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The Citizen Candidate Question Bank

All twelve categories, plus a universal set that works for any office — every figure sourced and checkable, every question identical for every candidate.

How to use this bank

1 · Homes & Homelessness

1.1 [CITY] In Toronto, average development-application approval timelines improved from 32 months (2022) to 25 months (2024). What further change to approval timelines, if any, would you pursue — and what safeguards or review steps would you refuse to trade away for speed?

1.2 [CITY] Municipal fees on a new low-rise home in Toronto — development charges, parkland dedication, and community benefit charges combined — totalled $195,832 per unit as of August 2024, second-highest of 16 GTA municipalities studied. These fees fund infrastructure but also add to the cost of new homes. How would you set that balance, and what would you change first?

1.3 [CITY] A 2025 Auditor General audit of Toronto’s winter shelter system found 625 beds at the winter peak, an average of 174 unmatched callers per day at Central Intake, and 4,331 bed nights left vacant as Warming Centres were deactivating. What would you change about how winter capacity is planned, and what single number should residents watch next winter to know whether it worked?

1.4 [CITY] What standard should guide the city’s response when an encampment forms in a park — and how would you measure whether that response worked, both for the people living in the encampment and for the neighbours who share the park?

1.5 [CITY→PROVINCE] [CITY→FEDERAL] In Ontario, municipal governments fund on average 77% of social housing expenditures, versus 14% provincial and 9% federal. What specifically would you ask the provincial and federal governments to take on, and what would the city do — or stop doing — if the answer is no?

1.6 [CITY→PROVINCE] Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board resolved about half of cases within its 90-day target in fiscal 2025-26 (51-53% against an 80% target). While those delays persist, what should the city itself do for tenants and small landlords caught in the queue — and what would you press the province for?

2 · Getting Around

2.1 [CITY] Congestion costs the Toronto region an estimated $44.7 billion a year in social and economic costs. Name the two or three congestion measures you would prioritize in this term, and the number you would publish so residents can see whether they worked.

2.2 [CITY] What is your standard for transit service quality — how often it comes, how crowded it is, how reliable it is — and what would you do, within the city’s own budget and powers, to move today’s service toward that standard?

2.3 [CITY] By the end of 2024, about 230 km (46%) of Toronto’s planned ~500 km network of major city-wide cycling routes were built, and the current plan commits 100 km of new and major-upgrade bikeways over 2025-2027. Would you keep, speed up, or slow that pace — and how should the city decide which streets are chosen?

2.4 [CITY] In 2023, Canada recorded 1,964 road deaths; pedestrians were 15.2% of them. When someone is killed or seriously injured on a Toronto street, what should happen next on that street — and who should be accountable for it happening?

2.5 [CITY→PROVINCE] More than 20 transit providers across the Greater Golden Horseshoe set their own fares, and the provincially funded One Fare program — estimated by the Financial Accountability Office at $121 million in its first full year — currently covers the transfer discount. What should the next stage of fare and service integration look like, and who should pay for it?

3 · Cost of Living, Food & Family Essentials

3.1 [CITY→PROVINCE] Infant child care in Ontario cities cost about $22 a day as of a 2025 analysis — twice the federal $10-a-day target — with the province targeting a $12-a-day maximum. The city is the service system manager. What would you do with the city’s own levers to expand access, and what would you press the province for on fees?

3.2 [CITY] Ontario’s agreement with the federal government targets 86,000 net new licensed child care spaces by the end of 2026, and nationally 31% of parents of young children reported a child on a waitlist in 2025. When new spaces are created in Toronto, how should the city decide which neighbourhoods get them first?

3.3 [CITY] The average Toronto household’s water bill is estimated at $1,118 for 2026 after a 3.75% increase. Water rates fund the pipes and plants themselves. How would you weigh affordability today against the cost of keeping that system in good repair — and would you change how the rate is structured?

3.4 [CITY] What role, if any, should city government play in food security — school and community food programs, land for gardens and markets, support for food banks — and how would you pay for whatever you propose?

3.5 [CITY→PROVINCE] [CITY→FEDERAL] Income security sits with the provincial and federal governments, yet its outcomes land on city services. Basic-income advocates report that several Ontario municipal councils have passed resolutions supporting basic income, and the 25th BIEN Congress meets in Toronto in August 2026. What, if anything, should this city government say or do about income-security policy — and where would you draw the line on the city’s role?

