Mayor John Tory says he is not satisfied that TTC management has ‘looked under every cushion’ to find ways to cut costs in its operating budget.
The mayor spoke to CP24 about the transit agency’s budget woes following reports in two Toronto newspapers that suggest the TTC is struggling to find ways to meet the city’s directive that all city departments reduce their budget by 2.6 per cent.
The Toronto Sun says it obtained a copy of a memo TTC Andy Byford sent to the city’s Chief Financial Officer this week that indicated the transit agency is still facing $149 million in budget pressures even after identifying $82 million in cost savings for 2017.
“I am encouraging them, the very good management team under Mr. Byford over there, to continue with their work because I’m not satisfied they have found all that they could find,” Tory told CP24 Thursday.
“I think there is more money to be found. We owe it to the taxpayers to say we have look under every cushion, under every rock to find every penny we can save and that I don’t think they have done that work yet.”
Tory did not discuss a comment he made to The Sun about the possibility of bringing in a task force or consultant to help the TTC make the cuts.
“Every family out there, every small business, they have to go through the same exercise, every big business does, and so I’m just saying to them (the TTC), please continue your work,” Tory added.
TTC spokesperson Brad Ross refused to comment on the memo Thursday.
“The TTC continues to work on its 2017 operating budget. We were asked to provide the City with possible 2017 budget reductions by Aug 2, which we did. This is an exercise all City departments and their ABCs were asked to undertake,” Ross said in an email to CP24.
“It (the memo) reflects a work-in-progress to-date by TTC staff – it is not a final budget submission. As such, the TTC will neither comment on nor respond to the contents of the memo. Staff will, of course, answer questions and speak to the TTC’s budget when it is presented publicly for consideration.”
Though Tory told CP24 that he wants TTC management to find more savings than they already have, not all councillors agree that a 2.6 per cent budget reduction is a realistic target.
Speaking with CP24 on Thursday afternoon, Ward 21 Coun. and TTC board member Joe Mihevc said that to achieve the 2.6 per cent budget cut the TTC would have to find $230 million in savings.
“As we do every year we give them (city departments) a target and some departments are able to reach that target because of IT innovation or because they are ceasing to do a particular job. In the case of the TTC 2.6% is tough, especially given the kind of pressures the company is facing,” he said. “Given the fact that Presto requires a big operating piece of change, given the fact that we are opening the subway all the way to Highway 7. These are pressures that the city has to take into account.”
Mihevc says he welcomes bringing in a third party to see where savings can be found as long as the cuts do not impact service.
"We already are besieged with complaints that people are on very hot subway cars, even this morning or they can’t get on a streetcar or a bus because it is super crowded. There isn’t much room left on the service side," he said.
"So if someone can find some extra savings, I say yeah, bring it on. Let us find it. I would be supportive of that. But I think what we’ll find is there could be more a few more shekels to find here or there but the big numbers, the $200 million, we are going to go to a fork in the road and we are going to say, do we want this level of service right now or do we want dramatic cuts in that service."
