Next month, we’ll be kicking off another annual City Budget process. Last year’s process was challenging on a number of fronts as I put my Budget Chief hat back on in a new administration. I heard from thousands of Torontonians who wanted to see things get better here in our city, particularly when it comes to making housing more affordable, transit more reliable, and our city safer. Those were the shared priorities that drove last year’s budget. Now, it’s time to take look at what we’ve achieved. I know we asked you to invest a lot to help get our city back on track. It’s my job to review the investments we made in the 2024 Budget and ensure that we are making progress in the areas Torontonians care about most.
Every year I remind you, readers, that the City’s budget is extremely tight. Unlike our Provincial and Federal counterparts, we don’t have access to revenue tools that grow with the economy, like sales tax or income tax. Instead, we have to fund a big city transit system, major infrastructure investments, and thousands of day-to-day city services with your property tax dollars. To ensure that every one of those dollars is being spent for maximum impact, we not only adopt an overall budget amount but also a list of all the actions that will be taken with those funds. We also pore over every line to find savings and efficiencies wherever possible. Last year, we found a record $600 million in savings before the formal Budget process even began.
Every quarter, each division of the City and all of our agencies must prepare a report to show the City Finance department how well they are tracking against their budget. I take a close look at these quarterly reviews in the fall before hearing budget requests for the following year. Down the hall, our City Manager and Chief Financial Officer are doing the same. Sound fiscal management is an essential part of our budget process, and we are also using a keen eye to find efficiencies and other savings for the upcoming year wherever possible.
I’m proud to say that our increased investments in City services are paying off. Long-term care is a perfect example. In the 2024 Budget, we invested in hiring 293 new care staff. By mid-year, we had hired 122 of those new positions and are continuing to increase our staffing complement throughout the fall. As a direct result of this investment, we are getting very close to achieving our goal of providing four hours of direct care per day to residents in our City-run long-term care homes. When I meet with our Seniors Services division this year, I’ll ask how close we can get to hiring the full 293 new staff by the end of 2024 before contemplating any additional increases in 2025.
We’ve also made significant investments in our emergency services to improve response times across the city. We will have 101 new firefighters on the job by the end of this year, as well as 8 new fire inspectors who are dedicated to newly licensed multi-tenant houses (rooming houses). We’ll also have 106 new paramedics ready to respond to your calls, and are on track to achieve our year-end target of 300 new police officers hired by the end of 2024. As Budget Chief, I’ll need to remember that training first responders takes time, so we will really feel the impacts of these investments in the months ahead and into 2025. These new positions in our three core emergency services will help lower response times across the board and keep all of us safer in the city we call home.
Transit was one of the most prominent areas we heard about the in 2024 Budget consultations. The TTC received a significant funding boost from the Mayor’s New Deal with the Provincial government. $27 million in operating funding was invested to improve community safety and well-being on our transit system. We’ve used that money to hire 130 customer service agents who are visible and active throughout our transit system to assist with health and safety issues. The presence of additional customer service agents and senior supervisors helps improve riders’ sense of safety on the system, as well as improving overall customer experience. These funds also allowed us to expand our Multi-Disciplinary Outreach Teams (MDOT) who help unhoused persons seeking shelter on the transit system access essential housing and health resources.
In part due to these investments, complaints about safety and security on the TTC have decreased by 57% and customer satisfaction is up to 73%. We continue to review the TTC security model to keep our transit system as safe as possible but, just as I hoped, the presence of additional dedicated transit workers has improved safety.
The 2024 Budget also focused intently on improving the community infrastructure and services that make our neighbourhoods vibrant and liveable. Our libraries are the perfect example. We’ve started taking steps to implement the “Toronto Public Libraries Open Hours Plan”, which is increasing hours of service at 16 branches across the city this year. That includes our very own Hillcrest Library here in Don Valley North, which is now open an additional 22 hours per week. Of course, these extra hours are not a one-time cost. We must be prepared to pay those additional staff in 2025 and onwards. Fortunately, we have the data to show that it was worth the investment. Circulation in those branches has jumped significantly since extended hours have been implemented.
Of course, there are always areas where we have a significant amount of work to do even with enhanced investment. I know that road construction has been a real frustration this summer, but that is because we are making tremendous progress on a number of major projects. We’re catching up on a big chunk of our state-of-good repair work before we host the FIFA World Cup in 2026. It’s a no pain, no gain situation. Rest assured my fellow Budget Committee members and I will take a detailed look at what has been spent on road work and how we can make the most use of those dollars next year. We’ll be interested in your experiences travelling in our city when we launch the 2025 Budget consultations, so be sure to come out and share your feedback.
Finally: Housing. When we talk about housing in the budget, we mean everything from getting homeless and underhoused people into appropriate housing, to making sure City Planning has the resources to respond to all the development applications we receive here in Toronto. A huge amount of time and effort has gone into this area since the 2024 Budget was adopted, but demand continues to increase every single day.
For instance, we have created 450 new supported beds for refugee response, but as we open them up we know that the Canadian Red Cross will wind down some of its emergency hotels. We’re also on track to disperse all of this year’s funds in the Toronto Rent Bank to help over 2200 households avoid eviction. Despite this progress, we know that the housing crisis continues to rage on and that more and more households are struggling to make ends meet. As we continue to find efficiencies and savings in other departments, all of us will benefit from investing in and stabilizing the housing we need. By investing in housing and homelessness services, we prevent people from falling into homelessness and making the challenges on our streets worse.
I know there is always more work to be done here at City Hall, but I feel confident in saying we’ve made some real progress this past year. What set this budget apart from previous years is the deep and detailed feedback we heard from you, the people of Toronto. Mayor Chow, my Council colleagues and I worked together to create a 2024 Budget based on your priorities. It’s essential that we get that feedback again as we start working on the 2025 Budget. We’ll be launching the 2025 Pre-Budget Survey in just a few weeks, and I hope all of you will take the time to complete it. Be warned, it’s not all multiple choice. There’s a longer question where I need your input: What more do we need to do to get back on track?
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