Toronto Budget Chief Gary Crawford voicing his concerns over provincial cuts to public health, which city officials say will slash $64 million from Toronto Public Health's 2019 budget. Over the next decade, that would amount to an estimated total of $1 billion in cuts. Crawford released a statement today. It says, in part:
"I've led the budget process for the last five years to ensure we were delivering value for money at City Hall and going line-by-line every year to glean savings and keep taxes low. From his time at City Hall, the Premier knows that this is a long process over many months, and that we simply cannot make these adjustments mid-year, on the fly. If we did apply these public health cuts to other areas of our budget, these cuts would impact not only public health, but potentially other vital services to Torontonians, such as recreation programs, library hours, grass cutting, road re-paving and pedestrian safety initiatives, to name a few."
Meantime, officials with Premier Doug Ford's governement are disputing the city's math on the estimated financial impact to public health.
Speaking to CP24, Crawford says that the city will have to find other means to try and replace the tens of millions of dollars that would be cut.
"The reality is there will be some services that will have to be cut if we have to look at this retroactively. There is no pocket of money sitting around anywhere for us to be able to make up the difference and if we are forced to make the difference and open up the budget to look for savings that concerns me."
City officials are asking the province to reconsider the cuts.
The Premier has previously said that Toronto needs to get their financial house in order.
In the past, the Ontario government has funded upwards of 75 per cent of Toronto Public Health's budget. But, the province plans to change that, lowering cost-sharing levels to about 50 per cent, meaning the city will have to make up the difference.
Speaking to our sister station CP24 today, the Premier said that the change in funding ratios amounts to only a fraction of the city’s overall budget.