The City has just released the 2014 operating and capital budgets!  This is an important look at which/how/how many City services will be available to residents of Toronto next year, and there will be ongoing discussions until a special meeting of City Council on 29^th January 2014, at which time Councillors will vote on the budget.

The operating budget covers the cost of day-to-day spending, while the capital budget covers future construction and repair of the City’s infrastructure (roads, bridges, community centres, libraries, etc.).  In 2014, the City of Toronto will have an operating budget of $9.6 billion for program expenditures like the TTC, shelters, children’s services, recreation services and the Toronto Police.  It’s a conservative budget with a modest 2.5% increase in property tax, but it does not include many new or enhanced services for residents.  As a basis for comparison, the 2013 City budget stood at $9.4 billion dollars.  So what can we expect?

TRANSIT: TTC ridership is the highest it has ever been and it is expected to increase.  However, there is no new funding from the province and the City’s TTC budget allocation is roughly the same at last year’s (17.8%).  In order to cope with expenditure, there will be a 5 cent increase in the price of tokens and a $5.25 increase in the price of a Metropass.

How will this affect users?  Data confirms that more women than men rely on public transit to access employment, health and other social services such as recreation.  In 39 out of 44 wards of Toronto, more women hold metropasses than men.  Considering that on average, women’s personal income is 11% below that of men’s, TTC fare increases can be reasonably assumed to affect low income women negatively.  In TWCA’s own outreach, many women report being unable to afford TTC fares or having to choose between competing priorities.  For example, one mother in Scarborough was forced to end her children’s swimming lessons because the cost of the TTC fare exceeded the cost of the lessons.  To date, there is no mechanism under consideration for reducing TTC fares for those on low incomes.

RECREATION: Parks, Forestry and Recreation will add 16 new Priority Centres in 2014, where recreation programs and services will be free-of-charge.  While this is good news, they will not be phased in until Fall 2014, after the busy summer period when individuals and families need access.  Also, there is no mechanism in place to ensure that the Centres have equitable hours without losing any hours of programming, even though this was approved by Council.

The Welcome Policy, which was intended to increase access to recreation for those on low incomes, will be cut by $700,000. next year, with further cuts in subsequent years.

For programs with user fees, these fees are set to increase by 6% (comprised of an inflationary increase of 2.25% and an additional increase of 3.75%).

The Swim to Survive program, Youth Leadership program, the creation of 10 new Youth Spaces, and the elimination of user fees for leisure swim lanes have all been excluded, despite being passed by City Council.

Overall, these measures reduce the provision of essential, equitable and accessible recreation services.

CHILDCARE: There is no new dedicated spending for subsidized childcare spaces, and the waiting list continues to exceed 18,000 names.  The Province has recently allocated an additional $20 million dollars to the City for childcare.  This was announced too late to include in this year’s budget.  Childcare advocates (including TWCA) are asking that the City not divert this to Children’s Services’ reserve fund (which has been the case in the last few years) but rather, to open an additional 528 new subsidized childcare spaces.  The City will release a report on this extra funding shortly.  However, as of this moment, we do not expect any significant childcare program re-structuring until Budget 2015.  This is a long time for low income families who need access to subsidized childcare the most.

HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION: Shelter, Support and Housing Administration faces the combined pressure of federal and provincial cuts in funding and increase in demand for shelter services.  As a result, some services have been cut and the department is drawing from one-time reserves in 2014.  This means that the outlook for 2015 is also negative.

The most notable additions are funding for a permanent 30-50 bed women’s shelter (beginning July 2014; at the moment there is a temporary shelter in place) and 172 flex beds to increase shelter capacity and achieve 90% occupancy levels.  However, without additional “real” shelter bed creation (flex beds may simply mean mats on the floor), it remains to be seen whether this target will be achieved.  The pressure on the shelter system is immense, and action is urgently needed to address occupancy levels that often reach 99%, leaving Toronto’s most vulnerable residents without assistance.  Furthermore, concerted action is needed to analyze and understand exactly where the pressures are highest.  Occupancy levels of vary among shelters.  For example, while a women’s shelter might reach 97% occupancy or higher, another men’s shelter may be below 80%.  The City has just released the 2014-2019 Housing Stability Service Planning Framework, to which Shelter, Support and Housing’s 2014 budget will be devoted in large measure. Important data was collected, but there is now an urgent need to have specific targets, indicators and timelines for implementation, and this should be done in consultation with community stakeholders and service users.

The 2014 Budget also includes a $4.3 million cut to the Housing Stabilization Fund- a program which helps low income persons in danger of losing their homes.  This goes against a Council recommendation to maintain 2013 service levels, and disproportionately harms low-income residents, who also tend to belong to Toronto’s most marginalized groups.

Overall, at a time of increasing population growth, our City desperately needs long-term capital and program investment.  In the short term, far more resources must be devoted to essential services for residents, such as shelters, recreation and public transit.  The City faces financial constraints in the implementation of programs, as well as legal constraints on the revenue tools available to fund services.  However, the law is a social institution.  It isn’t static and should reflect our changing social reality.  It’s time to work with the Province to review our legislation and sources of revenue and implement more progressive methods of revenue collection to fund equitable social services.