Torontonians can expect a lot less from their municipal government if City Council adopts the recommendations of a staff report on proposed cuts to services. By next year, Toronto may have less affordable housing, fewer daycare spaces and libraries, and a scaled back transit service. Joseph Pennachetti, the City Manager, joined budget chief and councillor Mike DelGrande in releasing his recommendations to help balance the city’s 2012 budget at the Scarborough Civic Centre Monday. “I know that these proposals won’t please many people,” Pennachetti said, “but I need to balance the goal of fiscally meeting a massive shortfall with the concerns of residents who want the city to maintain its high level of services.” The report follows up on this summer’s reports from management consultants KPMG, who suggested programs that the city could reduce, eliminate or transfer to other agencies. Pennachetti and his staff sifted through the more than 200 “opportunities” that KPMG had identified, arriving at 69 recommendations for downgrading city services in order to help bridge the city’s 2012 budgetary shortfall (which may be as much as $774 million). The City Manager reiterated that KPMG deemed 90 percent of the services that the city provides to citizens now as “core” or essential. Of those services, just 8 percent are less than standard–meaning below the levels for municipal services in other municipalities. About 15 percent of Toronto’s services are above that standard. Specific recommendations include: + Reduce affordable housing programs so that the city no longer tops up funding that the provincial and federal governments already provide. + Reduce the number of childcare spaces that the city subsidizes. + Reduce city-funded cultural activities by closing its museums with the least attendance. + Seek a supplier to operate the city’s zoos and farms. + Eliminate the free garbage-tag program–no longer allowing homeowners to place four extra bags of trash for the city to collect without fee. + Eliminate the need for paid-duty police officers at many construction sites. The report also urges the city’s agencies, boards and commissions to make similar cuts, recommending: + The TTC reduce its services back to the levels it operated before implementing its Ridership Growth Strategy to attract more riders. + The TTC eliminate its overnight services, or charge and extra fare for these services. + The city look at contracting a private company to operate, or else selling entirely, its three theatres (the Hummingbird Centre, the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and the Toronto Centre for the Arts), as well as the Toronto Zoo. + The Toronto Public Library reduce its hours of service, and consider shutting some branches in future years. If council approves these recommendations, the city would save about $100 million annually. Pennachetti explained, however, that this report is just one part of the city’s exercise to reduce costs. Later this fall, the City Manager will report on staff efforts to reduce costs by ten percent throughout all divisions. The recommendations have a long way to go before becoming final, and as DelGrande explained, councillors may decide to delete or alter many of the recommendations before finalizing the report. The Executive Committee discusses the issue on September 19, with all of council considering it during what will likely be an extremely long meeting on September 26 and 27. __ Rob Mackenzie covers city hall and is a regular contributor to the Toronto Standard.