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Community, Culture, Sport & Belonging

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

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?

9.6 [CITY] [CITY→PROVINCE] Toronto Animal Services aims to answer 80% of its service requests within 5 days; it hit 77% in 2024 and projects 75% for 2025, while requests rose 13% year-over-year, driven mostly by injured or distressed animals, cadaver removals, and coyote-related calls. Provincially, Ontario’s own animal-welfare enforcement agency reports calls, inspections, and animals removed from distress all rose again in 2024. What standard should the city hold its own animal-control service to, and what would you do about a service falling further from its own target as demand keeps rising?

9.7 [CITY] The city’s own November 2025 progress report on its Reconciliation Action Plan breaks the plan’s 28 actions into 141 smaller steps — 103 underway, 3 finished, 18 not yet started — and states plainly that the plan “has not been Indigenous-led and important concerns remain.” Given the city’s own assessment of its own plan, what would you do differently, and how would you make sure Indigenous residents themselves — not city staff — are the ones judging whether progress is real?

9.8 [CITY] [CITY→PROVINCE] BMO Field sits on land the city manages through an arm’s-length agency, the Board of Governors of Exhibition Place. A bill introduced at Queen’s Park would shift authority over that same land to the province, even though the responsible minister’s office has said that isn’t the plan — the question remains live and unresolved. If control of the land under this city’s major sport venues changed hands, what would you want preserved for residents, and what would you personally do to make sure it was?

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’s Welcome Policy fee subsidy: 13% of recreation program registrations in 2024, versus an estimated 12.5% of residents who qualify — City of Toronto recreation reporting (9.2).
  2. Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan runs 2022-2032, with 28 actions across five themes including financial reparations and righting relations — City of Toronto Reconciliation Action Plan (9.3).
  3. BMO Field (2007) funding: $27 million federal, $8 million provincial, $9.8 million plus land from the City of Toronto, which retained ownership — municipal capital funding records (9.4).
  4. Toronto Animal Services service-request response target: 80% within 5 days; actual 77% (2024), projected 75% (2025); requests up 13% year-over-year, driven mostly by injured or distressed animals, cadaver removals, and coyote-related calls — City of Toronto 2026 Municipal Licensing and Standards Program Summary (9.6).
  5. Ontario Animal Welfare Services 2024: 18% more inspections and investigations than 2023; Animal Protection Call Centre calls rose from 39,389 to 43,326; inspections/investigations rose from 22,525 to 26,565; animals removed from distress rose from 2,893 to 3,531 — Ontario Animal Welfare Services, 2024 Annual Report (9.6).
  6. City of Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan progress report, November 2025: 28 actions broken into 141 sub-actions (103 underway, 3 complete, 18 not initiated); the report states the plan “has not been Indigenous-led and important concerns remain” — City of Toronto, Reconciliation Action Plan progress report, November 24, 2025 (9.7).
  7. Board of Governors of Exhibition Place: established 1983, continued under the City of Toronto Act, 2006; manages a 192-acre site including BMO Field and Coca-Cola Coliseum; governed by a nine-member Council-appointed board — City of Toronto agency records (9.8).
  8. A bill introduced at Queen’s Park would give the province authority over City-owned Exhibition Place land, including BMO Field; the responsible minister’s office has stated this “is not the plan” — provincial legislative reporting; media coverage (9.8).

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.