$6 million budget savings offer by Toronto mayor an ‘insult’ says councillor

Thestar.com
Feb. 2, 2023

City council will have an extra $6 million to allocate to community programs, parks or whatever they choose, Mayor John Tory announced Wednesday, a minuscule amount that one critic called an “insult.”

The amount from cost savings found by city staff is part of the final version of Tory’s 2023 $16.1-billion budget proposal.

The pillars of the budget remain the same: a seven per cent property tax hike, a $48.3-million increase to the police budget for 200 more officers, and an unpopular 10-cent fare hike for TTC rides along with more funding to hire special constables and outreach workers.

The budget announcement comes as the city faces an increase in apparent random violence on transit and on city streets, as well as a housing crisis that has only worsened with skyrocketing rents and a mental health crisis.

The mayor’s decision to allow council to decide what to do with the $6 million sets up what will be one of the few consequential debates about the budget, over which Tory has otherwise tight control under the new powers granted by the province.

The mayor said staff had found the additional funding through measures like reduced spending on consultants. Based on feedback from the public and the budget committee, he said he’d be open to it being invested in housing, transit, climate initiatives, affordability measures, or community grants.

“I look forward to a thoughtful -- what I hope will be a thoughtful -- city council debate to determine specifically which initiatives these funds should support,” he said.

But one of Tory’s critics on council rejected the mayor’s invitation as a meaningless gesture. Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale--High Park) said the $6 million amounts to less than one-tenth of one per cent of the budget, and is “an insult” to everyone who advocated for substantial changes during public consultations.

“It’s entirely pretence. He’s pretending that somebody other than him gets any input on the budget, and it’s just not true,” said Perks.

The city still needs $1.56 billion from the federal and provincial governments to balance this year and last year’s COVID-19 “hangover” without dipping into emergency reserves, Tory said. That money has yet to materialize and the mayor said it’s a “mystery” why the federal and provincial governments had not yet made firm commitments on costs he said they'd previously agreed to shoulder."

Tory pledged that after the budget is passed he will focus on negotiating a new fiscal framework for the city. He said he had yet to determine whether to press the provincial and federal governments for specific changes like a cut of the sales tax, or uploading services or infrastructure. But he said it’s clear the current system, which forces him to beg Ottawa and Queen’s Park for money every year, is unsustainable.

“We’ve got to get beyond this notion that I’ve got to keep phoning and emailing and speaking, and writing and, you know, I don’t know what else I can do, to say, can we just have reliable streams of funding,” Tory said.

According to the province’s new strong mayor legislation, Tory had to produce a final version of his proposed budget by Feb. 1. The budget now goes to a full city council meeting on Feb. 14, where changes can be made. However, Tory now wields the ability to reject any amendments with the support of just one-third of councillors -- eight of 25 members -- and he can only be overruled with a two-thirds majority.