Mayor Olivia Chow's Toronto

[Northern Light]

So, a couple of notes before Council begins today.

It appears the Mayor will not only support the original Police budget request (an extra ~20M); but also restoring suburban windrow plow service.

Horsetrading for votes on full display.

There will be a few other items the mayor will back, and maybe even a small surprise or two on the floor. I will be making notes and duly report back.

 

[Richard White]

It appears the Mayor will not only support the original Police budget request (an extra ~20M); but also restoring suburban windrow plow service.

I have family who work as Civilians for TPS.

My understanding is that some of this money will go towards long overdue pay increases for the civilian staff. Essentially, whenever the budget gets cut or held the civilian staff take the brunt of it.

For years they have had reviews and pay increases have been recommended based on workload and job description changes but were denied due to budgetary pressures.

 

[DSCToronto]

So, a couple of notes before Council begins today.

It appears the Mayor will not only support the original Police budget request (an extra ~20M); but also restoring suburban windrow plow service.

Horsetrading for votes on full display.

There will be a few other items the mayor will back, and maybe even a small surprise or two on the floor. I will be making notes and duly report back.

Sometimes it is best not to pay too much attention to how the sausages are made but just enjoy eating them!

 

[chrisw]

Well, we can always try cancelling suburban windrow plowing again next year.

 

[Northern Light]

Well, we can always try cancelling suburban windrow plowing again next year.

If we otherwise resolved balancing the operating budget, 16M would go some distance to fund better TTC Service, Longer Recreation Centre Hours and/or lower user fees.

We need a parking tax in order to fund fare capping for TTC.

 

[lead82]

A parking levy is long overdue. Torontos parking fees are super cheap in comparison. It’s what fuels people’s decisions to drive downtown. Parking rates should be set to be hospital levels - $8/30mins, $50 per day. Apply to private lots and GreenP. Then add penalties to enforcement for those that don’t pay to match the fare evasion - $500. I don’t get why this city can’t implement such simple things to get more money. Yes it would upset the usual crowd but it doesn’t prevent people from driving just makes them pay for the privilege of doing so.

 

[Richard White]

A parking levy is long overdue. Torontos parking fees are super cheap in comparison. It’s what fuels people’s decisions to drive downtown. Parking rates should be set to be hospital levels - $8/30mins, $50 per day. Apply to private lots and GreenP. Then add penalties to enforcement for those that don’t pay to match the fare evasion - $500. I don’t get why this city can’t implement such simple things to get more money. Yes it would upset the usual crowd but it doesn’t prevent people from driving just makes them pay for the privilege of doing so.

Better yet.. increase parking fines for illegal parking to $500 a ticket with impounding after the second ticket.

I get that they just raised it to $75.00 but even still that is a somewhat insignificant amount.

 

[DSCToronto]

Well, we can always try cancelling suburban windrow plowing again next year.

Or we can get this motion declared in order and passed so we can plough windrows everywhere :->

9a - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Out of Order)
That:

1. City Council reduce the 2024 Operating Budget for the Toronto Transit Commission by $17.5 Million, such reduction to be offset by a reinstatement of fares for children under 12 as of March 1.

9b - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Out of Order)
That:

1. City Council reduce the 2024 Operating Budget for the Toronto Transit Commission by $29.2 million, fully funded by a 15 cent fare increase implemented by March 1, 2024.

or

9f - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Out of Order)
That:

1. City Council amend the proposed 2024 - 2033 Capital Budget and Plan for the TTC to reallocate any funding associated with renaming the Dundas West subway station towards unfunded TTC state of good repair needs.

 

[Richard White]

9f - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Out of Order)
That:

1. City Council amend the proposed 2024 - 2033 Capital Budget and Plan for the TTC to reallocate any funding associated with renaming the Dundas West subway station towards unfunded TTC state of good repair needs.

9a - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Out of Order)
That:

1. City Council reduce the 2024 Operating Budget for the Toronto Transit Commission by $17.5 Million, such reduction to be offset by a reinstatement of fares for children under 12 as of March

These are things I can get behind.

The TTC should not be be crying poor when they intentionally made a segment of fares free. That was their own fault and honestly should be fixed.

As for Dundas West.. that was a stupid idea to begin with and a complete waste of money. It is nothing more than pandering to people to make up for something that happened hundreds of years ago.

 

[Northern Light]

Here are some motions that have passed:

 

[Northern Light]

These are things I can get behind.

Unfortunate for you then, that they will not even be voted on, because the motions are out of order.

The TTC should not be be crying poor when they intentionally made a segment of fares free. That was their own fault and honestly should be fixed.

You do realize this was imposed by former Mayor Tory, the TTC did not spontaneously propose it?

Also, it has now been adopted by GO and most regional systems. They all adopted 12 and under is free.

As for Dundas West.. that was a stupid idea to begin with and a complete waste of money. It is nothing more than pandering to people to make up for something that happened hundreds of years ago.

We can agree on that too. It may/may not happen anyway, we'll see.

 

[Northern Light]

Also passing:

 

[DSCToronto]

These would seem to be the 6 real conservative right-wingers. Probably strongly supported by our @RichardWhite :->

7 - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Vincent Crisanti (Lost)
That:

1. That City Council amend Part 121 by decreasing the estimated property tax revenue by $42.2 million, to be fully offset by an equivalent increase in Non-Program Revenues funded by an additional one-time withdrawal from the Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund, in order to facilitate a 1% reduction to the proposed property tax rate increase for 2024.

​

Vote (Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget) Feb-14-2024 4:35 PM​

Result: Lost	Majority Required - Re-Vote
Total members that voted Yes: 6	Members that voted Yes are Brad Bradford, Vincent Crisanti, Stephen Holyday, Nick Mantas, James Pasternak, Jaye Robinson
Total members that voted No: 20	Members that voted No are Paul Ainslie, Alejandra Bravo, Jon Burnside, Shelley Carroll, Lily Cheng, Olivia Chow, Mike Colle, Paula Fletcher, Parthi Kandavel, Ausma Malik, Josh Matlow, Jennifer McKelvie, Chris Moise, Amber Morley, Jamaal Myers, Frances Nunziata (Chair), Gord Perks, Anthony Perruzza, Dianne Saxe, Michael Thompson
Total members that wereAbsent: 0

 

[DSCToronto]

And more..

9d - Motion to Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget moved by Councillor Stephen Holyday (Lost)
That:

1. City Council amend the 2024 to 2033 Capital Budget and Plan for Transportation Services, by reallocating $10 million in 2024 from for the implementation of the Cycling Network Plan to the state of good repair backlog of roads, and that the remaining funding for cycling projects be prioritized by the relative existing cycling share to overall volume.

Vote (Amend Mayor's Proposed Budget)Feb-14-2024 4:39 PM​

Result: Lost	Majority Required
Total members that voted Yes: 2	Members that voted Yes are Stephen Holyday, Nick Mantas
Total members that voted No: 24	Members that voted No are Paul Ainslie, Brad Bradford, Alejandra Bravo, Jon Burnside, Shelley Carroll, Lily Cheng, Olivia Chow, Mike Colle, Vincent Crisanti, Paula Fletcher, Parthi Kandavel, Ausma Malik, Josh Matlow, Jennifer McKelvie, Chris Moise, Amber Morley, Jamaal Myers, Frances Nunziata (Chair), James Pasternak, Gord Perks, Anthony Perruzza, Jaye Robinson, Dianne Saxe, Michael Thompson
Total members that were Absent: 0

 

[evandyk]

I think that making fares free for kids is probably one of the best uses of Toronto/TTC public funds you can imagine.