Updated February 12, 2026

Toronto’s 2026 Budget is now approved, setting funding levels for everything from pothole filling to electric buses. So how does it stack up for the environment? Read on to find out.

Overall, this budget holds steady on many environment and climate investments, with some small increases to help deliver new climate resilience programs like cooling units, community grants, and green infrastructure.

• Find out what's good about the 2026 budget.
• Find out what need more work.
• Read our conclusion.
• Find out what's next.

What’s good:

TTC Improvements and Affordability

One of the biggest climate investments this year is in the TTC budget, with investments to improve affordability through a fare freeze and fare capping, as well as improved service and capital investments into more electric buses and charging infrastructure. These are important because Toronto’s TransformTO plan is based on public transit becoming more abundant, faster and eventually free. 

Ongoing TTC investments help shift people back onto transit, grow the system, and make it easier, faster, and more pleasant than more polluting ways to get around. Plus, transit is an area of climate action where the City has significant decision-making power and control.

Indoor Cooling Units for Vulnerable Populations

We’re also very pleased to see a significant expansion of the pilot program delivering air conditioners to tenants who are most vulnerable to heat waves. Summers are getting hotter every year, making it more dangerous for people living in high-rise buildings with no access to cooling. Seniors, people with disabilities, chronic health conditions, and young children and infants are especially vulnerable to heat. This program launched in 2025 after TEA and allies in our Heat Safety Coalition campaigned for it. It is now growing to serve more people and deliver more cooling units, with a total proposed budget of $1M, up from about $200,000 from last year. 

Flooding, Trees, and Heat Resilience

The City is also providing some new funding to help Toronto become more flood resilient, and is providing stable funding for tree planting and green infrastructure. For example the City’s Green Streets program, where boulevards are turned from pavement into flood-absorbing, shade-producing gardens, is getting a slight increase over last year.

TEA has successfully pushed for more investment in tree planting and maintenance in recent years to bring critical shade and flood resilience. We see a steady and continued investment this year into growing and maintaining Toronto’s tree canopy as planned. 

Investments into community climate grants also continue, with new funds set aside for Black-Led Climate Action Grants, on top of existing grants for Neighbourhood and Indigenous-Led Climate Action. Funding smaller, resident-led, community level projects is a big part of transforming our city and taking care of each other as climate emergencies escalate. That’s why TEA successfully pushed for an even bigger increase to climate grants as part of the final City Council budget meeting on February 10th.

Carbon Budget and Capital Investments in City-Owned Assets

Another positive step is the continued rollout of the City’s Carbon Budget, where climate action is tracked and gradually embedded across all City divisions. There is now an annual report tracking how much effort (and spending) is going into projects that cut carbon emissions and enhance resilience. This includes the beginnings of a process analyzing which major decisions increase fossil fuel use. Fun fact: Toronto is spending less on fossil fuels this year than last year, which is worth celebrating.

There is significant capital investment into reducing the City of Toronto’s emissions from the City’s fleet, public housing, buildings, and wastewater management, with investments in the billions of dollars. Decarbonizing the City’s vehicle fleet is already creating cost savings for the City’s budget, and the gradual retrofit and decarbonization of public housing should reduce winter heating costs while also providing better indoor cooling for TCHC residents.

Waste and Circular Economy

The budget includes funding for new staff to work on the Circular Economy Roadmap released in late 2025. The Roadmap includes key actions to cut waste, reduce carbon emissions, and support local economic development, like construction waste reuse and reusable foodware programs. 

What needs more work:

The City can’t fight climate change alone, or address other critical issues such as providing more deeply affordable housing. To take action at the scale we need and meet the growing needs of our city, Toronto needs long-term revenue solutions from other levels of government. 

To reach Toronto’s 2040 climate goals, billions more public and private money will need to be redirected and mobilized every year. Action at this scale will spark massive economic gains in building retrofits, and creating a surge of good green jobs. While the City of Toronto doesn’t have the resources to achieve these by itself, the City must play a significant role in mobilizing funding and financing. This is particularly vital in decarbonizing the City’s buildings, which represent more than half of the emissions produced across the Toronto community.

Decarbonizing Buildings — and the need for Provincial and Federal Action

It’s as clear in 2026 as it was in previous years that all governments are failing to deliver enough support to complete building retrofits at the pace we need to fight climate change. It’s good to see that existing City retrofit loan programs like HELP and Hi-Ris are continuing, but we are lacking a coordinated plan between all levels of government with significant funding and financing to drive a shift to climate-safe buildings. 

Torontonians and the City must push the provincial and federal governments to use their significant financing and funding powers to help retrofit more buildings and homes, and spark a boom in green jobs and economic growth. 

You can find out more about how to speak up for more federal investments into retrofits and other important nation-building clean infrastructure projects here: https://elbowsupforclimate.ca

Conclusion:

In general, this budget provides continuity for the City’s environment and climate programs. TEA is particularly pleased to see further investments in transit service and affordability, and more resources into climate resilience — including the increase in the City’s Indoor Cooling program for vulnerable tenants and community climate action grants. TEA is also pleased to see investments in stormwater management, tree maintenance, and in the greening of City-owned assets that are proving environmental investments save money. TEA is encouraged to see climate and environmental decisions more deeply incorporated across City departments, and an overall reduction in fossil fuel purchases by City departments.

We remain concerned about the challenging status of the decarbonizing of the City’s buildings, recognizing the need for provincial and federal levels of government to contribute to the funding and financing of building decarbonization given the City’s relative lack of ability to raise those funds. 

What's next:

First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who spoke up throughout the budget process this year. Through surveys, letters, emails, and participating in town halls and  official Budget Committee meetings - we made a difference!

The budget is now passed and the formal input stage is over, but you can reach out to the Mayor and your local City Councillor anytime to follow up and thank them for any programs they voted to fund that you asked for - or ask them why they didn’t support it if that’s the case. You can also push for them to provide more funding in the future for environmental programs and other issues you care about. 

If you want to dig deeper into all the motions that were moved at Budget, and who voted how, you can find a video recording of the entire meeting here, and an agenda listing all the votes here.