[archanfel]

He's shooting for 1 out of 2. But a lot of unionized jobs make that challenging. You can't cut the number of transit operators in half without cutting transit service in half, for example. And don't even think about eliminating police officer position.

The worry is that this kind of across-the-board attrition target will unfairly affect city departments like arts programs, the libraries, etc. They could lose a ton of staff positions to make up for places where cuts aren't really possible without major restructuring of service delivery.

Since the attrition rate for unions is not high, cutting 1 out of 2 does not equal to cutting the total number in half. Not for another 30 years at least.

However, your concern is very valid. The cut has to be universal, or politicians tend to cut the easier targets, leaving militant unions in place.

 

[SimonP]

Ford is looking for a 2.5% cut in city spending. His line on the campaign trail was that getting a 2.5% cut from each department would be easy. The big problem with this is that about two thirds of spending is exempt from Ford's cut. About half of the money goes to mandatory and provincially mandated spending. Another big chunk goes to areas like police, fire, and EMS that Ford has promised not to cut. That leaves only a few programs like transit, libraries, and child care taking all the cuts. To reach Ford's targets, there will have to be an annual cut of 6 or 7% to each of those programs.

 

[tkip]

Speaking of police and their unions but at what point do we say we have enough officers on the streets while overall crime rates seem to be dropping?

 

[SlickFranky]

Speaking of police and their unions but at what point do we say we have enough officers on the streets while overall crime rates seem to be dropping?

We say this all the time, but Ford doesn't agree. He campaigned on hiring more cops.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Ford's attitude towards the police is bizarre. If you haven't seen it, check out this video where he tries to get council to buy the police a new helicopter even though the police services board has not expressed a need for a helicopter.

[video=youtube;jsLpnZs-NGA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLpnZs-NGA[/video]

 

[nfitz]

We say this all the time, but Ford doesn't agree. He campaigned on hiring more cops.

He also said during the campaign that they wouldn't be hired until 2015 ... or at least December 2014. Given that there's over 5,700 officers currently, then if we only hire 100 more officers (and replace retirees) we'd only have 5,800 officers in December 2014. Annualized that's only a 0.9% increase in officers a year.

That's lower that the predicted rate that the population of Toronto will grow in a year.

So while Ford did campaign on hiring more police officers, he proposed a growth rate lower than what would be required to maintain current policing levels.

 

[SlickFranky]

ford's attitude towards the police is bizarre. If you haven't seen it, check out this video where he tries to get council to buy the police a new helicopter even though the police services board has not expressed a need for a helicopter.

[video=youtube;jslpnzs-nga]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jslpnzs-nga[/video]

gravy-chopper !?!?!?!

 

[archanfel]

Ford is looking for a 2.5% cut in city spending. His line on the campaign trail was that getting a 2.5% cut from each department would be easy. The big problem with this is that about two thirds of spending is exempt from Ford's cut. About half of the money goes to mandatory and provincially mandated spending. Another big chunk goes to areas like police, fire, and EMS that Ford has promised not to cut. That leaves only a few programs like transit, libraries, and child care taking all the cuts. To reach Ford's targets, there will have to be an annual cut of 6 or 7% to each of those programs.

Then we need a new provincial government as well, don't we? Is there any federally "mandated" spending that would require us to get rid of Harper as well?