Mayor Tory's budget plan comes under fire at public sessions

Mayor John Tory's plan to hike property taxes and police spending came under intense scrutiny at the first public hearing on the city's proposed $16-billion budget on Tuesday.

With the mayor watching silently from a corner of a committee room at City Hall, dozens of city residents took turns picking apart the proposed spending package.

With a planned property tax increase of 5.5 per cent, and an increase to the city building levy of 1.5 per cent, many expressed worry that living in Toronto has become too expensive.

"If we were to sell our house now,  there's no way I could buy it," she said. "They're worried about being able to afford to rent in Toronto, let alone buying a home in Toronto. My kids are thinking they're going to have to move out of province. What the heck is that? It's inconceivable." 

Planned $48M police budget hike raises questions

Solar said city councillors need to find a way to keep housing and transit in the city affordable. She was one of a number of deputants questioning why Tory wants to give Toronto police a $48 million budget increase.

That money could be better spent elsewhere, she said, calling for better support for the homeless and people in mental crisis.

Huda Idrees is a resident and business owner in the city. She spoke at the committee to ask for a re-think of the police funding increase.

The city's community crisis service, which dispatches mental health workers to emergency calls and is not deployed fully across the city, would be a better place to spend the money, she said.

"I'd also be happy with taking away the entire $50 million because we don't need 200 more armed officers," she said. "We, in fact, need … people who know what to do in those situations."

But there were a number of deputants who stressed that the city needs more police officers to help improve response times to emergency calls.

Briar de Lange of the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area, said that group and other BIA's support Tory's plan. She said because of concerns about crime, the BIA has taken on a greater role in advocating for measures to address community safety.

"This is going to get us a better response time to 911," she said of the proposed budget. "Those numbers are way off. We're not in the area we should be."

Appearing before the community last week, Police Chief Myron Demkiw told councillors that in 1995, the service established a six-minute response standard for its highest priority calls. It has not achieved that, and current response times average about 20 minutes. 

Budget Chief Gary Crawford defended the proposed police budget increase.

"I recognize the concerns that people have, I do stand by the support that we have given the Toronto Police in this budget of the 4.3 per cent increase," he said. 

Higher TTC fares will mean drop in ridership, say some

During a recent consultation at the North York Civic centre, deputants expressed concern about proposed TTC service cuts and a 10 cent fare increase.

Caleb Downs told councillors that he thinks any fare increase will lead to a drop in ridership.

He wants to see more spent on transit, not cuts.

But the Humber River-Black Creek resident said the city needs to give people a reason to get on the TTC.

"The bus service isn't adequate for me to get to where I need to in a timely manner, so typically, I end up driving," he said.

Budget consultations will continue this week with sessions in Scarborough and Etobicoke. 

The budget committee will meet again next week to firm up the proposed budget. City council will have a final debate and pass the spending package on Feb. 14.