TORONTO -- In a year-end interview with CTV News Toronto, Mayor John Tory says the biggest issue facing the city is the disparity between those who are financially comfortable, and those who are struggling.

Mayor John Tory ended 2019 by asking Toronto residents to shell out more money in 2020, and beyond.

“We had to do something in the spirit of both honesty, and in moving forward to get things done,” Tory said. “We have to answer the question [of] how are we going to pay for the transit and the housing, because they’re not free.”

Here are the issues Tory said he plans on addressing in year 2020.

Taxes and transit

Tory said he’s especially proud of reaching major deals on transit and housing this year.

Earlier this year, Tory announced that the city building fund, an annual property tax levy that’s currently at 0.5 per cent, will go up to 1.5 per cent next year and the year after.

Over the course of its now-extending lifetime, the levy could raise more than $6 billion for the city, helping major projects the city has committed itself to.

“We did reach a historic new transit deal with the province where the Province of Ontario is putting up $28.5 million and we agreed, as part of that, to do our share,” Tory said.

“Secondly, we announced a housing action plan and we said we are going to build 40 thousand units of rental units, including 18 thousand units of supportive housing for people with mental illness, and other kinds of issues.”

Tory admits that’s the levy wasn’t his first choice, but after road tolls were turned down by the previous provincial government and the gas tax revenue was scrapped by the current provincial government, he said he wasn’t left with much choice.

“I have a frustration with the fact that the other governments that have the access to income taxes, sales taxes, corporate taxes that grow with the economy [and] we have only property taxes,” Tory said.

“It isn't fair that we should be expected to pay for these social programs or big mega projects like transit on our own.”

Tory says it’s important to act now that he’s in the second year of his second term as mayor.

“We cannot have a city, socially or economically, that either says you have to be rich or very low income and be able to live in social housing to be able to live in Toronto,” he said. “We've got to have room for everybody.”

This year, Toronto successfully fought to keep control of its subway system, and learned that the province would be paying for a new relief subway line, which is dubbed the Ontario Line.

“The moment, for me, [when] I said I could get behind this was when our professional public servants said that this was a viable concept,” Tory said.

He said hearing that the province was going to pay for it and has a very ambitious timetable was “music” to his ears.

Gun crime and homelessness

The mayor said Toronto has seen an increase in gun violence in 2019, but added he’s optimistic that programs from both law enforcement and government will help the issue.

He also said he will continue to push for changes to bail conditions. He said bail laws have allowed people to get back onto the streets “not once, not twice, but three times on bail” for firearm-related offences.

“When they're charged, they get out on bail, and then they get charged again and get out on bail a third time. How is that possible? How is that defendable by anybody?”

Tory declined to call homelessness in Toronto a crisis, despite calls from others to do so, but he does agree it’s a “serious problem.”

He wants the province to do more to address issues of addiction and mental health, and he said that the city’s latest housing plan is a major step towards tackling the issue.

City relations with the province

Tory also addressed his improved relationship with the Ontario Premier Doug ford, a relationship that hasn’t always appeared cordial due to public disagreements over transit and the size of city council.

“There is much more of a collaborative arrangement. We, the premier and I, text back and forth and we've met a couple of times to discuss things in a very candid way just the two of us,” he said.

“I would say it's a work in progress [and] that the relationship is dramatically different and that I hope that lasts.”

While they may be getting along, the mayor says he’d also like more autonomy from the province.

“The province has way too much control over the City of Toronto. We are a city government that is bigger than most of the provinces of Canada,” he said. “Our economy is as important as some of the biggest provinces like Alberta and Quebec.”

Last month, the Ontario government allowed the city to enforce speed limits in school and community safety zones through the use of photo radar.

FOR MORE: City looks to install 50 photo radar cameras by December

Tory said this was something that he spent four years trying to initiate.

“Why should I have had to go and spend four years, that's how long it took from the first day I raised it,” he said.

“Why shouldn't the City of Toronto, if our own elected council decided that photo radar was right for our streets and our crosswalks … why shouldn't we have been able to do that in our own boundaries.”

Safer streets

Photo radar is just one tool that Torontonians could see rolled out in 2020, as the city tries to tackle an increasing number of incidents where pedestrians are struck by vehicles.

But despite the new resources, Tory said that even with added technologies, getting drivers to change the way they drive is the biggest issue.

“People have to stop doing what they're doing,” he said. “When we tested the photo radar … we found that in the three places in Toronto, where we tested it, the majority of drivers … over 50 per cent of drivers were speeding.”

His own future

The mayor said he has no plans to slow down as he nears the halfway point of his second term.

“I bring the same energy, and the same determination to this job. I think people see that I'm up at my desk at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, and I finish work late at night, and I work on the weekends,” he said.

“I do it with joy and with very strong commitment to the city.”

H said he hasn’t yet made up his mind about running in the next election.

He said his 2020 resolutions include spending more time with family, and losing a little bit of weight.