Today, December 8th, the Works Committee will be meeting to consider the budget submission from the Works and Emergency services. Likely it will contain the $1.0 million in the Cycling and Pedestrian Infrastructure as the base budget for bike lanes, routes and paths, bike parking and other cycling infrastructure related items. Last year a one time increase of $800,000 was added but the base was not increseased. The Toronto Cycling Committee has submitted its recommendation in the form of two motions. One is to increase the base funding to$2 million the other is to increase the number of staff by two postions to speed up the work on the Bikeway Network. The recommendation is at the following link TCC Works Recommendation

The ten year financial plan of the Transportation Services Department indicates that $4.5 Million should be spent on cycling infrastructure in 2005 and that $6.0 million should be spent in 2006. Last year during the budget process it became apparent that the city can't proceed at that rate with the current staff level that it has. More staff are needed to do the planning for the new projects, to conduct the consultations that are necessary to get the projects approved and then to implement the projects. For this reason the TCC is asking that staff levels be increased so that work can proceed at a faster pace that is called for in the Toronto Bike Plan.

There is a lot of support for cycling on the Works committee. It is still important, however for residents who want the Bike Plan completed to contact them. There are alot of pressures on the budget this year and we need to insist that the Bike Plan is not something that gets sacrificed. I have listed the councillors on the committee that will be considering these recommendations below. If your local Councillor is on the list it is important that you contact him or her so that they know that there are people in their ward who want them to support cycling programs and the Bike Plan. If you don't know who your Councillor is, there is a City web page that will find that information for you if you enter your street address. The web page is here: Find your Councillor. The list of the committee members along with links to their contact information is below.

This is just the first stage of the budget approval process. There will be more opportunities to have input in January.