Corp Comm Connects

 

Reduce TTC fares, feed 1.7m kids: alternatives for $75 million

The cost of cancelling the Scarborough LRT could have funded a whole lot of other city programs

Thestar.com
Feb. 10, 2015

Cancelling the Scarborough LRT is costing the city of Toronto $75 million, money already spent on planning.

What else could the city have spent that $75 million on?

  1. Reduce TTC fares by 20 cents. (Based on how much money a fare increase brings in: The 10-cent increase would add $35 million to the 2016 TTC coffers.)
  2.  Serve daily breakfasts to about 1.7 million schoolchildren. (In 2014, the Student Nutrition Program fed 155,484 students for $7.071 million.)
  3. Fund 29,216 child care subsidies. (Children's Services is projected to spend $64 million this year to provides 24,932 child-care fee subsidies.)
  4. Hire 1,423 paramedics. (The 2015 operating budget figures $2.95 million will pay for 56 new paramedic positions.)
  5. Plant 1 million trees. (At $75 a tree, the cost for the 32 per cent of city trees funded by property tax.)
  6. Resurface 57.7 kilometres of roads. (An arterial road can be resurfaced for $1.3 million/Km, based on 2014 bids.)
  7. Open 6,505 shelter beds. (The 2015 budget intends to spent $2.5 million to add 127 beds.)


Each item would be a one-year expense only.

Have other ideas? Try to build your own city budget with our interactive game.