Toronto City Hall’s budget season ends today. Sad, I know, but we’ll always have the memories. The debate starts soon. I expect it’ll be less heated than last year, but you never know. I’ll cover things in this thread. The meeting will stream here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH4Y...
Council kicks off with a reminder from Mayor Olivia Chow that this Saturday is “Canada Flag Day.” They’ll be celebrating with a giant flag outside City Hall. Three storeys high, the mayor says? Pretty big, I guess. The cast from “Come From Away” will show up too.
Councillor Nunziata reminds us of the new budget rules, which were changed by “strong mayor” legislation. Council will vote on potential budget amendments, but there will NOT be a vote to approve the budget itself — it’ll just be deemed in effect following the meeting.
More rules: any budget amendments need to make sure revenues remain matched to expenses. Unbalancing the budget is forbidden and anyone who who tries to do it will be shunned.
Councillor Holyday has budget questions — and they are about mechanical vacuum leaf collection in Etobicoke, a service that was cut a couple of years ago. “Oh noooo,” say his council colleagues.
Holyday asks how much City Hall could cut property taxes if they just stopped delivering the $1.424 billion in services deemed provincial and federal responsibilities. The CFO says it’d be about 25%-30%.
Councillor Burnside asks how much higher Toronto’s property taxes would be if the city eliminated the land transfer tax. CFO says it’d be equivalent of an 18% property tax increase — about $700 on the average bill.
Chernos Lin asks about a recent Globe column criticizing city’s accounting standards (modified-cash basis, not accrual). CFO says Toronto has “the most transparent budget in all of government in Canada” and accumulated surplus reflects city growth, is needed for infrastructure.
Councillor Cheng asks where Toronto will rank in terms of a comparison to property taxes in other GTA municipalities if this budget is passed today, with the proposed 6.9% residential increase. The CFO says we’ll be “middle of the pack.”
CFO says provincial changes to the Development Charge Act continue to have a ~$2 billion impact on the city’s capital plan. And the switch from Section 37 to Community Benefits Charges reduced expected revenues from ~$100 million a year to a projected $35 million.
Councillor Crisanti asks about efficiencies in the budget. CFO says there are about $41 million in efficiencies this year. “Is that all?” wonders Crisanti. CFO says that’s actually a bit higher than has been typical, and that it gets harder to find efficiencies each year.
Councillor Bradford asks where the $3 million Chow has put up for the “Council Hunger Games” comes from. CFO says it comes from added assessment growth, flowing through the Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund.
Councillor Shelley Carroll, the budget chief, says she has a motion coming that would help the city be ready because “things could get Trumpy.”
Councillors are asking a bunch of questions about the wisdom and risk of using reserve funds as a one-time measure to lower property tax increases. Call it foreshadowing.
Staff confirm that they finally plan to integrate the park department with the 311 system, so complaints and service requests about parks are properly processed. Amazing how long this has taken. Toronto launched 311 in 2009!
Councillor Thompson asks about the impact of the latest police collective agreement on this year’s police budget. CFO says the police budget increase is entirely separate from the collective agreement process — the costs of salary increases will be factored into the budget later.
Perruzza asks if it’s fair to compare Toronto’s property taxes to 905 municipalities, given Toronto has more density. CFO says that while density does allow for more efficient spending in some areas, it’s offset by unique Toronto costs like the TTC and the shelter system.
Councillor Pasternak asks about the status of the Gardiner upload. City Manager says the Due Diligence Technical Phase is done and province is reviewing it. “When can we hand them the keys and say it’s theirs?” asks Pasternak. That’s TBD, apparently. Also highways don’t have keys
Councillor Perks asks when the library first developed its “Open Hours” plan to expand hours. 2006, say library staff. “So this is an 18-year promise we’re beginning to fulfill this year?" Sure is, say staff.
Mayor Olivia Chow speaks on the budget. She likes it. She lists off recent actions on housing, renovictions, shelters and school food programs, and lauds more spending in this budget for cutural events, firefighters, TTC service and infrastructure, youth programs, and so on.
Holyday asks the mayor why the city can’t just hold the line on current service levels and lower the property tax increase. She says as the city grows, services need to grow with it, and Toronto has seen what happens when they don’t match service growth with population growth.
“I just want to confirm you’re happy with the 6.9% property tax increase?” Burnside asks Chow. “No one is ever happy when we’re asking people to pay more, but at this point we have to fix the city, because we’ve had many years of not investing,” says the mayor.
Councillor Burnside, citing figures suggesting $140 million in lost revenue from TTC fare evasion, asks Chow if the fare enforcement efforts in this year's budget are the best the city can do. (TTC is budgeting for $12 million in recovered rev.) Chow says it's a step forward.
