Mayor Rob Ford has increased recreation user fees every year of his term. He says, though, that he hasn’t.

“That’s an inaccurate statement,” he said Tuesday, without elaboration, when asked how he squares his expressed concern about fees at a new basketball facility with his annual fee hikes.

Toronto’s recreation fees remain lower than those of many other municipalities. But they have been hiked by at least the rate of inflation in all four budgets of his mayoralty. Under Ford, the city has formally adopted a philosophy of “full cost recovery” — raising fees high enough to cover costs.

Councillor Joe Mihevc struggled for words, then laughed, when asked about Ford’s denial.

“His grip on reality, and how he has voted the last few years, is — not there,” Mihevc said slowly. “He needs to get a grip on reality. He’s either lying to himself, forgetful, or he’s lying to the public. A, B or C. One only has to go to the record to show his regular support of user fees and increases in user fees.”

Recreation user fees went up by 3 per cent in 2011. That year, fees were also introduced for formerly free recreation at “priority” community centres in low-income areas. Those fees were scrapped in 2013 after participation plummeted.

In 2012, general recreation fees went up by 3 per cent again, while fees for introductory instructional programs went up by 10 per cent. The biggest overall increase came in this year’s budget, when recreation user fees were hiked by 6 per cent.

Las week, Ford decried the $160-per-hour fee for community groups to use the Toronto Raptors’ new training centre at the Exhibition.

“I’m sorry, I cannot accept that,” he said. “These are the types of kids that we have to concentrate on.”

Ford had not previously attempted to reduce fees. In fact, he has boasted of his fee increases — counting $24 million in increased fee revenue in his list of $1 billion in supposed savings to the “taxpayer.” He counts fee-payers as separate from taxpayers.

Early this year, Ford made a specific effort to add new fees for poor participants in recreation programs. The city provides free classes to low-income residents through the “Welcome Policy” subsidy. Early this year, seeking budget “savings,” Ford put forward a proposal to raise $2.5 million by making residents pay a fee to register for the subsidy.

In the media scrum on Tuesday, Ford also offered an impassioned defence of the paid-duty program in which police officers are paid $68 per hour to perform duties like traffic control at construction sites and security at festivals. Critics say non-officers could do the same jobs for much less money.

The mayor said Tuesday that critics of paid duty are “just taking a shot at the police officers that want to earn extra money.”

“Paid duty, I believe, is having a lot of officers go out, like we all do, work overtime, make a few extra bucks,” he said.

He argued that officers cannot be used for funeral escorts while non-officers are used for other duties.

“What are we going to do: eliminate paid duties on one area, for construction, but have a different rule for funerals and for sporting events and for concerts? No. I’m sorry,” he said. “I support our front-line officers. If they’re willing to do paid duty and make some more money, for their families, I am all in favour of it.”

Most paid duty is paid by the private sector, but the city government and its agencies paid $1.9 million last year .