[URBAN NOTE] "TTC 2017 Operations: A Budget Meeting With No Budget"

[rfmcdonald]

Steve Munro worries about the TTC's budget cuts. The savings found are one-time only things. What happens when new pressures come about?

The TTC Budget Committee will meet on September 21. At this point, we have only the most threadbare of reports that gives no indication of how transit service will survive the onslaught of Mayor Tory’s misguided and reckless attitude to funding TTC service.

The report is a mere six pages.

In order to give the impression that TTC management actually are achieving the cuts Tory wants, they have “found” some loose change to meet the 2.6% reduction in operating subsidy.

This saving is achieved by the following projected budget line reductions:

Remove land lines for TTC staff who are provided with cell phones ($0.3m)
An increase in capital projects in 2017 will cause a higher proportion of some staff costs to be charged to capital rather than operating ($0.8m)
Reduced budget for departmental overtime so that increased rates due to the collective agreement are absorbed within departmental budgets ($0.8m)
Reduced training and travel ($0.5m)
Reduced stand-by costs ($0.6m)
Materials and supplies costs reduced by: increased bus warranty recoveries, converting IT contractor positions to staff, reduced furniture and equipment budget. ($1.0m)
Deferral of the September 2015 service increase translates to a saving in full year costs to continue these improvements to 2016 ($1.5m)
Lower health care costs due to a downward trend in claims ($10.3m)

Most of the saving ($15.4m) actually occurs on the regular TTC side of the house with only $0.4m as lower Wheel-Trans costs. This is a simple case of the relative size of the two organizations and the tiny amount of infrastructure (beyond buses and a garage) that must be maintained out of the W-T budget.