Toronto, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to freeze city employee salaries in future labour negotiations in light of documents showing the city gave raises to more than 29,000 employees last year.

“If the city is out of cash and Chow thinks times are so desperate that she needs to push through the largest property tax hike in Toronto’s history, the city should not be handing out raises,” said CTF Ontario Director Jay Goldberg. “Toronto politicians have been talking about a budget crisis for almost two years, yet they keep handing out raises left, right and centre. Until the city’s budget crisis is solved, pay raises in future labour negotiations must be taken off the table.”

Documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation show that 29,601 city of Toronto employees were given raises in 2023. That’s more than double the number of employees that were given raises in 2021. The total cost of pay raises was $90.1 million, nearly three times more than the $31 million tab in 2021.

“Toronto taxpayers are struggling to put food on the table and pay for rent and groceries,” Goldberg said. “Yet the city keeps handing out raises to government employees, who already earn a wage premium compared to those in the private sector. Toronto is facing a budget massive budget crunch and taxpayers can’t afford to have politicians rubber stamping raises for bureaucrats.” 

Government employees enjoy, on average, an 8.5 per cent wage premium, according to the Fraser Institute. 

The documents can be found HERE.