On fare evasion, TTC Chair Myers notes it's been a longstanding problem. "So now that you're actually doing something and people are complaining it's not enough, do you not think that maybe when they were in the position they should have done something?" he asks Chow.
"Thank god we did not raise fares," says Chow of the fare freeze in this year's budget. "Before I arrived here, it was a downward spiral. TTC fares go up, less people ride it, service declines, and guess what? It just keeps going," she says.
Pasternak says they are building a new daycare, library and a Housing Now site in his ward. "Would it surprise you that all of those were funded at a time when we were raising taxes at or below the rate of inflation?" he asks Chow. Chow says a lot of that was Section 37 funds.
"Can we at least agree that investment in our communities, city building and having nice things for our city, occured in previous administrations?" Pasternak asks. Chow says sure, there was some investment in new things, but also neglect of repairing existing infrastructure.
Councillor Vince Crisanti asks if Chow would consider "more aggressive measures" to tackle fare evasion, including returning to single-door entry. Chow says she's open to ideas, but single-door entry would slow down service significantly so she's not a fan.
Council takes a break from budgeting to go to lunch. But first, Nunziata invites all the women councillors to head upstairs to take a photo. They are all supposed to wear purple sweaters or jackets. Anyway. Back at 2 p.m.
Carroll has pre-circulated a budget motion: 1. $150K - Strong Cities Summit 2. $210K - tree pruning 3. $290K - ravines 4. $810K - drop-in shelter services 5, 6. $725K - food security & $127K - FTE 7. $450K - parks 8. $150K - Little Jamaica 9. $80K - local procurement
The budget meeting resumes. Councillor Holyday rises. He offers motions. Five of them. Buckle up.
Holyday has three motions giving options for TTC fare increases. 1. Raise fares by 25 cents, or 2. Raise cash fare by 35 cents, or 3. Raise fares by 10 cents.
Hoyday's other motions: - Delete all enhanced spending in the budget. ($~60 million) - Devote the $3 million put forward by Chow to a reserve fund, no new spending
Holyday says he took the bus to this meeting and was looking around and thought, "Not everybody on this bus can't afford to pay a little bit more for their fare increase." "Why do we always go down to that level, to say and assume that everybody can't afford to be on there?"
"The single loudest message I get from my constituents is that the city is broken and that they're angry about it," says Councillor Dianne Saxe. She says the structure of the city's finances was set in 1849, and "it's totally unsuitable for the work the city does now."
Pasternak rejects the idea that the Tory years were an "era of austerity", again listing a bunch of new projects that broke ground under the previous administration. He says it's a myth that you can't invest in the city while keeping property taxes at inflation.
Councillor Crisanti moves to reduce the 2025 residential property tax increase by 2 percentage points, offset by a reserve fund draw and a 1.3% cut to the budgets of all departments except emergency services.
Councillor Crisanti says the city is losing millions to inefficiencies, citing TTC fare evasion and the subsidy the parking authority gives to fund the bike share program.
Perks asks if Crisanti's motion would cut the student food program. Crisanti says no, because his motion instructs to cut budgets "with no impact to service levels." Perks asks if he's confirmed with staff it's possible to cut budgets with no service impacts. Crisanti says no.
"You like charging people taxes. You like taxing people. You're a taxer! You want to make this an unaffordable city, Gord. Grow up," says Councillor Vince Crisanti, as Nunziata cuts off his microphone.
"Some of these experienced councillors need to learn how to ask questions, or sit down and be QUIET," says a frustrated Crisanti as councillors continue to ask him how he calculated his numbers.
"Councillor Crisanti, I always wanted a pony and never got one," reveals Councillor Bravo. She points out that Crisanti seems to want to both expand programs like student nutrition while also cutting budget levels, which is kind of an unrealistic dream like wishing for a pony.
Councillor Mike Colle stands to note he's got a conflict of interest with the TTC budget, as his son Josh works there. He won't be voting on anything TTC budget-related.
After all that, Councillor Nunziata rules Crisanti's motion out of order, saying it is impossible to reduce all budgets by 1.3% without decreasing service levels.
A couple of protestors opposing the police budget break onto the Council floor. Security grabs them. Nunziata recesses the meeting.
After a long break, Council resumes. Nunziata warns that if there are any further protestor disruptions, the public will be banned from the chamber for the rest of the meeting.
Remember how Nunziata ruled Crisanti's budget-cutting motion out of order? Crisanti is unhappy about that. He challenges the ruling. Nunziata's ruling is UPHELD, 21-4.
