Toronto City Councillor
Ward 25 Don Valley West

 As a service to residents of Ward 25, I provide a brief summary of the highlights of the City Council Meetings of April 20, 23 and 24, 2007.

City of Toronto 2007 Operating Budget

At a special meeting, Council approved the City’s $7.8 billion 2007 Operating Budget. On the positive side, it maintains important municipal services, including police, fire, emergency services, libraries, roads, transit, waste collection, recycling, and parks and recreation; as well as a number of provincially-mandated social service programs. More problematically, to balance this year’s Operating Budget, Council raided $278 million from the City’s reserve funds prior to approving a property tax increase of 3.8% for residents and 1.26% for commercial and industrial properties.

I was one of 15 Councillors that did not support the budget.

It goes without saying that the 2007 budget had exceptional challenges - one of the most significant being a $71 million shortfall in funding for provincially mandated social service programs which the City is obliged to deliver. That being said, the strategy to once again hike property taxes above the rate of inflation; raid reserve funds and hope for a future provincial or federal cash bail-out is, in my opinion, unsound. As identified by our Chief Financial Officer, there is a financial crisis looming at the City and, in my view, we are overdue for corrective action.

Council’s leadership is also considering new “revenue tools” provided by the new City Toronto Act. They are particularly attracted to the possibility of new land transfer fees, new vehicle ownership fees and special taxes on liquor and entertainment. However, the potential revenue that could be realized by adopting all such measures would likely still be short of the amount required to close the annual budget deficit. Furthermore, there are concerns that implementing these measures would encourage tax avoidance and put Toronto at a competitive disadvantage with neighbouring municipalities. (Incidentally, City staff are currently conducting public information sessions on the possible new taxes – the North York session will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at Memorial Hall, 5100 Yonge Street.)

My prescription: On the revenue side, Council must significantly increase residential development charges for new construction. Consider this - infrastructure in Toronto is required at a rate of about $23,000 for every new resident introduced through residential growth. Developers, however, remit to the City only about $4,000 per person in development charges. And since the city has been growing at 10,000 to 15,000 people per year, this has resulted in a shortfall of about $200 million per year - for many, many years. Council’s leadership continues to ask for a bail-out from federal and/or provincial taxpayers while failing to take on this home-grown solution.

On the spending side, there are a number of actions Council could undertake to reduce expenditures and provide more efficient delivery of city services. These include: (1) Review the City’s Fair Wage Policy (paid by the City’s contractors) and bring rates into line with those of the Federal and Provincial Governments. (2) Limit wage increases for City staff – and Councillors - to the rate of inflation. (3) Deliver city services more efficiently – certain services which can be provided more efficiently by the private sector should be contracted out. (4) Implement methodologies well tested in the private sector – such as business re-engineering and zero-based budgeting.

I would be pleased to receive your feedback on the 2007 Operating Budget and the state of the City’s finances in general. If you have questions or comments, please reply to this email.

4187 Dundas Street West

Council voted to adopt staff recommendations and reject a development application for 4187 Dundas Street West. While this is in Etobicoke, it has very great significance in our Ward and across the City. It is a major early test of certain “neighbourhood protection” policies of the new Official Plan – and will be a model for how development applications will be handled on streets such as Yonge Street (and selected other places in the Ward). Particularly troubling about this application was that the Etobicoke-York Community Council had previously ignored the vocal opinions of local residents and the sound reasoning of planning staff in order to approve a condominium application which not only failed to respect the “transitioning” provisions of the OP, it also jumped the OP boundaries and extended right INTO the adjacent stable residential community. The developer may appeal this application to the OMB. If so, I will inform you of the outcome.

No change to City ward numbers and names

Council rejected a proposal that recommended replacing ward numbers with names, objecting to the difficulty in identifying a single name to represent the many different communities that exist in each ward. Names and numbers are currently used to identify the City’s 44 wards, with names corresponding to the 22 provincial ridings. However, with two City Councillors for every one provincial riding, numbers are assigned to differentiate between wards with the same name.

