City budget would pay for housing, basic services, Tory says
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Toronto’s 2023 proposed budget can invest in housing, police and public transit and still keep park washrooms open, Mayor John Tory says.
Tory unveiled more details of his fiscal blueprint Thursday which would, if approved, put $616 million into city taxpayer-funded housing including $3.5 million to support the newly-legalized rooming or multi-tenant housing.
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Public complaints of closed park washrooms and water fountains surfaced during Tory’s fall mayoralty campaign, and the Mayor said the budget would set aside $2.86 million to keep them open earlier in the spring and longer into the fall.
Other “nuts and bolts” services like outdoor pools and rinks, wading pools, expanded sidewalk snow clearing and recreation centre hours during shoulder seasons would be protected, he said.
A 10-cent TTC fare increase, a property tax hike and 3% spikes in water and garbage bills are built into the plan.
The city still needs more support from senior levels of government to cover COVID-19 costs, transit operating expenses and housing, Tory said.
“Toronto is the biggest city in the country but also faces the biggest responsibility for housing on its own, compared to, say, Vancouver or Montreal where the province pays a much bigger role,” he said. “It makes financial sense, economic sense and it makes common sense for the other governments to step forward to help the biggest city in the country with extraordinary costs we faced entirely because of COVID.”
The city is also looking for a regional GTA plan and federal government support to the tune of $91.9 million to deal with the housing needs of what’s expected to be a large increase in refugees entering an already overcrowded emergency shelter system.
“The fact is there are no other cities like Toronto in the whole country – there’s nothing that has as complex a transit system that moves as many people, that has responsibilities to shelter as many people,” Tory said. “Therefore if you’re asking should we be treated differently, you’re darn right we should.”
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Tory has already announced more funding for the TTC and Toronto Police Service in 2023 if their boards approve the budgets.
A proposed 10-cent TTC fare increase for single adult and youth, which would kick in April 3 if approved, would bring in an estimated $16.1 million in 2023, to be spent on system safety, cleanliness and accessibility and higher diesel prices, a report to a special TTC meeting Monday says.
The city is also looking to put more police officers on the street, offering funding for 200 new positions, in response to public concerns about safety.
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