Shelley Carroll

Finally, the great 2012 Budget debate is behind us! Starting with the Core Service Review last June and culminating with the January 17th Council vote, our City has seen an unprecedented level of civic participation. Thank you to all of you that took the time to contact me at the office or attend a meeting. It was truly inspiring to have residents of Ward 33 at public hearings down at City Hall, throughout the process.

This week, Council worked together to achieve the three things that should go into any good budget; we addressed the debt, we put money away for future years and we protected most of the services that you hold most dear. Councillors from every area of the City and across the political spectrum voted in favour of a more fair budget that will allow City services to continue to address the needs of our most vulnerable. Things like priority recreation centres, child care centres, shelters, TTC service, sidewalk snow clearing and funding for community non-profit organizations were flat-lined but saved. In all, Council protected $19 million worth of services, a mere 0.2% of the Gross operating budget. Important to note, upwards of 1000 jobs will still be lost, adding to Toronto’s rising unemployment rate.

For well over a year there has been a story told about this City and everyone in it. You became one of the characters; in this story, most of you have been cast as the taxpayer victim. The social service organizations that are funded through the City, skating rinks and swimming pools, shelters and even firefighters have been cast in the role of villain, just for needing a small place in the City’s budget. These were the services cast as bad things that you need to be saved from. Stories are powerful tools, but yesterday in Council, we collectively wrote a different ending, a stronger ending. Now, it’s time to stop telling stories. You deserve honest dialogue about the City’s finances and you deserve to play an active role in deciding where you money goes.

Starting today, you and I need to stay connected. We need to talk about the city we want. I’m working hard to come up with new ways to do that so I’m as accessible to you as possible. Traditionally, I’ve done meetings in the community to provide you with information and get your feedback. We’ll still do that, but I recognize that it can be difficult to attend an evening meeting. That’s one of the reasons we tried a telephone town hall for the first time last week. We got great feedback from the call and I’m looking forward to doing more of them in the future. If you didn’t get a call for the telephone townhall, it may have been because we didn’t have your home phone number. If that’s the case, just call the office and my team would be happy to add your information to the list. I’m also going to continue to send out these e-blasts and post information on www.shelleycarroll.ca. You can talk directly to me on twitter @shelleycarroll or send me a message on facebook. If you have creative suggestions about how to keep the conversation going, let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

The 2012 budget was launched on November 28th and you have probably been reading about it in the paper ever since. A lot of journalists are reporting that there is nothing catastrophic in this budget. For months we have been hearing the Mayor talk about the $774 million hole and the deep cuts that would need to be made to fill it. We were expecting our beloved services to disappear altogether (library closures are probably the best know example), so when the budget was launched and this didn’t happen, many breathed a sigh of relief. I have spent the past week reading the budget and asking staff questions, and I can tell you that while this budget may not deliver the fatal blow we were all execting, it certainly hurts.

It removes services to vulnerable citizens by virtue of age, health or standing in the community whenever it can’t find a way to charge for the services. It adds charges to anything that is warm and good and beautiful about day-to-day life in Toronto. And, all of this is unnecessary. Our annual operating surplus is large and predictable, our debt per capita ratio is among the lowest in North American mega-cites and Council has just agreed to sell its entire share in the world-renowned Deep-Lake Water-Cooling enterprise, Enwave. Council could responsibly balance this Budget with far less pain and loss of those things we hold dear as Torontonians.

For the first time ever the prior year surplus is not being reported in the budget. On the day of the budget launch, my very first question to the City Manager was, where’s the surplus? As of right now, we know that there is a $139 million surplus that has been lifted out of the budget. By the end of 2011, it will likely be closer to $200 million. Even if we put $100 million into reserve funds, we still have enough left over that we do not have to make these hurtful cuts.

Take heart though, last month Council worked together to fix the solid waste and water budgets. Remember, that those are done separately because you pay for them through your utility bill, not your property taxes. What we saw during this process was Councillors of all political stripes working together in the best interest of this City. I have faith that we will be able to do it again with the operating and capital budgets. We have the resources available to fix this budget. It can be done, and I will be working hard on your behalf to ensure that we do not erode the services that make this City great for everyone.

If you are interested in knowing more about the details of the budget, you can either find all of the analyst notes and presentations on the City’s website at www.toronto.ca/budget2012 or by contacting my office. I would also be more than happy to meet with you and 4 other people around your kitchen table to talk about the budget. Call my office to arrange this if you’re interested.

It’s that time of the year again.