"When our property taxes were increased by almost 10% last year, the mayor said it was because of the fiscal hole she inherited. Well it seems like the past year, she's dug her own hole," says Councillor Burnside, who is not at all happy with Mayor Chow's budget.
Councillor Brad Bradford is up now. He wants to cut the industrial property tax rate by 25%. It would cost $30.4 million, funded by a draw from reserve funds. He says this is in response to Trump's tariffs. "It's time for Toronto to stand up and take real action."
"I am urging you to support this motion, to support the 3,500 manufacturers grappling with this economic uncertainty," says Bradford. He says his motion will still leave $100 million in the tax stabilization reserve.
"Our reserves exist for emergencies, and as the mayor pointed out, they are for a rainy day. I would say a tariff war with the United States is more than a rainy day — it's an economic hurricane," says Bradford.
Councillor Fletcher asks Bradford if his manufacturing sector stats also include warehousing, like Amazon facilities. Bradford won't really answer. "Madame Speaker, the hysteria of my Council colleague aside..." starts Bradford. Fletcher is NOT happy with that choice of words
Nunziata asks Bradford to apologize for calling Fletcher hysterical. Bradford does, but also asks Nunziata to uphold decorum with other members of council. "Do we need a time out here?" wonders Nunziata. "We're really acting silly right now. Stop the bullying."
Councillor Fletcher says she hopes that everyone who will support Bradford's motion on the industrial tax rate will also protect lands zoned for employment. "I wish I could believe that, but unfortunately, the track record has been convert, convert, convert for many councillors"
Again pointing out that industrial land also includes warehouses, Fletcher asks, "Should we really be contemplating giving a tax break to Amazon, and the second most wealthy man on the planet?"
Mayor Olivia Chow moves to take a dinner break at 6:30 p.m. and then come back at 7 p.m. to finish this budget debate. She mentions maybe getting pizza for everyone.
Councillor Josh Matlow says he's got a motion coming to ensure the city's reserve funds are stable, to allow for future strategic investments to respond to tariffs. "We don't know what Donald Trump is going to do. We don't know if Donald Trump knows what he's going to do."
Matlow says instead of trying to "grab a headline" councillors should be focusing on their savings. "We should not be raiding our reserves right now. We should not be throwing money around just to say we're doing something."
"I guarantee you Donald Trump is not tuning into Toronto City Council right now to try to find out what we're about to do... Okay, I don't guarantee it, but I solidly assume he's not," says Matlow.
Councillor Shelley Carroll, the budget chief, moves the aforementioned omnibus motion, slicing and dicing the $3 million up for grabs.
Carroll warns that if councillors want a lower property tax increase next year, they need to "stay the course and be responsible in your decisions for the rest of this year."
Holyday's motion to cut the TTC budget by an amount equivalent to a 25-cent fare increase FAILS 1-23.
Holyday's motion to cut the TTC budget by an amount equivalent to a 35-cent cash fare increase FAILS 1-23.
Holyday's motion to cut the TTC budget by an amount equivalent to a 10-cent fare increase FAILS 2-22.
Holyday's motion to cut the budget by $60 million, eliminating all planned new and enhanced spending, FAILS 1-23.
Holyday's motion to NOT allocate the $3 million set aside from new priorities and instead put it back in the reserve fund FAILS 2-23.
Bradford's motion to reduce the industrial property tax rate by 25%, funded by a reserve fund draw, FAILS 3-22.
Carroll's omnibus budget motion, allocating $3 million to various programs, CARRIES 24-1.
That concludes the debate about the budget but don't spike the ball just yet. Council must still debate the property tax rates.
A series of motions have been posted with the tax rate item, including a Mayor Olivia Chow motion to temporarily restrict any Tesla vehicles from getting grant funding under the city's zero emission vehicle-for-hire program. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
Mayor Olivia Chow moves three things. 1. Prioritize local food procurement 2. "Send a message to the president's right-hand person" by restricting Teslas from vehicle-for-hire grant program 3. Realize savings and improvements from parks operations audit, and report back
Councillor Holyday asks about the Telsa restriction. "Do I understand this as a sanction towards a particular individual?" Holyday: "You know that Mr. Musk is a Canadian citizen?" Chow: "...And?"
Bradford asks Chow if she'd just consider cancelling the whole zero-emission vehicle grant program for taxi and limo drivers, instead of just restricting Teslas. Chow says she still believes in the importance of zero-emission vehicles, and some EVs are made in Canada.
Councillor Dianne Saxe asks if Chow would be cool with revising her motion to make it specific to NEW Teslas, so those buying used EVs could still participate in the grant program. Chow says she's fine with that and will make the change.
