As promised, the last of the KPMG reports on Toronto's Core Services suggests the most wide-ranging cuts of the bunch, highlighting "opportunities" for saving via closing library branches, cutbacks to bus routes, student nutrition and AIDS prevention programs as well as the sale of the Toronto Zoo, the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

Here are some highlights (or lowlights) from the review:

• Closing branches, reducing service levels and hours of operation Toronto's public libraries could save up to $13.3 million.
• The Toronto Zoo could be privatized or "restructured as a self-supporting non-profit corporation."
• Eliminate Blue Night bus routes or charge an additional fare for their use, privatize some TTC routes, and contract out more of the Wheel Trans program.
• Sell public parking facilities and TTC parking lots.
• Sell or privatize Exhibition Place, despite the fact that its facilities foster economic growth in the city.
• Freeze police hiring and offer older officers buyout packages. Negotiate for one-officer patrols in next round of collective bargaining.
• Convert Heritage Toronto into an independent agency.
• Consider the elimination of the Housing Improvement Loans program and New Affordable Housing Development services.
• Eliminate the Community Partnership and Investments Program, which gives grants to AIDS prevention and cultural institutions.
• Eliminate the dental health program that provides last resort care for those in need.
• Eliminate the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, which focuses on the improving local air quality.

Read the whole report here (PDF).

Photo by yedman in the theGentries Flickr pool