John Tory trumpets low spending ahead of 2018 city budget launch
The city’s proposed 2018 budget would boost spending by less than 1 per cent, the mayor said.

TheStar.com
Nov. 27, 2017
David Rider

Toronto’s proposed 2018 operating budget would boost city spending by less than 1 per cent, Mayor John Tory boasted to a business audience Monday.

His austerity-with-benefits speech to the Canadian Club came the same day that budget documents revealed Toronto is expected to carry into next year a surplus of $141.8 million thanks to the still-strong real estate market.

Tory touted his three years as mayor as a model of “balance” between civic investments and fiscal prudence, while previewing deliberations that kick off Thursday for the 2018 city budget — the last before Tory asks Torontonians to elect him for a second term next October.

“This year’s budget is based on the belief that we can invest wisely and compassionately, improving people’s lives while also operating within our means,” the mayor said. “We will keep taxes low while significantly investing in the areas that will have a real, positive impact on people’s lives.”

Promises include timed transfers, allowing people to take multiple TTC rides on one fare within a two-hour window; more officers despite a frozen police budget; investments in social housing repairs; and non-police traffic wardens at busy intersections to keep vehicles flowing.

“These are all investments that are possible but within the context of a budget that does not raise taxes beyond the rate of inflation,” Tory said. City staff peg Toronto’s current inflation rate at about 2.1 per cent.

City council will set the roughly $11-billion operating budget in February, after members of the public have a chance to tell councillors how much they are willing to pay in taxes and user fees, and which services and investments they want protected, cut or boosted.

Tory’s rosy budget view is not universal. City manager Peter Wallace, who has repeatedly warned councillors their city-building ambitions outstrip revenues, recently said prosperous Toronto has “areas of really big failure” in congestion and transit, housing, and child poverty. Wallace also called Toronto’s budget process a “relentless reinforcement of the status quo.”

On the political right Doug Ford, who says he will run for mayor in a rematch with Tory, is accusing the mayor of letting city spending “skyrocket” while nickel-and-diming taxpayers.

On the political left, critics including Councillor Gord Perks say Tory’s refusal to raise property taxes above inflation is unsustainable and hurts the city’s most vulnerable residents by forcing cuts including, in this year’s budget, a reduction in front-line shelter staff.

The budget surplus forecast released shortly before Tory spoke no doubt gave him some comfort. It says the projected $141.8-million windfall is largely due to Toronto’s hot housing market and resulting bigger-than-expected revenues from the Municipal Land Transfer Tax.

The figure will be on the table Thursday when city staff will present the “opening pressure” — the gap council has to close to balance the budget as required by provincial law. The city will likely be in a similar position to last year when, even with a surplus, the opening pressure was $731 million before any tax increases, user fee hikes or other measures were applied.