Winter. And a Canadian winter means snow – sometimes a lot of snow. However, the City of Toronto is ready for anything that old man winter can dish out.

Here are a few things that you can expect as we gear up for another winter in Toronto.

As soon as the snow begins, Transportation Services sends out its fleet of salt trucks to the expressways, main roads and local roads. If the City receives between 2.5 and five centimetres of snow, the plows are sent to the expressways and then the main roads. Plowing then takes place for the duration of the storm.

When the snow stops and if the snow accumulation reaches eight centimetres, plows will be sent to the local roads. Normally, local road plowing will be completed between 14 and 16 hours after the storm has ended.

The City will clear snow from sidewalks on local roads where it is mechanically possible to do so after eight centimetres (five centimetres in January and February) of snow has fallen. In the central core of the city, property owners are required to clear their sidewalks of snow 12 hours after a storm has taken place.

The City of Toronto’s levels of service for snow clearing meet those set by the Province of Ontario for municipalities and road authorities. These levels of service were adopted by Toronto City Council in 2009.

Residents who have questions about snow clearing efforts in their area can call the City at 311.
If you need more information about the city’s plans for snow clearing, visit toronto.ca/transportation.

Here’s an important tip about shoveling snow. Please don’t push snow back onto the road. It’s against the law, hampers snow clearing efforts and is very dangerous for motorists.

Winter, and the snow that comes with it, is a part of what makes us Canadians. By working together, we can make sure that Toronto continues to be a safe and accessible city in which to live, work and play.

The City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation division is seeking public input for the new five-year Parks Plan. As directed by Council, the plan will guide decision-making and investment in City parks in order to meet the diverse needs of Toronto residents, including:

• designing beautiful, unique and sustainable park spaces
• protecting and expanding natural areas
• balancing park uses to include play spaces, natural areas, sport activities, urban agriculture and cultural expression
• engaging the community through stewardship, volunteering and partnerships, and
• ensuring that the City’s parks and trails are available and accessible to all residents.

Residents are invited to attend one of four public consultation meetings:

Scarborough – Monday, November 7, Warden Hilltop Community Centre, 25 Mendelssohn St.

North York – Wednesday, November 16, Mitchell Field Community Centre, 89 Church Ave.

Toronto East York – Thursday, November 24, Wellesley Community Centre, 495 Sherbourne St.

Etobicoke York – Thursday, December 1, Amesbury Community Centre, 1507 Lawrence Ave. W.

The public can also provide feedback about parks services through an online survey, launched today at http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parksplan.

For more information about the public survey or to participate in a public consultation session about the new Parks Plan, visit http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parksplan or contact 311.

With autumn here, the Toronto Water division reminds residents of some requirements and practices that will help save water and money while benefiting the environment. Autumn rains can lead to wet basements, so there are also a few tips about preventing basement flooding.

Swimming pools

When emptying your chlorinated-water pool, be sure to de-chlorinate the water before disposing of it in the storm sewer system. Water from saltwater pools must be released carefully into a sanitary system connection on your property.

Lawns

Over-seed your lawn with ryes and fescues in the fall to thicken up your grass next spring. It will help reduce the amount of water your lawn needs next year.

Household water consumption

Toilet leaks can waste a lot of water and are a common cause of unexpectedly high water bills. Some leaks cannot be seen or heard. Check for a toilet leak by adding a few drops of food colouring to water in the toilet tank. If the water in the bowl changes colour a while later, your toilet has a leak that needs fixing.

Back to school means more laundry. Use a high-efficiency, front-loading clothes washer – and run only full loads.

In the kitchen – run dishwashers only when full. Avoid pouring kitchen grease or oil down the drain. Generally, kitchen grease/oil should go in the green bin with material that can absorb it.

Basement flooding

Help prevent basement flooding by clearing leaves and other debris from eavestroughs and downspouts. Be sure to seal window wells and fix any leaks in basement walls.

Disconnecting downspouts from the sewer system will also help prevent basement flooding and the release of polluted rainwater into local waterways. More information about mandatory downspout disconnection is available at http://www.toronto.ca/water/downspout.

Consider installing a backwater valve and a basement sump pump if you have experienced basement flooding. Be sure to maintain your equipment once it is installed.

More advice on preventing basement flooding can be found at http://www.toronto.ca/water/sewers/basement_flooding.htm.

More information about the City of Toronto’s programs and services from Toronto Water is available at http://www.toronto.ca/water.

Today I am in attendance at the Executive Committee meeting called to hear deputations about the Core Service Review, which includes the controversial cuts you have read about in the News. They will be considered by Council on September 26.