2009 World Green Roof Congress

Council approved a motion to join with Toronto-based Green Roofs For Healthy Cities in a bid to host the 2009 World Green Roof Congress. The event is expected to attract approximately 1,000 participants from around the world, and is an opportunity to showcase the many green roof installations in Toronto, as well as other sustainable initiatives. Supporting green roofs is integral to several City environmental plans, and has been proposed as part of the Climate Change and Clean Air Action Plan.

A made-in-Toronto model for traffic calming

Council approved changes to Toronto’s traffic calming policy that will allow the City to develop a Toronto model for public consultation and participation in traffic calming proposals. The new City of Toronto Act removes the onerous notification requirements mandated by the province, and allows the City to develop a made-in-Toronto model for service delivery that supports the City’s long-standing record of public consultation. The City’s new traffic calming policy streamlines the traffic calming approval application process and contributes to the safety of Toronto’s neighbourhoods.

Battery recycling and public awareness programs

Council directed city staff to report on a strategy to increase the safe disposal of batteries in Toronto, including the use of TTC locations, community centres and sports facilities as drop off points. Staff were also asked to explore the potential for a public awareness campaign informing residents of the benefits of the safe disposal of batteries, and to propose a plan for 100 per cent cost-recovery of battery recycling and disposal programs from battery manufacturers.

Design Review Panel Pilot Project

Council approved the 12 volunteer members to the City’s Design Review Panel Pilot Project – a two-year pilot to help ensure a high level of urban design that fits well into the cityscape. Design review panels are used in other Canadian and international cities to raise the design quality of buildings and public spaces by enhancing the development approvals process. Design review panels provide advice to City staff on proposed private and municipal projects. In June 2006, City Council directed staff to implement the Design Review Panel Pilot Project to help achieve the goals of the City’s Clean and Beautiful City initiative and Official Plan by improving the design of the public realm. The pilot project will also help determine the feasibility of a city-wide design review panel.

Equity for Toronto’s taxi industry

Council voted to implement a new bylaw prohibiting airport-licensed taxis and limousines without a Toronto license, from picking up passengers in the city of Toronto. The bylaw will take effect 30 days from the meeting to provide an opportunity for discussions with stakeholders about finding an equitable solution to the long-standing grievance between taxis and limousines licensed by the City of Toronto, and those licensed in other jurisdictions. Currently, Toronto-licensed taxis and limousines are prohibited from picking up passengers at the airport – unless requested by a passenger or the airport on a pre-arranged basis – while taxis and limousines licensed by other municipalities that hold a federal Government Airport Concession Operators Regulations permit are allowed to pick up passengers in Toronto.

New harmonized City fireworks bylaw and permit rules

Council approved a new harmonized fireworks bylaw, effective January 1, 2008, which will allow authorized vendors to sell family, display, and theatrical fireworks year-round. Permits will be issued to permanent fireworks vendors who meet the federal requirements. Temporary fireworks vendors, temporary lease fireworks vendors, and mobile fireworks vendors are required to obtain permits to sell only family fireworks on Canada Day and Victoria Day, including during the week leading up to those holidays. The new harmonized City fireworks bylaw replaces bylaws for the former cities of Toronto, Etobicoke, Scarborough, York, North York and Borough of East York.

2 for 1 Toronto Island Ferry tickets

City Council adopted a motion to introduce a pilot pricing project where 2 for 1 Toronto Island Ferry adult tickets will be offered from May 22 to September 2, between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., excluding holiday weekends and special events.

Non-Council Items:

The Ontario Municipal Board hearing for 2425-2427 Bayview Avenue was recently concluded. As you may already know, this is an application to demolish two beautiful single-family homes on two lots and replace them with twenty townhouses. This is another major test of the “neighbourhood protection” provisions of the new Official Plan. Neighbouring residents and the two affected community associations were obliged to raise about $100,000 to participate, along with City legal and planning staff, in the defence of Bayview Avenue and our new OP. I will inform you of the Board Decision when it is released.