Mayor of Toronto, John Tory

January 12, 2021

The Empire Club of Canada Presents

Mayor of Toronto, John Tory

Chairman: Kelly Jackson, Vice-President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada

Distinguished Guest Speakers
Nadia Todorova, Interim Executive Director, Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario
John Tory , Mayor of Toronto
Izzie Abrams, President of Government & External Affairs, Waste Connections of Canada

Introduction
It is a great honour for me to be here at the Empire Club of Canada today, which is arguably the most famous and historically relevant speaker’s podium to have ever existed in Canada. It has offered its podium to such international luminaries as Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Audrey Hepburn, the Dalai Lama, Indira Gandhi, and closer to home, from Pierre Trudeau to Justin Trudeau; literally generations of our great nation's leaders, alongside with those of the world's top international diplomats, heads of state, and business and thought leaders.

It is a real honour and distinct privilege to be invited to speak to the Empire Club of Canada, which has been welcoming international diplomats, leaders in business, and in science, and in politics. When they stand at that podium, they speak not only to the entire country, but they can speak to the entire world.

Welcome Address by Kelly Jackson, Vice-President, Board of Directors, Empire Club of Canada
Good afternoon, fellow directors, past presidents, members, and guests. Welcome to the 117th season of the Empire Club of Canada. My name is Kelly Jackson. I am an Associate Vice-President at Humber College and also the first Vice-President of the Empire Club of Canada. I am your host for today's virtual event featuring Mayor John Tory, who will be discussing Toronto's path forward beyond COVID-19.

To begin this afternoon, I'd like to acknowledge the land we are broadcasting from. It is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit. For those of you tuning in from regions across Ontario or Canada today, we encourage you to learn more about the traditional territory on which you work and live.

In acknowledging traditional territories, I do so from a place of understanding the privilege my ancestors and I have had since they first arrived in this country in the 1830s as farmers in southwestern Ontario. I imagine that they felt a very deep connection to the land and yet likely did not recognize that this connection was built on the displacement of others. Delivering the land acknowledgment for me is an important opportunity to reflect on our human connection and our responsibility to care for the land and to recognize that to do so, we must always respect each other.

I now want to take a moment to recognize our sponsors who generously support the Empire Club and make these events possible. One of our lead event sponsors today is the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario. Our other lead event sponsor and also a season sponsor is Waste Connections of Canada. And we have another season sponsor who I want to acknowledge, the Canadian Bankers Association. Finally, thanks to our event partner as well, VVC and LiveMeeting.ca, Canada’s online event space, for their webcasting of today's event.

Before we begin, I would like to mention that if at any point you find your internet feed is slow, please see below and click on the Switch Streams button, and do not hesitate to press the Request for Help button if you are experiencing any technical difficulties. One of our team would be pleased to assist you.

I now have the pleasure of calling this virtual meeting to order. We are honored to have Mayor John Tory with us today to speak about the work Toronto has done over the last year fighting the spread of COVID-19 and the road ahead for Canada’s largest city. Beyond the complexity of the city's current pandemic response and support for vaccination efforts, he is seized with driving economic growth and creating affordable and supportive housing. And even in these challenging times, he continues to champion Toronto and its people, sharing most recently in year-end interviews his confidence that post-pandemic Toronto will emerge stronger than ever. To introduce the mayor formally, please welcome Nadia Todorova, Interim Executive Director of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario. Nadia.

Opening Remarks by Nadia Todorova, Interim Executive Director, Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario
Great, thank you so much, Kelly. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, or RCCAO, I'm delighted to be here today and have the immense honor of introducing His Worship Mayor John Tory. As a unique alliance of labor and management construction groups that focuses on Ontario's infrastructure, RCCAO Nadia Todorova: Great, thank you so much, Kelly. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, or RCCAO, I'm delighted to be here today and have the immense honour of introducing His Worship Mayor John Tory. As a unique alliance of labour and management construction groups that focuses on Ontario's infrastructure, RCCAO applauds the leadership that Mayor Tory has taken during his term of office, but especially over the last year during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted all facets of life.

In Toronto, over the last year, we have seen the mayor at the city's almost daily COVID-19 updates, and he is a mainstay in the media answering questions from residents. He has done it all in a calm and soothing way that we all want to see from our politicians during a crisis. As it has been said by a newspaper in a year-end interview, his approach has really been that of a comforter-in-chief during the pandemic. The mayor has been steadfast in helping Toronto residents and businesses with crucial supports and services to help them get through these challenging times. The mayor has worked hard to make sure that Toronto will get through this pandemic stronger than ever, and he has consistently spoken directly to Toronto residents and responded directly to their concerns.

