Thread by @GraphicMatt

It’s officially budget season at city hall. Today the Budget Committee will get draft versions of the “rate-supported budgets” — for things paid for with user fees, and not (generally) taxes. That includes water, garbage and parking. Watch live here:

First up: the water budget. Rates for residents — and all other users — are proposed to go up by 3% for 2022. Impact of about $29 per year for residents.

On average, you pay $2.68 a day for Toronto water. Pretty great deal, really. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

The water budget remains in pretty great shape. Declining State of Good Repair backlog. Stable operating costs. Fees set at an appropriate level to fund short- and long-term needs.

Let’s flag this for later for a comparison with, for example, the Transportation budget, where we’ll probably see that the repair backlog is increasing and revenues aren’t keeping up. It’s quite the contrast.

This is a neat chart. Look at how much more efficient water usage in Toronto has gotten since the go-go days of the 1980s.

Toronto tends to use more water in the summer than other times of the year. Staff note 2021 usage (the red line) has come in lower than previous years, especially during the winter, because of lockdown closures. Summer use also down this year because of cooler, wetter weather.

Toronto does pretty well on residential water bills in the GTA comparison. Rest assured you are getting a better deal than Richmond Hill.

For the next ten years, water rates projected to go up by 3% a year most years. That’s low compared to the 9% annual increases imposed for several years. Those steep increases got the repair backlog back under control.

Councillor Shelley Carroll asks the first question about inflation for this budget cycle. Toronto Water GM Lou Di Gironimo says inflation is definitely a risk factor for their capital work, but city has already signed a bunch of fixed contracts which should help.

Inflation is going to be an interesting X-factor of this city hall budget cycle. “Property tax increase at or below the rate of inflation” is a mantra with Tory’s government, but this year that could allow for a residential increase of like 4.5%.

Up now: a garbage budget. A trash powerpoint. A 3% “blended increase” in fees proposed. Not clear yet what that’ll mean for residents. Future rate increases very much hinge on province implementing Extended Producer Responsibility program by 2024. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

Staff say they’ve crunched the numbers and if you put out your garbage on the designated day there is a 99.97% chance it will be collected by a Toronto garbage truck. Very specific.

There’s a Vision Zero component to the garbage budget, as the department tracks at-fault collisions. Would be nice to see a downward trend here. The budget notes there’s a new training facility for drivers.

Our last budget presentation of the morning: Toronto Parking Authority’s 2022 budget. The story of the TPA is that parking usage remains way down. But Bike Share (managed by TPA) usage is up, with ridership growing by a million between 2019 and 2021. toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2… (PDF)

The average on-street parking space in Toronto generated just $1,300 in 2021 — about 25 bucks a week. TPA hoping to grow that figure back to pre-pandemic level of $3,100 a year, or about 60 bucks.

Councillor Layton asks TPA CEO Scott Collier about plans to add more e-Bikes to the Bike Share fleet. Collier says the e-Bikes are about 3x to 4x more expensive, but TPA continues to buy more. Aspiration by 2025 to have 10K bikes in inventory, with about 1,000 of them e-bikes.

TPA CEO confirms this budget freezes parking rates for 2022. No increases on the table.

The Budget Committee requests a few briefing notes and adjourns for now. They’ll be back for more water, garbage and parking deliberations on these budgets on November 19. Get hyped.