Brad Bradford's pitch for Toronto: Property tax freeze, safer streets

Olivia Chow will join me on Friday, and today, it's Brad Bradford's turn. Last time he ran for mayor in 2023, he captured just over 1% of the vote. This time around, he is the clear challenger to incumbent Olivia Chow, with a campaign built around ideas like restraining property taxes and hiring 1,000 police officers. The latest polling puts him, in fact, 2% above Olivia Chow. and Brad Bradford joins me now in studio. Good morning to you, Brad. Good morning, Chris. Great to be with you. All right. So first, let's start with your pitch. Why should you be the next mayor of Toronto? I think Toronto is stuck. Right now, we're stuck in traffic. We're stuck waiting for the subway to show up. We're stuck paying more and getting less. And this is despite all the potential that exists in this city that has not yet been reached. My background is in urban planning. I've been a city builder my whole life, and I believe in the power of the people who are fighting to call this city home. I'm a young dad. My view is very much shaped by the perspective of young parents here in the city who want safe and clean parks, transit that's reliable, and access to opportunity. And I think if we make some changes in the direction of the city, we can really bring forward a comeback for Toronto. On this campaign, in your platform, you have put forward a number of expensive promises. And yesterday you added subway track replacements to that list. Changes that you say you'll pay for while also cutting Torontonians taxes. Where are you going to get all the money for this? Well, it's a good question. And I am the candidate that has put forward a modernized fiscal framework, a modern approach to our budget. And I put more out on the fiscal than my opponent because I think it's important. People need to know. I am going to take the exact same approach to City Hall's budget that Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken to the federal budget. I want to stop you right there because you've talked about this a number of times and critics often will point to the fact that unlike the Carney liberals and the federal government, they have access to so many different revenue tools, so many different ways to get money from the public, whereas in Toronto you're restrained. And so the comparison falls flat according to economists and critics of that plan. How do you respond to them? Well, I think there's also a lot of folks that have been out there publicly saying this is a good idea and this is the modernized approach. It's a different approach, but I think it's the way to go forward. It's the same way that, you know, the province does it, the federal government, but also, you know, Toronto Hydro and publicly owned municipal utilities. And basically, just to finish for that, it is going to be a clear separation of operating expenditures from capital expenditures. Right now, the typical approach is to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the operating budget, which pays for the frontline services we all rely on, to subsidize capital infrastructure that is needed for growth. We're going to stop doing that process so that we can protect the frontline operating services, no cuts, that we all rely on. And we're going to finance the long-term infrastructure projects over the life cycle of their asset. And it's the same idea that you don't pay for a house with cash up front. You get a mortgage for the life cycle or the time that you're going to be in the house. And that's how we should pay for transit infrastructure. That's how we should pay for the water and the pipes in the ground. And this is a modern fiscal framework for Toronto that's going to definitely make it more affordable today. And I think actually get infrastructure projects, shovels in the ground, done faster. But isn't your plan, your pitch here, just to add more money to the debt? Well, it is use of debentures, to take on long-term, low-interest financing. But that's how those projects should be paid for. It's actually not fair for people to pay upfront cash for those things that aren't going to be built for 20 or 30 years. And that's why I use the reference of a mortgage. You're going to pay for that over the life cycle of that asset. And I think there's also a reasonable argument to make that this could get these projects done faster. It could actually save us money in the long run because right now, City Hall is overtaxing you. It's collecting more money up front and it sits in a savings account making very, very little interest, a reserve account. And the cost escalation on the projects goes up and up and up. And as a result, there's a constant capital shortfall. And so those projects don't start. by financing it, accessing low-interest long-term loans. We can get the money together quicker. We can start the projects and probably save us money in the long run. Still, though, you've complained about adding to the debt, and the former Financial Accountability Officer of Ontario said your plan would add money to the debt. And even in the 2026 budget, the city staff was warning that carrying too much debt could hurt the city's credit rating and ability to borrow in the future. So why would you put the city in that potential risk? We will have two very strong fiscal anchors. This will still be the most financially responsible and conservative government on the continent. You know, the two fiscal anchors is that debt will never be more than 10% of all revenue and the interest costs will never be more than 4%. And so that puts us in a stronger financial position than Montreal or Calgary or New York or Chicago or any province in the country or the federal government. So, you know, it is different. And I guess that's the point I want folks at home to understand. This is a different approach. But, you know, we're running a campaign on a big vision, bold ideas and better execution in the office of the mayor. And this allows us to get there. It's a good idea. But if you're pushing money into a different category, taking on more debt while also promising to restrain taxes and eliminating things like the land transfer tax the question still becomes where do you get all that money to even service that debt well again um you know i've been very clear about this i put forward a full fiscal framework um you know nobody else has but this goes back to that prime minister Carney approach of separating capital from operating so right now Chris, for example the city takes 250 million dollars next year and I and I believe in 2028 it's proposed