Toronto budget’s got a hole in it

$14B spending plan goes to council despite $649-million deficit

The city’s 2021 budget — the most underbalanced in recent decades — is headed for final approval by council next week.

On Thursday, Mayor John Tory’s executive committee approved spending nearly $14 billion with $649 million in funding still unaccounted for as a result of never-seen-before financial losses and new spending because of the pandemic.

While that gap has been further reduced since the budget launched last month, it remains an unprecedented budget hole. The city is asking the federal and provincial governments to cover that difference.

If that funding does not materialize, the city will be forced to dip into reserves and reduced planned spending on capital projects.

Council meets starting Feb. 18 to debate final budget approval.

Tory introduced $8 million in new spending on Thursday with a motion approved by committee that would fund a youth jobs program ($3 million), mental-health services ($2 million), internet for Toronto Community Housing communities ($2 million) and promotion of Main Street businesses ($1 million).

That new spending is proposed to be funded by a special dividend from the Toronto Parking Authority. It must first be approved by council.

“I’m proud of the fact that we have responded as a city at a standard that I think is tops in North America to address the needs of our most vulnerable communities,” Tory said.

Still, the budget does not contain $15.4 million in critical funding for the city’s supportive housing proposal that targets those experiencing homelessness to receive housing with wrap-around health and wellness care.

Tory and city staff have said they are relying on the provincial government to come forward with those funds, based on the fact the care provided constitutes a health cost.

Tory also officially requested the $1.2 billion in funds raised by the city for the Scarborough subway be redirected to the Eglinton East LRT project.

After the province took over the city’s subway plans, vowing to build three stops as an extension to Line 2, the city was no longer required to spend that money — raised through a special property tax on all Toronto homeowners and development charges — on the Scarborough subway as planned.

Premier Doug Ford promised to build the subway without city financing, but it is not yet fully funded.

The Eglinton East LRT — a proposed extension of the Eglinton Crosstown, currently under construction, to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus — has remained a city priority but has lacked any funding.

The money Tory proposed to shift Thursday would go towards the $4.2-billion cost of that LRT extension.