Torontonians will receive a quarterly newsletter featuring the city's services and new initiatives, Mayor David Miller announced Thursday. But some councillors say the newsletter is not worth the hefty price tag.
"Our Toronto" will cost taxpayers close to $850,000 a year. It will replace three other city-wide publications and will also be available online.
About a million homes and apartments will receive the newsletter, which is printed on recyclable paper.
"Our Toronto is a new means for the city to offer information to Torontonians about programs and services available to them," Miller said at a news conference Thursday.
Coun. Joe Mihevc said the plan is a good idea. He shot down criticism from some of his colleagues who said the city should save money by emailing the newsletter to residents. He said delivering a hard copy of the paper is important as many people in the city don't have regular access to a computer.
The newsletter didn't cost the city a penny this year because printing of the other three publications were cancelled. However, next year the city will ask for an extra $400,000 from the budget to publish the paper.
Coun. Doug Holyday said the city should not be spending the extra money considering the frail state of the economy.
"We've got to look for ways to cut costs, not increase them," he said in an interview with CTV Toronto.
Coun. Karen Stintz pointed out that many councillors already print their own newsletters for their constituents and that the money comes out of their office budgets. She said about one-third of the stories that appear in the newsletter mention the mayor.
"It's political in nature and given that it's political, it should be coming out of his budget," she said.
Coun. Mike Del Grande agreed.
"I view it as a backdoor way to use public money to promote the mayor's message and that's wrong," he said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness
