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savings

Next year’s city budget aims to reduce total spending with 10-per-cent cuts in most departments.Kevin Van Paassen/ The Globe and Mail

Savings from the city's new deal to use school pools has thrown a lifeline to other swimming spots slated to close this summer.

Two outdoor pools and five wading pools that had funding cuts in this year's budget are on a list of services that could be saved thanks to $525,000 in newly available funds.

The list, compiled by city staff, will be considered by the budget committee on Friday. It also includes the restoration of 311 e-mail service, funding for two daycare centres and the designation of a new community priority centre that would provide free programs for children and youth.

The mid-year changes are required in part because of confusion during this year's budget council debate when motions were passed to save specific services, the staff report states. During that process, some services that councillors thought they had saved – like the outdoor pools – remained on the chopping block.

Other changes, such as the restoration of the rent subsidy for school-based childcare centres, actually directed more money than needed to specific city accounts. The staff report recommends using the savings from the new deal brokered with the Toronto District School Board for use of its pools for city programs, and the extra money in city accounts, to save other services.

It also recommends a review of options to prevent similar mix-ups in future budget debates.

Councillor Mike Del Grande, the budget chair, has had some harsh words for councillors who made last-minute changes to the 2012 budget.

"Some of the motions were ill-conceived, and now we have problems," he said at the committee's meeting last month.

Councillor Josh Colle, who put forward the motion to save the pools at council, said he intended to include the two outdoor facilities as well and the ones at schools.

"I'm encouraged by this," he said of the list of services in the report, noting they reflect council's priority of services for families and children. "I think that is something most councillors would find consensus on," he said.

Councillor John Parker, a member of the budget committee, said he would prefer not to spend savings, but could be persuaded otherwise by his fellow councillors.

"My first instinct is every time we save a nickel, we should put it in the bank," he said.

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