A city-hired consultant is suggesting Toronto plow and sweep its streets less, stop putting fluoride in drinking water and send more trash to landfill, among other cuts.

But the $350,000 report on how to cut the cost of public works — the first of such studies done across city departments — offers lots of bone and almost no fat.

“The vast majority, 96 per cent, of services that report through the public works committee are core municipal services” and not ripe for reduction, states the report released Monday.

In fact, said city manager Joe Pennachetti, acting on all of KPMG’s suggestions would shave only $10 million to $15 million from the $1 billion annual operating budget for public works.

And most of the recommended cuts are politically unpalatable, admitted the committee chair, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who said so-called hard services are not a “sweet spot” for easy savings.

KPMG also recommends:

• Backing off Toronto’s “very aggressive” target of directing 70 per cent of household waste away from landfill through recycling. It’s cheaper to send trash to a dump, and that gap will only grow as Toronto recycles more and other municipalities have lower targets.

• Eliminating community “environment days” hosted by councillors in each of their wards.

• Ending collection of toxic goods at environment days and cancelling the “Toxic Taxi” that does household pickup for residents with large quantities of hazardous waste.

• Eliminating “small commercial waste collection” and forcing businesses to pay for private contractors, as large businesses now do.

• Scrapping the four free tags each household gets per year for overflow garbage bags.

• Halting street cleaning after the spring clean-up, rather than doing it all summer.

• Considering a reduction to the “scale of bike infrastructure.”

• Contracting-out more curbside trash pickup, as well as facility security services and grass cutting.

Suggested cuts unlikely to be pushed by the Mayor Rob Ford administration include a halt to the clearing of “windrows” — piles of snow left by plows at the bottom of driveways — in North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough.

Suburban councillors, many of them Ford’s allies, have fought past attempts to kill the service, not offered to downtown residents, that costs taxpayers about $3.7 million annually, or 4.3 per cent of the $87 million snow clearing budget.

KPMG also suggests that “snow plowing standards could be reduced marginally on residential streets.”

Minnann-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) said halting fluoridation is also a likely “no-go” unless city staff offer information not readily apparent. “I like Toronto water. I think most Torontonians like to have fluoride in their water.”

In April, Toronto’s board of health voted unanimously to maintain the $1.9 million practice, aimed at preventing tooth decay, despite some residents calling the chemical an ineffective health risk.

Pressed by reporters for other possibilities, Minnan-Wong pointed to a recommendation to contract-out grass cutting, currently done by city workers, and to amalgamate some works facilities.

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“Those are easy ones that we should be looking at. Those are efficiencies that in all likelihood won’t affect service,” he said.

However, ironclad job provisions in the contracts with CUPE Local 416 workers, which expire Dec. 31, prevent the city from laying off permanent staff, a factor that has limited the push to contract-out curbside trash collection.

Windrows, grass cutting and councillors’ Environment Days have been on the chopping block in previous years but city council refused to give them up.

Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity Spadina), a staunch critic of Ford and his cost-cutting exercise, said: “We pay consultants millions of dollars to give us advice we can’t use.

“Show me the councillor who will run (for re-election) on: ‘We’ll stop plowing your streets.’ It (the report) says people are willing to pay a little bit more to get good city services.”

Pennachetti said council may be more willing to economize than in the past.

“I would say, this time around, you have a different fiscal situation,” he said. “It’s a financial pressure right now that’s larger than we’ve ever had.”

Public works members will consider the report July 18. Their recommendations will go to the executive committee, along with those from other standing committees. Consultants are also reviewing the efficiency of city services and user fees.

An accompanying report said services the public considers important, which also rank as core and essential include: public transit; emergency response; water treatment and distribution; public health services; garbage; organics and recycling; roads and traffic; and public libraries.

But residents are split on how to pay for them; some want higher property taxes and user fees, some would rather see service reductions, and others want a combination.

The small savings achievable in public works could heighten the pressure to cut so-called soft services, such as grants to arts and community groups, and social services including health and daycare.

The consultant reviews are part of Mayor Rob Ford’s push to dramatically cut the cost of running Toronto and slay a projected 2012 deficit that could be as high as $774 million.

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