Funding for social housing, transit and city programs uncertain in Ford Nation

Thestar.com
June 8, 2018
Jennifer Pagliaro

As a Toronto councillor at city hall, Doug Ford often saw himself as a co-mayor to his brother Rob Ford. The pair insisted on cutting spending, lowering taxes and building subways.

Now that Ford will soon be in charge of the province and master of many municipal domains as premier, it’s not clear what’s in store for a city that is struggling to manage an influx of refugees, create enough affordable housing and build multiple transit lines that have been planned for years.

The city is reliant on the province in many respects, but especially for funding to manage social programs and build major projects.

With social housing, for example, the city has a 10-year capital repairs plan to prevent further closures of subsidized units while many buildings continue to crumble.

Ford’s plan to end cap-and-trade also means existing provincial funds for energy retrofits for social housing would dry up. And that money is separate from council’s request for the province to pay for one-third of the whopping repair bill, originally $2.6 billion.

Ford, who once handed out $20 bills to Toronto Community Housing tenants, has not specified any financial help for the corporation that is Canada’s largest landlord, responsible for some 110,000 residents.

Without relief, the city approved a Band-aid plan in the last budget to cover off repairs in 2018 and 2019. Come 2020, thousands of homes will again be at risk of being shuttered.

Housing advocate Councillor Ana Bailao said she still expects the energy retrofit money for badly-needed repairs.

“If (that money) is not there anymore, I certainly hope the commitment is still there and I look forward to understanding how it’s going to be provided to the city,” said Bailao.

The city is also in the middle of trying to house an unprecedented number of refugees arriving from the U.S. and elsewhere. With an already overburdened shelter system and motels contracted to the city to house families filled up, the city has turned to college dorms for the summer with funds from the province.

With the city racking up costs of $64.5 million last year and expecting them to top $70 million this year, Tory has called on the other levels of government to provide more substantial relief (The federal government recently announced $11 million for Ontario to house refugees).

Councillor Joe Mihevc, the city’s anti-poverty advocate, said a PC government “does not bode well for preserving a humane approach to refugees.” Ford has indicated he will take an “us first” approach to providing services for refugees, Mihevc said.

On the transit file, TTC chair Councillor Josh Colle worried Ford’s election puts the city’s priority projects at risk.

Amid controversy over its high cost, council is pushing ahead with the one-stop, $3.35 billion subway extension to the Scarborough Town Centre. Ford has promised to revert to an earlier three-stop plan, which could add at least $1 billion to the bill, and, Colle warned, delay the project.

“When you change plans you’re going back to the drawing board, and that means you’re starting over, and also means nothing is getting built,” he said. “We’ve got a long history of changing plans, and when you continually change plans then projects just don’t get completed.”

The PCs have also not committed to a Waterfront LRT, which has long been part of the expanded transit network plan.

Importantly, Tory’s key campaign promise of building new GO stations in Toronto hinges on fares being lowered to that of a TTC fare — which now outgoing Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne had promised but Ford hasn’t committed to.

But more than any one project, what Colle said was troubling him the day after the election was simply not knowing what the new government has in store for Toronto’s transit plans.

“What are we in for? That’s the greatest cause of concern . . . It’s just the overall uncertainty.”

Some on council were pleased with Ford’s resounding success Thursday, saying it buoys hopes of burying transit lines.

Etobicoke Centre Councillor Stephen Holyday earlier pushed council to further study burying the planned Eglinton West LRT line despite staff advice the increased costs were not justified. Ford said during the campaign that he’d like to see LRT lines put underground as much as possible.

“It’s my hope that the outcome of this election is a positive step for getting more of that LRT buried,” Holyday said, acknowledging the added expense. “We hope that other orders of government will help us with these big projects.”

Councillor Janet Davis, a longtime child care advocate, said she is skeptical of an unconfirmed statement that the PCs would honour the Liberal government’s commitment to build 100,000 new licensed spaces over the next five years.

She said the promise of a tax rebate worth up to $6,750 depending on family income “will not create the child care spaces that are needed, nor will it address affordability for families or salaries for early childhood educators.”

Other funding agreements remain in question.

The city recently opened four supervised injection services in existing community facilities and three emergency overdose prevention sites, with two more in the works, in the midst of an overdose crisis. They all receive funding to operate from the province through the Ministry of Health.

During the campaign, Ford said he is “dead against” such sites.

“My hope would be that the province maintains the ongoing funding for health care services in the face of the overdose crisis,” said Councillor Joe Cressy, who chairs the city’s drug strategy implementation panel and has championed harm reduction services. “What I would like to see is a scaling up in support. What I’m worried we face is a fight to protect what we have.”