This article was originally published in the Globe and Mail on August 23, 2019. 

Is it possible for the City of Toronto to save money?

That question came to the fore earlier this week when Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his government’s plan to change its cost-sharing arrangement with municipalities, including for public health.

At present, the province covers 75 per cent of the cost for most of Toronto’s public-health programs and the city pays 25 per cent. There are some programs for which the province picks up the entire tab. The newly announced changes will aim to reduce the province’s burden in the public-health cost-sharing arrangement down to a 70-30 split with municipalities effective Jan. 1, 2020.

Mr. Ford did this because Ontario is in a fiscal crisis. The province’s debt is approaching $350-billion and grows by $523 every second. If Ontario is going to return to balance, Toronto needs to do its part.

In total, the provincial government is asking the city to take responsibility for an additional $4.3-million portion next year of its public-health budget, which is a capped increase of 10 per cent more than what the city is currently contributing. The increase amounts to less than 1 per cent of the city’s current operating budget of more than $13-billion.

Unsurprisingly, the response at Toronto City Hall was outrage. Councillor Joe Cressy summed up the hysteria by asserting that these changes were an attack on Ontarians, not far off from his earlier remarks that people would die if provincial funding for public health was reduced.

Sadly, the only thing more predictable in Toronto than a public-transit delay is a profligate city council with an inability to control spending, and a propensity to cry foul whenever anyone dares suggest it might be possible.

Although the city will be taking the Premier up on his government’s offer to fund a line-by-line audit to help it find savings, there have been sundry opportunities to save money that Toronto City Council has foolishly brushed aside.

Take, for example, city council’s decision to opt out of provincial competitiveness legislation that would have opened tendering for construction contracts in Toronto to non-unionized workers. Estimates suggest that this simple decision could have saved the city up to $48-million, which is why city manager Chris Murray recommended city council vote to open tendering. Mayor John Tory and Mr. Cressy voted against it.

Thankfully, there are some city councillors who recognize the urgent need for the city to save money, such as Stephen Holyday, who wore a life jacket to the June 19 vote to dramatize Toronto’s slide toward a fiscal emergency. Sadly, 19 of his city council colleagues voted in favour of closed bidding for select unions – as did the Toronto Community Housing Corp. and the Toronto District School Board – so we can expect to see more outrageous costs such as the $150 bill to install a pencil sharpener.

Not long after Mr. Cressy said people would die because of a lack of public-health funding, Toronto City Council announced with great pride that it was sinking another $7.5-million into Bike Share Toronto. This is a program that has lost money every year since 2014 when it was transferred from Bixi to the Toronto Parking Authority, and has already received more than $27-million in taxpayer subsidies since 2016 for capital costs alone (and that’s to say nothing of unfunded operating losses).

While cities such as Calgary and Montreal open their doors to bike-share models that are profitable, sustainable and entirely funded by the private sector, Toronto has decided to let sunk costs justify future spending on an antiquated bike-share model that will continue to plague taxpayers for years to come.

By now, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Toronto fritters away taxpayer dollars carelessly. This is, after all, the city that lost $2.6-million worth of productivity on the city’s urban-forestry program by paying contractors to water dead tree stumps.

Many cried foul over Toronto being asked to cover a $4.3-million portion of its public-health budget next year, but the province pays more than that – $36-million – on interest on its debt every day. Debt reduction and fiscal responsibility should be the first priority of anyone who purports to care about public health in this city or province.