After a shorter transition period, during which she will take office on July 12, Chow says she will take “action.
Olivia Chow is putting together her team and making plans at city hall. She just won an election.
The new mayor-elect of Toronto told reporters on Thursday that she has hired a chief-of-staff, has been busy with meetings for the past few days, and has three immediate goals as she moves into her new job.
No blue-ribbon panels or reports will be made. She said that instead, experts will be talked to and then things will move forward.
Chow said, “I’ve learned a lot, and I’m very ready to act on what I’ve learned.”
The new mayor said that she has hired her campaign director Michal Hay, who has worked in city hall before, as her chief of staff. It’s the first big decision about people she’s had to make in her short time in office, and it’s likely the most important as she fills her office.
Chow’s team said that she will meet with frontline experts, community leaders, and the civil service in the coming days to find solutions to the city’s “most urgent problems.” At these meetings, people will talk about affordable housing and job opportunities, how communities respond to crises, and supportive housing and services that help people in general.
Chow requests that the committee meet in August
She also said that she had asked the city’s executive committee to meet in August and the city council to meet in early September to talk about Toronto’s long-term financial outlook. Chow said that she wants to get to work on fixing the problem of a billion-dollar budget gap.
“I know that here in August, city hall is usually closed,” she said. “I don’t plan to take a vacation. I plan to work all summer long so that we can face some of the problems and challenges we face head-on.”
Experts who pay close attention to city hall say that this change will be different from other times when Toronto’s top office has changed hands. John Filion, who used to be a city councilman and sat two seats away from Chow, worked with her for ten years. He said that he can already see the councilwoman he knew when she was just starting out in her new job.
“I thought she was brilliant behind the scenes,” he told her. “She was one of the few council members who didn’t want a lot of recognition. She just did things quietly and let someone else get the credit for it.
He said that Chow has already hit the ground running, which he needs to do.
“As a new mayor, you usually have a lot of time to get ready,” he said. “This will be a big hurry.”
When former mayor John Tory quit unexpectedly in February, the byelection was called, and the winner had to take office in a short amount of time. This week, Chow said that she will be sworn in on July 12, which is a week less than the usual time.
“She’s doing everything right, like meeting with all the councillors, because you need to build a coalition so you can hit the ground running on day one,” he said. “She is also meeting with provincial and federal leaders because she will need new sources of funding to get anything done.”
An expert says that the change of mayor is becoming more formalized
Zac Spicer, a professor of public policy at York University, said that given the timeline, Chow’s team has probably been preparing for the possible change for weeks. He thinks that other political campaigns were doing the same thing in case they won the election.
He said, “The process of making a change doesn’t have a set rhythm and flow.” “But over time, at the local level, it has become more formalized and started to look more like the transition of a premier or prime minister.”
Spicer, who has studied how mayors change jobs, said that the heads of city departments will send briefing documents to Chow’s team and the new mayor-elect to get them up to speed.
“The mayor’s office wants to get a handle on all of these projects and figure out what’s going on, which is why the transition process is getting more and more complicated and formalized,” he said. “Right now, the only thing the mayor doesn’t want is a surprise.”
Kim Wright, a strategist and consultant, said she doesn’t think Chow will come in and start to tear apart plans that her predecessor put in place. She said that she would talk to all of the former mayor’s supporters on council and try to find a middle ground.
“Everyone wants to come in and tear up the work of the last person,” she said. “That’s not her style.” “There has been some really good work done. So, I expect Olivia to listen to that, figure out what makes sense for Torontonians, and move forward.”
Wright, who worked for former Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton as an advisor, said that she thinks Chow’s start on the job will set the tone for her leadership at city hall. She said that it will be about listening and working together.
“She’ll have a team around her, but her main goal is to figure out how to reach people where they are and get them where they need to be.”