Okay now it's over, I feel like I am dying and need to leave, thanks to anyone who is reading this
#TObudget
If this goes over time I am going to have to tap out, I wish we could drink water in here
- Anyway, parts 1-4 as amended carry 19-5 (Bradford, Crisanti, Holyday, Perruzza, Pasternak against).
- Part 15, re: Parking Authority funding. "What's in that?" asks Cllr Colle distractedly. "Just read it," someone heckles. Carroll: "First rule of improv, just say yes!" It carries 20-4.
- Part 16, re: "considering" raising parking rates, carries 20-4.
- Part 24, on expanding the air conditioner pilot program, carries 23-1. "I feel like I'm getting older just sitting here," says Nunziata, whose birthday is in 2 days.
- Parts 26-30, re: FIFA, carry 22-2, with Nunziata & Bradford against. "If you vote for this you get the FIFA Peace Prize," jokes Colle.
- The rest of the item as pertaining to the TTC (so Cllr Colle, who has a conflict as his son [former councillor Josh Colle] now works for the TTC, can vote on the rest) carries unanimously, 23-0.
- The rest of the rest of the item carries unanimously, 24-0.
Now voting on the item as amended (still https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.CC38.1). Councillors want various items to be separated out. I am starting to feel overheated and woozy and am decidedly under-hydrated.
- Parts 1-4 (the main rates) carry 21-4.
- PROCEDURAL CONFUSION as they are unclear what they are voting on now
Votes! (Once again, here: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.CC38.1)
(Note, when there is a lone "no" it's Holyday)
- Bradford's motion on increasing the small business tax break to 25% fails 5-20. "Perruzza!" Colle cries in disappointment (he voted for it).
- Carroll's motion increasing it to 20% carries 23-2.
- The other parts of her motion pass by a show of hands.
- Matlow's motion asking for a share of the HST carries 24-1.
- Morley's motion (drop-in sector, snow clearing for seniors & disabled people) carries 24-1.
- Morley's Amsterdam Bridge motion carries with a show of hands.
- Pasternak's motions re: a Major Gifts office; the Downsview Community Centre; New Deal 2.0 MoA agreeement all carry with show of hands.
- Pasternak's motion that the City of Toronto be very stern about loss of federal housing funds carries 22-3. (Matlow and Saxe against, which is interesting.)
- Kandavel's motion on Bluffer's Park carries with a show of hands.
- Burnside's motion on the Aga Khan Park carries with a show of hands.
- Bravo's motion on more transparent police (& associated divisions) budget reporting carries 23-2.
- Perruzza's annual property tax motion carries 22-3, Bravo and Malik against.
- Holyday's annual mechanical leaf collection motion fails 9-16. "Hey, that's one more than last year!" Holyday announces. "Keep trying," says Nunziata.
- Fletcher's Applegrove Community Centre motion passes with a show of hands.
- Myers's motion on more transparent TTC budget reporting carries unanimously.
- Burnside's motion for a $0.10 fare hike fails 3-20. "If you listened more and talked less, you'd know where I'm coming from," he calls in response to Perruzza's heckling. "Sick burn!" says Carroll.
- Crisanti's motion on free/discounted fares for senior Wheel-Trans users carries 19-5. Carroll, Matlow, Saxe (and Burnside and Holyday) against, likely for various reasons.
Cllr Crisanti has a motion asking the TTC to look into "free to $1 for Wheel-Trans customers aged 65 and over during off-peak hours (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) on weekdays and all day on weekends".
Cllr Myers says Wheel-Trans actually costs $50 a trip, and suggests instead making fares free/discounted for "conditional passengers", people who could use Wheel-Trans but are using the regular TTC instead. Crisanti says they could look at both scenarios.
OK, speakers over, voting time i guess
If I were a councillor, I would bring up the ecological cost of leaf disposal and ask why Cllr Holyday hates pollinators, detritivores, fireflies, etc., and move for a ban on mechanical leaf collection, and that is why I am not a councillor
Holyday has the Annual Motion to Restore Mechanical Leaf Collection In Etobicoke, as is tradition. (Like windrow clearing, a frequent subject of last-minute budget horse-trading that was cut in recent years.) I am actually laughing out loud.
OHHHHHHHHH Cllr Bravo has a motion similar to Myers' re: the TTC budget, but about the police (and the services transferred from police to the City proper).
