City of Toronto needs a line-by-line review of budget. Just like families take a look at their budget, government should as well.
I recently sat down to calculate how much my internet service combined with all of the online streaming services I have were costing me. I realized that it had gotten to the point where I was paying more for all of these than I used to pay for my old cable service with one of the big telecoms.
It was time to cut back. I shopped around for deals and realized that by switching internet providers and getting a streaming bundle I could save hundreds of dollars a year. And I didn’t actually lose access to any of the services — which have kept my kids happy.
What I did was nothing unique. This sort of housekeeping of monthly expenses is something families do all the time. It’s called responsible family budgeting.
Yet this practice doesn’t always extend to the government, where politicians could be doing more to supervise our tax dollars and ensure we are getting good value for our money.
Taxpayers need to call for these reviews. After all, a substantial amount of our income is taken by the government as taxes. So if we are going to regularly review how our income is spent within our own household, we should also expect that our income that is used by the government to also be regularly reviewed.
It is currently pre-budget season for many governments across Canada, as political leaders gear up for presenting their draft budgets early in the near year. Both the City of Toronto and the Ontario provincial government are currently engaging with citizens to hear their thoughts on the budget process.
There are a lot of ways residents can get involved. A recent guest column in MPulse by Centennial College Professor Paddy Shastri shared the author’s experience participating in Scarborough budget consultations.
One way people can get involved more in the process is by the City of Toronto being more transparent with a line-by-line review. The public gets to see more of where their money goes and then develop an informed opinion on what is a priority and what isn’t. It’s like being able to see all of the streaming services paid for and then deciding whether it’s a fair price or not — just like the exercise that I and other families undertook.
There are departmental budgets available online. But they could be provided in greater detail and also the City could make them more accessible and encourage people to consider them. The more taxpayers are reviewing the budget, the better.
–by Anthony Furey
Anthony Furey ran for Mayor of Toronto in the 2023 by-election. Email him at anthony@furey.ca.
