Lorna Antwi

The Mayor and City Council

Staffing shortages across major City services mean longer waits and service gaps, while overload creates costs through overtime, sick leave and turnover. As a former frontline City worker, I've seen where these systems break down. I would review how we calculate workforce costs, including the financial value of retaining resourced, experienced workers. We use lifecycle costing for physical assets; we should apply that same long-term discipline to human capacity, paired with local hiring and apprenticeship pathways for Ward 7 residents.

Housing

People's budgets are stretched, & CMHC reports weak pre-sales can block construction financing. Toronto is on track to meet its 2026 housing approval goal, but projects aren't breaking ground. The City can take a longer investment horizon than developers. Let's develop public land, underused sites & properties due for renovation, keep the land public & recover value through rents over decades. When approved projects halt, communities lose housing they were counting on. Unacceptable. We should redesign, compromise or replace capacity nearby.

Cost of Living

Keep our $ & materials circulating here. Search network: show free/reusable goods -> local business ads -> non-local ads. Free local food-producer ads. Users pool/share ad & purchase kickbacks for local goods; opt-in informed-consent data sales. Repair/reuse hubs let people buy less now, create maker jobs, & teach CAD/trades skills. Searches past local ads identify unmet local needs; use s.84 powers to incubate startups into employers. Pursue a commercial freight impact tax to fund it, with relief tied to living-wage jobs & value kept local.

Safety in Public Spaces

Toronto is getting safer by many measures: in 2025, homicides fell 48%, shootings 43%, robberies (including muggings) 20%, and home invasions over 35%. Feeling unsafe still matters. I want to understand the gap. What makes you feel unsafe: lighting, harassment, infrastructure, unpredictable behavior, waiting alone for transit, or something else? Visit my website and tell me where you feel unsafe and what would make you feel safer. Different problems need different solutions, and I want our policies to reflect what residents experience.

Getting Around the City

Aggressively target bottlenecks. At Allen & Eglinton, medians could stop last-second merging, red-light cameras could deter drivers from blocking intersections, & coordinated lights keep the next red from wasting this green. Finch & Hwy 400, & elsewhere: commuters know where the friction is. Weston & Finch: close the 400m cycling gap. I want traffic & TTC data used to find & fix friction points through signal coordination, lane design or transit priority. We need considered efficiencies for all modes of transit. You report, we'll investigate.

Confronting Hateful and Hostile Behaviour

Toronto had 443 hate crimes in 2024, 231 in 2025: -48%. Research across 515 studies found intergroup contact reduces prejudice; Toronto data found more diverse neighborhoods had lower reported race-based hate crime rates. Build media literacy: critically examine who wants you angry or afraid, about whom, and why. Build unsegregated community projects around cooperative goals. Partner with universities to evaluate outcomes. Add non-police reporting of harassment & hostility to identify patterns, then facilitate unifying project initiatives.