unimaginative2
Senior Member
City unveils ambitious works agenda
Toronto's proposed capital budget for 2008 includes projects in all parts of the city. Here's a sample:
Central
# Improve public security at Union Station ($9 million)
# Replace streetcar tracks on St. Clair Ave. W. and work on the Simcoe St. underpass (combined $42.7 million)
Across city
# Improve homes for the aged ($8.4 million)
# Improve subway access ($10.9 million)
# Improve recycling programs ($65.5 million)
# Police station, training and vehicle improvements ($72.7 million)
# Make city's website better ($1.84 million)
East
# Begin construction on the Kennedy/Eglinton library expansion ($950,000)
# Complete Morningside Ave./Finch Ave. E. grade separation to improve safety and reduce delays to traffic at the railway crossing ($18.8 million)
North
# Begin construction of bus rapid transitways, from Downsview to York University, and Yonge St. from Finch to Steeles (combined $16 million)
# Complete 60 beds at the new Bethlehem United Shelter at Lawrence and Caledonia ($250,000)
West
# Start construction of a new Islington subway station and an inter-regional bus terminal at Kipling station, to be shared with GO Transit and Mississauga Transit ($19.9 million)
The Complete List
Oct 30, 2007 04:30 AM
Paul Moloney
Jim Byers
city hall bureau
The good news is that the city's capital budget is finally about to make a dent in Toronto's road repairs backlog. The bad news is that means more orange construction cones and longer delays for drivers.
City officials yesterday unveiled a $1.53 billion capital budget for next year that sets aside money for everything from TTC improvements to repairs at the city's homes for the aged, and small spending increases for everything from trees to shelter beds.
Chief financial officer Joe Pennachetti said the overwhelming theme is repairing the city's aging infrastructure. And that means road repairs that are necessary but often aggravating for motorists.
"My advice would be `Buy a TTC pass,'" said Gary Welsh, general manager of transportation services. Welsh said repairs will be made to 16 bridges and maintenance done on 125 kilometres of road, including Bathurst St. near Lawrence and Dufferin St. near Queen.
The capital budget, to be approved in early December, proposes to spend $1.53 billion in 2008, about the same as this year's.
The city's outstanding debt will climb to $2.6 billion by the end of next year, up from $2.4 billion. By the end of 2012, debt would be about $3 billion; somewhat lower if council agrees to increase its cash contributions to capital projects.
Of the total 2008 spending, roughly one-third would come from borrowing; one-third from taxes and other revenues. The final third would come from the federal and provincial governments, mostly as transit funding.
Budget chief Shelley Carroll said long-term transit commitments from Queen's Park and Ottawa are seriously overdue.
The TTC takes up 46 per cent of the 2008 capital budget. It has to replace aging streetcars, buses and subway cars. Some $79.4 million will be spent on 234 subway cars to replace aging ones and boost capacity. A further $175.5 million will pay for 193 conventional and 50 Wheel-Trans buses and $55 million to start buying 204 low-floor, accessible Light Rail Vehicles to replace existing streetcars. Also, $54.8 million will be spent to improve train control and signals on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line.
Councillors and the public will have a chance to ask staff about the budget at a Nov. 13 meeting. But Councillor Doug Holyday told reporters yesterday he's worried about the figures. "I want to know if there's a plan B," he said.
"We've gone through this many times before, where we have anticipated grants from other levels of government that haven't materialized, and consequently what we've done is borrow anyway. And the second most expensive thing that we have before us now are our debt charges.
"There is no plan B," Pennachetti said. "We'd simply have to make cuts."
Even with the extra money, the city is facing growing backlogs for so-called "state of good repair" fixes. The road repair backlog was $310 million last year but will grow to $400 million in 2008.
Pennachetti said the budget also contains $85 million for the city's climate-change program.
Capital works just keeps city functional
Headshot of John Barber
JOHN BARBER
October 30, 2007
The big numbers in the city's latest capital estimates will no doubt inspire the usual right-wing yowls about tax-and-spend socialists at city hall, but few objective observers will be so deceived.
If anything, this extremely modest building plan will inspire the credit agencies to add another pip to the city's double-A rating. Given the paltry amounts devoted to anything that might be described as "city building," it's the tax-and-spenders who should yowl.
Either that, or they should figure out how to gain control of the Toronto Parking Authority, which is just about the only city department or agency spending real money to build new stuff - as opposed to spending money to keep old stuff from falling apart, or dreaming about spending money Ottawa and Queen's Park may or may not provide.
