{"id":2179,"date":"2007-08-10T13:37:38","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T17:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2007-09-30T12:38:14","modified_gmt":"2007-09-30T16:38:14","slug":"breaking-news-city-torches-services-fireworks-ensue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/10\/breaking-news-city-torches-services-fireworks-ensue\/","title":{"rendered":"City torches services, fireworks ensue"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

City Manager Shirley Hoy<\/a> announced a roster of cuts to City services that are needed to balance the City’s 2008 budget. The cuts reduce 2007 operating budget expenditures by $34.4 million for the balance of 2007 and $83 million in 2008.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes almost three weeks after City Council’s vote to defer<\/a> its decision on whether to implement the taxes<\/a> that would be required to balance the City’s 2008 operating budget without significant cuts to City services. By delaying the vote, the City’s Chief Financial Officer said that the City would lose out on approximately $80-100 million in revenue as a result of postponing implementation of the taxes from January to March.<\/p>\n

Going into 2008, the City has a $575 million budget shortfall that it is legally obligated to eliminate before the budget is adopted. Because Hoy made $34 million in cuts instead of $100 million in 2007 alone, it seems that an assumption is being made that Council will adopt the tax measures in October.<\/p>\n

Cuts will affect Parks, Forestry & Recreation<\/a>, Municipal Licensing and Standards<\/a>, Solid Waste Management<\/a>, Transportation<\/a>, and Public Health<\/a>, among other parts of the City.<\/p>\n

The most significant cuts include closing all community centers on Mondays, laying off seasonal litter pickers two weeks early, reducing street cleaning, canceling road repairs, deferring green roof projects, cancelling public health programs for new parents and people trying to quit smoking, reducing seasonal leaf pick-up from two times annually to one and postponing outdoor ice rink openings to January. Many other services will take longer to receive than they do now. To see the City’s press release on the cuts, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Toronto Transit Commission<\/a> will save $6 million by deferring service to accomodate ridership growth and the police will cut $3 million through attrition and reduced conference and travel expenditures. As previously announced, the Toronto Public Library<\/a> has cut Sunday service in all branches except those in priority neighbourhoods and cancelled the purchase of 14,000 materials, among other cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hoy suggested that up to 3,000 workers could be impacted by the cuts through reduced hours and earlier than expected layoffs. The announcement made for a teary-eyed president of CUPE Local 416<\/a>, Brian Cochran. The union boss with a tough guy image got choked up in a media scrum as he expressed compassion for the families that will have trouble putting food on the table after layoffs are complete. Though in his next breath, Cochran made it clear that the union will fight for job security for seasonal workers in its next contract negotiation since, according to Cochran, it has become clear to the union that those workers are their most vulnerable members.<\/p>\n

War of words
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the formal press conference concluded, Councillor Adam Vaughan<\/a> got into a war of words<\/a> (video courtesy CityTV) with Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong<\/a> in the middle of a media scrum. Vaughan took offense to Minnan-Wong misleading the media and the public with facts that, according to Vaughan, he knows are half-truths or lies. The argument lasted more than five minutes and included Vaughan questioning Minnan-Wong’s work ethic. Meanwhile, Minnan-Wong slagged Vaughan for dividing his time between his duties as councillor with his CityTV show (a rather amusing comeback for a councillor who runs an legal practice<\/a> (see item 11-25) on the side.)<\/p>\n

When that argument began to cool Councillor Howard Moscoe<\/a> jumped in to ask Minnan-Wong if he would vote to cut the popular snow shoveling service in North York. Moscoe didn’t receive a response. Then it was Councillor Glen De Baeremaeker’s<\/a> turn to jump in, accusing Minnan-Wong of using politics his of deception to force the closure of libraries and community centers.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy Steve’o<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City Manager Shirley Hoy announced a roster of cuts to City services that are needed to balance the City’s 2008 budget. The cuts reduce 2007 operating budget expenditures by $34.4 million for the balance of 2007 and $83 million in 2008. The announcement comes almost three weeks after City Council’s vote to defer its decisionContinue reading “City torches services, fireworks ensue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1050,6479,5931,3158,756,6435,408,6480,4550,5328,330,6482,6434,6478,4322,1577,6481,391,496],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-adam-vaughan","tag-brian-cochran","tag-chief-financial-officer","tag-city","tag-city-council","tag-city-manager","tag-councillor","tag-cupe-local-416","tag-denzil-minnan-wong","tag-glen-de-baeremaeker","tag-howard-moscoe","tag-media-scrum","tag-shirley-hoy","tag-teary-eyed-president","tag-toronto-public-library","tag-toronto-transit-commission","tag-trouble-putting-food","tag-usd","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCity torches services, fireworks ensue - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/10\/breaking-news-city-torches-services-fireworks-ensue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"City torches services, fireworks ensue - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"City Manager Shirley Hoy announced a roster of cuts to City services that are needed to balance the City’s 2008 budget. 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