Many Torontonians believed Mayor Rob Ford when, two weeks before the Oct. 25 election, he promised “services will not be cut, guaranteed.”Ford made the vow Oct. 8 while proposing a 2011 budget that would quickly fix the city’s finances with $525.6 million in undefined — but easily found — “gravy.” Residents would not feel a thing.
Eight months later, Torontonians face a 2012 budget deficit of more than $443 million and Ford has put on the table a thick catalogue of deep cuts.
Suggestions in eight city-commissioned KPMG reports, the last of which was released Thursday, include library closures, fire and police department layoffs, reduced snow clearing and street sweeping, and the elimination of 2,000 daycare subsidies.
The latest proposals, to Ford’s executive committee, total more than $700 million and include scrapping a program that funds 685 student nutrition programs, 42 AIDS prevention projects and 38 community drug prevention programs.
Ford, who in January revised his promise to no “major” service reductions, on Thursday would not call any of the KPMG proposals “cuts.”
“We’re finding efficiencies; that’s what the taxpayers want,” he told reporters and members of the public at a TTC event Thursday morning.
“Taxpayers have given me direction and they don’t want us to increase their taxes by 20 per cent.”
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said later Thursday: “There’s going to be some cuts, I can assure you of that. How the overall public will view this is another matter.”
But Holyday, a respected conservative who endorsed Ford late in the civic election campaign, denied the mayor has broken his word.
“I don’t think there’s any broken promise here at all,” he said, because past administrations, including David Miller’s, also looked for efficiencies. “If (residents) don’t like it, they will throw this government out of here. But I think they will like it, I think they will be onside with it.”
Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) said Ford was elected “promising that he could make water flow uphill and that he could make pigs fly.
“Now that’s he’s found out he can’t do either of those things, he’s lurching from strategy to strategy to cover the fact that he made an absolutely impossible claim — that the only problem the city had was waste and efficiency.”
Perks said the KPMG recommendations, many of which jibe with Ford’s mission to reduce the cost and size of government, “would transform Toronto from one of the most livable places in the world to a place you won’t recognize ... far worse than (former Ontario Conservative premier) Mike Harris did.”
Sanford Borins, a University of Toronto management professor, predicted Ford will inflict service cuts that will primarily impact lower-income Torontonians who live in the city’s core.
He noted that Ford, faced with the reality of a big deficit and little “gravy,” now says property taxes might rise 3 per cent next year — above inflation — and that a steep hike in user fees is on the table.
“We have a mayor who’s going to be retreating on his promise and, lo and behold, raise taxes and fees, and impose real service cuts.
“I guess his hope is that three years from now, when the next election comes, people will forget.”
Steve Vavoulas, a retired chef who voted for Ford, said the mayor is doing “a fairly good job.”
The North York pensioner likes Ford’s look-at-everything approach but doesn’t approve of council spending $200,000 to remove Jarvis St. bike lanes that cost $59,000 to install only a year ago.
“I’ll support him all the way until I see him falter to a greater extent,” Vavoulas said.
“I am sure that (Ford) has to break some promises to get to his goals. We have to cut some of the expenses that can help eliminate some of the taxes.”
The KPMG recommendations go to executive committee in September, along with results of city staff-led efficiency and user fee reviews.
Council is scheduled to vote on a final budget next February.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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