As usual, the needs of the TTC dominate the long-term plan, with all those stupendously expensive new trains and streetcars seeming to provide ample evidence of reckless "city building." But the city can't afford such goodies and has no intention of acquiring them on its own nickel. Yesterday's spreadsheets depend massively on predicting the whims of finance ministers from the next decade. The pie charts are so stuffed with sugar-plum assumptions as to be inedible.
The greatest share of actual transit spending is devoted to maintaining "state of good repair," as "keeping stuff from falling apart" is known inside the giant clam. The phrase was coined by former TTC chief David Gunn in the aftermath of a subway collision that killed three people. Twelve years later, fire-ventilation upgrades designed to prevent a similar tragedy continue to dominate the TTC's minimal to-do list, as opposed to its expansive wish list.
Apart from wishes and safety systems that should have been installed years ago, Councillor Shelley Carroll, Mayor David Miller's budget chief, couldn't name a single tangible goody in her 2008 capital plan when asked yesterday afternoon. "There's not a lot of ribbon-cutting going on here," she admitted.
The biggest chunk of money, $65-million, will go to implementing the new waste-collection system council approved last spring. But the new system is financed with fees, not taxes, with the result that it will steadily disappear from the capital budget rather than add to it. The savings will amount to $79-million over the next five years, according to Toronto chief financial officer Joseph Pennachetti.
So much for wild overspending. What else is there?
One could argue that the city will be buying new stuff with the $44-million it plans to spend this year on redeveloping the West Donlands and East Bayfront industrial lands. But that's just what Mississauga does when it extends municipal services to new greenfield developments. Most of the money goes underground. Considering the total amount of public and private investment required to rehabilitate the waterfront - and the massive returns that await success - the municipal contribution is no more than spit on a stovetop.
The West Donlands cost more than $400-million to expropriate - on the province's tab - a decade ago, and has steadily gobbled non-municipal resources ever since. The city remains a bystander to an ambitious, expensive process that is only now beginning to show signs of existence, let alone completion. Meanwhile redevelopment of the East Bayfront is being managed by Waterfront Toronto with senior-government cash.
Even on the waterfront, where everybody wants the city to build new stuff, the tax-and-spend socialists are little more than cheerleaders. Their actual legacy is more likely to be measured in new garages built by their buoyant parking authority.
jbarber@globeandmail.com
Toronto's proposed capital budget for 2008 includes projects in all parts of the city. Here's a sample:
Central
# Improve public security at Union Station ($9 million)
# Replace streetcar tracks on St. Clair Ave. W. and work on the Simcoe St. underpass (combined $42.7 million)
Across city
# Improve homes for the aged ($8.4 million)
# Improve subway access ($10.9 million)
# Improve recycling programs ($65.5 million)
# Police station, training and vehicle improvements ($72.7 million)
# Make city's website better ($1.84 million)
East
# Begin construction on the Kennedy/Eglinton library expansion ($950,000)
# Complete Morningside Ave./Finch Ave. E. grade separation to improve safety and reduce delays to traffic at the railway crossing ($18.8 million)
North
# Begin construction of bus rapid transitways, from Downsview to York University, and Yonge St. from Finch to Steeles (combined $16 million)
# Complete 60 beds at the new Bethlehem United Shelter at Lawrence and Caledonia ($250,000)
West
# Start construction of a new Islington subway station and an inter-regional bus terminal at Kipling station, to be shared with GO Transit and Mississauga Transit ($19.9 million)
The Complete List
Oct 30, 2007 04:30 AM
Paul Moloney
Jim Byers
city hall bureau
The good news is that the city's capital budget is finally about to make a dent in Toronto's road repairs backlog. The bad news is that means more orange construction cones and longer delays for drivers.
City officials yesterday unveiled a $1.53 billion capital budget for next year that sets aside money for everything from TTC improvements to repairs at the city's homes for the aged, and small spending increases for everything from trees to shelter beds.
Chief financial officer Joe Pennachetti said the overwhelming theme is repairing the city's aging infrastructure. And that means road repairs that are necessary but often aggravating for motorists.
"My advice would be `Buy a TTC pass,'" said Gary Welsh, general manager of transportation services. Welsh said repairs will be made to 16 bridges and maintenance done on 125 kilometres of road, including Bathurst St. near Lawrence and Dufferin St. near Queen.
The capital budget, to be approved in early December, proposes to spend $1.53 billion in 2008, about the same as this year's.
The city's outstanding debt will climb to $2.6 billion by the end of next year, up from $2.4 billion. By the end of 2012, debt would be about $3 billion; somewhat lower if council agrees to increase its cash contributions to capital projects.