4 · Health, Care & a Long Life

4.1 [CITY] Toronto Public Health recorded 464 confirmed and probable opioid toxicity deaths among Toronto residents in 2024 (a preliminary count) — down 16% from the 2020-2022 average, but still 50% above pre-pandemic levels. What mix of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement-adjacent responses would you support with city dollars, and how would you judge in two years whether it is working?

4.2 [CITY→PROVINCE] Ontario’s Auditor General found opioid-related deaths and emergency department visits rose almost 300% from 2014 to 2023, with an average of seven Ontarians dying per day in 2023. Treatment capacity is largely provincial. What specifically would you ask the province for, and what would you do if it doesn’t come?

4.3 [CITY] Toronto directly operates its own long-term care homes. In 2024 Q3, the rate of residents on antipsychotics without a diagnosis in City-run homes was 14.2% versus a 19.4% Ontario average, and falls were 9.9% versus 15.4%. What standard should City-run homes be held to, and which indicators would you publish so families can check?

4.4 [CITY] Per the 2016 census, 6.8% of Canadians 65 and older lived in a nursing home or seniors’ residence — most people age at home, in their neighbourhood. Across the services the city actually runs — recreation, libraries, transit, snow clearing, housing standards — what, if anything, would you change so that aging at home in Toronto works?

5 · Safety & Emergency Readiness

5.1 [CITY] How would you assess whether policing in Toronto is delivering results for residents — and what information about budgets, response, and outcomes would you want published, at what regularity, so residents can make the same assessment?

5.2 [CITY] Toronto’s Community Crisis Service — the city’s fourth emergency service — has responded to more than 25,000 mental-health crisis calls since 2022, resolving 78% of calls transferred from 911 without police involvement. What future do you see for this service: scale, scope, funding — and how should it be evaluated?

5.3 [CITY] Episodes with zero staffed ambulances available in Toronto (“Code Red”) rose from 29 in 2019 to over 1,200 in 2023, and Toronto Fire’s total response time met its 6:24 standard 77% of the time in 2024. What response-time commitment would you make, what would it cost, and what will you report publicly along the way?

5.4 [CITY→FEDERAL] Institutional testimony to a House of Commons committee reported that 86% of successfully traced crime handguns in Toronto in 2021 were sourced in the United States. What would you press federal partners for at the border and in law, and what violence-prevention work would you fund with the city’s own dollars?

5.5 [CITY] A Toronto youth-violence intervention program evaluated over 2009-2012 cost an average of $13,723 per participant and showed measurable attitude change against a comparison group. What evidence standard should any violence-prevention program meet to keep its city funding — and what happens, under your approach, to programs that can’t show results?

5.6 [CITY] As of April 2025, the city reported over 90% of the 26 Phase-1 actions in SafeTO, its 10-year community safety and well-being plan, complete or in progress. Looking at the plan as it stands: what would you keep, what would you change, and what belongs in the next phase that isn’t there now?

6 · Clean, Green & Resilient

6.1 [CITY] Toronto’s residential waste diversion rate was 50.6% in 2025 — but 60.3% for single-family homes versus 26.3% for apartment and condo buildings. What, if anything, would you do about that gap?

6.2 [CITY] Toronto’s parks and recreation repair backlog is projected to exceed $851 million by 2034, with current annual investment covering only 6-11% of it. When budgets force a choice between building new facilities and fixing existing ones, how would you choose — and which existing facilities would you name first?

6.3 [CITY] The July-August 2024 storms flooded over a thousand Toronto properties. Since 2007 the basement-flooding subsidy program has approved ~48,250 applications ($80 million), and the 10-year water capital plan forecasts ~$4.5 billion for stormwater. Is the current pace and funding model right — and how should stormwater work be paid for: property tax, a dedicated charge, or something else?

6.4 [CITY] A 2022 peer-reviewed assessment found Toronto beat its 2020 emissions target largely because Ontario closed its coal plants, and was not on track for its own 2030 target of 65% below 1990 levels. Do you consider the city’s 2030 and 2040 climate targets achievable — and either way, what does your answer commit you to doing in your first year?

