* wage & salary freeze
* hiring freeze
* staff reduction
* reduction in councilors
* reduction in councilor's salaries and office budget
* contracting out services
* open bidding on contracts to non-union companies
* eliminate payouts on sick day accrual
* etc. etc. etc.
City Hall Bureau
As the local economy worsens, Mayor David Miller says he's doing whatever he can within his powers as mayor to give it a boost.
He's asked bank executives to keep credit flowing to real estate developers in Toronto.
And he is trying to kick-start new development on city-owned property near subway stations to provide jobs and revenue for the city.
In a year-end interview with the Toronto Star, Miller acknowledged there is "legitimate concern" about what might happen to the city's finances in a serious slump.
Among the measures underway:
City staff have drawn up a list of several dozen city-owned properties, many of them beside subway stations, that are prime commercial development sites. Near the top of the list is the parking lot at York Mills subway station.
Miller is talking directly to lenders.
"I have had conversations at a very high level with two of the banks and other major lending institutions about how important it is to not let the credit tightening requirements of their individual institutions cause the development industry of Toronto to come to a standstill," Miller said.
Miller has stepped down from the police services board to devote more time to Build Toronto and Invest Toronto, two new economic investment agencies.
He said he intends to run again in 2010 to continue pushing for transit improvements and other projects.
Despite the city's perpetual budget struggles, until recently Miller has had the luxury of serving in healthy economic times.
But now he faces a shrinking economy, and some of the city's traditional economic cushions are not there.
The city once maintained rainy-day reserves to cover welfare costs in case of a downturn, but in recent years has been draining those savings to pay for other things.
"We spent the welfare reserves quite deliberately, believing the province would upload welfare – which it did," Miller said.
"The challenge is, because of the economic time, the province uploaded a bit more slowly than we initially hoped. I think they're doing it reasonably in the context, but it put us in a bit of a challenging position."
It's too soon to say how badly the city might be squeezed in 2009, he said. "All I can say is we're monitoring it really closely. Right now it's okay. But I don't think anybody can predict anything, except that every week there's going to be a new twist and turn – economically, and politically in Ottawa."
Keeping the development industry going is vital to keeping Toronto's economy on track, Miller said.
Councillor Kyle Rae, who chairs the economic development committee, has asked Miller to talk to Premier Dalton McGuinty on behalf of developers. Rae wants the premier to provide financing guarantees for some big projects.
Developers are being squeezed by the troubles in the financial services industry, which has made lenders reluctant to provide financing.
Miller has yet to approach the province on this subject, but said city staff are having "ongoing conversations with the development industry and financing institutions" about what assistance to ask from the province.
Condo starts have slumped in Toronto, and work has been suspended on a 20-storey tower at University Ave. and College St. that was to house high-tech start-up companies.
The downturn is hitting Toronto just as it's in the midst of reorganizing its own economic development machinery.
The post of general manager of economic development has been vacant for a year and a half, though Miller says he now hopes to fill the job within two weeks.
At the same time, the city is setting up two new agencies that will recruit private sector talent: Build Toronto, which will look for ways to develop city-owned land; and Invest Toronto, which will promote the city to investors.
They were created on the advice of a high-powered private-sector panel of advisors who told Miller the city could be getting a lot more value from its real estate and should be more aggressive about promoting investment.
Miller said he'd prefer not to sell off the prime properties that appear on the list drawn up for Build Toronto, but to find more lucrative uses for them.
"We have these parking lots all over the place on top of subway stations – prime opportunities for commercial and residential and retail redevelopment," Miller said. York Mills is at the top of the list.
"The intention is to create streams of revenue as well as create wealth and build the city," he said. "And the hope is that we can use a lot of these properties to create commercial opportunities."
Miller is worried about the auto industry as well, even though Toronto has no assembly plants.
"We've got significant parts suppliers," he said, providing 22,000 jobs in the city. "If the auto industry doesn't succeed we've got huge trouble."
But Miller said the city's powers are limited: "My voice is there, but I'm not sure we have a direct lever to pull."
With files from Paul Moloney
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