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The city’s $505-million rehabilitation plan is the least the city will have to spend to keep the roadway functioning, Mr. Pennachetti said, noting councillors will have to make some definitive choices soon. “We don’t have five years to debate those options,” he said. “We have to make a decision within a year or so, one way or the other.”

The casino debate

While he wants to hear from residents, Mr. Pennachetti cites one key benefit in giving the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation the go-ahead to build a casino: If it yields about $100-million in revenue to the city per year, it could solve the municipality’s structural deficit. “If a casino is done right, it doesn’t have to take away from our city and what we’re proud of. We’re not Las Vegas. We don’t want that moniker of being casino town,” he said. “But if it’s done right and we don’t impact our existing theatre and cultural scene, it’s possible to have something here.”

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Having shepherded a service review and trimmed tens of millions of dollars from city operations, Toronto’s top bureaucrat says the municipality has turned a corner and squeezed virtually all the fat out of its budget.

“I don’t think people appreciate the magnitude of what we’ve accomplished. It’s huge,” city manager Joe Pennachetti said. “After these two years we are at the point now where we’ve virtually found, if not the majority, virtually all of the efficiencies that are available… If we start cutting further, it will have service impacts.”