The details of the City of Toronto's 2007 Operating budget were released yesterday and after a quick read through of the budget documents it appears there are no increases to staffing or programs that would accelerate the Toronto Bike Plan. In fact a proposal from Toronto Public Health to put $100,000 toward Car Free Day has been taken off the table and the money redirected toward a project to look at the Urban Heat Island effect.

When the people think about the Toronto Bike Plan they tend to see it as building bike lanes on streets, which is the responsibility of the Transportation Services Division. The issue of the $3 million actually approved for the bike plan vs. the $6.0 million promised about just one part of the Bike Plan, the Transportation Services budget for cycling infrastructure. The 4 staff that were added as part of the Capital budget were added to Transportation Services to work on planning and designing this on street cycling infrastructure. This perpetual focus on the on-street parts of the bikeway network tends to leave the other part of the Bike Plan without attention. Implementing the Bike Plan also means implementing a number of cycling promotion, cycling safety and cycling education programs that were recommended in the Bike Plan. These are the responsibility of the City Planning Division. It also means planning and designing the off street trails that run through Toronto's Parks and along Toronto's waterways and ravines which are the responsibility of the Parks Forestry and Recreation Division. These parts of the Bike Plan have seen no increase since the inception of the Bike Plan in 2001. That pattern seems to be continuing in 2007. None of the recommendations from the Toronto Cycling Committee to accelerate the Bike Plan in these areas are in the initial budget documents. (See TCC Operating Budget recommendationsThis is in spite of the fact that one of the priorities in the Mayor's mandate is to "speed up the implementation of Toronto's Bike Plan".

Yesterday the budget documents were posted on the following city web pages:
2007 Operating Budget Analyst Notes
2007 Operating Budget Briefing Notes
If there was new funding for programs or an expansion of services in these areas they would have shown up as new/enhanced funding and would have been listed under the section that describes the items in their budgets that fulfill the priorities of the Mayor's Mandate, the guideline that is supposed to guide staff as they develop the budget. Scanning the analyst notes available on the web I have found that neither the City Planning Division (Analyst Notes) nor the Parks Forestry and Recreation Division (Analyst notes) list any items related to the priority in the Mayor's "speed up the implementation of Toronto's Bike Plan". There were also no funding for the Bike Plan initiatives under new/enhanced services. So this means that if this proposed budget is not changed by the Budget Committee this month it will delay accelerating the Bike Plan in these areas another year. Even more upsetting was that there was to be one proposal for new funding for a cycling related initiative from Toronto Public Health. It had originally proposed funding of $100,000 for Car Free Day. This project has been removed from the plans for 2007 and the funding redirected to another program. The analyst notes for Toronto Public Health state that "Urban Heat Island Effect replaced Car Free Day Promotion ($0.100 million in 2007 and $0.040 million in 2008; 1 staff position) " (see page 20 in the Public Health Analyst Notes). The TCC's proposal for funding for a cycling safety and education campaign on sidewalk cycling to be run by Toronto Public Health was apparently not considered.

There is still time to bring this issue of a lack of funding for Bike Plan initiatives to the attention of the Budget Committee the Mayor and the other councillors. The information on how you can make your voice heard is listed below.

The opportunity to ask the Councillors to support the recommendations to accelerate the Bike Plan is this Thursday, March 29th. You can make a deputation to the Budget Committee in person or you can send in a written deputation.

• To make a deputation in person on March 29th call 416-392-6662 to get on the list.
• To send written presentations to the Budget Committee.
  - by e-mail: send to mmacdona@toronto.ca
  (note this e-mail address has been corrected. In the original post I had the e-mail incorrectly listed as mmcdonna@toronto.ca. If you have sent to this e-mail please resend to the correct e-mail above.)
  - by fax: send to (416) 392-1879
  

The tight time frame of this budget process makes it hard for residents to have input into the budget. The budget hearings this week are your best opportunity to do that. While most can't go in person they can write in to the budget committee and to the councillors and let them know what they want to see in the budget.