6.5 [CITY] Toronto plows its expressways at 2.5 cm of snow to bare pavement within 2 hours, while residential streets wait for 8 cm, can take up to 14 hours, and are cleared only to “safe and passable.” Are those the right service standards — and if you would raise any of them, what should be cut or charged to pay for it?

6.6 [CITY] In a 2023 city-wide survey, 57% of Torontonians said they visit a park or green space at least weekly. How would you measure whether streets, parks, and public spaces are actually clean and well-maintained — and would you publish that measure by ward?

7 · The City’s Money, Good Government & Democracy

7.1 [CITY] Across Ontario, municipal revenue comes roughly 39.5% from property taxes, 18.7% from provincial grants, 18% from user fees, and 4.3% from federal grants. Is that the right mix for Toronto? Which revenue tools would you use more, which would you avoid, and what would you say to the residents who pay each one?

7.2 [CITY→PROVINCE] As of early 2025, Ontario had 46 municipalities operating under provincially granted strong-mayor powers. Whatever office you seek: how do you believe those powers should be used in Toronto, and which checks — council votes, public reporting, something else — matter most to you?

7.3 [CITY] In 2022, Ontario’s municipal institutions answered 81% of freedom-of-information requests within 30 days. Beyond answering requests: what city information that residents currently have to ask for would you publish proactively, and by when?

7.4 [CITY→PROVINCE] By a municipal-sector association’s estimate, the provincial government collects at least 422 reports a year from municipalities, and the law governing municipal information access (MFIPPA) has not been comprehensively reviewed in over 30 years. What would you seek to change in the city-province relationship, and what would you offer the province in return?

7.5 [CITY] Toronto has issued eight green-debenture transactions of $100-300 million each since 2018, and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund runs on $78 million in endowments from all three governments without drawing on the tax base. What role should borrowing and arm’s-length endowments play in funding the city’s capital plans — and how should residents see the results?

7.6 [CITY] Between elections, most residents never attend a council or committee meeting. What specific mechanism would you use to hear from residents who don’t show up — and can you name a decision where you would change your vote because of what you heard?

8 · Work, Business & the Local Economy

8.1 [CITY] Ontario created the world’s first Business Improvement Area in Toronto’s Bloor West Village in 1970; the province now has more than 270. What is the city’s proper role when a main street struggles — and what would you measure to know whether a main street is healthy?

8.2 [CITY] For a small business owner dealing with the city — licences, permits, fees, inspections — name one specific change you would make in your first year, and how that owner would notice the difference.

8.3 [CITY] What do you see as the right balance of city attention between downtown and neighbourhood main streets — and what does that balance mean concretely in your first budget?

8.4 [CITY] The city is one of the region’s largest purchasers. How, if at all, should the city use its own procurement to support local employment and local business — and what tradeoff with cost or open competition would you accept, or refuse?

9 · Community, Culture, Sport & Belonging

9.1 [CITY] What should a Toronto public library branch be in 2030 — its hours, its roles beyond books, its place in the neighbourhood — and what would that cost or save?

9.2 [CITY] Toronto’s Welcome Policy fee subsidy supported 13% of recreation program registrations in 2024, close to the estimated 12.5% of residents who qualify. Is fee-assisted access to recreation reaching the people who need it — and what would you change about how programs are priced, funded, or allocated?

9.3 [CITY] Toronto’s first Reconciliation Action Plan runs 2022-2032, with 28 actions across five themes including financial reparations and righting relations. Which of its actions, if any, would you prioritize in this term, and how should the city report progress in a way Indigenous residents themselves find credible?

9.4 [CITY] When BMO Field was built in 2007, all three governments contributed — $27 million federal, $8 million provincial, and $9.8 million plus land from the city, which kept ownership. If a future professional sport venue proposal asked for public land, money, or tax support, what tests would it have to pass to get your vote?

9.5 [CITY] Much of what makes a neighbourhood feel like home — festivals, sports leagues, faith and cultural gatherings, community-run spaces — is volunteer-run. What would you do to make it easier, not harder, to run a community event or group in this city?

10 · Learning & Growing Up

Jurisdiction honesty, on the record: K-12 curriculum, school funding, and school-board governance are provincial. The same municipal ballot elects school trustees. The city’s own levers are narrow: out-of-school programming, recreation and library services, shared use of school space, and advocacy. This category currently has no sourced figures behind it, so these questions carry none by design.

