Thank you very much for that kind introduction and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to be here.
I want to thank each of you for coming today…and thank those companies and organizations who sponsored tables.
And I want to recognize the outstanding leadership of the Toronto Board of Trade.
You’re not just the voice of business in Toronto…you’re a voice of reason.
Without the Board of Trade, it is doubtful whether we’d have a City of Toronto Act or Metrolinx.
And without your advocacy, we’d have even higher business taxes, less accountability and an even worse financial situation at City Hall.
So I want to thank Carol Wilding and her entire team for the thought leadership it’s showing on city issues.
Toronto is blessed with city builders who want nothing more than for our city to succeed.
We’ve got the number one United Way campaign in North America…not only per capita, but in sheer dollars.
Look at the phenomenal work the UJA is doing with its Tomorrow campaign. Half a billion dollars and three new campuses around town.
I think of the excellent work done by the Toronto City Summit Alliance under the late, great David Pecaut, and continuing now under John Tory.
David teamed with another friend of mine who is here today, Tony Gagliano, to drive creation of the Luminato festival.
And where would we be without the efforts of Alan Broadbent and Ratna Omidvar at the Maytree Foundation to end poverty, illiteracy and build a truly diverse city?
We’ve got an army of can-do, make-it-happen dollar a year type men and women ready to serve as city builders.
A Rossi administration will reach out to the best and brightest. I’ll bring in the city builders.
We’ve been flying on one wing for too long.
Toronto works best when everyone is called to give their best.
I was thinking exactly that the other night when the premier mentioned two initiatives close to my heart — turning Toronto into both an international student centre and expanding its role as an elite international financial centre.
When the city and the province are on the same page, great things can happen.
The 2015 Pan Am games are another opportunity for our region to welcome the world and deepen our working relationship with the province and our regional partners.
our strength is that the world wants to come here. Our challenge is to meet that desire more than half-way.
And that means coming together to make sure our region capitalizes on the next big idea — and not Boston, Chicago or Dallas.
To do that we need an open door and an open mind and a city with a new vision of itself.
That’s why we need to take back our city after seven years of drift…seven years when decisions were made to benefit the few who controlled City Hall, and not the taxpayers and businesses who keep our city afloat.
The choice on October 25th comes down to those of us who have a new and bold vision for Toronto…and professional politicians who lack the energy and initiative to take Toronto to a better place.
I am not a professional politician. I haven’t run for office because I’ve been running things in both the private and not-for-profit sectors.
Six weeks ago, though, I hit the ground running with a precise three point plan to take back our city.
My plan involves:
• Balancing our books;
• Attacking gridlock; and
• Getting serious about new economic growth
One plan. Three priorities. And a road map for a new generation of city builders, with roots from all over the globe, to get Toronto back on track.
Getting Toronto back on track starts with getting our fiscal house in order — and that is the focus of my remarks today.
It’s not difficult to understand the fix our city is in.
Toronto is spending more — a lot more — than it takes in.
And unless we take control, we’re heading for a fiscal crash landing.
The Board of Trade has led the way on sounding this alarm.
Short of aerial advertising, you’ve done it all.
Regrettably, your calls for action did not inform this year’s budget.
But if I am elected they will serve to drive next spring’s budget …
Because as I see it, we can go one of two ways.
We can continue on our current path, which leads only to higher taxes, bigger shortfalls, more debt and poorer services.
Or we can change course, get our fiscal house in order and start building a worthy legacy for our children.
I’m for changing course…and it’s in that spirit that I am bringing proposals today that I believe will fix our financial troubles and lay a firm foundation for the future.
My father used to say that the hard calls in life weren’t between the good and the bad choices…those are the easy ones.
The really tough calls are between the good and the good.
In my opinion the recent City budget missed five golden opportunities to ensure that 2010 would indeed be our last budget crisis.
The first is the failure to move to multi-year planning.
We saw it with the Own the Podium program at the Vancouver Olympics.
Twice before, we hosted the Olympics with passionate talented athletes but no long-term plan. And we failed to win a single gold medal.
Now we know that long-range planning brings results. Golden results.
The City of Toronto has to be the last multi-billion dollar operation on earth that plans on a year to year budget basis.
I have a friend named Amanda Belzowski who runs a lemonade stand to raise funds for Heart and Stroke.
She has a multi-year plan and she isn’t even a teenager yet!
Without multi-year budgeting there is no vision, there is no fact base, there is no courage or reason to make the tough calls.
That must and will change.
The second missed opportunity is our failure to regain control over our labour costs.
