City committee approves nearly $15B budget as Tory expresses optimism feds will cover shortfall

Cp24.com
Feb. 14, 2022
Chris Fox

The city’s executive committee has signed off on the proposed operating budget for 2022, despite a $1.4 billion shortfall from COVID-19 related financial impacts that other levels of government still haven’t committed to covering.

The nearly $15 billion operating budget was approved unanimously during a meeting on Friday but will still have to go to city council as a whole for final approval next week.

It is balanced on the basis of $1.4 billion in assumed funding from other levels of government to cover financial impacts from the pandemic, which is a budgetary trick the city also used in 2021.

During a press conference on Friday morning, Mayor John Tory said that it hasn’t “crossed his mind” that the federal government wouldn’t ultimately step in to fill the gap, given a commitment it has previously made to help municipalities get through the pandemic.

But he conceded that there is increasing “urgency” to the talks that have been ongoing for months now.

City staff have previously warned that hundreds of millions of planned capital projects and state-of-good repair work will have to be cancelled in 2022 should the funding not materialize.

“We're proceeding forward to approve our budget and it does have a hole in it so we're at the day of decision when it comes to their willingness to help us,” Tory said. “I'm optimistic that they will but you have to keep talking about this until it actually gets done.”

The proposed budget approved by executive committee on Friday includes a 2.9 per cent cent residential tax increase, as well as a 1.5 per cent increase to the city building levy that was approved back in 2019.

The tax hike is the largest of Mayor John Tory’s tenure but is entirely driven by rising inflation.

Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, Tory called the budget “good and responsible” but acknowledged that it is still a “COVID-19 budget complete with all the financial realities” associated with that.

“Our finances will improve as we get people back to work and as soon as we get people back on transit,” he promised.

Toronto City Council will hold a special meeting to debate the budget on Feb. 17.