uniteTOlove.ca

Clean, Green & Resilient

A standalone candidate question bank — every figure sourced and checkable, every question identical for every candidate. Also part of the full twelve-category bank.

How to use this bank

Clean, Green & Resilient

7.1 [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?

7.2 [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?

7.3 [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?

7.4 [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?

7.5 [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?

7.6 [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?

7.7 [CITY] When the owner of a formally heritage-designated property applies to demolish it, city council has 90 days to decide — and if council misses that deadline, the demolition is automatically deemed approved. Is that the right balance between protecting heritage buildings and giving owners certainty — and what, if anything, would you change about how the city runs that process?

7.8 [CITY→PROVINCE] A 2022 provincial law gives a municipality two years to formally designate a newly listed heritage property before losing the right to re-list it for five years — a clock the City of Ottawa said left it having to de-list roughly 800 properties in a single year to stay ahead of it. Has that timeline given Toronto enough room to protect the heritage properties it wants to protect, and what would you ask the province to change, if anything?

7.9 [CITY] [CITY→PROVINCE] Nationally, the single most commonly reported public-space accessibility barrier is sidewalks covered in ice or snow. Separately, a provincial law set a goal of a fully accessible Ontario by 2025 — a deadline the government’s own appointed reviewer said in 2023 was very unlikely to be met, and which passed without the government acknowledging it had been missed. What would you do with the city’s own winter-maintenance and public-space budgets on the accessibility side specifically — and what would you ask the province for on enforcement?

7.10 [CITY] Buildings account for 58% of Toronto’s community-wide greenhouse gas emissions, and the city has committed to retrofitting about 80% of its own buildings on the way to a net-zero target by 2040. What would you do to speed up retrofits of privately owned buildings — the larger share of that 58% — and how would you pay for it?

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

  1. Toronto residential waste diversion rate: 50.6% overall (2025), 60.3% single-family versus 26.3% apartment/condo — City of Toronto solid waste reporting (7.1).
  2. Parks and recreation repair backlog projected to exceed $851 million by 2034, current annual investment covering 6-11% of it — City of Toronto capital planning reporting (7.2).
  3. July-August 2024 storms: over a thousand Toronto properties flooded; basement-flooding subsidy program since 2007: ~48,250 applications approved, $80 million; 10-year water capital plan: ~$4.5 billion forecast for stormwater — City of Toronto water infrastructure reporting (7.3).
  4. 2022 peer-reviewed assessment: Toronto’s 2020 emissions target met largely due to Ontario’s coal-plant closures; city not on track for its 2030 target of 65% below 1990 levels — peer-reviewed climate-policy assessment (7.4).
  5. Winter maintenance service standards: expressways cleared to bare pavement within 2 hours at 2.5 cm; residential streets cleared to “safe and passable” within up to 14 hours at 8 cm — City of Toronto winter operations standards (7.5).
  6. 2023 city-wide survey: 57% of Torontonians visit a park or green space at least weekly — City of Toronto parks survey reporting (7.6).
  7. Heritage-designated property demolition applications: 90-day council review clock; missed deadline results in deemed consent — City of Toronto heritage preservation process, per backgrounder research (7.7).
  8. Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (S.O. 2022, c. 21, Schedule 6): two-year designate-or-lose-listing clock and five-year re-listing ban for newly listed heritage properties; City of Ottawa de-listed approximately 800 non-designated properties between February and April 2024 to stay ahead of the deadline — Statutes of Ontario; Gowling WLG and Aird & Berlis LLP legal commentary, 2024 (7.8).
  9. Winter sidewalk/ice conditions as the most commonly reported public-space accessibility barrier nationally; Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act target of a fully accessible province by 2025, found very unlikely to be met by the government’s own appointed reviewer in 2023, with the deadline passing unacknowledged — accessibility research reporting; AODA Alliance, published 2025-01-17 (7.9).
  10. Buildings account for 58% of Toronto’s community-wide greenhouse gas emissions; city commitment to retrofit approximately 80% of its own buildings toward a net-zero target by 2040 — City of Toronto climate and energy reporting (7.10).

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