Councillor Holyday has motions. 1. Consider tax increase at or below inflation next year 2. Bring back mechanical leaf collection. 3. Return "excess dividends" to taxpayers. 4. Look at ways to make Bike Share profitable.
Councillor Bradford has a motion to further reduce property taxes for small businesses, paid for by a 1.53% increase to bigger biz in the commercial property tax class.
Bradford says he can't support the residential property tax increase in this year's budget. "I don't think anyone is feeling like the city got 25% better over the last three years," he says. "Mayor Chow's budget does not deliver value for money for taxpayers."
On that cheery note, Council takes a dinner break until 7 p.m. This budget debate will officially go longer than last year's budget debate, which wrapped up at 6:51 p.m. Inflation!
Council is back, and Councillor Josh Matlow has motions. 1. Report on a Community Benefit Charge Allocation Framework. 2. Make sure City Hall has enough in the reserve funds to weather a trade war.
Councillor Jon Burnside has motions. 1. Report on impact to property taxes if land transfer tax revenue went away. 2. Separate efficiencies from other kinds of savings in budget reports. 3. Request the TTC look for savings, and consider a fare increase next year.
Councillor Paul Ainslie has a motion too. He wants departments to make sure their budget presentations include a section on how they're performing relative to their service standards.
"I remember being a TTC rider and seeing people drop their money in the booth, whether or not there was a collector there, because they believed in the TTC. But it's been a long time since it felt like the TTC loved us back," says Councillor Bravo, regarding fare evasion.
Councillor Fletcher has a motion requesting staff look at ways to target workers in specific sectors (like the film and cultural sector) for access to new affordable rental housing.
Councillor Gord Perks moves to amend Holyday's motion about requesting a property tax increase at or below the rate of inflation in the future, adding a clause that makes it contingent on the viability of "delivering the services Torontonians deserve."
"I have a Tesla dealership in my ward," says Councillor Mke Colle. "And I'm going to do everything I can to get them to move out. I don't want Mr. Musk's company in my ward."
"That's what Toronto has been faced with. Unlimited, wide open immigration, with no financial support for the needs these people have," says Colle, calling for more federal financial support for Toronto.
Councillor Anthony Perruzza moves his traditional annual motion, requesting the province let Toronto keep all property tax revenue, including money that currently goes to education.
Councillor Lily Cheng moves to again remind the provincial and federal government that Toronto needs a new fiscal framework. I guess it's worth telling them again. Maybe they forgot. Memories fade.
Councillor Shelley Carroll, the Budget Chief, has a barrage of motions, requesting staff strike a deal to host the Strong Cities Summit along with a bunch of other operational requests. You can read them all here: secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
It's time, at long last, to vote. Councillor Bradford's motion to further reduce small business property taxes, paid for with an increase to bigger business commercial property taxes, FAILS 3-22.
Mayor Chow's motion to prioritize local procurement in food programs CARRIES 24-1.
Chow's motion to achieve service improvements and savings from the recent parks audit, and report back, CARRIES 25-0.
Chow's motion to restrict new Teslas from the grant program for zero-emission taxis and limos CARRIES 20-4.
Holyday's motion to request the mayor bring back mechanical leaf collection FAILS 10-15.
Holyday's motion to report on a rebate program where the city gives back "excess dividends" to property owners FAILS 3-22.
Matlow's motion to report on an allocation framework for Community Benefit Charges CARRIES 25-0.
Matlow's motion to make sure there's enough in the reserve funds to respond to the tariff threat when necessary CARRIES 23-1. Not the usual one.
Burnside's motion to include info in budget documents on how high property taxes would be if land transfer tax revenue went away CARRIES 24-0.
Burnside's motion to separate efficiencies in future budget documents CARRIES 24-1. Not the usual one.
Burnside's motion to request the TTC find savings in their next budget and consider a fare increase FAILS 7-17.
Councillor Fletcher's motion to look at ways to target workers in certain sectors for new affordable rental housing opportunities CARRIES 21-3.
Perruzza's motion to request the province let Toronto keep all the property tax revenue, even the education portion, CARRIES 16-8.
Cheng's motion to remind the federal and provincial governments that Toronto needs a new fiscal framework CARRIES 23-1.
Carroll's motion to authorize staff to enter into an agreement to host the Strong Cities Summit CARRIES 24-0.
Council votes to ADOPT the 2025 property tax rates, including a total 6.9% residential property tax increase, 19-5.
And that will do it. Thank you for joining me on this budgetary adventure. Let's do it again next year. If you enjoyed this thread and found it fascinating, consider supporting me with a subscription to my newsletter, City Hall Watcher. It keeps me going. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/subscribe