The city of Toronto aims to cut 10% or $343 M from its operating budget over the next couple of years.
Thank goodness we have a law in place that doesn’t allow Toronto and other municipalities to run in red otherwise we would be in no better shape than Ontario province which has a record deficit of $24.7 B.
The estimated fiscal shortfall of $400M shortfall in the budget is mainly attributed to poor negotiations with unions and runaway remunerations during a recession period when many of us in private sector are suffering and unemployment is running at a record high level.
The city must freeze pay at all levels and look at more drastic ways of reducing costs such as cell phones and staff expenses, IT purchases, consultant costs etc.
The city has an obligation to show how much further they are going with each dollar spent. For instance, 10 years ago we had more frequent collection of garbage and recycling. We are now paying more for these services and getting less. The city is making a lot more money from our recycling but is any of it pass down to us.
Lets look at Toronto Public Library, it continues to stress that is underfunded yet TPL is rebuilding a number of libraries across Toronto and spending well above their available budget. Where is the accountability? Why do we need to replace all these building at the same time? They were not build at the same time !
