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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."
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.
"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."
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?"
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
My @torontostar column: With Toronto cops facing a huge corruption scandal, it should be impossible for Mayor Olivia Chow and Toronto council to just rubber-stamp yet another big police budget increase today.
The job of police reform is not done. Not by a longshot.
At Tuesday’s budget meeting, city councillors will debate the mayor’s 2026 spending plan, which includes a $94-million boost for the Toronto Police Service.
Toronto Star (www.thestar.com)
