City holds public hearing on 2012 budget

Several people urged the city to bring back the vehicle registration tax, thought it was a mistake not to levy property taxes last year and suggested city council use the $139-million surplus rather than cut services.

They were among the 348 people who signed up to speak Wednesday and Thursday at a budget committee meeting, which is hearing what the public thinks about the proposed 2012 budget.

“I would not have cut vehicle registration or property tax,” said Sue Edworthy, who was there to oppose a 10 per cent cut to arts funding. She said she welcomed a road tax and development taxes.

The $60 car tax brought in more than $60 million a year for the city.

Local 416 president Mark Ferguson, who represents the city’s outside workers, said the city has a revenue problem not a spending problem and urged councillors to use the $139-million surplus to offset service cuts “rather than gut vital services.”

Mayor Rob Ford’s proposed budget, released last week, includes a 10-cent TTC fare hike, a 2.5 per cent property tax increase and service cuts. He has already asked all departments to cut 10 per cent to help plug a $774 million shortfall in next year’s $9.4 billion budget.

Ford also plans to slash more than 2,300 city jobs — including 372 positions from the police force, 324 from the TTC and 152 from the library. However, no library branches would close.

Local 79 president Ann Dembinski, whose members would be most affected by the job cuts, asked rhetorically how courageous it is of the mayor and the committee to close three shelters, the hardship fund, recreational programs and the student breakfast program.

“How fair is that in a city that’s supposed to care?” she asked.

She reminded councillors that the mayor promised no cuts to services and no layoffs when he ran for office.

“My members believed him,” she said, adding they had admitted voting for him.

“What happened to the promise of no cuts to services?”

Gideon Forman, executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, urged councillors to avoid cuts to the Toronto environment office, the TTC and the city’s tree canopy because that would foster more air pollution.

“If you cut TTC and the tree canopy, the air will only get worse,” he said.

He also said cutting the city’s environment office would hurt Toronto’s ability to address climate change and help increase energy efficiency.

Earlier this week, the budget committee proposed charging $2 to use the city’s outdoor pools, get into Riverdale Farm and borrow popular DVDs from the library.

Here’s a list of the planned service cuts:

• Reduce service on most bus and streetcar routes to cut $14 million from the TTC budget
• Defer hiring 236 police officers to cut $14.6 million from the Toronto Police Services budget.
• Defer hiring 68 firefighters to cut $7.2 million from the Toronto Fire Services budget.
• Defer hiring 36 paramedics to cut $1.1 million from the EMS budget.
• Reduce branch hours and materials to cut $7.3 million from the Toronto Public Library budget. The type of cut could change depending on what the board proposes next month. It decided to consider ways other than reducing branch hours, such as cutting children’s or literacy programs.
• Reduce $4.6 million in funding from the Community Partnership and Investment Program Appeals Sub-Committee.
• Close five wading pools and two outdoor pools, eliminate programming at TDSB pools, eliminate recreational programming at selected TDSB schools, and reduce off-peak hours at selected arenas to cut $3.5 million from the Parks, Forestry & Recreation budget.
• Close non-core, non-provincially mandated shelters to save $1.97 million.
• End outdoor WinterCity programming to cut $460,000 from the Economic Development Committee budget.
• Changes to local sidewalk snow clearing service and road cleaning service will cut $928,000 and $4.2 million, respectively, from the Transportation Services budget.
• Close visitor cafeterias at Long-Term Care Homes and Services to save $612,000.
• Redirect the subsidy from school boards to parents ($1.6 million) and “realign” childcare service at hostels ($820,000).

To read the 2012 draft budget, click here.

At the end of Day One, the committee had heard 154 of 348 registered speakers.

The public consultation meeting will resume Thursday morning, but the budget chief said that those who don’t get heard by the time the public consultations end at 9:30 p.m. will be able to submit their thoughts in writing.

With files from Shawne McKeown