Throughout the seven years as mayor of Toronto, Mayor Tory has focused on improving life for Torontonians. He has focused on pushing forward important investments in our transit system, housing, social services, and programs. He has consistently prioritized investments in building Toronto's infrastructure. Mayor Tory is a strong partner to the construction industry, someone who values the work that hundreds of thousands of construction workers do for the city and the invaluable contribution they make to building up and maintaining Toronto from its roads, sidewalks, water pipes, bridges, and high-rise buildings.

As an example, Mayor Tory has spearheaded Toronto's largest and most significant stormwater management program, the Don River and Central Waterfront and Connected Project, which, once completed, will halt the flow of sewage into Lake Ontario and clean up waterways, a project that the mayor has not only prioritized but is fighting to expedite. Throughout his tenure as mayor, he has prioritized investments towards transit and other key infrastructure, which reflects a deep understanding of the importance of infrastructure to the city's economy and its economic competitiveness. This was clearly reflected in his tireless work in securing the Safe Restart Agreement in 2020 with the province of Ontario and the Government of Canada, which ensures that municipalities such as the City of Toronto have the financial support during the ongoing pandemic.

The funding contained in the Safe Restart Agreement came at a crucial time for municipalities across Ontario, including the City of Toronto, whose budgets were so gravely impacted by the pandemic. The funding was key in helping municipalities begin to put their financial houses in order. RCCAO applauds the strong relationships that Mayor Tory has cultivated with the federal and provincial governments, as they have been crucial in facilitating a collaborative and productive partnership. As we look to the future and a new and hopefully brighter 2021, RCCAO has every confidence that Mayor Tory will continue to guide Toronto through the pandemic with his constant and reassuring presence, as well as remaining focused on the economic recovery of the city and ensuring that Toronto continues to be a world-class, diverse, and inclusive city that remains a hub of innovation and a bustling leader in construction activity. Mayor Tory, we all look forward to hearing what you have to say about the road ahead for our city and, again, I'd like to welcome you to the Empire Club of Canada.

His Worship John Tory, Mayor of Toronto
Well, Nadia, thank you very much—and directors, and everybody else, sponsors—very much for that introduction. It's an unusual experience, which I guess others who've had to address the Empire Club in pandemic mode have had to be in a room that is largely empty. I don't mean to say that out of any disrespect for the technicians and others who are here helping out, so you're speaking to an audience that isn't right in front of you. I sort of thought maybe the Empire Club should make arrangements to have some of that canned applause and crowd noise brought in like they do on the sports broadcasts, and maybe even we can even have a heckler or two.

But in all seriousness, it is a great honor for me to be here again to address the Empire Club and through you to address all of the people of the City of Toronto. This is the place where people come when they have a message to convey, and I have one to convey today, partly one that is of reassurance, and partly one that is a call to action.

But before I start into that message, I want to just say thank you. And it's not just thank you to the Empire Club and thank you to the sponsors, but thank you to the people in the City of Toronto who have opened their hearts to each other, who have cared for each other, who have largely cooperated with the public health advice that we've been giving. Because I think they've helped us to make a bad situation better than it might otherwise have been. And I think that some of the measures that Premier Ford will shortly announce are meant to take a difficult situation and make it better than it could be if we don't act. And that is something that's very important. But of course, it requires people to be cooperative, and requires them to be compassionate. And I'm very proud of the fact that we have cared in the city for our most vulnerable residents in a way that I think has set a very high standard, which is exactly what I think you would expect. It's certainly what I expect for myself and for the members of the council that I have the honor to lead.

I have been privileged to address the Empire Club in prior times, but there is nothing normal about the times that we're in right now. For the last year, our city and cities around the world have faced the greatest challenge of our generation, namely, of course, COVID-19. It has been an incredibly difficult year for all of our residents and for all of our businesses and organizations. For everybody, this virus has been catastrophic on so many fronts. For example, you'll want to think of the more than 2,000 families who are right here in our own city who are mourning their lost loved ones. And beyond the health emergency that continues, you will think as well of the job losses, the mental health impact, the businesses that are suffering. This is all unprecedented in the lifetimes of pretty well all of us that are here in the City of Toronto today.