Between now and the Council meeting on September 26, I will be hosting a Town Hall meeting dedicated specifically to discus the cuts. The Town Hall meeting will be on September 24 at Fairview Library (35 Fairview Mall Drive) in meeting room A on the 4th floor from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

In the meantime, Council must consider the equally controversial Waterfront Toronto vs. Toronto Portlands Corporation item at a council session on September 21 & 22. For those of us living up in North York, the political Waterfront and the actual Waterfront are sometimes hard to understand.

Back when Mayor Mel Lastman, Premier Mike Harris and Prime Minister Jean Chretien created the tri-government agency known as Waterfront Toronto, the goal was absolute accountability in an area where potential for government corruption was high. Potential for intergovernmental squabbling was also high. The announcement that jointly funded, joint participation, tri-government appointed planning and development would prevail was greeted with wild applause.

I have included in this email video links to work already completed by Waterfront Toronto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHAo9RhDCP4&feature=player_detailpage), work under construction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayX6mNjbHNw&feature=player_detailpage) and the Portlands plan, which is currently completing its environmental assessments (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEQiNXXgu4g&feature=player_detailpage).

The organization has a mandate to be open, transparent and entirely above board so the video progress reports have always been available online. From watching these videos you will see that the work is not 30 years away, it is very much underway and I am happy to rent a van and take groups of Ward 33 residents on a tour, upon request.

There is a compromise being worked out that will be coming to Council on September 21 & 22. The details of it are still being discussed, so I can’t preview how I will vote. If the compromise removes transparency from any Waterfront development, I will be voting to simply receive the Mayor’s new plan and continue with the tri-government development.

I will be writing again about Core Service Review later this week. In the meantime, there is an upcoming event that you may be interested in. On September 26 at 5:30 p.m. there will be a Rally for Toronto in Nathan Phillips Square. The goal of this rally is to pull together Torontonians from all over our city to tell Council what kind of City you want to live in as we debate the Core Service Review in the chambers.

As always, my staff and I are here to listen to you. Call or email us anytime to let us know your thoughts on these important decisions that Council will be debating this month.

Shelley

Special Core Service Review Executive Committee Meeting – September 19th

This summer the people of Toronto have been presented with reports from KPMG consulting firm as part of the Core Service Review. Although it is very useful for any government or organization to examine what it does and make improvements, it has become very clear from the consultant’s reports and the public deputations that the primary question has been left unanswered: “What is a core service?”

The “opportunities” for reduction or elimination presented by KPMG represent many of the initiatives that set our city apart. These are important services that many depend upon.

Our long-term care facilities, child care facilities, recreation programs, student nutrition, disease prevention, funding to community agencies and organizations that leverage thousands of volunteer hours and expertise, along with millions of dollars in private donations are all areas where KPMG has suggested the Mayor can find his gravy.

I am concerned that the core values of thousands of Toronto residents are not being considered during this process. Almost 13,000 people took the time to fill in the online survey for the service review, hundreds attended the City’s consultation sessions and meetings hosted by Councillors, including the one I hosted in Ward 33. Yet none of this input was considered in the consultant’s reports or properly presented to the relevant committees. Once again, the overwhelming majority of people – taxpayers – who have a direct stake in the health and vibrancy of our city are speaking out in favour of these services.

I encourage you to talk to your family, friends, and co-workers about the city you want to live in and ask them to get involved. You can call or write to me and my staff or you can speak at the Executive Committee meeting on September 19th. If you would like to register to speak, please contact 416-392-6627 or exc@toronto.ca.

Save the Date – September 24th :

Councillor Carroll’s Core Service Review Town Hall Meeting
Saturday September 24th
10:00am – 11:30am
Fairview Public Library (35 Fairview Mall Drive) on the 4thfloor.
More information to come soon!

Reminder: Emerald Ash Borer Meeting this week – September 15th

The City of Toronto would like to invite you to attend a public meeting where Urban Forestry staff will present information about what the City of Toronto is doing to manage the impact of Emerald Ash Borer on the Urban Forest in Ward 33 and city-wide. This meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m on Thursday September 15th at Oriole Community Centre, 2975 Don Mills Rd W., in the peanut. I would encourage you to attend this meeting to learn more about EAB, get an update from staff on the removal of public ash trees and hear about the next steps, including re-planting.

Snow Clearing Service for Seniors

Four Season’s Connections provides assistance to seniors in the North York area, Although we are still enjoying really beautiful weather and the sunshine doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, I want to inform you about their winter service program. Four Season’s Connections offers year round outdoor and home maintenance services for seniors, which includes snow and ice removal from driveways, walkways, steps, porches and windrows. The prices range from $10 per hour (work done by youth workers aged 12-17) to $20 per hour (adult workers who use their own equipment).

