Budget Chief Gary Crawford says he will move a motion supporting a budget that makes major investments in poverty reduction and repairs to aging community housing buildings while at the same time keeping any tax increase to around the rate of inflation.
Budget committee is meeting today to refine the list of currently unfunded initiatives that it will include in the budget that ultimately gets sent to council.
Of the $67 million in unfunded initiatives, Crawford said he will push for about 40 per cent of them to actually be included in the budget.
Included in that list will be $5.3 million of the $5.7 million in proposed poverty reduction initiatives and about $5.5 million of the $13.7 million in initiatives aimed at improving living conditions in the city’s community housing buildings.
“Some of my colleagues are suggesting that we have to provide funding for all requests and all the new projects but I am determined as budget chair to hold the city to same kind of restraint and discipline that the people of Toronto go through on a daily weekend and monthly basis,” Crawford told reporters. “We just can’t do it all but we can make a real difference in the lives of the people of this city while keeping life affordable.”
Crawford said the new funding he wants council to sign off on will allow the city to implement all of the recommendations contained in its poverty reduction strategy, including the expansion of student nutrition programs and employment programs for young people and single parents.
Meanwhile, Crawford said the additional money for Toronto Community Housing will allow for the upgrading of front door locks to a more secure FOB system, the cleaning of buildings on evenings and weekends, the expansion of a pre-existing program allowing residents to provide feedback on the quality of repairs completed in their buildings, the recruitment of specialized staff to help residents who have issues with hoarding and the expansion of pest control efforts in high needs buildings.
Crawford also said that new funding for the TTC will allow for the hiring of additional fare enforcement officers, which could help with overcrowding.
“The people of Toronto are looking to us to spend their money responsibly. They want to see action by focusing our investments in priority areas like transit, emergency services and supporting the city’s most vulnerable and that is exactly what this budget does,” he said.
It’s unclear what previously announced initiatives will not be funded under Crawford’s proposal; however the Toronto Star previously reported that money to rejuvenate parks and beef up the offices of the city’s accountability offices isn’t among Mayor John Tory’s priorities.
Speaking with CP24 on Monday afternoon, budget committee member Shelley Carroll said she is pleased to see many unfunded initiatives being backed by Mayor Tory’s administration but has concerns over the use of some reserves to balance the budget.
“Drawing from reserves in shelter and homelessness and children’s services makes us nervous because those have to be double backstopped the following year,” she said. “It is a one-time source of money.”
In 2015, city council ultimately approved $14 million of the unfunded initiatives referred to budget committee while in 2014 council approved about $17 million of the $52 million in unfunded initiatives sent to committee.
“We are actually investing more,” Crawford told reporters on Monday.
A source tells CP24 that Mayor Tory will not support a tax hike exceeding the rate of inflation, which is about 1.3 per cent.
If council does approve a 1.3 per cent property tax hike, however, the actual increase will still be more than that once a previously approve 0.5 per cent levy for the Scarborough subway is tacked on.
The budget is expected to go to council for final approval on March 10.
