Fighting for Toronto: Liberals must honour promise to our city

Budget 2023 threw Toronto under the bus. Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie warns of significant cuts to city services due to the federal government walking away from yet another election promise and ignoring our City’s requests for help.

What’s also concerning is during Question Period, in response to my question, the “former councillor” from the government benches didn’t know the difference between CapEx (capital expeditures) and OpEx (operating expenditures).

The 2023 City of Toronto *Operating Budget* is facing a $933 million shortfall due to ongoing COVID-19, transit, and shelter costs.

To the federal government, I ask, what would the Liberals like Toronto to cut:

• Which homeless shelters should be closed?
• Which afterschool and daycare programs should be cancelled?
• How many fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances should be mothballed?
• Which TTC bus routes should be axed?

I further reiterated during the debate on C-47, the Budget Implementation Act, that Budget 2023 fails to address the root causes of unaffordability and, to add insult to injury, throws Toronto under the bus by denying our city the much-needed funding that Liberals promised during the election.