About City Budget Watch
Social Planning Toronto's City Budget Watch is back for the 2021 City of Toronto budget process! We'll be bringing you up-to-date reports and analysis on each step of the City budget process from launch date on Thursday, January 14, to final votes at City Council on February 17. We'll let you know how you can learn more, get involved, and have your say on the 2021 budget.
The City Budget Watch Blog is authored by Beth Wilson. Beth is our lead on policy and research at Social Planning Toronto, starting at our organization in 2002. She has a Master of Social Work (MSW), Policy, Organization and Community.
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Most recent blog entries
2022 City Budget: Town Hall Speakers Share Excellent Analysis & Calls to Action
Did you miss SPT's 2022 City Budget Town Hall? No problem! The video with closed captioning is available right here.
On January 18, SPT hosted its annual City budget town hall. The town hall featured a wonderful panel of speakers. We had a great conversation with participants and shared ideas to take action for a better, bolder budget for Toronto residents. Presenters dug deep into this year's budget, with a focus on shelters, housing and homelessness, public transit, climate justice, jobs and work, growth funding tools, and budget impacts through an intersectional gender equity lens.
2022 City Budget Watch: City Launches Status Quo Budget Amidst Raging Omicron Wave
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and exacerbated deep and long-standing social, racial and geographic inequalities in our city. Our communities are struggling, evidenced by multiple and mounting crises in the areas of housing and homelessness, food security, mental health and addictions, child care, transit, and more. Now more than ever, we need bold leadership and action from Toronto City Council that recognizes the urgency of this moment.
More than a decade of austerity budgets have left the City of Toronto ill-equipped to respond to this moment. Sad to say, this year's draft budget does little to turn the corner on this unfortunate history. On January 13, amidst the raging Omicron wave, the City of Toronto launched its 2022 staff-recommended tax-supported budget, the fourth and final budget of this term of Council. In an uncommon time, with communities struggling through a fifth, hard-hitting wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City is proposing a status quo budget that prioritizes low property taxes, proposes no new revenue tools to finance new services, includes close to half a billion in City-funded 'offsets' (i.e. savings/cost cutting), and little new funding to address the many urgent needs of Toronto residents.