I and everyone at the City of Toronto itself have worked throughout this emergency to stand behind the people of Toronto to the maximum extent possible. That's the city's job. And at the end of the day, that is my job as mayor. It was mentioned that I've been the comforter in chief and I hope the informer in chief in terms of being able to answer questions and make people feel more comfortable and better informed. But it is, you know, my job to make sure that we also deliver the services, keep delivering the crucial services that our residents rely on and to expand the services that people have needed most during the pandemic and whenever necessary. And that has been a constant. But I say that not in any way as a complaint. Whenever necessary, to advocate for Toronto's needs and interests to the other governments to ensure that Torontonians are given the support they require in an overall sense.

It's also been my job to communicate as best I can what is happening each and every day and why, and by definition, this has involved unfortunately delivering a lot of bad news. Throughout, we have worked with our incredibly dedicated city staff to move at what I call wartime speed to design and deliver pandemic-related municipal programs and different kinds of supports to help people, especially our most vulnerable, to help people get through this nightmare. And I think that's about the only way it could be described. From the beginning, our mission was clear: to save lives, to protect health, to protect the healthcare system, and to protect our way of life, including the economy. And you can see that the protection of all those things is still very much on our minds today in terms of the actions that we continue to have to undertake as this pandemic evolves.

We moved immediately to help residents and businesses. For example, with a 60-day property and commercial tax deferral. We worked to safely house our homeless population, even as that population grew, as other jurisdictions were overwhelmed and as corrections facilities, for example, emptied out. We worked to help businesses with our Digital Main Street program. This was a program that helped thousands of businesses get online. And if you think about it, if you weren't online and there were restrictions placed or the business was required to be closed, you were unable to do business with anybody, whereas if you were online, you not only could reach out to or be reached out to by your existing customers, but the whole world was at your disposal. So that's why it was so important for us to help thousands, literally thousands of businesses to get online.

And then we took some other extraordinary steps, which I think will become a much more part of our lives in the city. We initiated the Curb-To program, so this encouraged curbside pickup and delivery. CafeTO dramatically expanded patio dining for hard-hit restaurants, hundreds of hard-hit restaurants right across the city on different streets. We worked to provide emergency childcare for frontline workers, summer day camps with proper safety protocols, and ActiveTO, a very successful program it was, put in place to give people safe ways to get outside and to exercise. And I saw thousands of people using that on many, many weekends and weekdays over the course of the summer. We continued to advance affordable housing with some 9,800 affordable units now in the pipeline and Toronto's first two modular housing projects now both in place.

Just as one example, the ridership reduction from 1.7 million passengers each and every day to today's 504,000 passengers each and every day caused us to lose, through the farebox, $650.4 million in 2020. And this was a big part of what the other governments backstopped for us and for other cities with large transit systems.

We also established intergovernmental partnerships on expanded provincial pop-up testing and the first isolation site in Canada fully funded by the government of Canada. I'm very thankful that throughout this pandemic, I've had genuine, consistent cooperation from Premier Ford and from Prime Minister Trudeau to address this city's needs, and I dare say the needs of cities across the country. And I look forward to that continued cooperation. That is the Canadian way: all governments, regardless of politics, working together in times of crises for the very same people that we all serve.

Now, all of this work is continuing because our fight against COVID-19 is relentless. It is a relentless enemy, and it has to be met with a relentless determination on our part. And the fight, I—I'm sorry to have to say, but truthfully, the fight is far from over. While we've worked non-stop to combat this virus, led by our frontline workers across the spectrum, our medical professionals have worked to secure one of the scientific miracles of our century: the COVID-19 vaccines.

So while our fight continues to stop the spread, all governments, including the city, have also begun to roll out the largest vaccination effort in the history of Canada, led by our federal and provincial partners. This vaccine effort means we are now on defense and offense at the same time: the defense, of course, being the steps we have to take, including those implemented today, and the offense being to go out there and get as many needles into as many arms as possible as quickly as we can.

The vaccines are key to moving beyond this pandemic, and we are doing everything we can to support this initiative, working within the frameworks established by the other governments. To be clear on responsibility for vaccinations: in simple terms, the federal government ensures supply of vaccine; that is their responsibility. The Ontario government distributes the vaccines and determines who gets vaccinated and when, and cities like Toronto then assist in making that happen, working within provincial rules.

Make no mistake: we have turned the corner from hope alone to a plan, and we are now hard at work within provincial rules to deliver the vaccine that, in turn, can create for all of us an opportunity to get back to normal. By the end of the year, the vaccines are hope and better times, and a more normal life can be on the way. God bless everyone working to deliver that hope each and every day, and bless many of those very same frontline healthcare workers who have struggled and suffered through this pandemic. They've shown such great courage helping all those that they could help who were suffering from this terrible virus, sometimes at considerable risk to themselves.

