Thread by @GraphicMatt

Toronto Council meets today! It’s a very special meeting to consider the 2021 budget. Last year’s meeting took just 5.5 hours, a budget speedrun record! Can they beat it this year? I’ll tell you, later in this thread.

The livestream is here:

I previewed the budget in this week’s (free) issue of @CityHallWatcher. I’m not expecting a ton of drama, but wouldn’t be surprised to see motions about the police budget, a luxury land transfer tax, and emergency housing. graphicmatt.substack.com/p/settling-sco…

As is tradition at this point, Tory has played the @towhey card and designated the agenda item related to property tax rates as his first key matter. That means Council will have to vote to lock in the 2021 property tax rate before they debate spending programs.

Some background on this city budget strategy. It endures as a pretty fascinating legacy of the Rob Ford mayoralty.

https://twitter.com/GraphicMatt/status/963068651229212673

“Now is not the time for polarization. Now is not the time for politicization,” says Mayor John Tory, introducing the budget debate. He hopes Council can be united in going forward and getting support from the provincial and federal governments.

Councillor Gord Perks asks Tory to allow Council to debate both the tax rates and the budget at the same time. Tory says nah, he’s cool with the agenda as it is.

Views: Toronto Council’s budget debate in February 2020 versus the budget debate in February 2021.

Councillor Layton kicks things off by asking CFO Heather Taylor about the city’s credit rating. Tory has ruled out taking on more debt out of concern it’d hurt Toronto’s AA rating, which is second to Vancouver among big Canadian cities. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Toronto has a self-imposed debt ceiling where debt service costs can’t exceed 15% of property tax revenue, so one way to create more room to leverage debt is to raise property taxes. By keeping prop tax increases below inflation, Council also constrains capital spending.

CFO Heather Taylor says increasing Toronto’s debt ceiling would reduce Toronto’s credit rating from AA to A, which would increase the city’s borrowing costs by 20%. She’s advising against it.

Councillor James Pasternak asks if it’s true that seniors will be “pushed out of their homes” if property taxes are raised. City Manager Chris Murray points out those seniors do own assets worth significant $$$ and the city has program to defer/cancel payments for seniors.

Yep. The other piece to this is they are, generally, talking about small numbers. A 1% residential tax increase is about $30 a year for the average household — $2.50 a month. Always struck me as unlikely property tax would be anyone’s breaking point.

https://twitter.com/jpags/status/1362422450240241664

But property tax debates are tricky. People don’t understand why it seems (wrongly) like their property tax rate goes up every year when their income tax/sales tax rates rarely go up. The way property taxes work — ridiculously complicated — make for bad policy.

Councillor Gord Perks moves to refer the issue of 2021 property tax rates back to the City Manager and ask him to come up with a tax rate that supports housing, child care and transit.

Council skips debate on Perks’ referral and votes to REJECT it, 6-20.

Councillor Shelley Carroll moves for a slew of financial reports that’d come in July, including updated property tax comparisons with other cities and revenue tool revenue estimates, including projections for 1% city sales tax.

“We have a revenue problem, not a spending problem,” says Councillor Mike Layton, backing Carroll’s motion which would give Council a lot of useful info on a revenue strategy.

Budget Chief Gary Crawford, who’s had the job for seven years (!), thanks staff for all their work on the budget. He’ll support Carroll’s motion. Crawford is also an artist and is displaying a nice City Hall piece.

Councillor James Pasternak says raising property taxes above the rate of inflation “hurts seniors.” He suggests property tax increases will push seniors out of their houses and into long-term care homes, where they’ll be more vulnerable to things like pandemic viruses.

“Raising property taxes leads to getting COVID in a long-term care home” is some real galaxy brain thinking. Impressive reach.

One of the things I’ll be watching is what happens to the inflation rate over the rest of 2021. Toronto’s going with a 0.7% budgetary increase for residents based on ultra-low inflation in 2020. But StatsCan says national CPI could be 3% by April. reuters.com/article/us-can…

Councillor Jaye Robinson brings up Council’s 2019 decision to stick with closed-shop tendering for some construction jobs. She says that could have saved $48 million per year. That was the high-end estimate, though there was some hedging in the report. app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgen…

Mayor John Tory says the energy councillors spend criticizing him and his administration would be better spent at Queen’s Park advocating for funding for Toronto.

