Councillor Shelley Carroll

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Thursday, July 03, 2008

City of Toronto Audit Report - 2007

Dear friends,

You might have been hearing on the news that a certain colourful councillor from Etobicoke believes that Toronto is going to be a deserted town, mainly because of our increasing debt. He maintains the latest Audited statement confirms this. Let's have a look.

I want to quote the upcoming Audit Committee report in question:

"While the debt financing has and will grow due to unmet state of good repair funding requirements and increased focus on improving public transit, the City's updated Capital Plan inclusive of enhanced federal and provincial funding combined with the City's strategic infrastructure partnership reserve fund ensures a solid financing plan is in place for the next five years.
The positive effects of implementing these financial plans are reflected in the City's AA and AA+ independent credit ratings. In fact, on March 19, 2008, one credit rating agency upgraded the City's AA rating from stable to positive outlook." (Audit Committee Agenda July 10, 2008)

I want to ensure the people of Toronto that our City is on course and that we are attracting new businesses not losing them. In fact, one million square feet of commercial property was newly leased out in the central business district in the last financial quarter. It is also important to note that the report does not include the recent Toronto Hydro Telecom transaction, which will make massive inroads in social housing repair, reducing future debt needs by almost 25%.

Thank you for your time,

Shelley Carroll,
Councillor, Ward 33 - Don Valley East