From 2002 to 2008 city labour costs increased at an average of 6.5% per year.
This, in an era when GDP and average wage increases hovered around 2 per cent.
If our city had held the increase to just three per cent, which, by the way, is still 50 per cent more than the average wage increase taxpayers were receiving…
And if we’d been just a little tougher at the bargaining table, the city would today have $380 million more per year to work with.
This is virtually the entire amount of the current shortfall.
Here’s another scenario.
If the city had put itself under a hiring freeze for that period, and still kept wage increases to three per cent, we’d have $800 million more today, and next year, and the year after that to invest in the services and priorities Torontonians value.
Think about those numbers for a moment.
We’re often told by City Hall that our fiscal problems are all traceable to downloading and amalgamation.
Yet this isn’t about what other levels of government have done to us. It’s about what we’ve failed to do ourselves.
Those numbers tell me hiring freezes can work.
Those numbers tell me that planning and executing a strategy at the bargaining table can work.
That’s why a Rossi administration would begin with an immediate hiring freeze for all but essential services personnel — EMS, police and fire services.
The present course is not only economically unsustainable. Itpa’s also unfair.
It’s unfair to ask taxpayers to subsidize wage increases three times what they themselves are receiving.
But it’s also unfair to ask our unions to take less when elected politicians at City Hall are not required to do likewise.
A Rossi administration will lead by example. I will take a 10 per pay cut on my first day in office and freeze my salary for the entire term.
Not because the number is significant, but because the moral authority it displays is significant.
Together, we will find the right balance between a fair wage for our workers and fair value for taxpayers.
The third missed opportunity of this year’s budget is its failure to begin re-inventing the way we deliver services.
Like transit.
We have the best 1970s transit system in the world. The problem is that it’s 2010.
As Joe Berridge said in the Star the other weekend, it isn’t so much the sleeping TTC worker in the booth — it’s the fact that in the 21st century there is a worker in the booth collecting paper tickets at all.
Torontonians travel the world and come in contact with the very best it has to offer in public service delivery.
And then they come home to a transit system that still uses paper transfers, tickets and tokens.
The union-management monopoly at City Hall, with its aversion to technology and change, has shackled our city for too long.
A Rossi administration will embrace technology and open up more service delivery to the private sector.
We will use the collective bargaining system to reclaim what the city has given up in recent contracts.
It will take time given current contract language, but we must start somewhere and we must start now.
We all know there are areas like waste collection where we could get better service at lower cost — and where the providers would create jobs, invest in innovation and pay taxes.
We’ll invite all qualified bidders — including the unions — to compete for the right to deliver these services at a price we can afford.
It’s done elsewhere. It can and will be done here.
But opening up service delivery is more than simply involving the private sector.
It’s also about bringing in Toronto’s vibrant not-for-profit sector to deliver services.
I am the product of alternative services delivery — literally.
I was born at Toronto Grace Hospital, a wonderful collaboration between the Salvation Army and the province — although I’m not sure my mother knew or cared at the time.
And that’s just the point. I believe Torontonians are more interested in quality services, and less interested in who actually provides them.
Recently I had the pleasure to spend a half day in the company of Peter Frampton, the head of the Learning Enrichment Foundation in the former city of York.
No, this is not Peter Frampton the guitarist. For starters, he’s far more efficient and effective than your average rock star.
His foundation understands profoundly that not-for-profit doesn’t mean for-loss.
It doesn’t let job descriptions get in the way of getting the job done, and it leverages thousands of volunteer hours to stretch its dollars.
A Rossi administration will pursue outsourcing, managed competition, alternative service delivery and the power of unleashed volunteerism to fundamentally change how the city provides services.
We’ll use the savings to invest in the priorities we all share, and reduce the constant pressure for more taxes and user fees.
Fourthly, the budget missed an opportunity to reduce the debt.
Debt is strangling our city.
As your report shows, debt servicing costs have been increasing at 15 per cent annually.
This year, Toronto taxpayers will pay $450 million in debt service charges. That figure will continue to grow unless we take bold action now.
Many of Toronto’s neighbours, such as Mississauga, are debt-free.
One of the key elements in Chicago’s turnaround is how it monetized key non-essential assets to pay down debt and invest in critical new infrastructure.
I think we need to do likewise, beginning with Toronto Hydro.
This is another choice between the good and the better.
Toronto Hydro is a perfectly reasonable asset. Last year it paid a dividend of about $25 million.
But we have limited resources and growing needs.
Distributing electricity is not a core city responsibility.
By monetizing we give up the annual dividend of $25 million. But we free up most of the $450 million the city is paying every year in debt servicing.
