Council passes 2021 budget with a $649-million hole in it and waits to see if other governments will fill it

Thestar.com
Feb. 19, 2021
Jennifer Pagliaro

Toronto city council is banking on the other levels of government bailing it out on its 2021 budget.

They’re going to need a big bucket.

For the first time in the city’s history, council on Thursday evening approved a nearly $14-billion operating budget with a $649-million hole in it.

Now they wait to see if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford are prepared to fill it.

The drop in revenues from key sources, such as TTC fares and increased spending in categories, such as creating new emergency shelters, left staff with few options to create a balanced budget.

In the end, despite provincial laws they must do so, council didn’t actually approve one.

The federal and provincial governments were called on for those missing funds, but no commitments have been made.

Meanwhile, council approved the lowest base property tax for homeowners in the last eight years; the entirety of Mayor John Tory’s administration, including the mayor and his budget chief, said it was the responsible thing to do.

“I think the budget is a reasonable budget in all the circumstances,” Tory said ahead of the vote.

“It protects services, it brings about modest tax increases and I make no apologies for that.”

Others, such as Coun. James Pasternak (Ward 6 York Centre) raised the concern of seniors being taxed out of their homes. (This concern has been for raised in nearly every budget debate in the past decade.) City manager Chris Murray noted that the city has a program for eligible seniors to defer taxes indefinitely until their home is sold, allowing them to avoid increases.

While staff largely maintained current service levels in the 2021 budget, some on council says that doesn’t do enough in the midst of a health crisis, a climate crisis, an opioid overdose crisis, and a homelessness crisis, among other challenges.

Recent incidents highlight this: a 14-year-old girl was critically injured in a North York shooting; and a man experiencing homelessness died earlier this week in a fire at a Corktown park encampment.

“While this needs to be a unique budget, that is precisely why we need to go beyond simply protecting services, and, in fact, take bold steps to address the various crises we’re facing,” said Coun. Mike Layton (Ward 11 University-Rosedale). He made the remark as he moved to look at ways to de-task the Toronto Police while increasing spending on winter washroom facilities and the city’s climate action plan.

Layton’s motion to redirect $2.7 million contingency funds to the city’s climate action plan and winterized washrooms lost in a 7-18 vote with Tory voting against.

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong was especially adamant that the city not spend money on winterizing washrooms.

“It’s a nice-to-have; it’s not a need-to-have,” said Minnan-Wong, who, earlier in the debate, said his residents would be against encouraging “campgrounds for the homeless” in public parks.

Although council did not put a dent in the flatlined Toronto Police budget as advocates had demanded, they did overwhelmingly vote to move forward with looking at further non-police emergency responses to non-violent calls such as youth crimes, gender-based violence and other matters. A review continues and a report requested by Coun. Josh Matlow (Ward 12 Toronto-St. Paul’s), including of how police resources are used for those calls, is expected later this year.

Tory moved a motion to push the provincial government further to pay for additional supportive housing units that will stall in March without more support, but did so begrudgingly on behalf of Layton, saying he doesn’t “politicize” these issues “until it’s absolutely necessary.”

The city’s financial issues pre-date the pandemic.

Even before city officials started tallying the cost of the pandemic, successive city managers warned council that the budget is approaching a financial cliff; one city manager even presented an iceberg graphic to explain the problem.

A lack of new revenues and a growing city has left Toronto with a massive backlog in projects designed to ensure things are in a state of good repair, while the city struggles to house people permanently, tackle gun violence and address other issues.