Olivia Chow says she’ll have shovels in the ground on 10,000 new rental homes in 2027 if re-elected. At a campaign announcement Thursday morning, Chow said the pledge builds on the 60 housing projects currently under construction in the city, which will deliver 16,000 rental homes when complete, including thousands of affordable and rent-controlled spaces. “For too many people, a home here is slipping out of reach. That’s not acceptable to me. I believe if you’re a nurse, a teacher, a construction worker, a PSW, you should be able to afford to live here. Full stop. That’s why housing has been my focus. We are getting housing built,” Chow said. Chow said the money to fund the projects has already been secured through a $1.5 billion investment made by the provincial and federal governments in the spring to lower developmental charges by as much as 60 per cent. The city has also earmarked $1.2 billion from both the operating and capital budgets to offset the costs for developers. The pitch is part of her plan to build 65,000 homes in the city by 2030, with at least 20 per cent of those units set aside as affordable spaces. Chow pointed out that the timeline to get these homes built is fast, noting that a project must be able to start construction in the next 12 months to qualify. When the first round of building opened in November 2024, shovels were in the ground just three months later. Candidate Brad Bradford, the other frontrunner in Toronto’s mayoral race, did not not make a campaign announcement today. CTV News has reached out to his team for reaction to Chow’s pitch. Chow repeats worry about second Chow on the ballot Following the announcement, Chow reiterated a worry she made public at a news conference earlier this week about a second mayoral candidate with the same surname. “I am very, very concerned,” Chow said, noting that she first made the discovery when voting at advanced polls. “Because not everyone has English as their first language. And if it’s English as their second language, they are already having trouble navigating looking for a last name, and then the first one they hit, they’re going to mark because the mark is right beside the last name on the right-hand side.” The candidate she’s referring to, Braeden Chow, appears first on the ballot as the names are listed in alphabetical order. Chow admitted that “all she can do” to assuage her concerns is “hope” the city clerk or election office can “mitigate the problem,” though it’s unclear what exactly that would look like. CTV News has reached out to those respected offices, as well as Braeden Chow’s team, for comment. Election day is Oct. 26.
