Friday on the mayoral campaign trail: Chow pledges to improve 911 wait times

Olivia Chow promised Friday that if elected mayor, she'llcreate a new team thatwill improve the city's 911 call wait times.

Emergency call wait times have been a growing issue in recent years, with Toronto policeworking to make improvements after the city's auditor general found staffing shortages and high call volumes are at the heart of the issue.

One family, who spoke to CBC Toronto last month, found wait times can be up to fiveminutes before someone answers the call. Chow says she experienced something similar when her elderly father had pneumonia and stopped breathing.

"The wait seems like it was eternal. It was so long, it probably was just a couple of minutes," she said. "I was just panicking. When we need help, we need to be able to rely on public service."

Chow said her "Emergency Response Transformation Team" will explore ways to reduce wait times. This could include things like streamlining the Toronto Community Crisis Service and working to divert non-emergency calls from 911, she said.

That announcement came on a Friday fullofcampaignpromises from othermayoral candidates.

Hunter says housing plan includes libraries, playgrounds

Candidate Mitzie Hunter shared her five-point housing plan on May 8. On Friday, she said that plan would include affordable housing developments with 34 new childcare centres and 34 Toronto Public Library satellite branches.

"We need to build communities that fit in all our neighbourhoods. That's why I am proposing small to medium-sized buildings in family-friendly communities," Hunter said in a news release.

The developments will also include 68 new parkettes and playgrounds across the city, according to the release.

Bailowants to make the islands more accessible for families

Ana Bailosaid in a news release Friday that long lines for payment and a lack of easily accessible transportationmakes it difficult for Torontoniansto get tothe Toronto Islands.

"I want children and families from every corner of our city to be able to easily access our waterfront and enjoy the Toronto Islands," she said in the release.

Bailosaid she would make the ferry free for people under 12 if they're travelling with an adult, including school groups. She would also bring Bike Share to the islands and push Metrolinx to bring Presto pass to the islands if elected, she said.

Earlier in the week, Bailosaid she would expand bike share locations throughout the city, especially in the suburbs.

Bradford promises to cut red tape

Brad Bradford said Friday he would "ensure relief" from the rules that make it difficult for developers to convert office floors into housing.

"This will help add desperately needed housing supply, re-imagine underutilized office space, and add more vibrancy to our communities," he said during an announcement.

Bradford said at the moment, someone converting office space into housing needs to do a one-to-one replacement of the lost square feet of office space. Under his plan, he said, if 20 per cent of a conversion is affordable housing, the developer wouldn't need to replace the office space they've removed from the city.