Cllr Cheng laments having to advocate for social & cultural investments for North York every year.
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"We have not plundered, we have not raided," Cllr Carroll says in defence of the budget.
Cllr Myers has a motion regarding how the TTC and the City interact, accountability- and funding-wise, instead of the City just "cutting the TTC a check": "considering mechanisms to formalize agreements between both entities on key performance indicators, verification/auditing, service levels, safety and customer experience."
Cllr Morley has a motion for Toronto Shelter & Support Services to work with the drop-in sector to "review core wage principles, adequate resourcing and overall stabilization of the sector", noting that drop-in staff have to "wear many hats".
Another part of her motion is looking into "enhanced" snow clearing for seniors and people with disabilities, an issue which came to the fore during the recent snow Event. She says Brampton and Pickering have such programs.
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Cllr Morley has a motion for Toronto Shelter & Support Services to work with the drop-in sector to "review core wage principles, adequate resourcing and overall stabilization of the sector", noting that drop-in staff have to "wear many hats".
Another part of her motion is looking into "enhanced" snow clearing for seniors and people with disabilities, an issue which came to the fore during the recent snow Event. She says Brampton and Pickering have such programs.
WINDROW CLEARING RETURNS!!!!! (The enhanced service of clearing the snowbanks left in people's driveways by snow plows has been a perennial budget football over the years.)
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WINDROW CLEARING RETURNS!!!!! (The enhanced service of clearing the snowbanks left in people's driveways by snow plows has been a perennial budget football over the years.)
Cllr Pasternak has a raft of various uncontroversial-looking/ineffectual motions, such as Council telling "the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Canada that it vigorously opposes and takes serious objection to his announced a $10 million reduction in Housing Accelerator Fund funding for the City of Toronto."
Cllr Burnside has a motion to raise TTC fares by $0.10. He says it's unfair to ask Toronto's wealthiest property owners to pay more, but not TTC riders. stares into the camera
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Cllr Pasternak has a raft of various uncontroversial-looking/ineffectual motions, such as Council telling "the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Canada that it vigorously opposes and takes serious objection to his announced a $10 million reduction in Housing Accelerator Fund funding for the City of Toronto."
Cllr Burnside has a motion to raise TTC fares by $0.10. He says it's unfair to ask Toronto's wealthiest property owners to pay more, but not TTC riders. stares into the camera
Note that increasing barriers to using the TTC risks the feared TTC Ridership Death Spiral, where lower ridership leads to worse services leading to lower ridership, etc., etc., hence why your typical transit wonks oppose cutting struggling public transit.
Myers is like, are you aware this is a terrible fucking idea. Burnside is like, "I was advised by folks at the TTC—"
"Which folks? Name names."
"Is this an inquisition?"
Myers (paraphrase): No, I just want to know.
"Uh…I don't know their names."
"It's amazing. You're a former TTC chair. Just amazing." Cllr Myers is extremely amused.
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Note that increasing barriers to using the TTC risks the feared TTC Ridership Death Spiral, where lower ridership leads to worse services leading to lower ridership, etc., etc., hence why your typical transit wonks oppose cutting struggling public transit.
Myers is like, are you aware this is a terrible fucking idea. Burnside is like, "I was advised by folks at the TTC—"
"Which folks? Name names."
"Is this an inquisition?"
Myers (paraphrase): No, I just want to know.
"Uh…I don't know their names."
"It's amazing. You're a former TTC chair. Just amazing." Cllr Myers is extremely amused.
Bradford has a motion to increase the small business tax break from 15% to 25%, instead of 20% as in the Mayor's budget.
Fletcher, who can really nurse a grudge, points out that Bradford didn't move it before Chow was mayor. The old "this u?"
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Bradford has a motion to increase the small business tax break from 15% to 25%, instead of 20% as in the Mayor's budget.
Fletcher, who can really nurse a grudge, points out that Bradford didn't move it before Chow was mayor. The old "this u?"
OHHHHHHHHH Cllr Bravo has a motion similar to Myers' re: the TTC budget, but about the police (and the services transferred from police to the City proper).
