Toronto Mayor David Miller says he received the shortest briefing he's ever had about a federal budget since he's been mayor.

Miller spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon shortly after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled the latest budget in Ottawa.

Flaherty said a combination of government spending restraint and economic growth would erase the deficit — now pegged at $53.8 billion for the fiscal year ending in March.

The government expects the deficit to drop to $1.8 billion by March 31, 2015.

Miller acknowledged the budget's inclusion of stimulus projects around Toronto, and the continuation of the GST and gas tax.

The mayor's praise, however, stopped there.

He slammed the budget for not including anything for child care or long-term transit funding.

Miller said the budget doesn't do nearly enough for Toronto and other cities across Canada.

"The so-called recovery so far has left 10 per cent of Torontonians on the sidelines," the mayor told reporters. "People are without work. We need strategies that help them get back to work. We need strategies that help those who need child care, who need investments in public transit, who need proper investments in our environment.

"This budget is deficient on all of those fronts."

Peter Frampton, who runs the Learning Enrichment Foundation, a training centre for laid off workers and new Canadians in the city's west end, is also worried Thursday's budget didn't include any funding for subsidized day care.

Without subsidized day-care funding, Frampton said hundreds of his clients would have to quit their jobs because they can't pay for child care.

"In Toronto, we're in a position where without federal funding coming forward we're going to lose 5,000 spots," he told CBC News.

"In our community that means 600 people will have to leave the child-care system and probably return to welfare."