Alayne McGregor
Transit, affordable housing, and social supports were repeated concerns at a city councillor budget meeting on October 18 covering Somerset, Kitchissippi, and Capital wards.
The city’s 2024 budget, now tabled, will be debated at city committees this month, and finally by city council on December 6.
At the meeting, Councillor Ariel Troster said that she was concerned that many shovel-ready affordable housing projects are sitting unfunded because of jurisdictional fights over homelessness between different levels of government.
She said critical choices are needed: “The way we budget says who we are. The police have no budget ceiling but every social service agency comes to me begging for scraps.”
Troster also supported Councillor Jeff Leiper’s setting his top priorities as affordable housing and a functioning transit system. Leiper said the city must improve transit reliability with priority bus measures on increasingly-congested streets. He argued that more transit funding should come from the tax base rather than fares (the draft budget calls for a 2.5 percent increase in fares, except for the low-income Equipass).
The budget includes $10M in transit “efficiencies”. These were tabled for information at the Transit Commission this week.
When asked for savings, Troster said she would cut grants for developing brownfields or for community improvement plans, avoid more P3’s and their high legal costs, charge ridesharing companies more, and provide more permanent housing because temporary motels, policing homelessness, and shelters are a more expensive solution.
Aileen Leo, who lives in the western part of Centretown, said she had “never seen things so bad in terms of people living on the street” on her area. She said the city needs both supportive housing for those with drug and mental health issues and affordable housing, and she would be prepared to pay more than the proposed 2.5 percent increase to cover that. She also said she had bought a car out of frustration from service breakdowns on the LRT (stuck four times) and late or crowded buses.
Cheryl Parrott called for dangerous crumbling sidewalks to be fixed. The city is always behind in fixing them, she said. Diane McIntyre noted that the sidewalk on Argyle behind the museum was in very bad condition.
Nicholas Song said the city’s temporary traffic calming budget ($62K/ward) is too small. “There’s a huge demand for safer streets. Everyone wants them but little money is being allocated.”
Roland Dorsay called for clearer links between council priorities and the budget, and metrics to measure progress.
One item that was asked for at the meeting – higher parking fees – was included in the draft budget. Maximum on-street parking rates are increasing from $4 to $4.50 (12.5 percent). In city parking garages, hourly maximums will go up from $6 to $6.50 (8.3 percent). The daily limit would now be $25 (4.2 percent). This is the first time parking fees have been increased in several years.
Local restauranteurs might be less happy with a large jump in outdoor patio fees in the draft budget. Putting a patio on a city street or sidewalk will go from the pandemic-friendly price of $7.54/m2 to $15.27/m2 .