Tuned in to the livestream just to hear a City staff member saying "—million to deploy AI solutions—" and immediately turned it off

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Back to Budget Committee! I need to do work and grocery shopping and stuff, but will check in when I can.

• Livestream: https://youtube.com/live/L_oYF5M6F-M
• Agenda: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/#/committees/2562/27153
• It may be easier to find the various documents here: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/budget-finances/city-budget/notes-reports-and-presentations/

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

I know there are perfectly fine reasons to go with numbers for the lines instead of colours, but as someone who almost never takes any of those lines (I generally only need streetcar/bus) I can never fucking remember what lines the numbers stand for.

I know 1 (yellow/Yonge-University-Spadina) and 2 (green/Bloor), am iffy on 3 (the now-defunct SRT, I guess?) and I guess 4 is purple/Sheppard, and 5 and 6 are the light rail lines???

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Back to Budget Committee, where we'll be hearing from the city's two biggest agencies, the TTC and Toronto Police Services, about their budgets. https://www.youtube.com/live/5lyvRANck-s

A quick reminder that my self-imposed rule is that I get to stop watching as soon as someone mentions leveraging AI.

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

BTW, if anyone wants to crunch the Toronto shelter numbers themselves, here's the main #OpenData datasets:

• https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/daily-shelter-overnight-service-occupancy-capacity/
• https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/toronto-shelter-system-flow/
• https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/central-intake-calls/

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Carroll obliquely addresses "social media" criticisms of a $100 million cut; says it's clawbacks from other orders of government.

That wraps up this cluster of services, but the next agencies (Toronto Police Services, TTC) aren't available until 1:30 p. m. Back then.

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Cheng asks if they could reach zero people turned away from shelters. TSSS say average numbers have dropped over 2025 from ~120 to ~34 to, one night in December, 2. Will have to dig into budget variance reports to see if they go into more detail as to why.

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Toronto Shelter & Support Services says [one-time/time-limited] funding for the Encampment Office will be ending in March of this year.

Moise asks about the operational impacts of the changes to the encampment protocol approved late last year to prioritize removing encampments within 50 metres of "children's amenities"; TSSS say they've removed 48 since.

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Moise asks Paramedic Services about whether they have seen an uptick in overdose calls since the closure of supervised consumption sites. Division head Bikram Chawla (I believe) says they haven't. Anecdotally, this belies what I heard recently from a Parkdale Community Health Centre employee, which is that overdoses are spiking. Then again, people may be trying to avoid calling 911 because of the risk of discrimination and arrest (paramedics routinely ask police to accompany them on overdose calls).

#TOcouncil #TOpoli #TObudget

Cheng mentions "naturalized areas" in parks with "weeds taller than toddlers."

#TOcouncil #TOpoli #TObudget

Budget Committee is back, hearing from more City divisions!

Today's game: listening/watching until someone mentions "leveraging AI"

• Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/5lyvRANck-s
• Agenda & documents: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.BU11.1

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Carroll wants everyone to understand that housing capital projects getting deferred isn't necessarily the City's fault. "There's a focus of some of our colleagues on capital deferrals but often there are other reasons why deferrals are happening or being smoothed out to other years.

"Or they're making stuff up. That too. I'll say that right into the microphone. Okay, I think that's it for Housing Secretariat…"

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

"Just put up your physical hand. Physical hands are all we're working with today." #NoContexxt

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Tuning in to Budget Committee just in time to hear budget chief Shelley Carroll say, "The barrage of questions going to staff that are not specifically budget-related are challenging." I see things are going well

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

In other news the Budget Committee is hearing presentations from City divisions starting, like, now. I meant to go in in person but unfortunately slept in having dreams and will have to catch up belatedly. I am going to go take a shower and hope there isn't a wall covering the window.

• Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/-jtoc2TxQNo
• Agenda item with links to materials: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.BU11.1

#TOpoli #TOcouncil #TObudget

Oh, presently there is a technical briefing for members of the media which I totally forgot about. However I am used to digging through budget documents so I think I'll be fine without it.

me walking into budget info sessions: https://youtu.be/IEhHEOIYgMY

thanks for following along everyone! I'm gonna go outside now

#TOcouncil #TOpoli

Carroll thanks Cllr Cheng for properly referring to a "reserve draw" rather than calling it "raiding" the reserve funds. She asks CFO Conforti if there are any reserve funds being used for something that isn't their intended purpose.

I just gotta say that if there were, it would be an incredibly stupid idea to actually say it out loud

#TOcouncil #TOpoli

Had to make coffee and talk to roommate, missed a bit. Before I forget, I just want to mention this bit from a City press release I got in my email this morning:

We’re making Toronto more fair by asking empty home speculators and luxury property buyers - the top 2% of all buyers - to chip in more to make life more affordable.

I've been ignoring this because it's completely meaningless, you could always pay more property taxes than required, and someone always brings up the low uptake on this at every Council budget meeting as a specious argument for why people don't want higher taxes. OK now back to ignoring it.

#TOcouncil #TOpoli

Cllr Fletcher gives us a very short overview of the City Building Fund levy which is on top of residential property taxes. (It was introduced as the Scarborough subway levy under Rob Ford, and then John Tory added in housing/other large infra stuff & it became a "City Building Fund".) I think we should probably rename it the "Mayoral Legacy Fund" and let every mayor tack on a few per cent for their pet project.

#TOcouncil #TOpoli

In response to a question from Cllr Crisanti, the CFO says every 1% residential property tax increase generates about $50M in revenue. (This figure obviously changes a bit each year and has crept steadily up over the years; it's good to know the current number.)

#TOcouncil #TOpoli