2017 Budget Update

Dear Colleagues,

After much hard work throughout the summer, we have reached the point where the proposed TTC 2017 Operating, Wheel-Trans and Capital budgets are ready to go before the City Council budget committee.

As I have previously noted, this was always going to be a very tough budget year. There are a lot of cost pressures on the TTC going into next year and, like all other City departments and agencies, we were instructed by City Council to find savings equivalent to 2.6 per cent of our 2016 operating subsidy.

For the TTC, this meant a daunting opening budget pressure of $231 million. We have closed the gap to just under $100 million. This has been achieved within the three objectives that I set:

1. Avoid service and/or job cuts.
2. Resist any push to roll back the substantial improvements we have delivered over the past five years.
3. Limit any fare increase to the lowest amount possible.

We have succeeded (so far) on objectives 1 and 2 and the TTC Board recently approved a 10-cent fare increase with no further increase for 2018.

We now have to navigate our way through the City budget committee meetings and, ultimately, City Council in January.

If we come through that process without major changes, we will have done very well indeed to have protected service and jobs, while still finding the required savings.

This has meant having to make tough and, in some cases, unpopular decisions, including reining in spending on things that are not core business. This includes the recent announcement about an end to free employee parking in commuter lots, something we did not do lightly, but was preferable to job cuts. All other areas of spending are being reviewed to ensure they stand up to scrutiny when I have to go before budget committee.

Thank you to everyone that has worked on this toughest of budget rounds. I will keep you updated.

Andy Byford
Chief Executive Officer
December 7, 2016