Toronto Mayor David Miller is warming up for a campaign-style fight to win new tax revenues for the cash-strapped city, one week after losing a crucial vote to anti-tax opponents.
"The situation is serious, this is not a game," he said yesterday, referring to rapid-fire announcements last week of looming service cuts after council voted last Monday to put off until Oct. 22 a decision on $350-million in new taxes.
"We will do everything we can to get the facts known," he said, with efforts to talk directly to residents, such as an electronic newsletter. "It's about the kind of city you want to live in - it's that simple."
His comments come as the Toronto Police Services Board prepares for an emergency meeting later this week on potential cuts of $10-million or more from its 2007 budget, without affecting police staffing.
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This meeting, like one held Friday by the Toronto Transit Commission to consider possible cuts of up to $30-million, follows a request last week from city manager Shirley Hoy for all divisions and agencies to find $100-million in savings in 2007.
By Aug. 6, Ms. Hoy expects to announce details of the cuts, likely with reduced hours at libraries and delays to the mayor's priorities on transit and climate change.
Mr. Miller's supporters admit to tactical errors in recent months that led to last week's defeat of the mayor's call for a tax of up to 2 per cent on the purchase of a home and a $60 fee to register motor-vehicle ownership.
But in defeat, they see a kernel of victory.
Mr. Miller has three months to sell residents on what's at stake: namely, that a livable Toronto needs new taxes, not a rush to slash services, to preserve and expand transit, protect the environment and boost community safety.
"People like the emotional energy of that kind of campaign, and they love to see it in their mayor," said Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21 St. Paul's), noting how groups opposed to the tax successfully sucked up air time before the vote.
"We had a tax debate without a services debate," he said.
But the "chaotic" manner of last week's barrage of threatened cuts does not send a clear message, said Councillor Brian Ashton (Ward 36 Scarborough Southwest), who voted with the mayor at executive committee, but for the deferral.
"Unfortunately, it [cutting] is an approach that may not help your credibility in the broader public," he said.
"If we are going to have new taxes, the public needs to know that the fiscal crisis is real and what the choices are."
Many wonder why Mr. Miller did not engage in the debate last spring when the city held four public meetings on eight new revenue "tools" permitted under the new City of Toronto Act.
Nor did the mayor send political lieutenants to spell out the consequences, leaving the job to bureaucrats who have no mandate to make a political sales pitch.
"It's fair to say in the communications war before the vote, the real estate agents did very well," Mr. Miller said.
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