A city councillor is calling for restraint on travel spending as city hall's budget season gets underway.
"We can't go on acting like business is normal when it's not," Coun. Doug Holyday -- Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre -- told CTV Toronto on Tuesday. "I think it's time to show restraint. Obviously this economic climate is not the best time to spend unnecessarily."
Many councillors have travelled to destinations as diverse as Europe and the Arctic, he said.
Coun. Raymond Cho -- Ward 42, Scarborough-Rouge River, chair of the Toronto Zoo board, just returned from a trip to the Arctic. He travelled with three city staffers to study the tundra for a new polar bear exhibit at the zoo.
The $16,000 cost was worthwhile because much was learned, he said.
Cho called it "the most productive trip as zoo chair."
Mayor David Miller is currently in Tokyo for a climate change conference.
A spokesperson for the mayor told CTV Toronto that it is still business as usual at the city, and that travel can help bring business to Toronto.
Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker -- Ward 38, Scarborough Centre -- said: "We don't live in a bubble. If we want business, we should be going to Hong Kong, Germany and South America.
However, some citizens interviewed by CTV Toronto said unnecessary trips should be cut.
Travel comprises a relatively small part of city councillors' budgeted expenditures, but Holyday argued that in these economic times, every little cut counts.
The city hopes to trim $175 million in spending from its 2009 budget.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness
