the integration of urban farms and food cooperatives into residential buildings via ground-floor commercial and retail zoning, as well as rooftop utilization.
• Establishing a data trust and stewardship strategy to convert excess fiber-network capacity into affordable data and Wi-Fi services, ensuring competitive rates for residents.

Cost Savings via Standardization:

• Reducing fees on permit applications to increase civic participation accessibility.
• Implementing income-based fees to enhance bylaw enforcement outcomes.
• Leveraging the city’s purchasing power to procure building materials in bulk, renegotiating contracts with suppliers, and adopting standardized design principles to achieve economies of scale and potentially lower material costs.
• Adopting a Strong Commissioners approach to centralize information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure through shared-service systems, enabling collaboration and pooling resources for more effective resource development.

Mixed-Market Real Estate Monetization:

• Exploring opportunities to acquire air rights and optimize public land usage, including buildings and vacant spaces, to generate additional income.
• Re-evaluating mixed-use development potential for areas near TTC stations, libraries, community centers, and other underused publicly-owned lands.
• Transforming the Gardiner Expressway into an eight-lane Lake Shore Boulevard improvement from Cherry St, aimed at reducing congestion, unlocking real estate opportunities, and funding crucial road safety improvements.

SOURCE Chloe Brown for Mayor