This Monday, February 21st, 2005, Toronto City Council will start its three days of budget debate. This is the final stage of the budget setting process and the last chance to gain improvements in the budget for implementing the Toronto Bike Plan. A success early in the budget process, to increase the Transportation Services budget for cycling infrastructure to $2.2 million dollars, has not been replicated in other department budgets.

The Parks and Recreation department's budget for cycling related projects was reduced by $200,000 to $1.096 million when a project to install lighting on a bike path through Riverdale Park East was deferred to 2006.

More worrying is the omission from the budget for any funds for installing Bike Route signs in the parks in 2005 as was previously planned. A pilot project with Bikeway Network Route signs installed along the south end of the Don Trail was supposed to be rolled out along three trails in 2005: the rest of the Don Trail, the Humber Trail and the Beltline Trail at a cost of $30,000. The Toronto Cycling Committee (TCC)recommended that this budget be increased to $48,000 to allow for the Taylor Creek Trail to be included in the project as well.

This is one of the signs on the Don Trail as part of the Signage Pilot Project. The TCC wants these installed along 4 trails in 2005

During the budget process it became apparent that the funds to install signs along the park trails had been left out of the Parks department budget. At its last meeting on February, 14th, 2005 the TCC made a motion asking that $48,000 be transferred from another Parks Department cycling related budget to the Bikeway Network Signage project to ensure it gets underway in 2005 as planned. They further directed Councillor Adam Giambrone, the Chair of the TCC, to move that motion during the Council budget debate.

The Transportation Services department is already installing signs along on street bike routes in the south district of Toronto. Getting the Parks signage program rolling in 2005 means that linkages between the on street and off street routes will be made making it easier for cyclists to navigate the Bikeway Network in this area.

The TCC recommendations regarding increasing the number of staff working on cycling related projects received no support during the budget process. The recommendations did cause councillors to ask for reports on how many staff are working on cycling related initiatives. The reports showed that there are only 4.8 full time equivalent positions working on implementing the Bike Plan. This is the same number of staff as 4 years ago when the Bike Plan was approved. The Bike Plan calls for an increasing amount of projects and programs over its ten years. The City has lagged behind the goals set out in the Bike Plan in part because there are not enough staff to carry them out. At this late stage of the 2005 budget process there is little chance to get an increase in the operating budgets that fund staffing. The TCC will have to start now to work on gathering support on Council for increasing the level of human resources dedicated to implementing the bike plan, be it through other measures that can be taken this year or in preparation for the 2006 budget

This is the last chance to show your support for the Toronto Bike Plan to the Mayor and your Councillor before the final budget for 2005 is set. You can contact the Mayor and their Councillors and let them know their views. You can e-mail Mayor David Miller directly at mayor_miller@toronto.ca You can find other contact information for Mayor David Miller here: Contacting the Mayor. You can get your Councillor's contact information from the City's website Councillors. If you don't know who your Councillor is, there is a City of Toronto web page that will find that information for you if you enter your street address. The web page is here: Find your Councillor.