Local 79's 2016 City Budget Guide – Unanswered Questions

A thoughtful conversation about the budget depends on comprehensive and detailed information. Budget 2016’s Analyst Notes provide a great deal of information but also leave major gaps. Local 79 encourages Councillors to ask questions about and/or request briefing notes on the following issues.

Key Data

1. Reporting on the ratio of full-time to part-time workers is inconsistent across Divisions. A briefing note that tracks the yearly number of full-time and part time positions in each Division (broken down by permanent or temporary positions), and which lists the number of hours worked by part-time staff, would give a better indication on whether the City is relying on an increasingly casualized workforce.
2. The City does not provide detailed information on contracting out, which obscures whether or not the City is getting value from its contracts both in the short- and long-term. Briefing notes with the following information would add important transparency
   A detailed analysis of why Divisions have chosen to not renew or not re-tender contracts (i.e., were there service problems, cost escalations, etc.) and the specific work being brought back in-house would provide a starting point for identifying similar savings in other areas. Several Divisions have noted that they will derive savings by moving away from external contracts to direct service provision. For example, Engineering and Construction Services expects to save 5.9% by reducing reliance on external engineering services (see ECS Operating Analyst Notes, p. 9)
   — A summary of major contracts that have gone over budget over the past five years would be an important part of this conversation. Examples might include the Leslie Street Barns and the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension.
   — The long-term impact of contracting out on City employees’ career paths and on employee retention. For example, the City contracts out major planning and development work such as Avenue Studies, and Master Plans. This work could be completed internally and would provide City staff the opportunity to gain experience in complex major projects.
   — The Facilities, Real Estate, Environment and Energy Operating Analyst Notes indicate that costs have stabilized due to mixed model. A detailed account of the current City locations where custodial services are provided, broken down by the provider (vendor or in-house), cost of the contracted service, the contractor (if applicable) and square footage of the locations being cleaned would allow independent verification of this claim.
3. In light of Mayor Tory’s request that Divisions implement a 1% net reduction, it would be important to have information detailing which Divisions ultimately did implement this reduction, correlated to the number of Divisions that will be implementing an increased work load (as, for example, PF&R will, via its 4% increase in service hours).
4. Given sizeable cost over-runs and the poor quality of physical infrastructure sometimes delivered by Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) and other forms of alternative finance and procurement, their use as a funding model remains highly contentious. Councillors should have a consolidated summary of the projects the City is currently considering having delivered through P3/alternate finance models to make an informed choice about the risk these financing structures bring.
5. The total number of deleted positions, broken down by Division and reason for deletion (i.e., restructuring, achieving savings, etc.).
6. An analysis of the comparative cost of homelessness (emergency shelters, hospitals, jails) compared to the cost of investing in stable housing and housing programs.

Staffing Impacts

7. Approval of Long-Term Care Homes and Services Preliminary Operating Budget will result in an overall increase of 146.1 staff positions due to rising acuity pressures and the re-opening of the Kipling Acres Phase II 145 bed long-term care home and community hub. The City should report if there is a time limit for the Kipling Acres positions that are 100% funded by the MOHLTC. If there is a time limit, given LTCHS’ historical challenges of fluctuations in Ministry funding, the City should report on its capacity to fund this staffing in future years or detail whether staffing would have to be reduced if Ministry funding is retracted.
8. Divisions are considering implementation of the Time and Attendance & Scheduling System (TASS). Scheduling predictability is a key component of a good job, which the City advocates through TOProsperity. The City should detail the impact TASS will have on scheduling from the point of view of staff, particularly part-time staff.
9. Within Information and Technology, the City should share what the staffing implications are for transitioning to using a cloud-based server rather than maintaining in-house infrastructure.

Policy

10. Details should be provided on how the City Manager determined whether a Council or Committee decision constitutes a funded initiative to be included in the base budget rather than a new or enhanced service. Many of what are described as new/enhanced services ought to appear in base funding.
11. Children’s Services is proposing to close the preschool room at Parkside Early Learning and Child Care Centre, citing low attendance, with only 8 children enrolled. The Program’s capacity is 39 spaces. City staff should indicate the actions taken to increase enrollment. One of the 2016 Initiatives in the TO Prosperity Work Plan of the Poverty Reduction Strategy is for Children’s Services to report on “Licensed Child Care Growth and Demand” and to implement a 5 year capital plan to increase the number of childcare spaces. The City should clarify whether the closure of the room will result in a loss of these 39 spaces and, if so, whether these spaces will be transferred to other priority locations.
12. Some Divisions have strikingly high budgeted gapping rates (i.e., Court Services). The City should provide details on why this is the case and what the current vacancies are across the divisions. The 2015 third quarter variance report showed that many Divisions were well over their budgeted gapping vacancies resulting in approximately 2500 front-line staff positions being empty at that time.
13. The 2016 Poverty Reduction Strategy Work Plan calls for enhanced priority to Long-Term Care Homes and Services for “Expansion of the Homemakers and Nurse Services (HMNS)” to increase the capacity of the existing program by 31,200 additional hours of homemaking services to reach 400 additional clients. (Long-Term Care Homes and Services Operating Analyst Notes, p. 20). How are these services to be provided within existing resources with no additional funding?
14. In Municipal Licensing and Standards, how are enforcement priorities set and how do enforcement priorities impact Divisional operations and staff?

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