When it's an “efficiency.”
After a surprising upset for pro-cuts Councillors at budget deliberations – in which a handful of Councillors responded to community will, resisted political bullying, and moved to restore partial funding to city services(1) – the tone of conversation across Toronto is relief.
As communities were spared over $28 million in outright cuts to public programs(2), relief makes sense. But we're a long way from celebration. Painful cuts have still been made, totalling nearly $60 million. Further cuts hover. And almost no attention has been paid to so-called “efficiencies” and “adjustments.”
These are the euphemistic names for cuts that budget consultants think they can hide from the public, since they don't mean a drained pool or shuttered library. But they do amount to over $326 million worth of lost service capacity.
The affected services are still technically on offer – there just might not be anyone around to offer them in your neighbourhood much longer. If the TTC removes buses from a route, or reduces the number of drivers, we call that a cut – even though public transit still exists. The same is true of the “adjustments” which passed Council last night. If there's no one to deliver a service, there is no service - even if it still exists on paper.
Libraries, pools, and long-term care homes are not just buildings, but places where people use and provide services. Thanks to this budget, over 1268 staff positions will be “deleted.” These deletions cut across the breadth of city services – Public Health, Children's Services, Emergency Medical Services, Libraries, Parks, Transportation, Long Term Care, Shelters, Planning, and Fire Services, to name just a few.
Council could not bring itself to stop these staff cuts, nor “contracting out” of cleaning staff; public buildings will soon be maintained by contractors bent on cutting corners, who don't pay a living wage. Even putting ethics aside, that's no way to secure quality service.
And what opponents of public service could not slash from the budget, they'll seek through labour negotiations. The City is taking strides toward locking out thousands of employees who deliver services, with the ultimate goal of deleting thousands more, and stripping protections that prevent them from making the full cuts they will seek in the next budget.
People across Toronto work hard, and – especially in hard economic times – rely on public services to support them and enrich their lives. Those services rely on experienced, loyal people to deliver them. Yesterday's budget surprises have shown that Torontonians value those services. It's time for them to let their Councillors know they value the work that goes in to services as well.
(1) Funding was partially restored to libraries, Child Services, rec centres, arenas, shelters, public transit, community grants, Immigrant Women's Health Centres, and more.
(2)We know, thanks to a new Environics poll, that a majority of Torontonians value those services, and support funding them even if it means a small tax increase.