As we fight to stop the spread of this virus and vaccinate people as quickly as possible, we look ahead to what comes next. All this sacrifice and toil must not be in vain, and all the success that our city and so many communities that make up our city were experiencing less than a year ago cannot be lost. And I am confident as mayor that it will not be lost.

Pre-pandemic Toronto is one of the most successful cities in the world: top 10 most livable, top 10 financial center, a booming tech hub, well-managed financially, a magnet because of our way of life and because of our values and all the things I mentioned, a magnet for people from around the world. Our challenge beyond the pandemic is to make sure our city, the economic engine of Ontario and the economic engine of Canada, restarts and restarts strongly. We will rebuild, there is no doubt. And as we rebuild, we can be and must be creative and innovative and compassionate so that we create an equal opportunity city where everyone can succeed. That is important, and we have work to do in that regard.

The pandemic threatens this progress. Obviously, our city continues to face major budget impacts into 2021 from COVID-19. Last year, we found over $500 million in savings at the city level, and I worked with Premier Ford and with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to negotiate the Safe Restart Funding Agreement for 2020. And this really helped us with the problem that I mentioned. In addition to our own finding of savings and efficiencies, the city's $1.7 billion gap for 2020 and to help fund our COVID response, they helped with the gap, they helped fund the COVID response, and they helped us very much so to respond to the shortfalls at the TTC that I mentioned earlier.

But the impact of COVID goes beyond one budget year and it goes beyond 2020. While our city is working to continue to find savings and efficiencies this year, we're doing it every single day to save services and to avoid unduly impacting residents and businesses. We will need further support in 2021. The province and the Government of Canada know this, and I have already begun to advocate to them so as to secure a Safe Restart 2.0, shall we call it, our Safe Restart 2021 Agreement for Toronto and for municipalities right across Canada, because many, certainly the larger ones, are in the same boat, and I think a number of the smaller ones have challenges in front of them as well.

I will say that it is not a minute too soon for all three orders of government to seriously dedicate themselves to those discussions about a restart for 2021 as they relate to all cities in Canada. The time is now, and I say that given the length of time that it took to reach agreement on Safe Restart funding in 2020. The time to deal with 2021 is right now, and I'm happy once again to help in those discussions in any way that I can.

Such an agreement will be fundamental to our ability to recover and restart with strength in the City of Toronto. Canada's cities, its economic engines, including the biggest economic engine of all, the City of Toronto, need some further investment in 2021, and that investment, I believe in my heart, will pay huge dividends to all of Canada in terms of getting us back on our feet and getting us into recovery strongly and quickly. And I think that will lead the rest of the country to exactly the same place. It will ensure that all municipalities can keep fighting COVID-19, can fully participate in the rollout of the vaccine, and can continue to deliver services and invest in the future.

I firmly believe now is not the time to be cutting services and that individuals cannot afford huge tax increases to cover any shortfall. As I have said before, cities are on the front line of the COVID-19 fight. Our 2021 budget, set to be released Thursday of this week, will show that the city is making significant and necessary investments to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to protect the residents, to protect the services that must remain strong if the city is to be strong and if the city is to recover strongly.

The TTC, for example, which I mentioned because the transit system of any city is one of the backbones of any economic recovery, because it does provide the means by which people get to and from work or to and from school or just go about getting around in the city in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way. And that transit system, in the case of Toronto, will receive from the City of Toronto taxpayers alone this year a $789.8 million city subsidy. That represents, by the way, a 47% increase over my time as mayor. But it will also require in 2021 an additional $796.4 million to offset COVID-19 impacts in 2021, mainly lost revenue again from reduced ridership. Well, that ridership hopefully will improve over the course of the year.

We all know we're still fighting the pandemic, and ridership remains only a small fraction of what it normally would be. But we have to continue to operate that system, especially as the economy recovers. We have to invest, for example, an additional $281 million for shelters and to help support homeless people, plus a further $15 million for supportive housing of the kind I mentioned earlier. This is housing where we've put it together very quickly with help from the Government of Canada, but we have a need to fund the operations of that housing to support some of our most vulnerable citizens and to continue to provide stable and safe housing for even more people. Sleeping in our parks is not safe, it is not healthy, and it is not legal, and we have worked constantly and continue to work constantly to provide more options for people to come indoors, and that work will continue, and it must continue, but it will require investment to allow it to continue.

