A big increase in gas prices is coming to Toronto and much of southern Ontario.

After dropping by a total of three cents over the past two days, the price of a regular litre of gas is expected to increase by seven cents on Friday in many places, according to fuel price tracking website affordableenergy.ca.

That will bring the cost of a regular litre to $1.859 in many locations, including the Greater Toronto Area, Barrie, Hamilton, and Niagara Region.

In Kingston and Belleville, it’s expected to stand at $1.809 following a seven-cent jump.

The cost of premium is also expected to increase in many places.

It will stand at $2.179 per litre in the GTA and Barrie on Friday, and $2.109 in Kingston and Belleville following a seven-cent increase.

Hamilton and Niagara will see it priced at $2.129 following an expected five-cent spike.

The price of diesel, meanwhile, has been on the rise over the past few days and another jump is expected on Friday.

Affordableenergy.ca says in the Greater Toronto Area, diesel went up by five cents on Wednesday, six cents on Thursday, and is expected to go up by another three cents on Friday, bringing it to $2.589 per litre.

Overall, that’s a 14-cent jump over three days in the GTA.

The national average for a regular litre of gas will stand at $1.889 come Friday, marking a 5.9-cent increase from Thursday.

Of the cities it reports on, affordableenergy.ca says the most expensive regular gas could be found in St. John’s on Friday, where it will stand at $2.213 per litre following a seven-cent increase overnight.

The cheapest gas will be in Edmonton at $1.629 per litre (that’s after an expected nine-cent increase overnight).

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has announced plans to increase the number of Toronto Public Library museum attraction passes available to families across the city if re-elected.

In a campaign statement Saturday morning, Chow said an additional 1,000 family passes will be made available each month to Toronto residents.

The Toronto Public Library pass was first introduced in 2007 and allows residents to visit cultural centres and museums across the city, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto Zoo and Royal Ontario Museum.

“Taking the family out to a museum can cost you over $100 in admission tickets. It’s just so expensive. I will make it much easier for families to take advantage of what Toronto has to offer, for free,” Chow said in the statement.

The announcement comes as the Toronto mayoral election campaign continues.

Brad Bradford responds

While speaking to reporters in North York, mayoral candidate Brad Bradford said that he supports the program and its expansion, but that Chow’s annoucenment was only commitment to make a request.

“Let’s be clear, what Olivia announced today was a request to the Rom and to Library Foundation to add more free passes, and of course, I am happy to make a request and and would be a champion for more additional passes from the ROM and Library Foundation,” Bradford said.

“But that is a commitment to make a request, and honestly, when I saw the announcement this morning, what that showed me was Olivia Chow has no ideas for Toronto.”

Candidate Chris Alexander also spoke to Scarborough residents and reporters detailing his plan on building more affordable housing units in the city.

The Toronto mayoral election is set for Oct. 27.

The Ontario government increased its minimum wage rate by 35 cents on Thursday, raising it from $17.60 to $17.95 an hour.

“Ontario’s workforce is our greatest advantage, and their hard work, skill and dedication keep our province moving forward every day,” said Trevor Jones, Minister of Labour, in a media release.

“As families and workers face higher costs and businesses navigate changing trade environments, today’s minimum wage increase will help workers keep pace with global economic uncertainty while maintaining a predictable approach that businesses can plan for.”

Under the Employment Standards Act, Ontario’s minimum wage rate is adjusted annually on Oct. 1. The government says this increase will benefit more than 700,000 workers across the province.

This annual increase is tied to the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 1.9% and marks the second-highest rate among provinces. The government says a worker earning the minimum wage and working 40 hours per week will see an annual pay increase of about $728.

Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond.

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CPI represents changes in prices as experienced by consumers. It measures price change by comparing, through time, the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services. Goods and services in that ‘basket’ include food, shelter, transportation and household expenses.

But some advocates for a higher minimum wage say the increase is not enough to maintain the basics.

“Workers across the province will take home a little more pay, but not enough to provide their families with a better standard of living,” said a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “The new rate is well below a living wage and, in most cities, further below than it was last year.”

According to the CCPA study, the current living wage rate in Toronto is $27.20, $9.25 higher than the new minimum wage.

“We need to look at the bigger picture: the gap between the minimum wage and what workers actually need to live and support themselves and their families, and that gap still is significant and not keeping up with the rates Ontarians need to have a living wage,” said a spokesperson at Living Wage Ontario.

According to the CCPA, a living wage “lifts workers and their families out of poverty by supplying employers with an hourly wage that they must pay in a specific geographic area so that a family can make modest ends meet. Next to the minimum wage, which remains inadequate, the living wage is a powerful tool to fight working poverty.”

The minimum wage is also rising in five other provinces, with P.E.I. boosting its minimum to $17.30, Nova Scotia moving its floor to $17, the Manitoba minimum going up to $16.40, and the Saskatchewan minimum now at $15.70. Nunavut lifted its minimum wage on Sept. 1 and leads the country at $20.17 an hour.

Alberta maintains the country’s lowest minimum wage at $15 an hour. Alberta hasn’t increased its minimum wage since 2019.

The Toronto Region Board of Trade is urging the province to amend zoning and building code rules as it says Ontario is on pace to fall well short of its goal of getting at least 1.5 million new homes built by 2031.