For more information about this service contact them directly at 416-447-5074 or visit their website at www.betterlivinghealth.org. All requests for winter snow removal are encouraged to be made by Monday September 12th, 2011 as there is a high demand for service! If you submit your application after the 12th, service is on a first come first basis.

Sincerely,

Shelley Carroll and the Ward 33 Team

The below list is a sampling of the organizations who, with small amounts of funding from the City of Toronto, deliver: senior citizen respite care, crisis intervention, assistance to victims of woman and seniors abuse, settlement services and immigrant needs assessments, paralegal assistance, education in home crime prevention and community organizing to reduce property crime, meal delivery to disabled and infirm seniors, activities for youth in at-risk neighbourhoods, sexual health education and counselling for homeless and at-risk youth, HIV/Aids prevention in high priority populations and drug abuse prevention and counselling to vulnerable populations, resident organized recreation programs, and yes, arts activities for neighbourhood improvement and civic engagement in Toronto’s inner suburbs.

Every year these organizations are required to fill out extensive applications, complete with all financial details, guarantee large numbers of hours of volunteer administration and volunteer labour. They then subject themselves to an annual screening, awarding and appeals process, and lastly they lay themselves open to random follow-up and spot checks for accountability purposes.

None of these organizations is ever fully funded by the City. After we have put them through this onerous process for amounts as small as $3000, they raise more funds from the private sector and from other orders of government. Funders are often willing to grant funds partly based on the City having already scrutinized them so rigorously.

That is the essence of the City of Toronto Community Partnership Investment Program (CPIP). The funding for each group is called a ‘Grant’ because the City does not administer direct paycheques to any member of the organizations but rather, pays by project application according to strict criteria. Mayor Rob Ford calls these grants “Gravy”. I call them “Vital Quality of Life Services” delivered more cheaply and more effectively than the City could ever do directly.  

In their recent Core Service Review Report, KPMG did not classify these grants as part of the City’s core services and has suggested reducing or eliminating these grants completely.  Please take a moment to read the below list, and if you believe that funding these services is part of the meat of this City and not the excessive gravy that the Mayor thinks it is, please  contact your local Councillor, the Mayor, or come and speak  at the Executive Committee meeting on September 19, to help protect the grants these organizations receive. 

Meals On Wheels,

Neighbourhood Watch Toronto,

Carefirst Seniors & Community Services Association,

North York Women’s Centre,

AWIC Community and Social Services,

Call-A-Service Inc. Elderly Persons’ Centre,

Community Information Fairview,

Microskills Development Centre,

Crime Prevention Association of Toronto,

Learning Disabilities Association Toronto,

Mid-Toronto Community Services,

CARD-Community Association for Riding for the Disabled,

Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Weston/Mount Dennis, Jane & Finch, St. Alban’s,

Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth,

Black Coalition for Aids Prevention,

Breakaway Addiction Services,

Iranian Women’s’ Organization of Toronto,

Glebe Manor Lawn Bowling Club,

Moore Park Lawn Bowling Club,

Royal Winter Fair,

and Local Arts Service Organizations in Jamestown, Weston/Mount Dennis, Scarborough Village, Malvern, Eglinton East/Kennedy, Jane/Finch, Kingston/Galloway.

Apocalyptic crisis budgeting

August 12, 2011

Edmund Pries

The headlines have been apocalyptic and relentless. Unless the U.S. cuts trillions in social spending, it will go bankrupt. Unless Canada cuts billions in federal spending, our economy will go bust. Unless Toronto cuts more than $700 million in program spending, the city will collapse. We live in an age of apocalyptic crisis budgeting. Unless the most drastic social spending cuts are implemented, the world as we know it will sink into the quicksand of debt, never to reappear again. How could this happen?

During the Reagan era, a friend and former colleague, a professor of American history, was invited to the deliberations of a Washington think-tank that provided policy direction for the Republican Party. As they discussed growing the debt and increasing the deficit, he was flabbergasted: “Are you not the party of balanced budgets and debt elimination?” The reply was unequivocal, “Our goal is to grow the deficit as much as possible in order to create political space to eliminate government-funded programming. Until then, we want high deficits while lobbying for a balanced budget — and promoting social program cuts as the only solution.”

