Toronto councillor Joe Cressy leaving city hall for job at George Brown College

City council expected to appoint an interim councillor to serve until the Oct. 24 civic election

Thestar.com
April 6, 2022
David Rider

City councillor Joe Cressy, who helped lead Toronto’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is leaving city hall early to become a senior executive at George Brown College.

Cressy, 37, who revealed last fall he would not seek re-election after two terms representing the Spadina--Fort York area, is the college’s new senior vice-president of external relations, communications and real estate development.

“Serving as a city councillor and chair of the board of health has been an absolute privilege,” Cressy told reporters at a city hall announcement Tuesday. “It’s time for a new chapter, it’s time for a grand adventure.”

This week’s city council meeting will be Cressy’s last before he starts the new job at the college, which has a campus on the downtown waterfront in his ward.

Cressy’s resignation from council is effective April 30. His colleagues will then declare the seat vacant and have 60 days to appoint a temporary councillor to serve until voters choose a new representative in the Oct. 24 civic election.

He was considered by political observers to be a potential mayoral candidate given his high-profile role in helping lead Toronto’s pandemic response with Mayor John Tory and public health chief Dr. Eileen de Villa.

He also successfully pushed for supervised injection sites, challenged some of the city’s biggest developers and joined Tory to force Premier Doug Ford to reverse planned deep cuts to public health funding.

The son of two former Toronto councillors and the married father of a young son, Cressy revealed to the Star last October that he decided to leave political life due to “the workload and the personal toll.”

Anxiety and panic attacks have sent him to hospital emergency rooms, he said.

On Tuesday, he choked up speaking about missing milestones in his son’s life due to city responsibilities, and his close friendship with fellow city councillor Mike Layton.

Tory told reporters he has relied heavily on Cressy’s help to make “extraordinary and stressful and difficult” decisions guiding Toronto through the pandemic.

“I suspect we haven’t seen the last of him,” in elected politics, the mayor added.

Gervan Fearon, who became George Brown’s president last August, told the Star that Cressy will help the college engage with communities around its campuses, partner with governments and corporations, and foster student talent.

“It’s community development plus community engagement -- the idea that as a college we can be part of the vitality of communities and that we can actually generate around campuses the idea of a learning community,” Fearon said.

Nominations for the civic election open May 2. Former Toronto District School Board trustee Ausma Malik has announced she plans to run in what is expected to be a crowded field in the open race for Spadina--Fort York.