Of the total 2008 spending, roughly one-third would come from borrowing; one-third from taxes and other revenues. The final third would come from the federal and provincial governments, mostly as transit funding.
Budget chief Shelley Carroll said long-term transit commitments from Queen's Park and Ottawa are seriously overdue.
The TTC takes up 46 per cent of the 2008 capital budget. It has to replace aging streetcars, buses and subway cars. Some $79.4 million will be spent on 234 subway cars to replace aging ones and boost capacity. A further $175.5 million will pay for 193 conventional and 50 Wheel-Trans buses and $55 million to start buying 204 low-floor, accessible Light Rail Vehicles to replace existing streetcars. Also, $54.8 million will be spent to improve train control and signals on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line.
Councillors and the public will have a chance to ask staff about the budget at a Nov. 13 meeting. But Councillor Doug Holyday told reporters yesterday he's worried about the figures. "I want to know if there's a plan B," he said.
"We've gone through this many times before, where we have anticipated grants from other levels of government that haven't materialized, and consequently what we've done is borrow anyway. And the second most expensive thing that we have before us now are our debt charges.
"There is no plan B," Pennachetti said. "We'd simply have to make cuts."
Even with the extra money, the city is facing growing backlogs for so-called "state of good repair" fixes. The road repair backlog was $310 million last year but will grow to $400 million in 2008.
Pennachetti said the budget also contains $85 million for the city's climate-change program.
Capital works just keeps city functional
Headshot of John Barber
JOHN BARBER
October 30, 2007
The big numbers in the city's latest capital estimates will no doubt inspire the usual right-wing yowls about tax-and-spend socialists at city hall, but few objective observers will be so deceived.
If anything, this extremely modest building plan will inspire the credit agencies to add another pip to the city's double-A rating. Given the paltry amounts devoted to anything that might be described as "city building," it's the tax-and-spenders who should yowl.
Either that, or they should figure out how to gain control of the Toronto Parking Authority, which is just about the only city department or agency spending real money to build new stuff - as opposed to spending money to keep old stuff from falling apart, or dreaming about spending money Ottawa and Queen's Park may or may not provide.
As usual, the needs of the TTC dominate the long-term plan, with all those stupendously expensive new trains and streetcars seeming to provide ample evidence of reckless "city building." But the city can't afford such goodies and has no intention of acquiring them on its own nickel. Yesterday's spreadsheets depend massively on predicting the whims of finance ministers from the next decade. The pie charts are so stuffed with sugar-plum assumptions as to be inedible.
The greatest share of actual transit spending is devoted to maintaining "state of good repair," as "keeping stuff from falling apart" is known inside the giant clam. The phrase was coined by former TTC chief David Gunn in the aftermath of a subway collision that killed three people. Twelve years later, fire-ventilation upgrades designed to prevent a similar tragedy continue to dominate the TTC's minimal to-do list, as opposed to its expansive wish list.
Apart from wishes and safety systems that should have been installed years ago, Councillor Shelley Carroll, Mayor David Miller's budget chief, couldn't name a single tangible goody in her 2008 capital plan when asked yesterday afternoon. "There's not a lot of ribbon-cutting going on here," she admitted.
The biggest chunk of money, $65-million, will go to implementing the new waste-collection system council approved last spring. But the new system is financed with fees, not taxes, with the result that it will steadily disappear from the capital budget rather than add to it. The savings will amount to $79-million over the next five years, according to Toronto chief financial officer Joseph Pennachetti.
So much for wild overspending. What else is there?
One could argue that the city will be buying new stuff with the $44-million it plans to spend this year on redeveloping the West Donlands and East Bayfront industrial lands. But that's just what Mississauga does when it extends municipal services to new greenfield developments. Most of the money goes underground. Considering the total amount of public and private investment required to rehabilitate the waterfront - and the massive returns that await success - the municipal contribution is no more than spit on a stovetop.
The West Donlands cost more than $400-million to expropriate - on the province's tab - a decade ago, and has steadily gobbled non-municipal resources ever since. The city remains a bystander to an ambitious, expensive process that is only now beginning to show signs of existence, let alone completion. Meanwhile redevelopment of the East Bayfront is being managed by Waterfront Toronto with senior-government cash.
Even on the waterfront, where everybody wants the city to build new stuff, the tax-and-spend socialists are little more than cheerleaders. Their actual legacy is more likely to be measured in new garages built by their buoyant parking authority.
jbarber@globeandmail.com