Councillor Shelley Carroll’s motion gets split up. Her motion for a report on increasing the land transfer tax for multi-million dollar homes CARRIES 22-4.

Carroll’s motion for a report on other revenue tools, including a 1% sales tax, CARRIES 24-2.

The 2021 property tax rates for Toronto are APPROVED by Council, 23-3.

Here are your approved 2021 property tax rates.

With the property tax rates locked in, now Council will debate the operating and capital budgets. Any motion to increase spending will need to be offset by a revenue draw. Not a lot of options with property taxes off the table.

Councillors asking a bunch of questions about the Gardiner, which would seem to set the stage for some sort of motion coming. The summary: it’s very expensive. I wrote about this for the Star this week. thestar.com/opinion/contri…

Councillors Grimes and Holyday, who represent some of the remaining areas in the city that still get mechanical leaf collection, both asked Transportation GM Barbara Gray for assurance that this budget does not take away their mechanical leaf collection. It does not.

And with that, Council is on lunch break until 2 p.m. At that time they’ll wrap up staff questions, do motions and speeches, and then vote on this thing.

Councillor Josh Matlow previews a budget motion on police reform.

https://twitter.com/JoshMatlow/status/1362468850508451846

Back from lunch, Councillor Filion asks if there’s an off-ramp to all this Gardiner spending. “Is it too late for us to modify our decision?” The answer: “It’s up to Council’s purview. You can revisit that.” But the $310 million spent on section between Cherry & Jarvis is gone.

Councillor Cynthia Lai brings some innovation in virtual meeting backgrounds.

Councillor Frances Nunziata asking questions to the police chief. This camera angle they’re using at police HQ makes me feel like I’m at a job interview.

Questions done. Now speeches. Councillor Gary Crawford, the budget chief, moves to grab another $4 million from a Toronto Parking Authority dividend and keep it as a contingency.

Councillor Ana Bailao moves to request parks staff work with councillors to use Section 37 and other funds to winterize public washrooms.

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong responds to Bailao’s motion by saying he thinks lots of councillors don’t want winterized washrooms because it would turn parks into “campgrounds for the homeless.”

Bailao points out that lots of people, homeless or otherwise, “an array of people”, would use winter washrooms in parks. Minnan-Wong says washrooms would encourage people to set up encampments in parks.

Councillor Josh Matlow expresses concern that Bailao’s motion to use Section 37 funds etc could leave wards without a lot of condo development with little money for winterizing washrooms.

Councillor Holyday asks Bailao if her motion to use Section 37 funds for park washrooms could free up some money to do things like fix potholes in parking lots in his ward. Bailao says that is not her intention.

Councillor Holyday echoes Minnan-Wong. “If you put [funding] towards a washroom, and you know there’s a problem with encampments in the park, that could make the situation worse, could it not?”

Councillor Mike Layton moves to amend Crawford’s motion re: taking $4 million from the Parking Authority to direct $2.7 million of that cash toward TransformTO climate change mitigation projects and winter park washrooms.

Layton also has a motion for a report on the budget implications of building 25, 50 or 100 km of bike lanes each year.

Another Layton motion calls for a review of transferring all crisis response, traffic management and parking enforcement away from the Toronto Police.

And Layton also moves to reiterate commitment to applying a climate lens to all projects.

Councillor Josh Matlow moves for a report on a more comprehensive non-police first-responder service.

Councillor Brad Bradford moves for a report to the 2022 budget process on adding new skateparks and fixing up the existing ones.

Councillor Holyday wants a friendly amendment to include BMX parks in Bradford’s motion. Bradford says sure. Councillor Colle asks if he can also include basketball courts. That’s a bridge too far, says Bradford. Local politics is fun.

Councillor Gord Perks moves to refer the entire budget back to staff so it can be rewritten to prioritize childcare, affordable housing, and transit.

Perks’ motion to refer the budget back to staff FAILS 3-23.

Councillor Mark Grimes moves for a report on clearing pathways and trails of snow and ice.

Councillor Jennifer McKelvie moves to add $1 million for the Ravine Strategy, split between operating and capital.

Meanwhile, NASA just landed a thing on Mars! Quick someone introduce a motion to extend the Yonge subway to Mars.

