The City of Toronto isn't on a hiring spree this year, say councillors working on its budget.It's true the latest version of the plan calls for 1,016 new jobs. But in most of those the city had no say, said Scarborough Southwest Councillor Adrian Heaps, because provincial or federal governments ordered and paid for 580 positions.
Others are required by programs - a lobbyist registry and an ombudsman being two - ordered by the province but not funded, said Heaps, calculating just 450 of the new hires are his committee's decision.
And with 30,000 people moving to Toronto each year, he argued, those 450 jobs are "just the cost of running the city," including 39 extra police officers and 75 TTC drivers.
Some council members this week seized on the new jobs as proof the budget-makers aren't being frugal enough.
"There's probably some good in all these positions. The question is whether we can afford it, and I don't know that we can," said Doug Holyday of Etobicoke Centre, arguing $300 million of the spending can't be sustained next year, chiefly because $230 million of it is from a provincial surplus.
Mayor David Miller and his council allies "have already pushed taxes to the limit," said Holyday.
At a time when local businesses are freezing their hiring or cutting jobs, City Hall should give taxpayers a break by hiring people only if they are "absolutely essential," the former Etobicoke mayor said Wednesday.
Heaps, however, said people have worked "incredibly hard" to produce a balanced budget which could be passed around the end of this month. The rookie councillor added he's gotten "so many of the same questions all the time about the budget" he's including the 20 most-asked in a newsletter next week.
Hard times, when people need city services the most, are the wrong time to cut them, Heaps said.
There's a huge spike in recreation centre attendance, for example, because fewer people are continuing to buy memberships at fitness clubs, so city needs to run more recreation programs, he said.
As for next year's finances, "we'll start that on April 2" Heaps said.
"Can you predict the economy in six months?"
Holyday disagreed, but said he expects trimming the budget before it passes will be an uphill battle.
Though ridership is up and increased transit service may be great, he said, "we can't afford it now."
Holyday said the city is set to pay a 30 per cent subsidy on fares, noting that's lower than most other North American cities but Toronto was paying only 17 per cent a decade ago.
And the mayor wants the budget to include jobs for Transit City, a major expansion plan requiring "a small fortune" from the province, before he actually gets the money, Holyday said.
He may well get the money from the provincial budget but "who's he to gamble?" said Holyday.
"I'll bet he won't get all the money he thinks he's going to get."
On Wednesday, Paul Ainslie, budget committee vice chairperson, suggested Holyday and other critics are engaged in "seagull politics" - slamming the budget but not offering any creative suggestions, "except cut, cut, cut."
Committee members have found $72 million of savings in "gapping" - telling departments short of staff they have to make do with their current compliment, said Ainslie, who represents Scarborough East.
"There's a lot of empty desks in city departments."