º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍø

°Â¾±³Ù³óÌýChow warning the city may have to cut millions from the budget for co-hosting the world’s biggest sporting event if Ontario doesn’t provide more cash support, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said Wednesday the province will deliver “no more than the $97 million” it already pledged in a December 2023 letter.

“We are helping them. We said upfront we would be there for $97 million—we were very clear when we said that,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“We did say at the same time: that’s it. And they accepted that at the time,” the minister continued. “We were clear up front and I’m clear today.”

But while Bethlenfalvy was firm on the size of the province’s contribution, the concerns Chow expressed this week were not about the dollar figure, but about how Queen’s Park is allocating its funding. 

Unlike the federal government’s contribution, Ontario’s $97 million includes the cost of provincial services it says will be required for the event, such as additional transportation, health care and policing. 

released Tuesday said Ontario has pegged those costs at $39 million, far more than º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøhad expected. If the province deducts the cost of those services from its $97 million, that will leave the city on the hook for a greater share of event spending than the municipality had budgeted for, and increase the city’s funding gap, according to the report. 

Chow, who inherited the World Cup plans from her predecessor and has vowed to keep them within budget, said Tuesday the city can’t pick up additional costs beyond the $178 million it has already committed. She warned º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøwould have to cut $40 million from the tournament if the province doesn’t rethink its funding formula. 

“The city cannot afford to pay more than what it can pay now,” Chow told reporters at city hall Wednesday morning, pointing out that instead of splitting tournament costs evenly three ways, the city has committed more than the two senior levels of government. 

“I am not going to increase the budget any more than (the) $178 million that we put aside. We can’t go and find any more cash. We just don’t have it.”

Chow questioned whether some of the services the province is counting toward its contribution, such as spending for the “beautification” of transit stations, were necessary for the World Cup. She also suggested that spending Queen’s Park has earmarked for line items such as paramedics and policing was a duplication of services the city already provides.

The mayor said she had just received the report, and didn’t know where $40 million in cuts could be found. 

But some at city hall argued the mayor shouldn’t have been surprised by the province’s approach. 

In its initial letter confirming funding support, Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport made clear provincial investments would be inclusive of the value of “any provincial services” required to meet the city’s hosting obligations.

“The city and the mayor probably should have done some more work to cross the T’s and dot the I’s to make sure we fully understood what we were agreeing to,” said Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19, Beaches—East York).

However, Coun. Dianne Saxe (Ward 11, University-Rosedale) blamed the administration of former mayor John Tory, who was in charge when the city signed up for the joint World Cup bid in 2018. 

“He made the deal and large elements of it were secret, and it was never done in a way that gave us any kind of choice,” Saxe said. “It was designed to leave the city on the hook with very few benefits.”

A third-party economic assessment determined the games in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøcould boost Ontario’s GDP by $700 million. But the direct financial benefits to the city will be relatively modest because unlike the provincial and federal governments, the city doesn’t have the ability to collect sales or income taxes on the economic activity from the event.

Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park) said if Torontonians are forced to foot the bill on a World Cup funding gap, it would likely come out of the property tax base.

“People need to understand that the province of Ontario controls what taxes (the city is) allowed to collect,” Perks said. “And this is going to show up on people’s property taxes. That’s the bottom line.”

The next edition of the World Cup is being staged in 16 cities across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The first game is scheduled for June 11, 2026. 

With files from Robert Benzie.