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Budget blindside

The ceasefire reached at city hall last week appears to have been temporary, as councillors and the mayor resumed their bitter budget debate at a special council session Monday.

Faced with dropping poll numbers and increasing opposition from councillors, Rob Ford was forced to make concessions last week, backing down from some service cuts and, in a rare unanimous council vote, abandoning plans to take over the Port Lands. But if that experience humbled him it didn’t show on Monday, and in a speech to open the council session on the Core Service Review the mayor signaled his intent to aggressively pursue controversial cost-cutting measures and shrink the size of government.

“Each of us has ideas of what Toronto should look like, what Toronto should be,” he said. “But each of these dreams must be built on a solid foundation, folks. Right now our financial foundation is crumbling. If we don’t fix this financial foundation now, our dreams will collapse.”

But Ford’s critics say they haven’t been given nearly enough information on the economic impact of the choices before them, which include recommendations to reduce new affordable housing developments, close some city-run museums, privatize zoos, sell off the parking authority, reorganize community grants, and eliminate community environment days.

Several more recommendations, including killing the Toronto Atmospheric Fund and the Hardship Fund, have been referred back to the city manager’s office for consideration.

Several councillors took aim at the much-touted $774 million figure, which Ford and his allies claim is the size of the shortfall the city is facing. That number doesn’t take into account updated revenue projections for 2011, and some councillors say it would be irresponsible to make budget decisions without having some idea of how much money the city will bring in this year.

Under questioning, chief financial officer Cam Weldon admitted that the $774 million figure was not firm but refused to give a detailed update on the end-of-year projected shortfall will be.

“I’m not comfortable giving a number,” Weldon said. “I’m still getting information in. I’ve seen some upward trends and I’ve seen some downward trends.”

Councillor Adam Vaughan believes the deficit will turn out to be significantly lower than $774 million, and accused city staff of deliberately withholding vital financial stats. “They’re hiding them from us,” he said. “$774 million is not a real number anymore. Everybody knows that. We need to know what the real number is.”

City manager Joe Pennachetti said that he will give an update on the budget in three weeks. When that happens, councillors may be shown a much sunnier forecast for the city’s finances than the one Ford has been predicting in order to justify service cuts and layoffs.

A report posted on the city’s website Monday morning found that “Many of the city’s key revenue sources … are higher/better than 2010 levels and 2011 budgeted amounts.” Revenues from land transfer tax alone are up $80 million from initial projections, and will make a significant contribution to balancing the books.

As debate continued inside city hall, roughly 2,000 protesters and union workers flooded into Nathan Philips Square in the early evening to demonstrate against Ford’s plans to reduce the size of the public sector workforce and cut community supports.

“Enough is enough!” shouted activist Leticia Boahen, to raucous applause from the crowd. “We need to mobilize in our community, and support grassroots organizing, and ensure that city services and programs are improved and not eliminated.”

In addtion to the results of the core service review, the city’s new user fee policy and the buyout package offered city workers are also on council’s agenda this week. The council meeting is expected to last until Tuesday night at least, and could spill over into a third day if debate is not wrapped up by then.

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