10.1 [CITY] Outside school hours — before 9, after 3, summers — what would you do with the levers the city actually holds (recreation, libraries, youth programs) for children whose families can’t buy private programming?

10.2 [CITY→PROVINCE] School gyms, pools, fields, and rooms sit inside provincially governed boards, but the neighbourhoods around them are the city’s. What would you change about shared community use of school space, and what would you offer school boards to get there?

10.3 [CITY] When a resident raises schools at your door, what do you tell them the office you seek can and cannot do — and what education-related cause, if any, would you spend the office’s public voice advocating for?

10.4 [CITY] For children growing up in apartment towers: what would you change so that a child in a high-rise neighbourhood has the same access to play, programs, and safe routes to school as a child on a residential street?

11 · Newcomers

11.1 [CITY→FEDERAL] In 2024, Toronto’s shelter system served more than 24,200 unique individuals, including more than 12,600 refugee claimants, with 33% of the shelter division’s operating funds coming from the federal Interim Housing Assistance Program. What is the right long-term arrangement between the city and the federal government for receiving refugee claimants — and what should the city do when federal funding and actual arrivals don’t match?

11.2 [CITY] By 2024 Toronto had 24 refugee-specific shelter programs run by 11 provider organizations. Describe what Toronto’s reception system for newly arrived claimants should look like three years from now — who runs it, who funds it, and how someone moves from reception into housing and work.

11.3 [CITY] In 2024 the city facilitated $4.3 million in council-approved compensation to community organizations and churches that sheltered refugee claimants. What should the standing relationship be between the city and the community groups that step up in emergencies — partnership, contract, or something else?

11.4 [CITY] Beyond shelter: settlement services are mostly federally and provincially funded. What is the city’s distinct job in a newcomer’s first year — and name one city service you would change so it works for someone still learning English and the city at the same time?

11.5 [CITY] Newcomers are among the residents least likely to reach a candidate’s door or a council chamber. How will you hear from them — concretely — and how will they be able to hold you to what you say tonight?

12 · Technology, AI & the Automated City

12.1 [CITY] In 2025 Toronto drafted its own AI policy in-house and set out to build the first municipal algorithmic impact assessment in Canada. When a city algorithm makes or informs a decision about a resident — a queue, an inspection, a benefit — what should that resident be told, and what should they be able to appeal?

12.2 [CITY→PROVINCE] Ontario’s Automated Vehicle Pilot Program has been extended to October 2027, and a 2025 automated delivery-vehicle pilot was approved for Toronto streets by the province — with the city holding no regulatory authority over it, only invited comment. What conditions should the city seek over automated vehicles on its own streets, and how would you pursue that authority?

12.3 [CITY] New provincial rules will require privacy impact assessments before public institutions collect personal information, phasing in from July 2026. What standards would you hold the city’s technology vendors to on residents’ data — and what would you do when a vendor won’t meet them?

12.4 [CITY] Name the one city service whose digital experience you would fix first, and how the fix would also work for residents without smartphones, home internet, or English.

12.5 [CITY] Ontario’s municipalities employ more than 235,000 people, and automation will reach city work during the next term. What commitments would you make to the city’s workforce and to service quality as that happens — and who should decide which tasks are automated?

Universal set — for any candidate, any office

U.1 How will residents know if you succeeded? Name two or three public, checkable measures you are willing to be judged on at the end of the term — and where residents will find them.

U.2 What is one thing you would copy for Toronto from another city — anywhere in the world — and what makes you confident it would work here?

U.3 Name one thing the city currently does or funds that you would stop or shrink — and what you would say, face to face, to the residents who value it.

U.4 When the evidence in front of you and the residents you represent disagree, how do you decide? Give a real example of a position you changed, and why.

U.5 Name one problem residents raise constantly that the office you seek cannot fix directly. What do you tell them honestly — and what would you still do about it?

Sources & receipts

Every figure in this bank traces to our public research claims register — municipal budget documents, City of Toronto and provincial audits, Statistics Canada, and other primary sources, each logged with its own citation. Four of the twelve categories above are also published as their own standalone banks, each carrying its own sources-and-receipts list: see the questions index.

This bank went through an independent verification pass before publication (fact-check against primary sources, claim by claim, including a live re-fetch of every figure against its original source). The internal verification record has been removed from this public page; the sourced facts and figures above are unchanged by that removal.