Results and negotiations with CUPE Local 79 and TCEU 416 @ Toronto City Hall, council chambers. (Pictured) Mayor David Miller makes a solid point. (Jack Boland/Sun Media)

Toronto city council voted in favour of ratifying contracts with both its striking unions.

The vote was 21-17 on both contracts.

"It's a fair deal and it"s a relief that city council feels it's a fair deal," Mark Ferguson, president of the outside workers union said.

"I am very pleased Council approved the agreements and recognized the achievements made during bargaining," said Mayor David Miller in a prepared statement. "The City took on tough issues in these negotiations that had been left unaddressed in previous agreements by former Toronto governments. I know this has been a difficult time for everyone, and I want to again thank Torontonians for their patience and support during the strike."

Councillors debated for hours at City Hall over accepting a deal to end the civic worker's strike.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong kicked off the statements by saying Mayor David Miller's defence of the bill was "the last bag of garbage thrown" during the strike.

"This is David Miller's strike and he should wear it," Minnan-Wong said.

Etobicoke Councillor Rob Ford also said he would refuse to ratify the deal.

"The average working person does not get 18 sick days," Ford said.

"No matter how you spin it, 30,000 workers will still get 18 sick days a year and they'll be able to bank them."

But Pam McConnell said she would support the deal, calling it reasonable, fair and "a great victory" for the city.

One Miller ally who was seen to be wavering was Joe Mihehvc.

But when it was his turn to speak, he said he would vote yes.

"Yes there are some warts," he said.

"But a yes allows us to clean up."

If the deal is ratified, crews will start on the last phase of the cleanup which began at 12:01 a.m. - the dismantling and removal of the 25,000 tonnes of garbage in temporary dump sites across the city.

If it's defeated, union leader Mark Ferguson has said the picket lines will go back up immediately and workers will once again walk off the job.

"They'll be calling it the Stintz strike," Mayor David Miller said during a testy confrontation with Councillor Karen Stintz just after lunch.

The mayor, who has been defending the 6% wage hike over three years and phased out sick bank benefits which are the cornerstone of the deal, said he couldn't understand why Stintz was bothering to ask questions about the deal after already saying she would vote against it.

Stintz, an ardent opponent of the mayor and one of the leaders of the Responsible Government Group, said the public is outraged because they were led to believe the the sick bank perk was ending.

Instead, they have learned it's only ending for new hires.

"Why is there so much anger out there?" Stintz asked. "Because they believe we let them down."

Case Ootes, another member of the RGG said "there is no way I can support this deal."

"Mr. Mayor you have failed to manage the expectations of the union," Ootes said.

Despite the opposition though, it's still an uphill battle to defeat the agreement.

Doug Holyday, who cut a similar sick bank deal while mayor of Etobicoke, spoke approvingly of the deal without saying exactly which way he would vote, and Suzan Hall also suggested she would vote in favour.

"The final agreement is not everything I would have wanted," Hall said. "But...to refuse would mean back to work legislation and an arbitrated settlement."

Ford wanted Miller to explain to him why the unions were getting an average of 2% a year for three years while non-union staff had their pay frozen.

"Different people in different areas get different pay regimes," Miller said.

"We had a strike for 39 days because both CUPE locals said we're not going to accept any less than anyone else got across this province in 2007-2008 - and we're never going to give up the sick bank."

Such a deal would have been worth up to 12% over three years and the union shave instead settled for half that amount - plus agreeing to end sick bank benefits for new hires, Miller said.

The mayor also sparred with councillors Denzil Minnan-Wong, Case Ootes and Mike Del Grande over how the deal was reached.

"I've got just a small sampling of emails I've received," Del Grande said.

"They use words (such as) appalling, cavalier, disgraceful, beneath contempt.

"Why, if this is such a great deal - it's on all the talk shows, all the polls, etc. - the majority of Torontonians are very unhappy with this and they're unhappy with you."

But Miller said the deal is fair and affordable for the city, and that it wouldn't have been reached unless he took the unorthodox move of revealing the city's offer publicly.

"It was that moment that the negotiations changed and there was movement. I think the people of Toronto haven't been told all the facts by some councillors."

Phasing out the sick bank will save $140 million over the next five years, Miller said and that's worth the compromise of preserving it for existing workers, many of whom he said will retire in the coming years.