Today, Olivia Chow became the first mayoral candidate to respond to the survey we sent out on July 8th regarding matters that are important to Toronto taxpayers: taxation rates, size of council, infrastructure, transit and congestion, labour relations, and emergency preparation.

We’d like to thank Olivia Chow for her swift response well ahead of the deadline.

This survey is an important tool for voters to help make up their minds ahead of the election this October. We look forward to receiving responses from the other campaigns in the near future.

We’d also like to take a moment to clarify our position on the Scarborough subway.

The truth is, we’ve fought long and hard for the public transit capacity Scarborough deserves in the 21st century. Scarborough is not just a small neighbourhood. The 625,698 inhabitants of Scarborough make the suburb more populous than Vancouver, Canada’s 8th largest city. Scarborough has far too often been left out of the discussion on policy and infrastructure.

That’s why in 2012, we petitioned Premier Dalton McGuinty with roughly 4000 signatures to allow a free vote in the legislature on the fate of a Scarborough subway. When he rebuffed us, we handed it to the opposition Progressive Conservatives. Toronto Taxpayers Coalition also took out ads on TTC buses and streetcars in support of our subway petition. Then, we held a debate in Scarborough where we invited panelists from all sides of the issue to participate.

Our members and supporters were overwhelmingly in favour of expanding Toronto’s subway network to Scarborough. This is an important investment to make in Toronto, and it’s important we don’t want to undercut Toronto’s future infrastructure needs. It’s unfortunate Olivia Chow disagrees with us, but we have faith the electorate will see it differently.

Once again we thank Olivia Chow for her response. It’s important for taxpayers to have the full range of candidate positions when they cast their ballots.

Sincerely,
Toronto Taxpayers Coalition