As the rover was landing on Mars, Councillor Paul Ainslie introduced an equally-exciting motion to allocate any 2021 library budget surplus to library enhancements.

Looks like a good site for affordable housing. Mixed-use with a community centre and retail at grade.

Councillor John Filion moves for a review of planning application fees ahead of next year’s budget process.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam moves to redirect $2.47 million to reduce license fees for cab and limo drivers during the pandemic.

Wong-Tam also moves for a report on the progress of police reform and the feasibility of a municipal handgun ban, given the new federal legislation.

Councillor Wong-Tam also has a motion for a report on the status of community safety programs like TO Wards Peace that’d come in Q3 of this year.

Another Wong-Tam motion calls for a review of vehicle-for-hire license fees, looking at reducing them if possible.

And Wong-Tam moves to redirect $500K to establish a Housing Commissioner’s office this year.

Councillor Shelley Carroll moves an intriguing motion to request the feds allow municipalities to negotiate with them directly re: transit funding, rather than having to work through the province.

Councillor Michael Thompson moves for a report on a program that’d allow pandemic-stressed businesses to defer biz license fees.

Councillor Mike Colle moves to thank the federal and provincial governments for all they’ve done during the pandemic. “They’ve really pulled through for us,” he says.

Colle: “I know it’s not fashionable to praise anything in Toronto…”

Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to amend the budget to remove start-up funding for the Vacant Home Tax program.

Holyday also has a motion to ensure that no Local Arts Service Organization faces any funding reduction. The LASO in Etobicoke is the most well-funded in the city, and he’s concerned about any move to rebalance arts funding.

Thompson pushes back a bit against Holyday’s motion, noting that Arts Etobicoke gets $1.19 per resident while Scarborough is at 45 cents. Thompson asks if Holyday would support increasing the other per-capita budgets to match Etobicoke. Holyday says he supports looking at it.

I don’t know who’s directing these Council broadcasts these days but this is a nice camera angle. Good composition. Flag in the background is nice touch.

Councillor Jaye Robinson moves to have the City Manager review the structure of the TTC and the Transit Expansion Office to make sure they’re working well together.

“It’s obvious some councillors are not very supportive of the police,” says Councillor Frances Nunziata. She says she’s “disturbed” by comments about Toronto being over-policed. “What do you say to the parents of children who have been killed by gun violence?” she asks.

Minnan-Wong brings up his opposition to installing more park washrooms again. “You know what we tell our kids, before they go to the park? Go to the bathroom before you go.”

Mayor John Tory is our last speaker on the budget. He’s got a motion on emergency and supportive housing. Tory says this has been negotiated between his office and some councillors. A compromise.

Tory says he won’t support Layton’s motion to allocate budget for winter washrooms, but will support Bailao’s motion to look at using Section 37 funds.

Tory also says he’ll vote against Layton’s bike lane motion, saying the city is already making good progress with 10-year cycling plan.

Some weird last-minute budget drama here. Mayor John Tory introduced the supportive housing motion but doesn’t seem thrilled with it, and the way it directs City Manager on negotiation strategy. Layton wonders why he moved it if he doesn’t like it. Tory says he’s okay with it.

Councillor Josh Matlow wants to separate Colle’s motion thanking the federal and provincial governments. He’s okay with thanking the feds but not the province.

Almost done with this budget debate. There are 20+ motions to vote on, so they’re taking a 15 minute break to get all the votes lined up. Nunziata recommends people get a glass of water or a coffee.

Recess over! Matlow withdraws his request to separate out the thanking of the provincial and federal governments, just to keep things simple. Voting about to start.

Layton’s motion to direct $2.7 million in contingency funds toward TransformTO projects and the addition of 15 new winter washrooms FAILS 7-18.

Wong-Tam’s motion to direct $2.5 million in contingency funds toward giving breaks to the taxi industry over licensing fees etc given the pandemic CARRIES 24-1.

Crawford’s motion to direct $4 million from Toronto Parking Authority to the contingency fund, some of which will now go to helping the taxi industry, CARRIES 24-1.

Grimes’ motion for a report on options for clearing park trails of snow and ice CARRIES 26-0.

McKelvie’s motion to put an additional $1 million toward the ravine strategy CARRIES 26-0.

Carroll’s motion to request $319K in library funding for digital literacy for seniors and community outreach as part of COVID relief funds from federal and provincial governments CARRIES 16-10. Tory loses a vote!

