After labour negotiations wrapped up in April, it seemed the last item on Mayor Rob Ford’s to-do-list had been crossed off. Since then, many — including his own allies — have wondered how the mayor planned to fill the rest of his term.

On Tuesday afternoon, he finally gave them an answer.

In his first major address of the year, and one of the most policy-heavy speeches since his mayoral campaign, Ford said he’s going to spend the next 2 ½ years focusing on the local economy.

Ford laid out a five-point plan for economic growth, including a commitment to lower commercial property tax rates to be more in line with the surrounding regions.

“Toronto should be the city where people and businesses from around the world most want to live, invest and thrive. And that’s what I want for Toronto. To get there we need a plan,” Ford told a crowd of 300 political and business leaders at the Economic Club of Canada.

Ford said his team is already working on that new economic development strategy.

As is often mentioned in speeches about Toronto’s economy, Ford noted that there are more construction cranes here than anywhere else in North America. But he cautioned that of the 189 currently dotting Toronto skies, almost all are building residential units.

“I want more and more of those cranes to be building commercial space, because commercial space means permanent jobs for city residents. It also means assessment growth that will help us pay our bills and not increase taxes year after year.”

Ford said Toronto’s unemployment rate is consistently 2 points above the national average, and that’s a gap he aims to fill within the next five years.

The remaining points in Ford’s five-point plan include streamlining the development process, improving the way Toronto markets itself to business leaders, attracting the right people, and fixing the city’s transit woes.

In his 25-minute speech, Ford seemed to channel his candidate self. He spoke clearly and made eye contact with the crowd. Afterward, he took about five minutes of questions from reporters.

Toronto Board of Trade CEO Carol Wilding said she was impressed.

“Extremely encouraged to hear the mayor throw down the gauntlet in terms of making economic development his go-forward focus,” she said. “I think everybody knows the lack of competitiveness … If you’re a Toronto business, we hear time and again, it’s up to 80 percent more that you’re paying to be within the boundaries of (Toronto.)”

According to 2009 data from the agency, Toronto’s commercial tax rates are second highest only to Oshawa, among the 12 GTA municipalities.

Councillor Adam Vaughan, a Ford critic, said the mayor’s speech amounted to “a plan to have a plan” and that if he truly wants to streamline the development process he should hire more city planners and quit “gutting” the department.

“His budget cuts have gutted the very department he wants to start fast-tracking stuff. You can’t do plans and you can’t approve projects without staff, and right now they’re about 60 planners short, mostly in the downtown core,” he said.

Ford said Toronto homeowners will probably see a 1.75 per cent property tax hike in 2013.

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But Vaughan noted that if the mayor is serious about reducing commercial rates in the future, he won’t be able to do it without raising residential fees, which are among the lowest in the region.

Ford’s entire speech is posted online.