City of Toronto 2024 budget 10.5% proposals hearings underway at Etobicoke Civic Centre.
City councillors received an earful at a public meeting at the Etobicoke Civic Centre to discuss the upcoming proposed budget.
Many of the people who attended in person, or phoned in, were against the tax increase of 10.5 per cent this year as a number of others were in favour to upkeep the services we receive.
Members of a budget sub-committee held two three-hour sessions of meetings on January 23. One was held from 1:30p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and another at 6 p.m.
Some 1,100 Toronto residents have written in to have their voices heard on the 2024 budget.
Sub-committee chair Gord Perks said thousands of people wrote in to let their voices be heard in the sessions, which will occur at City Hall, Scarborough and North York.
A vote by City Council on the fine-tuned budget will take place on February 14.
Resident Patrick Bernie said there has been little talk of cost reduction by the City.
Many people are not in favour of an increase to the Toronto Police budget since services are being cut.
“I have heard little comment about salary freeze or unpaid layoffs,” Bernie told the committee. “Refugees filling our shelters is the responsibility of the federal government.”
He and others said cutbacks are already underway citing the halting of mechanical collection of leaves in Etobicoke.
Paul Buttigieg said some City agencies like the TTC and Forestry Services are overstacked with layers of staffers and third party contractors who are expensive.
“In some agencies we have two parallel managers,” he said. “Places like the TTC should take a look at their staffing levels.”
Mayor Olivia Chow have said some services will have to go to make up a $1.8 billion deficit.
Brad Dixon told councillors that street lights should be replaced with LED lights as they expire in a move that can save millions yearly.
Ward 2 resident Laura Lindberg is in favour of the tax increase since she is pleased with the City’s climate change plan that she wouldn’t mind paying for.
“The investing in climate change has long-term benefits,” Lindberg told the committee. “I support the funding of the City’s green initiatives.”
Elliot Woodenberg was concerned about how City funds were being managed with services already being reduced.
Mayor Chow with budget chief Shelley Carroll holding up the controversial document.
He too said many Etobicoke residents are not happy that the mechanized leaf collection program we enjoyed for years is now gone.
Long-time resident How-Sen Chong urged the city to do more to curb climate change, which he said, can cause floods and devastation as we previously experienced with Hurricane Hazel.
Adam Rogers cited the cyberattack at the Toronto Public Library and asked the committee to spend more on data security to protect hackings against City agencies.
“It is only time before another cyberattack will happen again,” Rogers said. “We need to increase the budget to do more to prevent our data from being breached.”
Residents can also face another increase if Ottawa does not pay to shelter refugees.
Olivia Blondin pleaded for social services to receive more City funding saying that as a child her family was evicted five times and moved between shelters and bus stations.
“No one should be on the streets freezing and starving,” Blondin said. “I am asking for some of the budget be put back into social services.”
Frontline crisis worker Diana Chan McNally said there should be more adult drop in centres and the budget has to give another $1 million to 32 centres that do not receive funds.
“Centers now have to provide hot meals for those who use them,” McNally said. “They are force to use their own resources with no help from the government.”