Councillor Stephen Holyday’s motion to remove funds to implement the vacant home tax from the budget FAILS 4-22.

Bailao’s motion to look at using Section 37 and Section 42 funds to fund winter washrooms CARRIES 22-4.

Bailao’s motion for a report on options for winterizing new and existing washrooms CARRIES 23-3.

Layton’s motion for a report on the budget implications of building 25, 50 and/or 100 km of new bike lanes each year FAILS 13-13. Loses on a tie.

But whoops, Tory voted incorrectly on the bike lane item. He spoke against it. He’d like a re-vote.

On a re-vote, Layton’s motion for a report on the budget implications of building 25, 50 and/or 100 km of new and upgraded bike lanes each year FAILS 12-14.

Layton’s motion for a report on potentially transferring responsibility for crisis response, traffic management and parking enforcement away from the police CARRIES 22-4.

Layton’s motion to reiterate Council’s commitment to putting a climate lens on all projects CARRIES 23-2.

Councillor Matlow’s motion for a report on non-police first-responders to come in Q4 of this year CARRIES 24-2.

Bradford’s motion to look at fixing up and adding more skate parks and BMX parks CARRIES 26-0.

Ainslie’s motion for a report on reinvesting any library budget surplus toward library enhancements like digital literacy for seniors and community outreach CARRIES 26-0.

Filion’s motion calling for a review of planning application fees ahead of next year’s budget process CARRIES 26-0.

Wong-Tam’s motion calling for a report on the feasibility of implementing and enforcing a municipal handgun ban CARRIES 25-1.

Councillor Paula Fletcher is voting on the city’s budget while driving. “It’s illegal!” yells Councillor Mike Colle.

“I’m not holding the phone!” protests Fletcher. Nunziata is very unsure about this, but decides to let it go.

Fletcher leaves the meeting after several objections to her voting while driving.

Tory jumps to Fletcher’s defence, saying she had a staffer in the car holding the camera. He regrets that she left. He wonders if someone should call her and invite her back.

Anyway. Wong-Tam’s motion for a report on community safety initiatives like TO Wards Peace CARRIES 25-0.

The Clerk is asked for a ruling on voting-while-driving. The Clerk says there’s no rule against it. Fletcher is back, still driving.

Wong-Tam’s motion to accelerate work on establishing the office of a Housing Commissioner this year FAILS 8-17.

Wong-Tam’s motion for a review of vehicle-for-hire fees compared other biz license categories CARRIES 24-0. Fletcher is gone again.

Carroll’s motion to ask the federal government to work directly with cities on transit funding CARRIES 26-0. (Fletcher, having returned, is also a yes.)

Thompson’s motion for a report on a deferral program for biz license fees for struggling businesses CARRIES 26-0.

Colle’s motion to thank the federal and provincial governments for all they’ve done for Toronto during the pandemic CARRIES 23-1.

Holyday’s motion to ensure no Local Arts Service Org faces a funding reduction if/when arts funding is rebalanced across the city FAILS 8-17.

Robinson’s motion to review the TTC and the Transit Expansion Office to make sure their work is aligned CARRIES 25-1.

First part of Tory’s motion on supportive housing, reiterating Council’s priority to provide shelter for everyone who is sleeping outdoors, CARRIES 24-1.

Remainder of Tory’s supportive housing motion, making strong request to province for funds and creating a webpage for tracking progress, CARRIES 25-0.

The 2021 city budget as it pertains to telecom services and media services — stuff the mayor has a conflict of interest with — CARRIES 22-2.

The 2021 budget as it pertains to taxi licensing — something Councillor Nick Mantas has declared a conflict of interest with — CARRIES 23-1.

And the 2021 Toronto capital and operating budgets as they pertain to everything else CARRY 23-2. That’s the ballgame.

The meeting ends with some awkward virtual applause for budget chief Gary Crawford. No word on what happened to Councillor Paula Fletcher.

📊A city councillor attending (and voting in) a virtual City Council meeting while driving is:

Thanks for following my coverage of Council’s 2021 budget debate! It featured things I did not expect.

If you enjoyed this coverage, I’d love it if you’d consider supporting me by subscribing to @CityHallWatcher — my weekly newsletter.

graphicmatt.substack.com