Although this has been our toughest budget year ever, we will also make additional investments in public health, in the city's long-term care residences, and in Toronto Community Housing. Once again, a further commitment in the case of Toronto Community Housing of $160 million to bring about much-needed repairs, an area where we've had assistance again from the Government of Canada. That is part of a 10-year commitment, finally to bring that housing, which is owned by us and again houses some of our most vulnerable residents, up to the standard that you would expect. That's a 10-year commitment totaling $1.6 billion in committed capital repair funding, and it represents a 23% increase in committed operating support as well that has happened during my time as mayor. We will make those investments because we must, because it is the right and prudent thing to do, yes, as part of our ending battle against COVID-19, but also as part of building a stronger and more equitable city.

Working with my colleagues on City Council and city staff, we will look to make new investments in other areas and in parts of the city hardest hit by this virus. One area that is fundamental to our recovery is our ongoing need to build housing, including in particular affordable and supportive housing. Throughout my time as mayor, I have worked constantly to accelerate various housing initiatives, and the pandemic has only made the housing situation far more tenuous for many. As I mentioned earlier, thousands of Toronto residents have been helped through this emergency thanks to our healthcare workers, but many of those very same healthcare heroes can't even call our city home due to the increasing cost of housing.

To help our healthcare heroes and all the people who make our city work but have a hard time making rent in an expensive but successful city, I will be working to make sure that City Hall accelerates the rental housing approval process. For real rental housing in the pipeline now or that comes forward in the near future will be fast-tracked to a significant degree so that we will have more places for hardworking people to call home, including in particular more affordable and supportive places right here in the City of Toronto. This must be, and I know you agree with me on this, it must be a city for everyone, and this new initiative will help to ensure that.

I do want to be clear: our road ahead, our push to build back right and to build back strong, including more affordable rental housing and the 2021 budget itself, all rely on the ongoing cooperation and support of our federal and provincial governments. It's always going to be this way in our country; the way things are set up, if you want to build strong cities, it has to be a partnership involving all governments. Beyond the pandemic, that will be my focus each and every day over the coming months. I'll have to pay a lot of attention, as I have, to the pandemic, but I'll be focusing very much on that partnership, and I'll be trying to make sure that all governments are committed to supporting Toronto and to making sure that our city continues to help everyone beat this virus and can fulfill its role as Canada's economic engine, something that's good for everybody in this country.

It isn't just about preserving services. A renewed Safe Restart Agreement for 2021 will provide the support necessary to keep much-needed capital projects on track. Some of those were referred to in my very kind introduction today. This year's capital budget, $3 billion or thereabouts, means more jobs for people, helps the economy to keep growing, and makes sure we keep making the long overdue investments in infrastructure that we all know are necessary. For a long time, we put off making those investments, and there was a price to be paid for that, not only in terms of jobs but in terms of the general state of well-being in the city. You cannot recover without continuing to build, and our capital investments will do just that, provided that we have emergency federal and provincial support to keep responding to the pandemic and dealing with some of its consequences.

Make no mistake: If we have a significant shortfall because there is no re-safe restart funding support from the other governments, we will have no choice but to cut back up to $860 million of capital spending, and that will affect jobs, it would affect economic activity, and it would affect just keeping Toronto in good repair. We can't afford to have that happen, but I believe that support will come because all governments want to make sure our economy comes out of this pandemic as strongly as it possibly can be positioned. The only way that Ontario and Canada come back strong is with a strong Toronto. We're not the whole country by any means, I understand that, but we represent such an important source of economic strength in this country that we need to be strong so that Canada can be strong, and Torontonians want that for the whole country as well as for their own city. I know, I know that Toronto will come back strong. We are a strong, resilient city.

We've seen that in some of the things that have happened to us even during my time as mayor, this city knows how to take a punch. Not that you'd want to have to, but it knows how to take a punch and then to get right back up again, and the comeback is already underway. Our colleges and universities have shifted to online learning seamlessly and are doing the excellent job they do, the world-recognized job they do, relatively seamlessly. Our tech industry is continuing to innovate. They've helped us during the pandemic, and they continue to attract the best and the brightest around the world as people come to work here, to establish businesses here, and to invest here. Toronto is still correctly seen by people at home and abroad as one of the most attractive places in the world to live, to invest, and to create jobs. We want to keep it that way. People are investing in our city now, and they are investing in its future. We have to be in a position to invest in our own future here, in the kind of infrastructure that will attract those people to come here to create jobs. It's all part of the city's good bones, as I describe them, that basic solid foundation we've been steadily building on before the pandemic.

