Toronto council approves 2017 budget, including 2 per cent property tax increase
(The Star Food)

It was the budget that almost wasn’t.Despite a vote that created an unexpected $2-million hole just before midnight and nearly 15 hours into the debate, council approved a budget Mayor John Tory said kept property taxes at “reasonable� rates his allies called “affordable.�That included approval of a residential property tax rate hike that totals 3.29 per cent for 2017, or $90 extra for the average homeowner.But critics of the approved balancing called it “unsustainable� said they would have trouble sleeping once they got home in the early hours Thursday morning with cuts impacting the city’s most vulnerable.An attempt to prevent the elimination of 10 front-line shelter staff positions — at a time when those havens are exceeding capacity targets and those who rely on them struggle to find more permanent housing — failed 19-25. The mayor and all but one of his executive members supported the cut.Councillor Joe Cressy moved a motion that council keep the 10 frontline positions, by voting to increase the 2017 operating budget for shelter, support and housing administration by just over $1 million, by pulling funding from a property tax stabilization reserve fund.Cressy accused the mayor of directly intervening to ensure the cut passed.“It’s deeply disappointing that the mayor of Toronto decided to personally intervene to balance a budget on the backs of the city’s most vulnerable,� he told the Star. “When it comes to a budget setting the priorities for a city, cutting shelter staff is about as clear an indication as any that this budget is a failure.�Tory supported a successful motion asking staff to report back on the “true� service level impacts of the shelter cuts, saying he believed it would be “minimal.�“I have confidence in our professional public servants and I can’t believe they would even put in front of u ...