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Opinion

My Promise to Toronto’s Seniors

The people who built this city deserve to grow old in it with dignity

By Dr. Bahira Abdulsalam, PhD, P.Eng.

Independent Candidate for Mayor of Toronto

Oct 14, 2026 | 5 min read

My promise is simple: no senior in Toronto will be priced out, shut in or left alone.

Our seniors built this city. They paid its taxes, raised its families and ran its businesses. Today too many of them are choosing between rent and medicine, waiting years for care, or sitting alone in apartments they can barely afford to keep. A city that forgets the people who built it has lost its way.

As your mayor, I will treat our elders as the priority they are.

The facts

Toronto now has more seniors than children. In 2021, 476,990 residents were 65 or older, 17.1% of the city, and the number grew by about 50,000 in five years. Toronto has had more residents over 65 than under 15 since 2016.

The oldest residents are the fastest-growing group. Nearly 72,000 Torontonians are 85 or older, and the number aged 95 to 99 grew by about a third between 2016 and 2021.

Care has not kept up. More than 50,000 Ontarians are waiting for a long-term care bed, a list that nearly doubled in ten years.

Keeping seniors in their homes, affordably

Many seniors are house-rich and cash-poor. They own the home they raised their family in but live on a fixed pension that does not rise with the City’s bills.

• A one-year freeze on residential property-tax increases, phased in once the money is in place, then taxes tailored to income, so a pensioner is not taxed like a high earner.
• Make the relief we already have reach everyone who qualifies. The City already runs property-tax increase cancellation and deferral programs and water and garbage rebates for low-income seniors and people with disabilities. Too few people know they exist. I will promote them through libraries, places of worship, seniors’ centres and doctors’ offices, and simplify the application.
• Free TTC for everyone, starting with seniors in Stage 1. A senior should never stay home because a bus ride costs too much.
• Fairness for senior tenants. Older tenants are often the most afraid of renovictions and eviction. My tenant plan protects them first.

Aging at home, with support

Most seniors want to stay in their own homes and neighbourhoods, and it is usually better and cheaper for everyone when they can.

• Help at home: strengthen Meals on Wheels, home-help and friendly-visiting services run through community agencies the City funds.
• Seniors’ and supportive housing: build affordable homes for seniors on public land, including smaller units near transit, so downsizing does not mean leaving the neighbourhood.
• Community partners: work with faith groups, co-ops and non-profits that already care for seniors in their communities.

Home health care and nursing are provincial responsibilities. I will press Queen’s Park to fund them properly.

Care with dignity in the City’s own homes

The City of Toronto directly runs 10 long-term care homes. Those are the homes a mayor answers for, and I will run them to the highest standard: enough staff on every shift, care in the resident’s own language and culture, food worth eating, and families welcome as partners.

What we learned during COVID must never be forgotten. Every City home will have a clear emergency plan, and every family will know whom to call.

Getting around safely

A senior who cannot get out of the house is a senior at risk of falling, of isolation and of declining health.

• Finish making every TTC station accessible, and keep the elevators and escalators working.
• Fix Wheel-Trans so trips are reliable and on time.
• Sidewalks and snow: make sure sidewalks and bus stops are actually cleared promptly in winter, fix broken pavement and add curb cuts and benches.
• Safer crossings: longer walk signals and slower traffic near seniors’ homes, centres and clinics.

Connection, safety and respect

Loneliness is a health risk, not a private sadness. The City’s libraries, community centres and seniors’ programs should be open, free and full.

• Fight isolation: more seniors’ programs at libraries and recreation centres, including expanding home library service and phone check-ins for those living alone.
• Protect seniors from fraud and elder abuse: through the mayor’s seat on the Police Service Board, make scams against seniors and elder abuse a priority, and train City staff to recognize and report the signs.
• Services in their language: seniors from every community should be able to reach the City in the language they are most comfortable in.
• A voice at City Hall: seniors will be consulted before decisions that affect them, not after. The City’s Seniors Strategy has slipped to 2027. Seniors cannot wait that long.

My commitments

Our elders deserve better

Toronto will no longer throw its people away, and that starts with the people who built it. Every senior in this city deserves a home they can afford, care they can count on, streets they can walk and a community that knows their name. That is my promise.

Dr. Bahira Abdulsalam, PhD, P.Eng.
Candidate for Mayor of Toronto
Co-founder and national spokesperson, 1 Million March 4 Children
Founder, Be The Change Movement
bahira.ca

Sources

• City of Toronto, 2021 Census backgrounder: age
• City of Toronto, property tax and utility relief programs
• City of Toronto, long-term care home locations
• CTV News, Ontario long-term care wait list
• Ontario Long Term Care Association, long-term care data (2026)
• City of Toronto, Toronto Seniors Strategy: new reporting timeline

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