The budget committee heard deputations from the public yesterday morning on the proposed 2008 capital budget. After the long battle over the new land-transfer and vehicle-registration taxes, I expected to hear a resident or two lecture councillors on overspending, pinpointing projects that could be cut. Instead, nearly every person who spoke advocated for increased spending. A good number of the deputants included pedestrian and cycling advocates, as well as south Etobicoke residents concerned about the ecological future of Sam Smith Park. Here’s a quick overview of some of the ideas, complaints and suggestions a few citizens brought forward to Shelley Carroll and the gang. (Note: the summaries below are not direct quotes.)

Sustain sustainable energy, and while you’re at it, reduce smog caused by traffic (Franz Hartmann, Toronto Environment Alliance)
Change is in the Air, the city’s climate change and sustainable energy action plan, conveys a sense of urgency concerning the need to address climate change — the capital budget does not. Let’s maximize the potential to get energy retrofitting off the ground, by dedicating more money to the revolving funds set aside for loans for such projects.

Smog from cars kills around 440 people a year according to Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. The most effective way to get people to keep their cars at home is to give them alternatives. So how about moving forward with our Bike Plan? Since the plan's approval in 2001, only 20 per cent of the funds needed to complete it have been spent.

Fix roads and keep cars moving (Faye Lyons, Canadian Automobile Association)
The road repair backlog is estimated to reach $415 million by the end of 2010, yet a mere $5 million is slated to go towards the repair backlog in the 2008 budget. The growing backlog puts the safety of every Torontonian at risk, not to mention future capital budgets —the longer repairs are put off, the more the cost of repairs will increase.

We would like to see $30 million allocated towards repairs each year, as well as additional investment in traffic control measures, such as signals and overhead message signs. We’d like to see $5 million put towards accelerating the replacement of traffic signal and technology operations. These are not unreasonable demands, especially considering the new money that will be collected from the new Vehicle Registration Tax.

Question from Councillor Joe Mihevc: "We needed that money so that we wouldn’t fall even further behind in road repairs; are you suggesting we tax more?"

Lyons: "No."

Mihevic: "Help us figure out where to get that money."

Lyons: "Show some respect to taxpayers; put more money into roads, OK?"

Councillor Gord Perks: Did you read the recent report from Dr. David McKeown on the relationship between traffic pollution and health? Do you share his assertion that our priorities should be on walking, biking and transit?

Lyons: Not if it contributes to congestion. Idling pollutes!

Perks: My question is very simple — if you had a choice between spending on pedestrian, cycling or transit infrastructure or spending on vehicle infrastructure, which would you choose?

Lyons: Vehicle infrastructure

Perks: OK, I see you didn’t take to heart the warnings of the Medical Officer of Health.

Promote walking and cycling! (Dr. Judy Adler)
The CAA doesn’t speak for me. I’d rather drive my SUV — yes I own an SUV — on a bumpy road with a bike lane than a smooth road without one. We need more than just bike lanes, we need promotional programs, ads that say “walk more, pollute less” on the TTC. Health care costs are rising, but we don’t have to go to the gym, we just have to walk. I’m here to urge you to spend more.

Take a hard look at the TTC and Police. Widen sidewalks, too. (Helen Riley)
First of all, the budget information provided to the public is getting increasingly obscure — I don’t have time to read this stuff. Secondly, the capital budgets of the TTC and police are treated like sacred cows. The largest budgets tend to be the least scrutinized in my experience. Thirdly, many of the city’s sidewalks are too narrow. The transportation department calls for wider sidewalks to be built during road reconstruction “where feasible,” which means it never happens.

Save Sam Smith Park! (Allan Valk, Kathy Sims, Ruth Grier and Brian Bailey; each gave their own deputation, but the message was quite similar)
We fought a skateboard facility planed for Sam Smith Park in order to preserve the rare and treasured wetland that exists there. Now another project is planned for the park: an outdoor skating rink. Why would we build this when we’re depending on a company to help pay to operate the ones we already have? There has been a lack of public consultation on this issue. The proposed skating rink would also threaten the wetlands and wildlife that now come to this area (including deer that find their way here from river valleys). During the skateboard park debacle, Councillor Mark Grimes promised to start a citizen’s advisory group for Sam Smith Park. That still hasn’t happened. Plans for the skating rink should be deferred. We’d like you to consider building a new community centre for our neighbourhood instead.

Look into project funding — bigger isn’t always better (Jutta Mason, Centre for Local Research into Public Space; Dufferin Grove Park)
We find that big projects tend to be favoured over the small. Take roof shingles that need replacing in Dufferin Grove Park. We’ve been told it’ll take 10 years before they can be dealt with. Our wading pool has needed repairs to its plumbing for over 10 years. This year we were suddenly informed that there was money for a completely new wading pool (oddly enough, this happened during the cost-containment measures process, but because the money would come from the capital budget, we were told that there was nothing to worry about). As it turns out, a wading pool replacement initiative is taking place throughout the entire city, but not all wading pools needed to be replaced — ours, for example, would be fine as long as the pipes were repaired. With big projects like this, front line staff don’t get consulted early enough. No one on the ground at our park was actually consulted about replacing our wading pool; the decision was just parachuted in.