Toronto: Toronto Mayor John Tory formally submitted his resignation on Wednesday night after a $16.2 billion budget was approved. In the budget, the residential property tax has been increased by 5.5 percent.
The 2023 budget includes an increase of $48.3 million for the Toronto Police budget. Apart from this, there has also been talk of a reduction of five percent in transit service compared to last year, or a nine percent cut to return to the pre-pandemic level. However, the budget also proposes to increase shelter, support and housing administration by 6.5 per cent.
The city has also said that this year it may temporarily close five of its sites.
During the meeting on Wednesday, the council also approved the spending of an additional $8 million. Some of this will be spent on 24/7 warming centers, 519 on community centers. It has also been decided to increase the number of mental health outreach workers on TTC and provide rent relief to the needy.
The ongoing debate on the budget was stalled several times due to obstructions by the protesters. Eventually three protesters had to be evicted from the city hall.
After the meeting was cancelled, Tory submitted his resignation to city clerk John Elves. The resignation will come into effect on February 17 at 5:00 pm.