- City Council request the Toronto Police Service Board, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, and the Executive Director, Social Development, to provide, as part of its annual budget submission, starting with the 2027 budget, an accounting of budget impacts, including efficiencies and cost savings, from the following areas:
a. the approximately 40,000 crisis calls responded to by the Toronto Community Crisis Service since launching in 2022, which contributed to a 4.5 per cent decrease in overall mental health-related 911 calls;
b. the transfer to the City of the crossing guard program through Transportation Services;
c. the transfer of noise enforcement to Municipal Licensing and Standards; and
d. increased traffic control done by the City through the traffic agents program.
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OHHHHHHHHH Cllr Bravo has a motion similar to Myers' re: the TTC budget, but about the police (and the services transferred from police to the City proper).
- City Council request the Toronto Police Service Board, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, and the Executive Director, Social Development, to provide, as part of its annual budget submission, starting with the 2027 budget, an accounting of budget impacts, including efficiencies and cost savings, from the following areas:
a. the approximately 40,000 crisis calls responded to by the Toronto Community Crisis Service since launching in 2022, which contributed to a 4.5 per cent decrease in overall mental health-related 911 calls;
b. the transfer to the City of the crossing guard program through Transportation Services;
c. the transfer of noise enforcement to Municipal Licensing and Standards; and
d. increased traffic control done by the City through the traffic agents program.
I was checking my phone while Cllr Perruzza introduced his latest motion because I didn't want to look at it or read it because I knew it was going to be his usual bullshit, and it is: "City Council request the Government of Ontario to allow the City of Toronto to keep 100 percent of the property taxes collected within the City of Toronto."
C'mon Nonno let's get you to bed
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I was checking my phone while Cllr Perruzza introduced his latest motion because I didn't want to look at it or read it because I knew it was going to be his usual bullshit, and it is: "City Council request the Government of Ontario to allow the City of Toronto to keep 100 percent of the property taxes collected within the City of Toronto."
C'mon Nonno let's get you to bed
Holyday has the Annual Motion to Restore Mechanical Leaf Collection In Etobicoke, as is tradition. (Like windrow clearing, a frequent subject of last-minute budget horse-trading that was cut in recent years.) I am actually laughing out loud.
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Holyday has the Annual Motion to Restore Mechanical Leaf Collection In Etobicoke, as is tradition. (Like windrow clearing, a frequent subject of last-minute budget horse-trading that was cut in recent years.) I am actually laughing out loud.
If I were a councillor, I would bring up the ecological cost of leaf disposal and ask why Cllr Holyday hates pollinators, detritivores, fireflies, etc., and move for a ban on mechanical leaf collection, and that is why I am not a councillor
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If I were a councillor, I would bring up the ecological cost of leaf disposal and ask why Cllr Holyday hates pollinators, detritivores, fireflies, etc., and move for a ban on mechanical leaf collection, and that is why I am not a councillor
Cllr Crisanti has a motion asking the TTC to look into "free to $1 for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over during off-peak hours (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) on weekdays and all day on weekends".
Cllr Myers says Wheel-Trans actually costs $50 a trip, and suggests instead making fares free/discounted for "conditional passengers", people who could use Wheel-Trans but are using the regular TTC instead. Crisanti says they could look at both scenarios.
OK, speakers over, voting time i guess
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Cllr Crisanti has a motion asking the TTC to look into "free to $1 for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over during off-peak hours (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) on weekdays and all day on weekends".
Cllr Myers says Wheel-Trans actually costs $50 a trip, and suggests instead making fares free/discounted for "conditional passengers", people who could use Wheel-Trans but are using the regular TTC instead. Crisanti says they could look at both scenarios.
OK, speakers over, voting time i guess
@nev Fucking ghouls. It takes forever to get accepted into Wheel-Trans, and it's such an awful service experience.
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@nev Fucking ghouls. It takes forever to get accepted into Wheel-Trans, and it's such an awful service experience.
@mayintoronto yeah, they've been trying to pare it down for years. The ultimate goal is to improve TTC accessibility to the point where Wheel-Trans isn't needed, which is obviously a pipe dream
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@mayintoronto yeah, they've been trying to pare it down for years. The ultimate goal is to improve TTC accessibility to the point where Wheel-Trans isn't needed, which is obviously a pipe dream
@nev My friends with disabilities use Wheel-Trans for some agoraphobia. But also if you use a wheelchair on the subway, people have tried to sit on them multiple times because they don't bother looking down. All of my wheelchair user friends have experienced this.
