Toronto Council meets today!

Toronto Council meets today! It's budget time. This year, the mayor has backed a low residential property tax increase (just 2.2%!) so it's not clear what council will argue about, but I'm sure they'll find something.

The meeting stream is here. I'll post happenings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HA3i--_jqc

The meeting begins with Mayor Olivia Chow at the lectern, paying tribute to Vivian Perks, the mother of Councillor Gord Perks. She died recently. "Viv will be remembered for improving the lives of those around her with warmth and kindness," the mayor says.

The Speaker reminds Council of the rules of this meeting, which changed with the "strong mayor" legislation. Councillors can propose amendments to Chow's budget, but there won't be a vote on whether to approve the budget as a whole. It'll be deemed adopted following the end of the meeting.

Budget deliberations begin with Councillor Holyday, who has questions. He gets the TTC to confirm there's a $35 million reserve draw in their budget. Holyday then suggests this reserve draw wouldn't be necessary if TTC just increased fares and reversed policies like fare capping and kids-ride-free.

CFO Stephen Conforti says there's about $1.7 billion in reserve draws in this budget, about $400 million more than last year. Conforti says that $400 million is driven by FIFA and election costs and provincial funds for shelter costs that were temporarily stashed in a reserve fund.

Pasternak asks the burning question: why hasn't the province formally taken over ownership of the Gardiner and the DVP yet? It's been a couple of years. City Manager says "due diligence" is done, but "final uploading of this will take some time." There are "operational issues" to work through.

Some news: City Manager Paul Johnson says a contribution agreement from the province to provide $97 million for FIFA costs is "headed my way today" and he'll be signing it shortly.

Pasternak thanks the police for their "great work" then asks about protests in the city, which have cost the cops $44 million in recent years. "This doesn't sound like peaceful assembly," says Pasternak. "Can we keep hiding behind the charter while this is going on on our streets?"

"I would hardly characterize us as 'hiding behind the charter'," says police rep in response to Pasternak. "But rather protecting the charter. And respecting the charter."

Councillor Saxe asks if there's a hidden "gravy train" at city hall — waste that could be cut without cutting service.

"There are not hundreds of millions of dollars of 'waste'," says City Manager. But he notes city is always looking for ways to be efficient. $135 million in savings this year.

Councillor Shelley Carroll asks the police about their budget increase. The cops say the entire 7% increase is going to their multi-year hiring plan and paying for costs related to their collective bargaining agreement. "90% of the police budget is labour."

Councillor Saxe asks if there's a hidden "gravy train" at city hall — waste that could be cut without cutting service.

"There are not hundreds of millions of dollars of 'waste'," says City Manager. But he notes city is always looking for ways to be efficient. $135 million in savings this year.

Noting the cops have been hiring a lot, Carroll asks, "What's new about this year? Do we now move into being able to add supervision that is badly needed?"

"Yes," says the chief. "This budget, as part of the multi-year hiring plan, is going to focus on supervision where we need it the most."

Myers asks the TTC about their "fare evasion target." TTC rep Josh Colle says the TTC "recaptured" about $14 million in revenue via their fare enforcement strategy last year, total annual estimated "lost revenue" down to $121 million, from $141 million at time of last audit a few years ago.

Councillor Burnside asks how much it would cost the city to have a city-wide snow removal service. Staff say a complete snow removal contract was estimated at $130 million a year, but that estimate was based on ~55 cm of snow per season and we've had 90 cm so far this winter.

Noting there's been "impressive numbers in terms of reduction of crime" recently, Councillor Michael Thompson asks the police chief what his "crystal ball" tells him about crime rates in 2026.

Demkiw says it's "very hard to speculate," but he's committed to driving the numbers down.

Councillor Colle asks about the city's development charge reserves, noting that some developers have been "crying the blues" and saying the city is "sitting" on big reserves. CFO says, indeed, there's $2.5 billion in the reserve, but $6.5 billion in projects that need to be funded with DCs.

"So for every dollar in taxes a Toronto resident pays, nine cents goes to the city, 91 cents goes to the big fat feds and the big fat provincial guys?" asks Councillor Mike Colle.

The CFO confirms that the majority of tax revenue goes to other levels of gov.

"I can speak specifically to Taylor Swift," says CFO Stephen Conforti. He means in terms of her economic impact. He's not calling her up. Conforti notes the Eras tour concerts in T.O. brought in $40 million in tax revenue, but Toronto only got ~$500K.