Toronto’s deputy mayor says there will be consequences as a result of a lack of funding from both the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa and the Ford Progressive Conservatives at Queen’s Park.

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland did not announce any new funding for Toronto in Tuesday’s budget while this city faces a nearly $1-billion COVID-related shortfall.

And last week, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the Tories would wait to see what the Liberals announce before deciding on funding for Toronto.

On Wednesday morning, Jennifer McKelvie said both the feds and the province have an opportunity to grow revenue, while Toronto is stuck.

“While their revenue tolls grow with the economy and income tax revenue grows with the economy, the tools we have to raise revenue in the City of Toronto, namely property tax, does not grow with the economy to the same extent,” McKelvie explained, “We have a structural issue in the way we fund cities. We need to have that conversation, we need to solve that problem, and the conversation needs to start about it today or there are going to be very very big impacts for 2024.”

McKelvie also said she’s hopeful the city can still collaborate with Toronto MPs to get the funding Toronto needs as the country’s largest economic engine.

“We need to work together so that we can solve these really crucial problems around homelessness and around operating of the TTC. Toronto needs to be successful so our country is successful,” McKelvie went on to say.

The deputy mayor’s comments came ahead of a three day city council meeting, when the mayor’s seat will be officially declared vacant and a bylaw passed for the June 26th byelection to take place.