Toronto, the Doomed

Everyone I know is budgeting, tightening their spending and being frugal. I know friends who have decided not to vacation this year. Others are working closely with financial advisors to make sure they are making sound investments. I don’t know of anyone in my extended group of friends (and family) who is spending freely. Why then, are the councillors appointed to run the City of Toronto spending and budgeting as if we weren’t deeply enveloped in a global recession?

The City’s $8.7 million budget was unveiled yesterday to the council. What first alarmed me about the budget was the city’s plans to hire about 1,000 new staff and that $8.5 million was set aside for merit pay for non-unionized city hall staff. Is this the City’s idea of fiscal prudence?

Councillor David Shiner argued that it was ridiculous to be handing out performance bonuses to public servants with secure positions when so many Torontonians have lost their jobs and are struggling to keep up with their bills.

I think they’re spending like the Wall Street bankers spent before they were all terminated. We have $133-million I’m projecting in here for both merit increases and wage increases to employees in this city. That’s the 2.4% cost of living and the $33-million in merit increases when people everywhere are losing their jobs. How can you do that?

In years like this you stop your wage increases across the board. You don’t terminate anybody. Everybody can have a job with the same pay they had last year for this year.

My alarm turned into surprise when I went online to the City’s major newspapers (The Star, The Globe and Mail and The National Post) and had difficulty finding the story at all. The Star had it in their Greater Toronto Area section, near the very bottom of the page. The Globe had it in their Ontario section (which required going through the National section first), also at the bottom of the page. The Post did have the story on their home page, but in tiny font at the bottom of the page. I had to use CTRL + F to find it.

Why was a story about the country’s largest city’s ridiculous budget in a recession buried so deeply on these sites? Why was it not on each paper’s home page and easily accessible to readers? The only local newspaper to have it their home page was the Toronto Sun – but that’s usually ignored due to its tabloid status.

The Star I can understand burying the story, they have long supported Mayor David Miller. The fact that two national papers gave the story so little presence surprises me. The lead story in the Globe’s national section was BC’s impending trip into the red. Why was the Toronto budget story not included on the same page? Why is the media not giving this story the coverage it deserves? Are the papers that worried about not being included at proceedings at City Hall? Or are the editors and owners of the papers so afraid to ruffle the feathers of their friends at City Hall, they’d rather bury a story then inform readers of information they rightly deserve to know?

When I finally did manage to find the stories, my alarm turned to anger. It turns out that the meetings held by the budget committee in which most of the spending and hiring decisions were made were held in secret. The budget committee got away with having these meetings by calling them, “informal, detailed reviews” of the budget. The citizens of Toronto deserve transparency from our elected council members. A budget of this size cannot be created nor passed with “informal, detailed reviews.” We deserve to be aware of how the City plans to run during times like these, times which are proving so difficult for many Torontonians.

How is the City planning on paying for all of this spending? With property tax increases of 4%, TTC fare increases and increased user fees. Back in December, Mr. Miller promised that there would be no TTC fare hikes in 2009. Just two months ago, Miller was preaching prudence on the part of the TTC:

The TTC budget is under considerable pressure. I spoke to the chair last night and asked him to do everything in his power to be able to recommend a fare freeze, which means the TTC is going to have to look at its budget very, very carefully.

Thank you for more broken promises, Mr. Miller.

As a home owner and a TTC rider, I am incredibly concerned with these increases. My monthly pass (which I get on the discounted plan) is $100 a month. We’re already paying new fees for our garbage pick up. What else can we possibly be made to pay for? On top of all of that, my property tax will go up as well.

I, an average Torontonian, who does not have a guarantee of job security, will have to pay an increase in the services I use, a fare increase on the transit system I rely on to travel and and increased property tax on my home, all so that staff who work at City Hall can have job security. Someone, anyone, explain to me, why I should not be incensed right now.

Why don’t the city councillors accept a salary freeze and use that money to pay for all of these new hires? Why does all of this spending and job creation have to come off of the backs of the citizens?

S made an excellent point:

They shouldn’t be allowed to give themselves raises or bonuses when the city is in a deficit position and faced with imposing major tax and transit increases on us. If they were a publicly traded company they’d have to justify their actions to their shareholders. Why aren’t they held accountable for their actions?

If we, as tax paying citizens of Toronto, cannot be considered the Council’s shareholders, who can? When can we expect accountability? Why are decisions such as these made shrouded in secrecy and cloaked by the newspapers? When are we, as Torontonians, going to say “enough is enough?”

A list of the city’s councillors can be found here. I urge everyone to write or phone your councillor and tell them you think this budget is absolutely ridiculous. For those on Twitter, you can reach our Mayor there as well. I’m sure he’d love to hear from us.