Back in 2006 city council established a sensible policy that councillors’ and the mayor’s salaries would increase annually in line with Toronto’s consumer price index.
That meant the mayor and councillors didn’t have to go on the political firing line for every proposed pay increase, while ensuring city politicians were fairly paid.
This year they’re due for a 2.1- per-cent hike that would raise the mayor’s salary to $188,544 and councillors’ pay to $111,955.
On the face of things, that is far from out of line. But these are not normal times. The mayor and council should freeze their salaries at last year’s level.
Why? This is a year when Mayor John Tory insisted — against his city manager’s advice — that all departments and agencies find ways to slash their budgets by 2.6 per cent, despite the fact that many have already been cut to the bone after years of austerity.
His edict left managers desperately scavenging for savings. They did so by proposing user fee increases, cuts to services and hours of operation, and staff reductions. Repairs and upkeep plans went by the wayside. No department was exempt, from libraries to Toronto Community Housing to the TTC.
And it didn’t matter that those cuts to services and increases in user fees disproportionately hurt low-income, vulnerable and marginalized people who rely on transit, city-run recreation programs and social services.
Consider the case of recreation. As the Star’s Laurie Monsebraaten and Betsy Powell report, the wait-list for recreational programs has grown by 64 per cent in the last three years to 189,467. Three city pools are threatened with closure. User fees for kids’ gymnastics, arts and crafts and homework clubs are going up by 12.3 per cent and 111 youth recreation worker jobs are being eliminated at a time when youth unemployment in the city tops 18 per cent.
All of this so that Tory can keep his campaign commitment to limit the rise in property taxes to 2 per cent, or about $55 for the average homeowner, whatever the eventual cost to the city and its citizens.
If the average homeowner contributed just $140 extra this year, the city could have reversed $10.8 million in proposed service cuts and paid for $14.5 million in council-approved but unfunded projects.
The mayor’s stance is perverse, especially in light of the fact that Toronto taxpayers have it comparatively easy. Despite being Canada’s largest city, Toronto has the lowest residential property tax rates in Ontario. And despite the dizzying rise in real estate prices, the city’s tax rates have decreased overall between 1998 and 2016, from 0.8 per cent of the assessed value of a property to less than 0.5 per cent.
Now Tory is in the untenable position of demanding deep cuts to services that Toronto’s citizens depend on while accepting a salary increase for himself and councillors.
It’s unseemly. If the mayor and council insist on across-the-board belt-tightening in an effort to keep taxes low, their salaries should not be exempted.
If we must have austerity, then let it start at home. The salaries should be frozen.
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