Toronto city planners are 'drowning in work': union report

Toronto city planners are "drowning in work" and "overwhelmed," according to a report put out Wednesday by the union that represents them, CUPE Local 79.

"They work through their breaks, they work unpaid overtime, and important projects aren't dealt with the way they need to be," said Local 79 president Tim Maguire in a presentation to city council's planning and growth management committee on Wednesday.

Maguire said that a survey given to planners by the union found92 per cent of respondents felt there wasn't enough staff to get work done in a timely and satisfactory way, and that almost half work overtime every day to complete their tasks.

• What brought renowned urban planner Will Fleissig to Toronto?
• King Street plan good for transit, bad for families, Ryerson professor warns
• Rising house prices, high debt levels could slow growth in Ontario: report

The bulk of respondents were also "very concerned" about how city council's direction to reduce the city planning division's budget by 2.6 per cent will affect their jobs.

'We have the same number of staff doing a lot more work'

Toronto's chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, speaking at the same committee meeting, acknowledged that the city's red hot development activity put an extra squeeze on planning staff.

She said that in such a strong real estate market, planners routinely dealt with "larger and more complex applications."

"We have the same number of staff doing a lot more work," she said, though she argued that work was still being done efficiently despite the crunch.

"Toronto's review time outperforms most of the [Golden Horseshoe] region. Staff are working longer and harder," she said.

Keesmaat also said that workload was partially responsible for high employee turnover in the city planning department.

Quality of work is suffering, says union

Maguirequoted one unnamed planner from the report who said that "morale is bad. Most people are drowning in work and stressed out. Most people I talk to are trying to figure out a way to get out of planning."

He argued that not only were planners suffering, their work was as well, quoting another planner as saying "right now I'm not giving any of my projects sufficient attention because I'm overwhelmed."

The report ends with a call to the planning and growth management committee and city council to provide city planning with more staff.

Mayor's office expects planners to move towards budget reduction

Toronto Mayor John Tory's communications adviserKeerthanaKamalavasansaid in anemailtoCBCNews that the mayor expects the city planning department to look towards making the 2.6 per cent budget reduction.

"Citycouncil directed all city divisions,agencies and corporations to look carefully at their budgets," she wrote.

"This includes the city's planning division and the mayor expects the division to meet the council directive."