Just recently, Standard & Poor's, a global credit rating agency, affirmed this city's double A credit rating and stressed, despite the pandemic's impact on our finances, that, and I quote, 'The city's extremely deep and diversified economy will provide a foundation for recovery as the pandemic and associated restrictions ease.' In affirming our credit rating while others were being downgraded, even in our own country, the rating agency went on to say, and I quote, 'In addition, we believe that Toronto's prudent financial management and robust liquidity will help to sustain the city's creditworthiness in the longer term.' That's outside testament to the work that we did before the pandemic to run an efficient government, and it is a testament to the work that we have done over the last year to preserve and to protect services and to protect the investments we must make over the coming years in capital and in infrastructure while still, at the same time, finding hundreds of millions of dollars in savings and efficiencies.

We are poised for a strong comeback when this pandemic is over, and that day is coming. Every shot in the arm with the COVID-19 vaccine brings the end of this nightmare just a little bit closer. We all just need to hang on a bit longer and keep following the public health advice, including the further measures the province will announce shortly. I have some idea of what they're going to be doing, and I support what Premier Ford is doing and the fact that he is acting to do it. And of course, that will be accompanied by the continued rollout of the vaccine.

I've said this before, and I will say it again: Please, in the best interest of this great city and all the people you live with in this great city, please stay home as much as possible. When you have to go out, please stay two meters from anyone that you don't live with. Please wear a mask. I'm of the view that if you can wear a mask as much time as you can, as many places you can, for as long as you can, it's a good thing to do. And please wash your hands. These things sound pretty basic, but when you listen to the medical experts, they will tell you they are the most important thing. They are more important than all the rules and all the policies we can come up with in government. We need to follow this advice more now than ever to protect ourselves, to protect our loved ones and our communities, and as our hospitals are reaching capacity, to protect our healthcare system.

As mayor, I will continue doing my job to make sure we keep delivering the crucial services our residents rely on, both the everyday ones that you rely on in going about your lives, but also the extraordinary ones, the ones we have expanded, the services that people need even more, or only during times like pandemic times. And I will continue to advocate relentlessly for Toronto's needs and interests to the other governments to ensure that Torontonians are getting the support they require.

The 2021 budget will help our city and all of our residents get through the next few months and to get to that day, to get to that day in the not-too-distant future when the life we knew, the life we love, the life that people admire around the world, the vibrancy, the dynamism of the city itself, can start again. And armed with the lessons we've learned from this pandemic, we will have a better city, we will have a stronger city, and a city that will keep building up even stronger than before.

My parting message would be just to have hope. This is going to come about, but hope is one thing. Having the discipline to actually do what we all have to do, collectively, led by your governments, which have a responsibility to do a lot, but led by your governments in partnership with you, we need to have that hope, we need to have that determination. I know this city will restore itself to that dynamism, that vibrancy, and will remain what it is, in my view, and I'm a booster, but I'm unapologetic as a booster, and I don't say it as a booster, I say it because I believe it to be true: this is the greatest city in the greatest country in the world in which to live. Thank you very much.

Antoinette Tummillo
Thank you so much, Mayor Tory. We know just how busy you are, and for you to be able to take this time to be at the Empire Club and to speak about all of these pieces during such an important time, we really appreciate it. I'd like to now introduce Izzie Abrams, President of Government and External Affairs of Waste Connections of Canada, to provide formal appreciation remarks.

Note of Appreciation by Izzie Abrams, President of Government & External Affairs, Waste Connections of Canada
Thank you, Mayor, and thank you on behalf of the Empire Club and Waste Connections of Canada, and all our frontline employees. Thank you for taking the time today to share your visions and insights with us and your Herculean attempt at keeping the city running and clearly the daunting task of keeping all Torontonians safe. For that, we thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Concluding Remarks by Antoinette Tummillo
Izzie, thank you. And thank you to our audience for joining us today. We hope that you will be able to join us as well for a couple of our upcoming events this month. This Thursday, January 14th, we have Rick Leary, Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Transit Commission, in conversation with Leslie Woo, CEO of CivicAction. They will be speaking about the TTC's efforts to prioritize diversity and inclusion across all of its operations. On January 28th, we will also be hosting a dynamic panel to talk about systemic racism, housing, and the realities of Black Canadians. Registration for these events is free, and you can sign up for them at the Empire Club of Canada website. This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you, stay safe, and have a great day.