Councillors hear residents' top issues

People from across city sound off on what should be added, kept or dropped from funding plan

- MAHDIS HABIBINIA

North York resident Jessica Samuel's neighbourhood has one of the city's most delayed bus routes. She called for more transit investments in underserved communities.

Alexa Gilmour helped an 11-yearold boy choose the teddy bear to put on his dad Nelson’s coffin a few years ago. The boy’s father died by suicide after he couldn’t find support when he lost his apartment after a work injury.

“I, we and the city have failed them,” said Gilmour, an outreach minister at Saint Luke’s United Church.

Gilmour spoke passionately about the need for Toronto, where full shelters routinely turn away homeless people, to be a caring city that spends what’s necessary to ensure everyone has a safe, warm place to call home.

“I spend too many hours weeping with people who have fallen through our (city’s) safety nets and land on desperate times.”

Gilmour was one of about 270 people who presented their cases over two days across four parts of Toronto, asking the budget committee to fix what Mayor Olivia Chow has called an “inherited mess.” Chow has repeatedly pledged to consider the feedback she receives before presenting her version of the budget Feb. 1.

Toronto residents from all walks of life told councillors on the budget committee what should be added, kept or dropped from city staff’s proposed $17-billion operating budget. The spending plan includes a record 10.5 per cent property tax hike or possibly 16.5 per cent if the federal government doesn’t come through on funds requested to house refugee claimants. City staff are also proposing a slight increase in police’s net budget to $1.174 billion, a TTC fare freeze and $152 million in additional spending on new and existing services.