Community leaders slam councillors’ recommendation to freeze spending

Budget committee approves direction to hold spending, but council gets the final word.

Thestar.com
May 11, 2017
By Jennifer Pagliaro

The city’s budget committee approved a budget freeze for next year - a move community leaders from all sectors warned was a backwards approach at a time of crisis.

“I think it's insane,” Patricia O’Connell, the executive director of downtown drop-in shelter Sistering told the committee on Thursday regarding the direction to hold spending at 2017 levels.

The space near Bloor St. and Ossington Ave. has become a haven for women with nowhere else to go, especially those who struggle with addictions and mental health and who sleep anywhere they can find space at the shelter. Though it receives $1.8 million in city funding annually, those funds have not increased as expenses continue to rise and an affordable housing crisis worsens, O’Connell said.

“It is unconscionable that this is happening in the city,” she said. “There is no shelter. You have to do something about that.”

The committee rejected motions by Councillors Shelley Carroll and Mike Layton that would have exempted the shelter, support and housing division from the requested budget freeze.

The final decision is up to council, which meets starting May 24. The budget process doesn’t officially launch until November and is not finalized until next year.

A report from city manager Peter Wallace and chief financial officer Rob Rossini clearly outlined council had to make a choice with expenses vastly exceeding the revenues the city collects every year. It assumed a 2 per cent property tax increase in 2018, in line with Mayor John Tory’s campaign promise to keep taxes at or below the rate of inflation.

Tory told reporters that he believes taxpayers expect council to make sure “we are spending the money wisely” before “spending a nickel more” and that the direction doesn’t mean all budgets will actually end up frozen.

His appointed budget chief, Councillor Gary Crawford said: “This will be a year of holding the line.”

Several of the dozens of community leaders that signed a letter to Tory and council strongly rebutting the budget freeze, brought their message to city hall on Thursday.

Peer support worker at St. Stephen’s Community House Lebohang Nicol, who has experienced homelessness, says things are worse now for those he helps.

“I’ve had four of my clients pass away in the last year,” he said. “If things are at such a breaking point . . . Wouldn’t it be smart for you guys to invest more instead of just keep on just letting it slag?”

Derek George, from the St. Stephen’s community said he is already feeling the effects of budget cuts.

“I just believe with every fiber of my being that governments, especially in large cities, have to focus on the needs of the less fortunate,” he said.

Rev. Maggie Helwig, who was representing the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, told the committee she sees the health of the city is suffering.

“People are literally dying on the streets and I know this because I'm at their funerals,” she said. "Please. Have vision, have hope, have compassion. We can do better than this.”