And city spokesman Tammy Robbinson said Thursday service demand — and the $75-million price tag — will be similar in 2020.
To make city budget matters worse, I learned that the much-touted $45 million given by the federal government to the city of Toronto to help pay for the flow of refugees to the city — as a pre-election goodie no doubt — will run out in March.
No further funding commitments have been made, I’m told.
The $75 million is a far cry from the $45 million that the mayor and council said would be enough to cover the flow of refugees to the city this year. In late June, I was told that the budget for hotel/motel accommodation was $46.4 million — with 2,600 refugees in the system at that point.
Robbinson confirmed the $75 million does not include the $1 million per month that is being shelled out to house 200 refugees at the former North York Hydro building on Yonge St. That would bring next year’s tab to $87-million.
This all came to light Thursday when I questioned an item on next week’s economic and community development committee agenda which asks councillors to increase and/or approve six contracts valued at more than $8-million to use various Toronto and GTA hotel/motels as emergency shelters.
The contracts to be approved next week are with Comfort Hotel Airport North, Alexandra Hotel (downtown Toronto), Staybridge Suites in Toronto-Vaughan, New Lido Motel and Maple Leaf Motel in Scarborough and Alternative Living Solutions, a Markham company that manages the Toronto Plaza Hotel.
This is on top of the $108 million for emergency hotel and motel spaces already approved in July. Robbinson said they’re currently using nine hotels — four for refugee claimants and five for non-refugees– and that the tab covers both refugee claimants and regular shelter users (the traditional homeless).
She said there are currently 2,400 refugee clients in the system. Some 1,800 are in hotels, 400 are still in shelters and 200 have transferred to the $1-million-a-month shelter at 5,800 Yonge St.
To put it bluntly: Houston we have a problem.
As closely as I’ve been watching these files, I have to admit even I was surprised with the high expenditures.
But why should we be when City Hall has an open wallet on so many files?
If one dare criticize whether the many soft services and virtue-signalling efforts are being properly monitored to ensure they deliver value for money, as I have, one is called “disgraceful” as Mayor John Tory said more than once at council this week (not that he mentioned me by name.)
But as I saw with our last free-spending socialist mayor — David Miller — it can’t go on forever. He left the city in dire straits, increasing spending on the operating budget by 44% and on the capital budget by another 250% over seven years.
He and council also hiked the city’s net debt by 176%.
This is where I fear we’re headed yet again
Unlike during the David Miller days, there are almost no councillors at City Hall now who either have the courage, the will or the knowledge to speak up about the rampant spending under Tory and the cabal of NDP councillors to whom he seems to give a wide berth — Joe Cressy, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Mike Layton.
Rest assured the bottom will fall out.
I suspect it will start with the 2020 budget as staff madly try to move the shells around to ensure they can prop up this profligate spending.
Please share this
No comments:
Post a Comment