Mayor Olivia Chow's first budget was left largely intact when it went to council Wednesday, barring several key amendments, including a restoration of the police budget approved by the Toronto Police Services Board and money to save a windrow-clearing program.
Toronto council votes to restore full police increase, save windrow clearing as part of budget which will see 9.5 per cent tax increaseMayor Olivia Chow's first budget was left largely intact when it went to council Wednesday, barring several key amendments, including a restoration of the police budget approved by the Toronto Police Services Board and money to save a windrow-clearing program.
“Can we do it in one year? No. It is a journey, but at least we are starting. We are halting the decline of services. We’re changing direction.”While the mayor sought to trim the budget increase for Toronto police from $20 million to about $8 million, she said Tuesday that she would support a motion at council to provide the force with the full $20 million increase advised by the Toronto Police Services Board in December.
"There's room to recognize that the unique needs of Toronto include how police services are delivered," Demkiw said following the meeting.He said a new class of 146 officers are graduating next week and they will be focused on the front lines. He said the force is continuing to build supervisory capacity on the front lines as well, which should hopefully improve efficiency.
Other motions which passed to provide last-minute funding to a number of areas, including Black Creek Pioneer Village; tree planting, pruning, and watering; community safety, violence prevention, and wellbeing programs; and money to hire more bylaw enforcement officers to respond to noise complaints, business licensing, and animal care and control officers for dangerous dogs response.A motion introduced by Coun. Vincent Crisanti to reduce the property tax increase by one per cent by using $42.
She noted that the property tax increase for multi residential buildings is being held to 3.75 per cent so that renters don't feel the impact. "When you go out and buy something, you're getting something back. When you pay for service you want to see the service and receive the service, you want good service," Chow said. "When people are asked to pay $1 extra in their property tax, yeah, they want to see results. So we will track our service levels. We will set goals and timetables with clear targets so that we can be accountable. That's the least we can do. Because Torontonians deserve no less.
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