to be 360 million dollars from our operating budget which pays for those frontline services the parks the police um the folks who are working outside pays for that and it takes it and puts it in the capital budget to put money into a reserve account for capital by not doing that that frees up capacity on our operating side because we're not stealing 250 a quarter billion dollars to pay for capital because we're going to finance those projects over the long term. So it allows us to not make any cuts to frontline services and pay for lifecycle assets on the capital side to support the growth in the city over the long term. And so this, you know, this makes a lot of sense. It's a smarter way of doing it. We've got those fiscal anchors in place that means we will still be the most financially sound, responsible government on the continent. And I think it'll allow us to get the shovels in the ground on the infrastructure projects faster. You've also pitched freeing up some debt by offloading Toronto Water and having that become its own independent agency. If it were its own independent agency, how would you be able to make sure that the rates and the prices remained low? Well, you know, there's been a lot of misinformation from my opponent on this and a lot of fear mongering. And I think that's what happens when a campaign's out of ideas and out of gas. I'm always going to focus on the facts, not engage in the fear. but this is the exact same approach that we have with Toronto Hydro it's the exact same approach that they're taking in Peel Region and Windsor and Kingston and Edmonton and Calgary and that is to have a wholly owned by the taxpayer entirely public independently municipal water utility and in fact it will be public forever because the law states that you know Mayor Chow never acknowledges that in fact she misleads people provincial legislation the water and wastewater act states that this must be owned by the government but if it's run by a separate agency would they not be able to increase rates as they saw fit they're going to have rates that reflect the cost of delivering the water just like we do today the difference is going to be that we're not going to overcharge people two-thirds of the water bill in Toronto today is to put money in a reserve account that isn't going to be spent for decades only one-third of the cost is actually the rate two-thirds of it is is for the capital collection on the infrastructure and so you know again this allows us to save people a little bit of money on their water bill it's about 300 bucks a year that's a big savings and something very tangible for for people who are renting in the city and their rent is uh you know a product of their water bill it's factored in i've reached out to minister FLAC and the province proactively to say that those savings need to be passed directly on to renters. And again, it's a municipal utility, just like Toronto Hydro, just like all those other jurisdictions that I mentioned. And it's a smarter way to finance the long-term infrastructure that we need to build in the city. Let's talk also about your line-by-line review, because obviously Rob Ford's administration tried this in 2011, and the Auditor General found that it cost $3.5 million and only identified $16 million in savings citywide. So what makes you think that your line by line would be any different? Well, first of all, I would never shrug off $16 million in savings. And if it costs $3 million to save $16 million, I think we should save the $16 million. But it also launched us into a very protracted debate that even included whether or not it was wise to close libraries is that the future that we will see under you of course not and again this is this is the the fear-mongering and the scare tactics from you know mayor chow and her campaign that frankly has not put a vision or bold ideas on the table it's actually to me uh irresponsible the fact that city government hasn't done an independent line-by-line review for 15 years there's nothing scary about looking at your budget in fact it's scary to not look at your budget you know every every month my my wife and i sit down with the credit card bill we go line by line she tells me oh you're eating out too much just too many coffees i thought you unsubscribed from that app like we all do that households do that businesses do that and city hall should do that too but still if you're going line by line and people are fearful that you might cut a service or a program that they rely on that's the fear that people have in terms of your line by line. Yeah, again, and it's misplaced. And there's been so much misinformation and frankly, you know, things that are not true that have been coming out from my opponent because they're in a tailspin. Look, there's nothing scary about looking at the budget. We should do that. And Chris, it hasn't been done for a decade and a half. Think about how much the world has changed in the past five years, let alone 15. You know, we've been through a boom cycle. We've been through a global pandemic. you know we are now on the on the cusp of a recession here like there's a lot of things that are changing and you know i'm not financing my plans or my promises based on line by line review that's not where the money's coming from i've been very clear about how i'm going to pay for my commitments it's not from the line by line review i'm just saying i you know after a mayor who has raised taxes by nearly 20 percent the highest tax increases in the city of toronto's history I'm saying to folks, before I go out and ask for another penny, I am going to do the hard work that Mayor Chow has been unwilling to, which is to do an independent line-by-line review of our budget. And I think that's the responsible thing to do. If you're just joining us, I'm Chris Glover, and we are sitting down with Brad Bradford, Toronto mayoral candidate, and you're listening to us on 99.1 FM. This is Metro Morning. Brad, let's shift into the conversation about public safety. It has really dominated a lot of this campaign. you've suggested that you want to sit on the police service board as mayor and also hire 1,000 more officers. How, though, will that actually make people feel safer? Well, I think it will definitely make people feel safer. Because, you know, let's take the TTC, for example. TTC ridership continues to be down over 2019 levels. In fact, we have almost 20% fewer customers than we had seven years ago. And if you ask people, if you ask our customers why they don't want to take transit right now. It's not about the $3.30 for the fare. It's because they don't feel safe. That's the number one response. The service is not reliable and the stations aren't clean. So those are the fundamental issues, and I have a plan to address that. Part of that is having a uniformed officer presence in our stations and on the system. You know, I want a mom with a stroller and a senior with a walker to feel comfortable. And there is a deterrent factor with a uniformed officer. Malcolm Gladwell has actually just written about this in his brand new book. He talked about how big cities probably need to have more frontline police officers. Okay, but here's a concern that some certainly have, and this is a reality for a lot of people within our city. