“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

Thousands of dollars in missing packages from mailrooms, a city employee taking weeks of paid sick leave to work another job and a retiree’s credentials being used to attempt multi-million-dollar fraud are just some of the highlights in an annual report from Toronto’s auditor general being presented Thursday.

Several employees involved in examples laid out in the auditor general’s report on the fraud and waste hotline no longer work for the city and are ineligible to be rehired. The annual report will be presented to councillors Thursday at the audit committee.

The impact of fraud goes deeper than just financial losses, Tara Anderson, the city’s auditor general, writes in her report.

Toronto has gone from spending money to find out what residents want in their city budget to spending more promoting how great the budget is. In fact, in this election year, the city’s communications efforts on selling Mayor Olivia Chow’s budget, which gets voted on Tuesday, increased by $100,000.

On a brisk Sunday morning, the first TTC riders boarded the Eglinton Crosstown LRT after 15 years of frustration, disappointment and seemingly never-ending construction.

The inaugural train left from Kennedy Station at 7:29 a.m., a minute early, in stark contrast to the project’s beleaguered timeline.

But as the first train left, it was immediately held at a red light, to the frustration of riders who had waited for hours in subzero temperatures and have been calling for transit signal priority.

Let the Sh*tShow begin.

Out of the 365 days last year, drivers lost roughly four of them being stuck in Toronto’s traffic, according to a new study.

TomTom, which released its annual traffic index last week, ranked Toronto second on the list of most congested cities across Canada, following behind only Vancouver.

The time Toronto drivers lost during rush hour in 2025 amounted to four days and four hours (100 hours), according to the index. That’s three hours and 50 minutes more than 2024.

At long last, it seems to be all systems go for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT system.

The beleaguered transit line is opening on Feb. 8, something Premier Doug Ford let slip Monday at an unrelated news conference at Queen’s Park, where he told reporters he was advised of the opening date “goal” by TTC officials.

Another sh&tshow?

This is one homelessness hot spot that Toronto City Hall can’t ignore.

Neighbours have complained to the Toronto Sun about open drug use and violence at a small two-storey building at 81 Elizabeth St. That building has the distinction of being in the literal shadow of city hall, with stairs to Nathan Phillips Square’s elevated walkways across the road from its doors.

‘This is unprecedented’: New report card shows Toronto’s mental health is collapsing

Toronto’s mental health has deteriorated so rapidly over the past decade that the number of residents who say they are doing well has collapsed from nearly three quarters to barely half, a situation that at least one expert says is “unprecedented” and “crazy.”

A report, released by ThriveTO in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, CAMH, the City of Toronto and other organizations, found the percentage of Torontonians who describe their mental health as “very good” or “excellent” fell from 73 per cent in 2015 to 52 per cent in 2022.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has no plans to provide Toronto with new revenue tools through discussions on the next phase of the new deal between the city and the province.

“Revenue tools are called taxes. They want to tax the pants off you. They’ve taxed us to death in Toronto. Enough, enough of these taxes,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.

“As I say, government doesn’t have an income problem. They have a revenue problem. Stop spending money. Start focusing on areas that you can drive efficiencies.”