On Feb 11, Toronto City Council will meet to vote on the 2025 Budget. Overall, this is a positive budget for Toronto’s environment. It includes promising steps to help protect Torontonians, cut emissions, improve transit, improve affordability, and make Toronto a greener, healthier place for all.

But these investments are not yet secured. We need your voices to speak up to stop potential cuts and TTC fare increases which may be tabled in the final budget meeting. Councillors need to hear from you that you want these investments to stay put. 

We also have the opportunity to make the budget just a little bit greener. Councillors will have an additional $3 million to fund extra projects. TEA is recommending that some of this funding goes into taking care of new trees in the City, and planting more of them in neighbourhoods lacking in tree cover.

Getting a personalized email or a phone call from a voter makes a big difference for Councillors. 

Tell your City Councillor to support Budget 2025, and to support investments in transit, trees, and climate action. Click here to find their contact information. 

This 2025 budget points Toronto in the direction of transformative change and makes many of the investments we need. Among the highlights:

• A fare freeze, and an additional $85 million in operating funding that, among other things, brings an additional 500,000 transit operating hours. And a reduction of the TTC maintenance backlog by half
• $30 million for low interest loans for heat pumps and building retrofits over the next four years
• A new $200,000 fund to provide vulnerable Toronto residents with indoor cooling
• Continued funding to convert more of the City’s vehicle fleet into electric and hybrid vehicles, including more green buses for the TTC
• For the first time, all City departments and divisions have engaged in Toronto’s annual Carbon Budget process
• Additional funding for Toronto’s cycling network, and an increase in Toronto’s highly successful BikeShare program
• A 53% increase in VisionZero pedestrian, cyclist, and other road user safety
• Funding to expand Toronto’s Green Bin digesters program

We know that these are trying times. Many parts of our lives feel uncertain right now. This City budget is a chance to take positive steps forward right here in our own community and on our own streets. This budget could make your streets greener, help your bus come more often, and help you and your neighbours shift away from fossil gas in your homes. You can help make this happen by emailing or calling your Councillor and the Mayor right now.   

Click here to find your Councillor’s contact information and connect with them now.