Toronto passes 2023 budget; Tory will not use veto

Budget meeting hampered by disruptions, outbursts Toronto city council's chambers were cleared twice as disruptions and outbursts continually hamper the budget meeting.

Toronto’s budget for 2023 was finalized Wednesday following a long and rowdy special council meeting.

The budget includes more money for Toronto police and the biggest tax increase since amalgamation. It comes at a time when Toronto is facing a potentially massive $1.56 billion hole in its budget.

"It's been far and away the toughest budget that I've experienced, working on this one for almost a year. And it's the ninth one that I've worked on. I think the combination of rising inflation, increased fuel costs, interest rate hikes, supply chain challenges, and increased shelter costs, decreased TTC farebox revenues. All of this coming at the same time as growing human needs made this a very difficult budget. And that was added on top of concerns we all have with respect to community safety and affordability," Mayor John Tory said during the meeting.

"But as promised -- and this was an important commitment we made from the beginning -- the budget protects frontline services. It keeps increases borne by taxpayers as low as possible."

Due to the new strong mayor legislation, a vote is not needed to approve the budget. Councillors can move motions to amend the budget and vote on them. The mayor can then veto the amendments passed if he chooses to do so. Council would then have the chance to overrule a veto with a two-thirds majority.

A number of councillors introduced more than a dozen motions during the meeting, including Coun. Shelley Carroll, whose consensus motion allocated $7 million to provide an above-inflationary increase to Community Partnership Investment Program grants, open one additional 24/7 warming centre, support a pilot program on the TTC that provides mental health support for the unhoused and expand the Rent Bank grant program. It was approved with a vote of 25-1.

A motion by Coun. Alejandra Bravo to reallocate $900,000 from the Toronto police's $48.3 million budget to the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration “to provide, in partnership with community agencies, 24/7, low barrier indoor respite spaces” for people experiencing homelessness failed.

At the end of the meeting, Tory notified council that he will not use his power to veto the amendments passed by council.

“The budget will go forward as it has been approved here and all the various amendments,” Tory said.

The meeting came days after the mayor said he would resign over an affair with a staffer. He formally resigned just after 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Here’s a recap of what happened at the budget meeting:

10:11 p.m.

The council meeting has adjourned.

10:07 p.m.

Mayor Tory says he will not use the veto on any of the amendments that passed< meaning the 2023 Toronto budget is now final.

9:48 p.m.

Council has started voting on the motions. Coun. Carroll's motion carried 25-1 while Coun. Bravo's motion was defeated 17-8.

9:28 p.m.

Council is taking a 10-minute break and will return to vote on the motions.

7:55 p.m.

Council votes to finish the agenda tonight.

7:25 p.m.

Coun. Bravo moves a motion asking to reallocate $900,000 from the Toronto police budget to the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration “to provide, in partnership with community agencies, 24/7, low barrier indoor respite spaces” for people experiencing homelessness.

7:13 p.m.

Coun. Carroll moves a motion to amend the mayor’s budget by $7 million. The increase in the budget will go to opening an additional 24/7 warming centre, adding funding toward The 519, expanding the Rent Bank grant program and granting supports for other city initiatives.

She calls it a “consensus motion.”

7:05 p.m.

Tory rises to speak about the budget he crafted. He says he expects the amendments by councillors will "make it the best budget for these times."

"It's been far and away the toughest budget that I've experienced, working on this one for almost a year. And it's the ninth one that I've worked on. I think the combination of rising inflation, increased fuel costs, interest rate hikes, supply chain challenges, and increased shelter costs, decreased TTC farebox revenues. All of this coming at the same time as growing human needs made this a very difficult budget. And that was added on top of concerns we all have with respect to community safety and affordability," Tory said.

"But as promised -- and this was an important commitment we made from the beginning -- the budget protects frontline services. It keeps increases borne by taxpayers as low as possible."

Tory voices his support for a motion by Coun. Shelley Carroll.

"These are smart investments. So I hope that this is a motion that you can all support. And it will help us, I think, come together to kind of complete the budget process in a way that I think we all would hope for," Tory said.

6:45 p.m.

Councillor Nunziata moves a motion to extend the meeting until 8 p.m. By a show of hands, the motion carries.

6:40 p.m.

Council meeting has resumed. Councillors are asking city staff and other departments, including the Toronto police and Toronto Transit Commission officials, questions about the budget.

6 p.m.

Council taking a 35-minute break and then coming back to resume the meeting.

5:30

City staff say that overtime pay for 80 officers to patrol the TTC has been around $1.7 million per month. TPS can afford to continue the patrols through the winter, but would need further funding to go beyond that.

