The City of Toronto can bring its budgetary shortfall down to zero without gutting city services and selling off assets. Countdown to Zero: Balancing Toronto’s Budget by the Wellesley Institute’s Sheila Block, looks at the city’s annual budgeting process over the past five years and shows that the fiscal challenges facing city council this year are nothing new.

For the last five years the City of Toronto has started its budget process with a budgetary shortfall of over half a billion dollars and every year the city brings the shortfall down to zero, without gutting city services or selling off valuable assets. The report demonstrates, step-by-step, how the city can do the same thing this year.

Contrary to the rhetoric coming out of the mayor’s office, it isn’t too late; councillors can make budgetary decisions that build our city, rather than cutting services that Torontonians rely on.

While councillors have many options, the Wellesley starts the conversation by charting one possible way out: