Update on Hosting FIFA World Cup 2026
The biggest item on the agenda of last week’s Council meeting was the update on the City’s role in hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026. The headline of the story is that the cost has grown from $300M to $380M due to the addition of another game being hosted in Toronto, plus inflation and security costs. Another (related) headline was the source of this eye-watering figure, and that comes from the agreement that the City signed with FIFA itself. Questions remain around how and why the City signed on without the support required by Council, but the fact remains that we have signed the FIFA agreement and backing out now would have significant financial penalties (north of $100M), reputational damage to Toronto, and leave us with none of the benefits.
This is not an agreement that the Mayor, many of my Council colleagues, or myself would have signed But as the Mayor says, we are now “saddled” with it and must now make it a success. We need transparency, strong financial oversight, and partnerships to make this a celebration that Torontonians won’t forget.
Early in the morning, before Council had even been called to order, Mayor Chow held a press conference to introduce her approach to accountability and transparency for executing the FIFA World Cup 2026
I am honoured to Chair the sub-committee of City Council that will track the work of staff with respect to cost control and financial accountability. Former Councillor and Budget Chief, David Soknacki, has been named the Mayor’s FIFA Envoy to keep these games and their legacy open, transparent, and accountable to the people of Toronto. Finally, another group of Councillors will be tasked with event promotion, community partnerships, and maximizing the economic development impacts in the city.
As a first step to accountability, I moved at Council to have the full FIFA agreement shared with all Councillors, something that had yet to be done in the years since it had been signed.
Now let’s talk about the go forward. While there have been some fits, starts and stumbles while the World Cup was still far in the future, we are now just two years away and I want us all to remember why Toronto is the perfect city for a North American World Cup. Let us never forget how much we love our World Cups and always have.
I can well remember 1982 when Italy won and my brand new husband and I made our way to the party on St. Clair Ave. When Ghana made the quarter finals in 2006 and again in 2010, it was a massive celebration in the northwest of Toronto and my grandkids aunts and uncles and grandpa from Ghana were there at Jane and Wilson. I will work hard to make these games a success because we are a global Footie City and we have demonstrated it throughout the history of the Cup.
Prioritization of Planned Higher Order Transit Projects
Toronto’s Transit Expansion Office is the division that collaborates with the Province’s Metrolinx on the coordination of higher order transit. While the building of new transit lines is now fully a Provincial responsibility, the City has a wealth of data and experience to provide insight and analysis on the design, prioritization, and implementation of projects over the coming decade.
At this Council session, they brought their latest prioritization update before us and as per our usual, we proceeded to contradict their findings and redesign what they should forward on to Metrolinx. That is essentially how we keep making a political mess of transit planning in Toronto and we almost did it again.
My Build the Sheppard Subway campaign from 2022.
We all know here in Don Valley North that an extension of the Sheppard Subway out to McCowan is urgently needed. The new population to support it is already here and growing and the Province has already agreed that it is needed. Despite this, the Province has still placed the Sheppard Subway expansion at a lower priority than the Yonge Line extension into York Region. At this session, I rose to question staff and confirm that the motions I have placed in the past are still serving as direction to the Transit Expansion Office to advocate that the Sheppard expansion is urgent and should be re-prioritized.
Ultimately, it is the call of the Province which transit projects go next. I’ll continue to advocate for the transit we need and you, as residents and voters, can be very effective if you are advocating for the same whenever there are provincial town halls or Metrolinx community consultations.
Leveraging City-Wide Real Estate Opportunities for Affordable Housing, Complete Communities and Financial Sustainability
The last big item on this month’s Council agenda was another go at leveraging City properties to deliver on affordable housing and improving the City’s financial position. This report focused on three key segments of the City’s real estate portfolio: transit-oriented parking lots, properties near Provincial transit stations, and TTC stations. Much of the debate in the media and at Council zeroed in on that first piece: parking lots.
The Toronto Parking Authority manages the vast majority of the City-owned parking spaces. These spots are located all over the city and bring in revenue that allow us to invest in key services. However, not all parking lots are used equally. As part of the debate, Council asked that we prioritize lots that either cost us money or else bring in only marginal revenue as candidates for affordable housing. These sites, in addition to other surplus City-owned sites, are all being studied to deliver on the ambitious affordable housing goals proposed by Mayor Chow and adopted by City Council as a whole.
What I am looking for, as we move forward with the City taking a more active role in developing housing, is for creative partnerships that allow us to maximize the benefit for communities. My goal is to leverage these partnerships to create new parks, expand much-needed community spaces, improve our school capacity, and provide options for thousands of families to live and grow in our cherished neighbourhoods.