Coun. Myers asking about a report that police spent $330,000 on a podcast that only reaches fewer than 100,000 people. Staff respond that the cost of the podcast is in fact spread over four to five years. They say the $48 million increase to the police budget is not for the podcast, but mostly for frontline policing.

4:45

Council has now moved on to the operating and capital budgets. Councillors asking questions of staff, starting with Coun. Bravo, who is asking about TTC service cuts.

4:30

Council now voting on a flurry of motions on the floor with regards to property taxes and user fees. All pass, aside from Holyday’s motion on prioritizing state-of-good-repair ahead of new infrastructure.

4:15

A clarification on Matlow’s question from earlier about whether councillors actually have to vote for the budget. According to staff, they do not. Councillors now have the opportunity to move motions to amend the budget. If no amendments pass, the budget is then considered to be the budget for the city. If motions do pass, then the mayor will have 10 days to veto any amendments. Council would then have 15 days to overrule a veto with a two-thirds majority.

3:50

Coun. Crisanti moves a motion to increase the eligible household income threshold for seniors to qualify for the property tax increase cancellation break from $45,000 to $55,000.

3:30 p.m.

Coun. Stephen Holyday has moved motions asking that the city pause the collection of the city building levy and that council prioritize state-of-good-repair and maintenance ahead of service improvements and new infrastructure.

Nunziata rules the motion out of order. Holyday challenges her and is defeated 25-1.

3:15 p.m.

Councillors are peppering staff with questions about how the city is meeting its needs given some of the large holes such as $9.5 billion in state-of-good-repair backlog, $1.3 billion in COVID-19 costs, $230 million in lost development charges, etc.

Coun. Lily Cheng says by her calculation all of the shortfall would amount to a 69 per cent property tax increase and the city needs a better plan.

2:20

Councillors are now putting questions to staff on property taxes and user fees.

Coun. Saxe asks the CFO how much property taxes would have to go up to maintain the same service level as last year on the TTC. CFO Heather Taylor says every percentage point increase in property taxes results in an additional $39 million in revenue. Saxe says since staff have said it would take roughly $48 million to maintain that service level, it would take around a 1 to 1.5 per cent increase.

2:15

Council has returned from lunch.

12:35

There is yet another person heckling at the mayor.

After around 40 minutes of actual meeting time, councillors are breaking for lunch. They’ll be back around 2 p.m.

The speaker says Matlow’s question will be answered then.

12:33

Coun. Matlow asks a question about the strong mayor powers and whether councillors will actually be voting for the budget itself (as opposed to only moving amendments).

12:25

Coun. Dianne Saxe has introduced a petition calling on council to “make changes to the budget to better reflect community priorities” and particularly to move forward on Transform TO, the city’s plan to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Toronto to net zero.

12 p.m.

Mayor Tory is paying tribute to Chief Engineer Michael D'Andrea as D'Andrea retires.

Intermittent shouting can be heard from someone still trying to get into council chambers.

11:55

Councillors are back in chambers and the meeting has once again resumed.

10:52

Mayor John Tory rises to give a presentation and some members of the public in the chamber immediately begin to boo and chant “house the homeless, feed the poor. Get John Tory out the door.”

The speaker has again called for chambers to be cleared and council is in recess.

10:50

The meeting has now resumed. Speaker Nunziata warns members of the public that council chambers will be vacated and they will not be able to observe the meeting in person if there are further disruptions.

9:55

Council chambers have been cleared for a 10-minute recess following the disruption.

9:45

An observer has disrupted the meeting just as Mayor John Tory was about to do a presentation for some guests. The person lashed out about accessibility in the council chamber and the fact that more money is being added to the police budget.

9:20

Heading into the meeting, Mayor Tory was asked by reporters whether he is reconsidering his resignation. He said only that he is "just going to deal with the budget, get that done."

9:15

A number of councillors offered their thoughts to reporters ahead of the meeting.

Council. Josh Matlow told reporters that he is focussed on the budget rather than what the mayor will do.

Coun. Gord Perks said it would be an "outrage against the people of Toronto" if Tory uses his veto power on the budget. Perks said that Tory should honour his previous announcement that he will resign.

Meanwhile, some of the mayor’s allies are urging him to stay on despite his announcement. Speaker Frances Nunziata said Tory “made an error in judgment” but added that “it will be a disaster if he resigns.”

Nunziata said a leave of absence might be more appropriate than a full resignation.

Coun. Jon Burnside said the mayor`s resignation `would bring a whole lot of instability`to city hall.