Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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2012 Parks, Forestry and Recreation budgets (operating and capital)
User Fee Policy
Proposed user fees policy: excerpts
User Fee Policy, September 9, 2011.
In interpreting the distinction between fees and taxes, the courts require that a fee charged for a service or activity must bear a relationship to the cost of providing the service or activity for which the fee is charged. Subsection 259(2) of CoTA provides that the costs included in a user fee may include costs incurred for administration, enforcement and the establishment, acquisition and replacement of capital assets.
Division Heads need to determine whether the benefits each service provides accrue directly to specific individuals or groups of individuals (a private service), and should therefore be paid for by users of the service; or whether the service benefits the entire society (a public service) and should be funded from the property tax revenues.
2010 Parks, Forestry and Recreation budgets (operating and capital)
Budget details from 2009 and before:
park levies for PFR development reserve funds
park levies for PFR parkland acquisition reserve funds
Cost Comparison 2007-2010 (pdf)
We dip into the city's budget data as we can, with some interesting results. For example see below for some charts.
For more information, see the Finance Links below.
Parks Forestry and Recreation's Recreation budget has been expanding rapidly...
Overall the city's budget has been increasing faster than inflation...
posted February 20, 2009
Sources: City of Toronto; CPI - Statistics Canada; see spreadsheet
... with staff costs accounting for most of that...
Expenditure by Object excluding Transfer Payments
See source spreadsheet.
There are over 50,000 full time equivalent staff at the city (see the Staffing Envelope for more details):
posted February 26, 2009
We are experimenting with presentation groupings of City programs that we hope will make the information a little easier to grasp. At over 50,602 approved full time equivalent staff positions, the city is pretty big and complex. These are staff numbers from the 2008 budget. There are 49 programs listed in the 2008 budget, which are presented in the horizontal charts below.
Major categories: General Services, Special Services, and Central Services
We define General Services as city services that are widely deployed, offered routinely to all, and comprise some of the basic practical services that keep the city going. Includes things like transit, parks, libraries, garbage pickup, water, and sewage.
Special Services are more in the nature of supportive interventions, and are directed to specific individuals or groups. Includes things like emergency services, public health, homes for the aged, and bylaw enforcement.
Central services are the centralized services which are mostly there to support the other city services. Includes Corporate services like general planning, accounting, etc.; support for the city's buildings and vehicles; and groups like City Council and the Councillor's offices. Also the impending 311 service.
See the source spreadsheet for these graphs.
Finance Links
The Finance Envelope contains the following folders:
Analysis LinksParks, Forestry & Recreation
City of TorontoSee alsoThe Staffing Envelope: |
Notebook Links
Correspondence Links |
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Reference Links
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Media Links |