In a report published Thursday, the board said the target is unachievable by the current deadline, which was set by the provincial government in 2022, even if housing production increases over the next five years. Based on budget forecasts, Ontario is projected to fall more than 550,000 homes short of the pace needed by 2029, according to the analysis.

"We already had a massive gap. It was called the housing crisis for a reason," said board president and CEO Giles Gherson in an interview.

"There's been a lot of effort and a lot of work gone into, 'How do we close this housing gap? How do we build houses faster?' But the disappointing part of it is that the gap remains very, very large."

The board said that even if ambitious reforms were adopted immediately, municipalities would need to update plans, amend zoning bylaws, align infrastructure investments, service land, and process applications. Those steps could take years, making the 2031 goal unrealistic.

Gherson said the key to unlocking new development at a quicker pace is through regulatory changes.

WATCH | Ontario has been off-track to meet its goal for years:

Updated numbers show the Ontario government once again failed to meet its goal for housing starts, even with new ways of counting them. CBC's Lorenda Reddekopp has the details — and reaction.

He described rules around zoning and building codes as "very fragmented" across the province, and "out of date." In Toronto alone, builders face dozens of different requirements across the city, which makes it difficult to standardize production.

"It really adds a huge amount of cost and delay to housing development and that impacts the ability for the city to attract and retain our workforce that we need," he said.

"But also, we know it is impacting the social fabric as the next generation sees home ownership as really a pipe dream, and that's a really big problem."

Report suggests developing province-wide zoning code

The report said Ontario should develop a provincial zoning code that provides every municipality the same framework and terminology.

That code could set a baseline of what housing types can move forward without special approval, starting with townhouses and multiplexes. The standard could also establish provincewide limits on the rules that most often block housing, such as parking, setbacks, lot coverage, height, density, and how far upper storeys must step back.

Meanwhile, it recommended key changes around building codes, saying there should be an assessment of every requirement for the cost it imposes to build, run and maintain over the life of the building. The report also proposed allowing single-stair buildings up to six storeys, along with smaller elevators in smaller buildings, as long as safety and accessibility are still prioritized.

Gherson said other cities in Canada are proof that a less patchy model can lead to meaningful housing growth. He pointed to Edmonton, where he said it's more common see multiplexes in different types of neighbourhoods.

"Where we'll have single-family dwellings on major roads, they'll have a lot of these multiplexes and the reason is they have more flexible permissive zoning and they don't have as many zoning codes," he said. "There's a city that's been a fast-growth city for the last five decades ... so we need to look to other places that have been successful."

The call for action comes as affordability challenges persist for Toronto's housing market, even as prices have been on the decline over the past year.

Last month, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said the average selling price in the Greater Toronto Area stood at $993,410 for August, down 2.7 per cent year-over-year, while the composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 4.5 per cent.

But the trade board's report said housing remains out of reach for many residents, especially compared with past decades. It said that between 2006 and 2025, Toronto-area home prices, as measured by the composite price, increased by around 187 per cent. That significantly outpaced the cumulative increase for inflation over that time, which was around 51 per cent.

"Durable affordability depends on increasing the supply of homes," the report said.

"Without continued housing construction, recent affordability gains are likely to prove temporary."

What to know

Ontario’s new minimum and student wages are increasing today. But the $1.05 gap between student and adult minimum wages remains, sparking debate: in 2026, should students still be paid less for the same work?

On Oct. 1, Ontario’s minimum wage increased 35 cents from $17.60 to $17.95. The student minimum wage went up 30 cents, from $16.60 to $16.90.

The Workers Action Centre says the increase is not enough in an Instagram post.

“We know this is not enough. The yearly minimum wage cost-of-living adjustments we won in 2014 lag behind what workers need,” the caption reads in part.

So Now Toronto asked residents for their thoughts on the minimum-to-student wage pay gap, and whether they believe student wages should still exist.

‘I don’t really understand why that’s even a thing’: This local says student wage needs to go

Toronto resident Wuu H. says student wages shouldn’t exist.

“People are already financially struggling, especially living in Toronto… So to have a student wage that is lower than minimum wage… I don’t really understand why that’s even a thing,” she told Now Toronto.

Wuu adds that many people under 18 still have expenses like rent or their own phone bills, so that $1.05 gap matters.

“You have to understand that there are multiple spaces that people are in. So to lower the wage just because people may have less expenses is kind of oblivious and a little bit ignorant,” she said.

‘They should be paid equally: This Torontonian advocates removing student wage

Toronto resident Alfred T. says students and adults should be making the same minimum wage.

“They should be paid equally. Just because you’re a student doesn’t mean you’re any less than an adult,” Alfred told Now Toronto.

He added that whether someone lives with their parents, with a single parent, alone, or in any other situation, their status doesn’t matter — they’re doing the same work as everyone else in that job.

‘They’re going to be saving up for their education’: This local says it’s important students get paid minimum wage

Toronto resident Mike T. says students need to save up more than anything if they choose to pursue post-secondary education.

“They’re students, they’re going to be saving up for their education… They are making Canada better overall by getting a post-secondary education,” Mike said.

“If one person is doing a job that’s paid minimum wage and another person is doing the same job that’s paid student wage, that’s not fair,” he added.