To create this useful deficit, tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporate sectors would be dramatically increased, especially to the banking, energy and military segments. In short, one would implement a transfer of the state’s revenue supply obligations from the wealthiest to the poor and middle classes in order to permit an even greater transfer of wealth from the middle classes to the rich thereafter.

The only trick was to convince the poor and middle classes to “buy in” via a mixture of patriotism and structural necessity so that they would vote in favour of cutting the very programs that benefitted them.

Canadians have had front row seats to observe this structural engineering over the past two decades. After years of sky-high deficits, Bill Clinton’s Democrats balanced the budget and produced a surplus. Then George W. Bush granted tax relief for the wealthiest and went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq to create the largest deficit in American history. As Bush exited from office and Obama entered, trillions of dollars were transferred by the government (funded mostly by middle-class Americans) to the banks. As a thank you, the banks foreclosed on the homes of more people than at any other time in history. The recent debt ceiling settlement follows the pattern as additional social spending cuts are implemented without cancelling Bush’s tax cuts to the very rich.

Like Clinton in the U.S., the federal Liberals left office with a budgetary surplus. The Conservatives created the largest deficit in Canadian history and, unbelievably, ran an election campaign on financial management savvy! Of course, they created the deficit in part by implementing tax cuts and engaging in discretionary spending designed to produce the deficit which, we are told, now needs to be eliminated by cutting programs.

The same approach has now come to Toronto and is being mimicked by Rob Ford. He, too, was left a surplus by his predecessor. Nevertheless, the agenda marches on. First, create the crisis by reducing the revenue base through tax cuts and then take the budget knife to Toronto’s city-wide programs. Instead of articulating a vision for building a great city, it is simply a slash and burn approach to a manufactured crisis.

Some have pretended that the budgetary crisis is real and not manufactured. Let us be clear: our relative wealth is greater than at any time in our history. Our collective ability to build a strong, caring and inclusive society in which everyone can participate has never been greater. This also holds true for the community of nations: we have the capacity to build a just global society.

Our preparedness to do so, however, seems utterly lacking, for an extreme individualism has taken over the mindset of many. We believe, falsely, that we are best served by hoarding as many resources as possible and letting others fend for themselves. The opposite is true. We are best served when we build a society together where all, including each reader of this article, can benefit through the building of community-wide programs.

In many 16th century European cities, each citizen was required to swear an annual citizenship oath to the city (or community) in which they resided. In it citizens affirmed, among other things, their commitment to “support the well-being of their neighbour” and “promote the common good.” Toronto’s early history as a community, like Canada’s as a country, speaks of similar goals and aspirations.

Have we really lost our sense of the common good? Or is each person now on his or her own? There is no apocalyptic budgetary crisis other than of our own making. The crisis is in our orientation.

Edmund Pries teaches in the department of global studies at Wilfrid Laurier University

Over the next two weeks there are a couple of free events planned in Ward 33 that I hope you will want to attend.  There is no need to register, just show up!  Also please read below for information on a change of pick-up day for garbage/recycling and green bin in Ward 33.

Fun by the Pool with Councillor Carroll!

You are invited to spend a fun-filled afternoon with me and the Ward 33 Team this Saturday August 20^th from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30.p.m. at the Pleasantview Pool, located at the Pleasantview Community Centre at 545 Van Horne Ave. This is a great opportunity for you to enjoy the last few weeks of the summer weather, with a swim and great conversation.   I want to hear about any concerns you may have about your neighbourhood and find out your thoughts about all that is currently going on in our City.

Ward 33 Environment Day

Come join me and the Ward 33 Team on Saturday August 27^th from 10 am to 2pm at Enbridge Gas, 500 Consumers Rd for our annual community Environment Day.  Whether you are coming to purchase a rain barrel, drop off old electronics and cooking oil or picking up free compost, this is a great opportunity for residents to do their part in creating a cleaner and greener neighbourhood and City overall. To learn more about what can and cannot be purchased or dropped off that day, please visit the following link which is dedicated to Environment Day on the City’s website: http://www.toronto.ca/environment_days/index.htm  Please feel free to call my office if you have any questions.  Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Your Garbage/Recycling Pick-up Day is Changing to Tuesdays

By now you should have received a new garbage calendar as well as a notice advising you that there is a permanent change in the collection schedule.  As of September 6^th, 2011 household garbage/recycling and green bin pick-up in Ward 33 will be on Tuesdays.  In order to ensure that this transition goes as smoothly as possible, please make sure to share this information with neighbours, family and friends in the ward. If you have not received a new calendar, please contact my office or call 311.

Sincerely,
Shelley Carroll and the Ward 33 Team.