Mayor John Tory, Gord Perks clash over impact of budget cuts on TTC
2.6% cut could mean deep reduction in TTC peak-hours service, Gord Perks says
Mayor John Tory accused Coun. Gord Perks Wednesday of offering "misleading" and "false" choices to the public, after Perks suggested that meeting targets for service cuts next year could mean chopping the TTC's bus service by more than half during peak hours.
The city is facing a $516 million deficit in next year's budget, and Tory's executive committee was debating a motion to ask city departments to trim their budgets by 2.6 per cent next year.
Perks said that would be the equivalent, in the case of the TTC, of pulling 900 of the city's 1,600 buses off the road during peak hours.
"The choice you have is whether to adhere to an impossible promise to keep property taxes below the rate of inflation, or you ... undermine the services that we deliver for the City of Toronto," Perks told the committee.
The mayor was quick to fire back at the example Perks gave.
"First of all, who in their right mind would ask [the TTC] to do such a thing?" Tory said.
"Secondly, who in their right mind would bring forward such a recommendation, and thirdly who in their right mind would approve it?"
'Very misleading'
"It's either meet this target and do away with all bus service or just leave things as they are, as if that's the choice," Tory said, "It's not the choice. He knows that. We know that. And guess who else knows that? The public."
He accused Perks, who represents Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park, of manufacturing "false choices," which he said was "very misleading and not consistent with the duty we've been given by the public."
The motion before the committee contained a warning from staff that the 2.6 per cent cut would be necessary in 2017, assuming a property tax increase at or below the rate of inflation, which is what Tory has promised. It also assumes no new projects are taken on by city departments, beyond what their current budgets can pay for.
The executive committee voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
New tax discussion put off until fall
On Tuesday evening, the executive committee also addressed a laundry list of possible new taxes recommended earlier this year by the consulting firm KPMG.
The committee voted to pass the list back to staff, which is currently trying to develop a blueprint that council could use to draft sustainable, balanced budgets year-in and year-out — something that it has been unable to do for the past six years, according to City Manager Peter Wallace.
Some of the new taxes will undoubtedly be part of that blueprint, which staff are due to present this fall. That is why, some observers at city hall say, the executive committee passed the long list back to staff, rather than attempting to whittle it down first.
The list of potential "revenue tools" includes a municipal personal income tax, a revival of the motor vehicle registration tax, as well as sin taxes, among others.
New taxes or not, though, staff have warned councillors not to count on those new revenues for the 2017 budget, because they likely could not be brought on stream quickly enough.