Janet Davis is a veteran city councillor with impeccable progressive credentials. When she speaks at Toronto council meetings, it is often to advocate more help for the disadvantaged. Now, she is campaigning for a fresh cause. Ms. Davis wants to save the city's golf courses.
Golf courses? Many citizens will not be aware their city government even has golf courses – seven of them, no less: five operated by the city and two leased out. These vital amenities have been in city hands for years, offering golfing to the masses at a reasonable price.
The trouble is that fewer and fewer people are using them. The number of rounds played on city courses has dropped 15 per cent since 2007, reaching about 158,000 in 2016. "The participation for golf is declining across North America as well as in the city's golf operations," a report from city staff says.
Golfers have lots of other places to tee off. Greater Toronto has more than 100 public and semi-private courses, not to mention all the executive courses and private clubs.
The city courses are starting to lose money. Unless they get new investment for upgraded facilities – better pro shops and restaurants; improved capacity to hold tournaments and events – the slump is likely to continue. The city is already planning to spend $9.7-million on "aging golf infrastructure." That is just for basic improvements such as fixing roofs and replacing irrigation systems.
Toronto has a repair and maintenance backlog of $450-million for parks and recreation, and that figure is expected to double over the next couple of decades. With all the other things city hall needs to fix – roads, bridges, subways, public housing – should it really be spending millions on declining golf courses? Wouldn't it be wiser to get out of the golf-course business and focus on its core responsibilities?
Ms. Davis answers with an emphatic no. She insists golf is not an elite sport for "middle-aged white guys." People of all ages and backgrounds enjoy it. Heck, both sexes play it, too, often together.
When city council's government management committee met last week to discuss a planned review of the courses' future, she said Toronto must hold onto these "wonderful assets." Whatever the city decides, she said, it must "make sure we still have accessible golf in the city of Toronto."
Must we? The city is facing serious budget pressures. It has ambitious plans for transit, housing and other urgent needs. It isn't at all clear where it will find the billions required. In that context, golf courses seem the ultimate "nice to have."
At the least, city hall should transfer the courses that it runs to private operators and get them off the city books. Better, it could simply let them revert to a more natural form. Most are found in and around the city's beautiful ravines. They would make lovely parks, with trails for hiking, skiing and bicycling.
Alas, that is not likely to happen. City staff assured Ms. Davis that, for now, they are just looking at new ways to run and fund the golf courses, not get rid of them. Consultants will be brought in, new approaches considered.
This sort of can kicking is all too typical at city hall. Toronto's auditor-general warned five years back that the earnings of city golf courses were falling and that they would soon need taxpayer subsidy to survive. The city's deputy mayor at the time, Doug Holyday, a golfer, said he was against selling off any city courses.
Governments at all levels find it hard to get out of things that they are in. Once a program is up and running, it acquires a constituency. Look out for the golfing lobby, not to mention the union lobby fighting to protect golf-course jobs.
If cities cannot even find the will to unload something as remote from their central purpose as golf courses, is it any wonder that government spending rises decade over decade? Toronto's annual budget is about $11-billion.
Marcus Gee