Dear Friends and Residents,
I believe that when decisions are being made at City Hall that affect any neighbourhood or street in our ward, it is vital that those residents are informed. When it comes to the 2012 City of Toronto Budget, Council's decisions will have an impact on not only one community, but the entire City.
Following up on my newsletter regarding the proposed cuts and service reductions contained in the 2012 budget, I am providing you a brief update on some of the specific details that were released yesterday afternoon. The following list is not exhaustive as I have just received 4 binders containing over 1,000 pages of information pertaining to the City's finances for the next year.
I will be spending the next month going over the documents and picking out items of interest to our community in order to provide a detailed list of proposed changes at a Budget Town Hall meeting I am hosting on January 11, 2012, 7:00pm at the North Toronto Memorial Community Centre.
Preliminary list of facilities that are proposed to be closed or have service reductions in or directly adjacent to Ward 22 include:
- Brown Public School: Elimination of programming at the shared-use community centre
- Davisville Public School: Reduction in Student Nutrition Program funding
- Central Eglinton Community Centre: Staffing level reduction that will cause a reduction in programs offered to community
- Deer Park Public Library – reduce the number of hours from 62 to 56 hours per week, a 6 hour reduction (equivalent to two mornings)
- Northern District Public Library – reduce the number of hours from 69 to 59.5 per week, a 9.5 hour reduction (equivalent to approximately three mornings)
- Forest Hill Public Library – reduce the number of hours from 62 to 56 per week, a 6 hour reduction (equivalent to two mornings)
There are no school pools proposed for a reduction in funding in Ward 22. However, across the city, the following school pools are slated for elimination of City programming:
- Bedford Park
- Frankland
- Gordon A. Brown
- Hillcrest
- Runnymede
- SH Armstrong
- Sir Wilfred Laurier
Other City-wide recreational service reductions that may be of interest to Ward 22 residents include:
- Phil White Arena: arena operations ceased between 7am and 4pm, Monday to Friday
- High Park Zoo: closure
- Far Enough Farm (Toronto Island): Closure
- Closure of Fairhaven and Stanley Park outdoor pools
I will provide you with a more detailed analysis once I have completed reviewing the entirety of the budget documents I've received. I recognize that some hard decisions will have to be made given the ongoing structual deficit the City of Toronto has been saddled with since amalgamation. However, I will continue to advocate for and protect the services that Torontonians value and rely on every day.
Sincerely,
Josh
City Councillor
Ward 22 – St. Paul's
www.joshmatlow.ca
City Council committee agendas can be viewed at: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyList.do?function=prepareDisplayDBList
If you'd like to send an email directly to the members of the Budget Committee, these are the Councillors who sit on this committee.
- Michelle Berardinetti
- Mike Del Grande (Chair)
- Frank Di Giorgio
- Doug Ford (Vice Chair)
- Chin Lee
- Peter Milczyn
- John Parker
