Five Toronto mayoral candidates faced off this week in the first debate centred around issues affecting small businesses.
The Wednesday evening debate, hosted by West Queen West Business Improvement Association, featured Brad Bradford, Anthony Furey, Mitzie Hunter, Anthony Perruzza and Mark Saunders.
Olivia Chow and Josh Matlow, two leading candidates in the polls, did not participate.
All candidates in the debate said it was important to support small businesses, but offered different policy details.
Furey, Hunter and Perruzza said they would scrap fees on CaféTO, a program introduced during the pandemic to allow restaurants and bars to expand their outdoor dining space.
Toronto city council voted in February to make the program permanent but also decided to phase in permit and application fees over the next three years.
Hunter said this is the wrong time to raise fees as some small businesses still lack the capital to stay afloat.
Bradford and Hunter said they would keep the small business property tax subclass which was implemented in November 2021 to give eligible small businesses a 15 per cent tax rate reduction.
But Perruzza said the city hasn’t gone far enough and proposed to lower small business tax rates, keeping them close to the residential rates.
The candidates also said bringing people back to the downtown core after the COVID-19 pandemic is vital for keeping small business in the city vibrant.
Bradford said the municipal government should lead by example and go back to office for work.
Robert Sysak, executive director of West Queen West BIA, said politicians and the public should be aware small businesses remain dragged down by the pandemic.
“They’re still in debt,” Sysak told Humber News.
The debate covered broader issues facing the city such as transit, which all of the candidates said affects small businesses.
Bradford promised to name a congestion relief commissioner with the mandate to coordinate all construction projects in the city.
Furey said he would sue the transit agency Metrolinx for contractual breaches during the Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction and vowed to ensure the Ontario Line subway project will not experience the same kinds of delays.
Wednesday’s debate also touched upon the issue of strong mayor powers, which allow the mayor to propose housing-related by-laws that can be passed with one-third of city council votes.
Bradford and Saunders both said they would be a strong mayor to break the gridlock in the city council.
But Hunter said the new mayoral powers which were enacted by the provincial Ford government are against local democracy and promised not to use them.
Perruzza compared the strong mayoral powers to the Leafs game which took place at the same time on Wednesday evening, saying he believed games like politics should be won by scoring more goals.
Sysak said he viewed the BIA’s debate as the start to the long election cycle, and he hoped people can learn as much as they can and make their own decisions.
“Sadly, municipal elections are like 27 per cent of votes,” he said. “But it’s the most important thing. It affects our daily lives.”
The election will take place Monday June 26.