Student nutrition program on block in Toronto’s public health budget

Public Health faces difficult choices in meeting council directive to find 2.6 per cent savings at Mayor John Tory’s urging.

Thestar.com
Sept. 20, 2016
By David Rider

More than 13,000 low-income Toronto students will lose nutritious snacks if Toronto public health agrees to a directive to cut its budget, city staff say.

Achieving the council-directed savings would also trigger a significant number of public health job cuts and a reduction in mosquito larviciding that could increase the risk of people getting West Nile virus, says a report to the public health board’s budget committee.

Board chair Councillor Joe Mihevc predicted members will accept several other suggestions for savings that won’t affect services or staff, but will not endorse sacrificing student nutrition to meet an arbitrary budget request.

“It’s not doable. It’s too much,” Mihevc said, adding departments including public health have scraped together savings every year since he joined council in 1991. “You can’t suck blood from a stone.”

However another board member, Councillor Jon Burnside, said the city can be more “creative,” possibly getting corporate sponsors to help fund student nutrition. Also, the health board vote won’t matter much, since council will have the final say when it sets Toronto’s 2017 budget in February, he added.

Other departments are struggling with the spending cuts demanded by Mayor John Tory, who has promised to find efficiencies and keep the 2017 property tax rate at or below the rate of inflation.

Toronto Community Housing has said a 2.6-per-cent cut, on top of huge pressures on the city social housing agency, will force the closure of some crumbling units. The TTC has said it could meet the target but faces an additional $172.6 million gap in its 2017 budget.

With public health, options for cuts are complicated by the amount of provincial funding it receives.

The Ontario government fully funds some programs, and for many others pays 75 per cent of the cost. Cutting city funding from those cost-shared programs would also slash provincial dollars, magnifying the cut’s impact.

That leaves two fully funded city programs - student nutrition programs and dental services for Toronto’s most vulnerable citizens - as targets that yield the most city savings with the least impact.

Staff’s proposed city-funded operating budget is $60 million, including contractually obligated staff cost increases. The council-requested cut plus other costs that have to be absorbed total $2.6 million.

Eliminating 13,279 students from the snack program at 44 schools - added to this year’s budget with great fanfare - would save $737,300. Reduced mosquito population control would save $13,000.

Other measures, including a previous adjustment in the expected cost of food and a hike in some charges related to food-handling certificates, would bring projected savings up to $1,083,600.

Staff suggest, in a confidential report, how to find the remaining $1,263,100. A source who has knowledge of the report but isn’t authorized to speak about it said it suggests the board would need to eliminate a “significant” number of public health staff positions.

Councillor Sarah Doucette said she will vote at public health to reject cutting staff or student nutrition spots added only months ago as part of a five-year expansion of poverty reduction efforts.

“Some of these children, that might be the best meal they get each day because of unemployment and the cost of living in this city,” she said. “We’ve got more people moving into the city, and you’re asking us to spend less - it doesn’t balance, it doesn’t work.”

Some of her High Park residents say they would happily pay more than the inflation rate, which has been less than 2 per cent, to maintain or improve city services, she said. Tory has warned of seniors being taxed out of their homes.

Burnside said he doesn’t know how he will vote but has no doubt the public health board will follow Mihevc’s lead. “I come at it from a more centrist position,” he said. “When you are trying to cut costs, there are sacrifices that have to be made.”

Amanda Galbraith, spokeswoman for Tory, said he won't support the rollback of child nutrition improvements that he championed.

But city agencies need to review expenses just as homeowners do, she added.

"This is the start of the council-directed budget process," Galbraith said in an email. "We have full confidence that, as the TTC was able to outline common sense changes such as eliminating land lines for those with company-issued cellphones, agencies and and departments can find more efficient and effective ways to deliver the services the people of Toronto need."