I am open to whatever mechanism will get the best deal for the taxpayer – that could be leasing, selling all or just a portion of an asset or going to a public offering where residents could buy shares.
To that end, I’m pleased that the city is looking at monetizing its minority share in Enwave, but I’m concerned that proceeds will be used to fund operating expenses, not pay down debt.
That would be wrong.
A Rossi administration will review every non-essential city asset and put every penny realized from monetization toward debt reduction.
Once free of debt, further gains will go into a new strategic infrastructure fund to drive transit and other new infrastructure investments.
Paying off our debt this way will free us to focus on the priorities and services we all share.
And for those who say monetizing assets is off the table I simply ask: How are you going to deal with the debt?
What is your plan?
Finally, the recent budget missed an opportunity to speak frankly about the TTC.
It’s been a rough few months for the TTC. And it’s clear that without some changes, the next few years stand to be even rougher.
Ironically, the TTC’s problems are surfacing at what should be a happy time for transit in Toronto.
The province is ready to make unprecedented investments in transit in the city — it has put $8.1 billion on the table.
Six weeks ago at the Empire Club I questioned whether the TTC is capable of managing these multi-billion dollar investments.
Huge cost overruns and confusion on both the St. Clair and Union Station projects point to a lack of leadership, transparency and accountability at the commission.
I want the best transit system Toronto can afford. And I want it run by professionals, not politicians.
We all want to ride the wave of the province’s renewed interest in transit. But we don’t want to get swamped.
The stakes are just too high.
This year, Toronto taxpayers will contribute more than $450 million to the TTC. That’s over and above the millions they throw into the fare box every year.
The burden of carrying the TTC has turned Toronto taxpayers into one of North America’s largest transit operators.
Toronto is the only city in the world that is trying to build and run subways and LRTs primarily on the property tax.
Yet the budget said little about the crushing future burden Toronto taxpayers are taking on with Transit City, aside from wishing for a no-strings attached deal with the province.
Calls for the province and the city to knuckle down and fix the TTC have been increasing since I voiced my concerns.
I believe it was JFK who said let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
As mayor I would pursue negotiations on the future of the TTC with the province. I would be willing to put everything on the table for discussion.
Perhaps these talks will involve a different governance model for the TTC, one that brings it into some sort of new partnership with Metrolinx.
Perhaps they will involve committing the city to using alternative service delivery and financing models in future stages of a balanced transit expansion — one that includes subways, LRT’s and bus-rapid transit.
I believe that somewhere in between the extremes of just give us more money and go away, and take this whole mess off our hands, is a solution that will both serve the province’s interests and solve our problems.
And we need to get on with it.
Today, I have talked about making this our last budget crisis…and taking our first steps toward becoming a great city once again.
I am determined to fix our finances, but that is strictly a means to an end. My vision for Toronto goes far beyond that.
Once we have a firm foundation, once we start attracting new economic growth to our region, adding to our tax rolls and adding jobs, we’ll be able to soar.
One of the things a great city does is share.
I am going to tap into our incredible well of civic energy by creating a City Builders Fund.
Whenever the city approves a building project that goes beyond current zoning, it receives additional development fees that are earmarked for community projects in that ward.
Since most building permits are issued in the more affluent areas of the city, these are also the areas that benefit from the extra fees.
That’s not building up a city. That’s widening the gap between rich and poor.
As mayor, I will see that 50 per cent of these fees reach the 13 priority neighbourhoods by setting up a fund at the Toronto Community Foundation where we’ll work with the United Way and Maytree and many of you to devise community projects on a matching funds basis.
I love the idea that by building a condo in Rosedale we can also build community in Rexdale.
So I am calling on all hands — union and management, faith-based communities, captains of industry and drivers of innovation, community activists and block parents…
And I am calling on you — to step up and help strengthen these priority neighborhoods.
Because a city with its priorities right, is a city without priority neighborhoods.
My friends, more than half the people in our city have come here from somewhere else.
Many of these newcomers have never truly known a city of the possible.
Too many have never really been asked to put their stamp on the city.
They have never ideally thought of themselves as city builders.
Until now.
Now there is a campaign and a candidate inviting them to help take Toronto to the next level.
As much as you’ve done on behalf of our city already, you need to do one more thing.
Get involved in this election.
And if you want to dream again, make sure you vote on October 25th.
We can take back our city and move it not left, not right, but forward…
We can build bridges to our future.
We can start today to lay a firm foundation…
Because tomorrow needs us…all of us.
Thank you.
