In a virtual year-end interview with Global News, Mayor John Tory said he remains full of hope that Toronto will return to its status as a world-class city, but he said people will need to do their part to help with that.
Where the city has been called to respond to profound tragedies, like the Yonge Street Van Attack or even recessions, Toronto’s mayor said what has made the pandemic so different, is its length.
“Never have we had anything that lasted so long, had such a profound impact on people and businesses and was a true, long-lasting, tragic emergency,” Tory said.
Managing COVID-19’s impacts on top of trying to keep the city going, Tory agreed has made for a weird year.
“You just shake your head every single day,” he said.
Through all of 2020’s hardhips, Tory said he thinks the people of the city have risen to the occasion to help the city beat back the virus.
“Torontonians have been magnificent,” he said, pointing to those who have done everything from checking in on seniors or helping deliver food baskets.
“It has been a sight to behold, just how long people have gone on helping other people.”
As disruptive as the pandemic has been, Tory doesn’t think it has set the city back too far when it comes to key priorities. With the exception of day-to-day city service requirements which were interrupted because civil servants were redeployed, he said Toronto is still forging ahead with key city-building commitments.
“If you look at transit planning, for example, those projects chug along,” said Tory.
Addressing affordable housing has also continued to be a key priority, Tory adding the pandemic has forced all three levels of government to do more on the file.
“I think if anything we made more progress because of the pandemic, because a pandemic shone a light on homelessness and on the shortage of affordable housing,” Tory said.
When the pandemic finally ends, Mayor Tory said that many programs which began during it, will need to continue. “The notion that people should have food security in their own neighbourhoods” said Tory, pointing to huge strides the city has made on food sovereignty programs. “Now the challenge is when there is no pandemic, we keep some of those programs going so people can eat properly.”
The pandemic may have dominated most of the oxygen at City Hall, but it certainly wasn’t the only issue Toronto politicians dealt with.
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An overwhelming call to address racial inequality and systemic racism within the city’s police department prompted the city to respond in the summer. Tory said he feels the city kept pace with other cities forced to reckon with deep wounds felt by BIPOC communities after years of racial injustice.
“I think what we have to do is redouble our efforts,” said Tory, while touting progress made by the city’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit.
“We’ve taken steps in policing reform now, that actually, you know, perhaps began later than they should have, because trust had eroded,” he said.
Now, with much more transparency with the Toronto Police Service’s budget and commitments by City Council to enhance the mental health units responding to crisis calls, Tory said the city is moving in the right direction.
“But there’s lots to be done,” he said.
“We need to make sure we keep the pace up of this change and reform.”
On the city’s efforts to making its roads safer, Tory said the city by definition isn’t doing enough to meet its Vision Zero commitments. “We want to get down to where nobody is losing their lives,” he said. However, Tory said that in 2020, in the case of pedestrian collisions, the numbers have significantly improved.
“And we hope to keep that improvement going,” Tory said. The city’s accelerated expansion of dedicated bike lanes during the pandemic, he said was just part of that commitment to road safety.
“We’re just going to keep at it, we’re going to keep investing, we’re going to keep lowering speed limits, we’re going to keep changing intersections,” he said.
It would be a massive understatement to say politics in 2020 were defined by the strength of inter-governmental partnerships. Toronto’s relationship with the Ford government has been tense ever since the province waded into the city’s affairs and cut the size of council in the middle of the 2018 municipal election.
Tory said the city’s relationship has improved with Ford since then. But on the province’s response to the opioid epidemic, Tory said Ford gets a failing grade.
“It is part of the health-care system,” Tory said, pointing out that substance abuse and addictions should be treated no differently than treating someone who has had a heart attack. “And we don’t do it,” he said.
Tory said he finds it even more troubling that there has been a joint federal/provincial agreement with billions of dollars to tackle the issue.
“I really don’t know where those resources are going … but I can tell you this much: they’re not going in adequate quantity to the people who need the help,” he said.
This year, the holidays land at one of the darkest periods for Toronto’s history. A prolonged lockdown with rising cases of COVID-19 and growing mental health demands of residents will make for a long winter. Tory is postponing his annual New Year’s Day levee, so that it can continue in person when people can gather once again.
Despite all of this, Tory remains hopeful the city will return to its prominent role as one of the best cities in the world.
“I am just most hopeful that we can get our health back and the pandemic over,” he said.
“I am such a believer in what I call the good bones of the city.”
Part of that will depend on people following public health guidelines, Tory said, and even more will rely on residents getting vaccinated when they become available. But when it comes to rebuilding the city’s battered economy, there is a lot more to do.
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