- City Council request the Toronto Police Service Board, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, and the Executive Director, Social Development, to provide, as part of its annual budget submission, starting with the 2027 budget, an accounting of budget impacts, including efficiencies and cost savings, from the following areas:
a. the approximately 40,000 crisis calls responded to by the Toronto Community Crisis Service since launching in 2022, which contributed to a 4.5 per cent decrease in overall mental health-related 911 calls;
b. the transfer to the City of the crossing guard program through Transportation Services;
c. the transfer of noise enforcement to Municipal Licensing and Standards; and
d. increased traffic control done by the City through the traffic agents program.
Fletcher asks Bradford whether they're sure that the savings will be passed on to the businesses rather than just enriching the landlords.
Cllr Colle brings up Taylor Swift again, is in full "c'mon Zeyde let's get you to bed" mode.
Bradford has a motion to increase the small business tax break from 15% to 25%, instead of 20% as in the Mayor's budget.
Fletcher, who can really nurse a grudge, points out that Bradford didn't move it before Chow was mayor. The old "this u?"
Note that increasing barriers to using the TTC risks the feared TTC Ridership Death Spiral, where lower ridership leads to worse services leading to lower ridership, etc., etc., hence why your typical transit wonks oppose cutting struggling public transit.
Myers is like, are you aware this is a terrible fucking idea. Burnside is like, "I was advised by folks at the TTC—"
"Which folks? Name names."
"Is this an inquisition?"
Myers (paraphrase): No, I just want to know.
"Uh…I don't know their names."
"It's amazing. You're a former TTC chair. Just amazing." Cllr Myers is extremely amused.
Cllr Pasternak has a raft of various uncontroversial-looking/ineffectual motions, such as Council telling "the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Canada that it vigorously opposes and takes serious objection to his announced a $10 million reduction in Housing Accelerator Fund funding for the City of Toronto."
Cllr Burnside has a motion to raise TTC fares by $0.10. He says it's unfair to ask Toronto's wealthiest property owners to pay more, but not TTC riders. stares into the camera
WINDROW CLEARING RETURNS!!!!! (The enhanced service of clearing the snowbanks left in people's driveways by snow plows has been a perennial budget football over the years.)
Cllr Morley has a motion for Toronto Shelter & Support Services to work with the drop-in sector to "review core wage principles, adequate resourcing and overall stabilization of the sector", noting that drop-in staff have to "wear many hats".
Another part of her motion is looking into "enhanced" snow clearing for seniors and people with disabilities, an issue which came to the fore during the recent snow Event. She says Brampton and Pickering have such programs.
Cllr Matlow has a motion to ask the province and feds for a share of the HST to compensate the City for all the services and infrastructure they've downloaded over the decades, which is nice but will go nowhere.
"We have not plundered, we have not raided," Cllr Carroll says in defence of the budget.
Cllr Myers has a motion regarding how the TTC and the City interact, accountability- and funding-wise, instead of the City just "cutting the TTC a check": "considering mechanisms to formalize agreements between both entities on key performance indicators, verification/auditing, service levels, safety and customer experience."
Cllr Fletcher going into deep history (1998) about money set aside for the Main Square development, the old Neighbourhood Services Committee, etc. "Did the new City spend four million dollars in vain?" I begrudgingly admit I am mildly interested.
As expected, Cllr Carroll has a motion to increase the tax break for small businesses and balance it out with hiking rates for the rest of the commercial property tax subclass. She also has another motion which I don't think does very much
Oh shit I forgot about the other budget item (where they actually set the rates). As is tradition, it is considered after the main budget item, even though now it makes no difference.
You'll notice the table of property tax rates is mind-meltingly confusing. As ever, see David Hains's perennially useful explainer on how property taxes work in Toronto.
Holyday has questions about the changes to Toronto Parking Authority financing. (There are interesting changes afoot that I have not looked into myself.)
Holyday's TTC motions failed. So did Pasternak's motion to delay the shelter. Perruzza accidentally votes against Bradford's Main Square motion and they have to re-open the vote so it can pass unanimously.
(See results on the item page.)
Voting. I realize this sounds quite intemperate but this has been a peeve of mine for as long as I've been following City Council. They do the item pages in MS Word, I believe, so we're not gonna get like semantic markup, but it does have outline functionality that should allow for it
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