Jeez.
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@nev My friends with disabilities use Wheel-Trans for some agoraphobia. But also if you use a wheelchair on the subway, people have tried to sit on them multiple times because they don't bother looking down. All of my wheelchair user friends have experienced this.
Jeez.
Make all transit free and eliminate free parking for cars.
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Make all transit free and eliminate free parking for cars.
@chu @mayintoronto if you can figure out a way to swing it financially, sure
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@chu @mayintoronto if you can figure out a way to swing it financially, sure
Someone with better access to numbers than we do can probably tell us how much city and street parking needs to go up to break even on this.
Whatever that number is is what parking should cost period
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Someone with better access to numbers than we do can probably tell us how much city and street parking needs to go up to break even on this.
Whatever that number is is what parking should cost period
@mayintoronto @chu Here's some numbers: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2026/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-261375.pdf
The TPA's revenue is about $180 million (a few thousand of that goes to subsidizing Bike Share).
Average transaction value per trip is about $9 for parking lots with 9.4 million trips/year, and about $4 for curbside parking with 15 million trips per year. Not sure about EV charging or Bike Share, which would both have to be counted differently anyway, I think.
(Keep in mind that the TPA also has its own operating budget, capital costs, and state of good repair backlog.)
Presumably massively hiking municipal parking rates would mean privately owned commercial parking could undercut the City severely, so ideally you'd implement a very high commercial parking levy at the same time.
One possible problem with this, on a conceptual level, is that you're also trying to incentivize people to take transit instead of driving, right? So if that is successful, your transit costs will be rising and your parking revenue will be shrinking, and you might get a Parking Death Spiral where fewer people park because it costs so much, so you have to raise parking rates even more (not only to keep revenue the same—but if people are taking transit instead, you have to raise even more revenue), so even fewer people park, etc. This is just speculation on my part, if this were for real this is where I'd ask for a staff report or bring in experts or whatever.
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@mayintoronto @chu Here's some numbers: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2026/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-261375.pdf
The TPA's revenue is about $180 million (a few thousand of that goes to subsidizing Bike Share).
Average transaction value per trip is about $9 for parking lots with 9.4 million trips/year, and about $4 for curbside parking with 15 million trips per year. Not sure about EV charging or Bike Share, which would both have to be counted differently anyway, I think.
(Keep in mind that the TPA also has its own operating budget, capital costs, and state of good repair backlog.)
Presumably massively hiking municipal parking rates would mean privately owned commercial parking could undercut the City severely, so ideally you'd implement a very high commercial parking levy at the same time.
One possible problem with this, on a conceptual level, is that you're also trying to incentivize people to take transit instead of driving, right? So if that is successful, your transit costs will be rising and your parking revenue will be shrinking, and you might get a Parking Death Spiral where fewer people park because it costs so much, so you have to raise parking rates even more (not only to keep revenue the same—but if people are taking transit instead, you have to raise even more revenue), so even fewer people park, etc. This is just speculation on my part, if this were for real this is where I'd ask for a staff report or bring in experts or whatever.
@mayintoronto @chu On a pragmatic level, this is something Council would have to vote on. Implementing a commercial parking levy, while technically something the City has the power to do, has politically been a non-starter. Raising parking rates at all has only recently been raised as a possibility, and arguably the only reason it's palatable is because the TPA is rate-based and is supposed to pay for itself just like water and garbage.
Even councillors who would like transit to be free may disagree with solely using parking revenue to do it, on principle. (Probably various principles.) So it could be near impossible to get a majority on side.
Now, Olivia Chow could drink the Water of Life and become Kwitsatz Haderach and immortal God-Sandworm-Queen of Toronto, capable of using Bene Gesserit mind control techniques to bend not only Council but the province and feds to her will when they attempt to step in and intervene (you know Doug Ford would be trying to outlaw it immediately, and he would have the power to do so). But in that case, why not just get the province and feds to give Toronto a share of sales and income tax? It would be massively more lucrative than parking could ever be, and would not decrease as demand for transit increased. It is also more in line with how other jurisdictions fund transit.
Also we would save money on the capital side because with her immense, long armoured body, Olivia Chow could bore through the earth herself, making it much easier to create new transit tunnels. Although the City and province would still have to worry about expropriations, managing construction, etc.
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