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has found that black people in particular, but other marginalized groups as well, due to the fact of systemic racial discrimination, racial profiling anti-black racism feel less safe when they see police officers in town and at different places like the TTC so under your plan what would you say to them well say that you are still going to be safe despite those findings look there's there's always room to improve those relationships and trust needs to be built across communities where some of that trust has been frayed at different times and that's why it's actually really important to sit on the police services board there's a bunch of different reasons but part of that is accountability you know obviously we have some improvement to do in terms of accountability with Toronto Police as well and so you know if when it comes to leadership there are some things that are so important you don't delegate away that responsibility and it's very unusual for the sitting mayor of Toronto to not be engaged on the public safety file to not sit on the police services board and that's why I've made that commitment both for policy and direction, budget, resource allocation, but equally important, the accountability function. And, you know, Mayor Chow has chosen not to do that. And, you know, I think that's a, that's frankly a dereliction of duty with respect to the role of the, the office of the mayor. But technically the mayor can't direct the operations of police. And so if that's the case and a police chief is doing something that you don't want. Would you fire them? What would you do? No, you don't direct the police in terms of, you know, making individual arrests or something. No one's going to go out and direct a police officer to arrest you as an individual, but you provide direction like a board does, you know, for different policy initiatives or to improve accountability. And that's how boards function, right? There's that challenge function for leadership, just like a CEO of any organization reports to the board and you know again even from a financial responsibility standpoint this is the largest line item in our budget and so to be completely hands-off and not participate in that process i think is irresponsible and so that's why i need to be there and you know you ask how will people feel safer well they're going to be officers that you know our neighborhood community officer program i think a lot of people really appreciate that because it has the capacity to build relationships to build trust to have a real in-depth understanding of the neighborhood that these officers are serving. You know, you're going to see it on the transit system. We're going to increase our capacity to do the important investigative work to solve crimes. And, you know, this is 1,000 officers sounds like a lot, but it's 250 additional officers per year over the course of a four-year term. And you just have to look at where we are today with our frontline police force. We have roughly the same amount of officers today that we had back in 2010, despite the city's population growing by half a million. So this is an investment that we need to make as a growing city. It would move us closer in line with other cities across the country because Toronto has a far lower cop-to-population ratio than Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary. The list goes on and on. Let's talk about bike lanes quickly because you support removing the Bloor Street bike lanes in Etobicoke, but you supported putting them in back in 2023. and it's led a lot of people to wonder about your mind changing and certainly right now your platform is saying that you support keeping the rest of the city's bike lanes but if that changed the last time people are wondering how can they trust you won't change your mind this time well look it's it's you know it's an evolution of thinking based on the data and while I supported the ones out in Etobicoke when they went in three years ago you know I'm also going to have the humility and leadership to listen to community, to listen to the small businesses and the folks that live out there and look at the data. And three years on, the reality is we have 38,490 vehicles using that corridor and 197 bicycles. So the city effectively allocated 50% of the road space to half a percentage of road users. And that's probably not the right balance. And I'm not afraid to to acknowledge that and and recognize that that's an evolution of thinking but that's okay but flipping forward for example like if the ford government says that they want to remove another lane of uh bike lane in the city and city staff local residents and local council is saying that they want to keep that bike lane what are you going to do with doug ford these decisions should always be in the hands of council and i think it's really regrettable that we've had a premier who is running roughshod over the city of toronto on a couple big files and that we've also had a mayor who has been completely ineffective in standing up for toronto's interests and you can pick your file whether that's the island airport or ontario place or the science center or speed cameras or bike lanes you know the city of toronto under the current leadership has not had a lot of wins there hasn't been a lot of effectiveness in standing up and fighting for toronto you know there might be some things that i agree with the premier on but also my job first and foremost and the interests i'm fighting for are always of torontonians and those decisions need to rest at city hall i would argue city hall needs to listen to the residents a little bit more sometimes uh and that's what i'm going to do but uh my job is to stand up for the city and that's what i'm always going to do brad thanks for coming in today thanks chris great toronto mayoral candidate brad bradford joining us here on metro morning