Paramedics, daycare workers show up at city hall meeting
Posted September 14, 2011 8:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
About 300 people showed up at a city hall meeting of the community development and recreation committee (CDRC) to speak about the proposed cuts that could affect Toronto EMS and Fire Services as well as subsidized daycare.
“Please before considering making any cuts to programs or merging emergency services, please raise my taxes,” Omer Lifshitz, a paramedic told the committee.
Other paramedics came to the meeting, and said they were also against a proposal to force them to merge with Toronto Fire Services.
Others who were present, such as Anne Farrell of First Stage Childcare Centres, argued against a proposal to eliminated subsidized daycare spaces.
City manager Joe Pennachetti issued his report on Monday, which recommended dozens of service cuts that could shave about $100 million from the city’s $774 million budget deficit in 2012.
Pennachetti’s recommendations were based on city consultant KPMG’s core services review released earlier this summer. His report will be presented to the city’s executive committee for approval on Monday and council will vote on the proposals Sept. 26.
CDRC chair Giorgio Mammoliti was a tough audience on Wednesday.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing this stuff down here,” he said. “This fear mongering that’s going on is ridiculous.”
Mammoliti, a staunch Rob Ford ally, told the audience that if the proposed cuts weren’t made, taxes would rise by more than 30 per cent.
He has also been referring to the proposed cuts as “efficiencies,” which one counciller, Janet Davis, begged to differ.
“The cuts are not efficiencies,” she said. “They are cuts. They’re cuts to services.”
“This is really cutting the heart out of the city,” said Coun. Joe Mihevc. “And that’s why I think you’re seeing public rage and the mayor’s polling numbers looking very, very poorly. It’s because people are starting to realize there was no gravy.”
