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The Mayor expressed support for staff’s recommendations.

‘We don’t need the Mayor coming out as a brick wall dad telling us don’t spend this money so fast’

Budget Chief Mike Del Grande seconded that notion, telling CBC Metro Morning that his colleagues are “dreaming” if they think the city should spend the savings, instead of putting it to the $700-million TTC order.

“We don’t need the Mayor coming out as a brick wall dad telling us don’t spend this money so fast,” responded Don Valley East Councillor Shelley Carroll, a budget chief in the second Miller administration. “We are a disciplined council, but we need accurate revenue projections so that we can begin to really plan our service levels.”

Councillor Sarah Doucette (Parkdale-High Park) said she would like to see some of the surplus go to reversing 2012 budget decisions, like the one that cancelled funding for the High Park Zoo, Riverdale Farm and Far Enough Farm on Centre Island.

Ms. Doucette said money could also go to reinstate bus routes, or repair dilapidated Toronto Community Housing properties.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (York West) said council’s first priority should be to pay down its debt, followed by transportation infrastructure.

“If people think their pet projects are going to get paid for in their wards, while some of us are still having pot holes not filled, and our community centres not fixed up, they’ve got another thing coming,” said the Ford loyalist. “We should have 44 of us deciding on what projects mean the most to us, and we should get that money and divvy it up together, as a city.”