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Ford Budget Passes Amid Criticism

February 26, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

Mayor Rob Ford’s budget may have passed on Thursday afternoon, but that hasn’t stopped his critics from sounding off.

As we talked about a couple of days ago, veteran centrist councillor Raymond Cho demonstrated his concerns over Ford’s tactics. With the budget having cleared, others are suggesting, too, that it means short-term gain but “long-term pain” for Toronto residents.

“I think we’re looking at much bigger cuts (in 2012). This year we’ve affected what the budget committee called ‘a few citizens.’ We’re talking about thousands and thousands and thousands being affected next time around,” said former budget chief Shelley Carroll.

There is, as we reported in the past, a $774 million deficit projected for 2012. That will mean that deep, significant cuts will need to be made to a host of programs if there is to be any salvaging of the conditions in Toronto. With Ford’s $9.4 billion budget approved Thursday, it included no property tax increase. That’s the first time the city of Toronto has seen no increase in that department in over a decade.

Among the programs scrapped were the downspout program and funding for the Toronto Public Library’s urban affairs branch. The TTC will also reduce some of its services and fees will go up.

On top of that, there’s pressure because the city’s surplus was used up to balance the 2011 budget. That compounds the impending deficit considerably and makes it more of a problem.

Ford, for his part, has kept quiet about how he intends to meet the 2012 issues. For now, it appears that he’s focused in gaining ground from the 2011 budget and has little concern for looking ahead. “The ink’s not even dry on the 2011 budget,” he said, “so I want people to enjoy the zero per cent tax increase.”

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Veteran Centrist Councillor Rebukes Ford’s Cutting Tactics

February 24, 2011 By Jordan 1 Comment

Ordinarily, veteran centrist councillor Raymond Cho is known for being a “middle of the road, thoughtful” voter in Toronto’s political apparatus. But the general thrust of mayor Rob Ford’s agenda has changed that considerably, with Cho offering up sarcasm and passion during a budget debate earlier in the week.

“I have a great idea to save billions of dollars and give lots of money to taxpayers,” Cho began sarcastically. “Why don’t we sell half the Toronto city parks to the private sector?”

He went on to blast plans to privatize garbage collection, suggesting Ford should go a step further: “Why don’t we … cut the number of police by half? So that east of Yonge (is) the police. West of Yonge (would be) by private security. We could save billions and billions of dollars.”

Cho’s concerns are largely over the vision of Ford and how it relates to cutting while neglecting building. “If you keep cutting, you know, you’re going to cut the vision. What kind of city are we going to have? We don’t hear the word “build’ … we are elected to lead the city,” he concluded.

For Cho, he’s spend two decades in the backdrop of Toronto city politics. He’s been known as a nice guy, sure, but his opinions have rarely landed him in newspapers. With mounting cuts from the Ford leadership, however, Cho decided it was time to speak up – even if that meant standing out.

“I felt I had to say something. I wouldn’t say it’s a voice of opposition. I would say it’s a voice of waking up,” said Cho.

Ford has had a lot of success in pushing through his agenda, as we’ve been reporting here. Those members of council who’ve thrown their support behind him have been handsomely rewarded with high-level positions on boards and committees. The opposition, meanwhile, consists of about 15 “progressives.” Everyone else is in the middle, which is what makes Cho’s dissent an interesting proposition.

“As the impossibility of Ford’s agenda becomes clear, he’s going to lose more and more votes on council. He’ll lose more and more of the Raymond Chos,” said councillor Gordon Perks.

Photo c/o Toronto Star

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Toronto Gets 2011 Property Tax Increase Freeze

February 23, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

Toronto city council has approved the proposed property tax freeze for 2011.

Mayor Rob Ford opened the final stages of his 2011 budget with a speech that asserted that he did what he claimed he would do, but some councillors say that the freeze could make things more difficult in subsequent years.

“We’re not always going to have reserves to draw on” said Councillor Gord Perks. “The money that we put aside last year — and that we generated in 2010 — that’s all gone now, which means that next year’s budget is going to be just awful.”

Toronto is facing a deficit of $774 million in 2012 and that’s the type of money that can be hard to come by, especially with these sorts of tax freezes. The plan for Ford is to make up for it with cuts around the board, but many say that the cost of those cuts will be considerable.

According to Perks, Ford is ”profoundly misleading Torontonians if he thinks that he can generate $700 million in savings without having a profound impact on the services the city delivers.”

The proposal to increase property taxes came from Perks. The increase would have amounted to 0.16 percent for residential properties and 0.052 percent for non-residential properties, but council closed the door on it by a vote of 27 to 18.

The increases, said Perks, would have been enough to prevent cuts to TTC bus routes and allow for enhancements to a host of programs, including student nutrition. “For this very small amount of money on a $9 billion — almost $10 billion — budget, you can make sure that there are no major service cuts in the budget,” he said.

Of course, Ford’s team suggested that the tax increases were a way to get in the way of the mayor’s agenda. And in 2012, tax increases may well be on the table. Budget chief Mike Del Grande said he could not rule out increases in the next year.

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Ford: “My Brother Might Be Spending Too Much Time in Chicago”

February 18, 2011 By Jordan Leave a Comment

Mayor Rob Ford had a rare disagreement with his brother Doug on Thursday, noting that his position as mayor needn’t come with additional power like the ability to override city council decisions.

Doug Ford said this week that he’d like to see the Toronto mayor with the ability to wield power like Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley.

The mayor, however, took some time to distance himself from his brother and from the commonly noted inference that Doug may be becoming a “mouthpiece” for Rob. “I was always happy with the power I have. I don’t know, I think my brother might be spending too much time in Chicago,” Rob Ford chuckled. “To each his own.”

Doug actually stood behind his proposal, advocating the idea that the mayor should be able to go over the top of council in order to get things done “more efficiently.” The way things currently stand, the mayor and each council member receive equal voting rights. His brother sees this democratic notion as a problem, adding that he’s not in favour of “absolute power” but would like to see Rob have the power to squash council ideas if they don’t line up with the mayoral agenda.

Sure. That’s not “absolute power” at all, Doug.

“If you win a majority, you have majority control,” Doug said. “At the end of the day he’s responsible for the city.”

Councillor Joe Mihevc disagreed. “[Democracy] is not about the mayor having more power,” he said. “I think we need to start talking about how we as councillors need to re-establish control of council so that there’s good dialogue, good discussion, good transparency… I think we’ve gone too far in the direction of uploading power to the mayor.”

The mayor of Toronto currently has the ability to do things like appoint committee chairs, something that hasn’t always come with the territory. The distinction to do so came around in 2006 under the City of Toronto Act.

It’s encouraging that Rob is distancing himself from his brother’s bizarre comments. To suggest the sort of leadership Doug advocates as any sort of rational, democratic way to run a city is, frankly, beyond the pale.

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City council okays salary freeze, trash talks go onward and upward

February 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The city council of Toronto has voted for a salary freeze for the mayor and the council for 2011. The council vote was 38 to three in favour of cancelling a planned 2.6 percent salary increase.

Councillors are currently paid in the neighbourhood of $99,000 a year, with the mayor making around the $168,000 mark. Mayor Rob Ford promised the salary freeze during his campaign, focusing on fiscally conservative ideas with designs of “economic restraint.”

Of course, there are some who consider the salary freeze a strong message sent by Ford to Toronto’s union employees. And the talks over privatization of garbage pick-up also likely will take a nasty turn, especially as the current chair of Toronto’s public works and infrastructure committee looks ahead to open up trash collection to competitive billing.

Glenn De Baeremaeker, the former chair of public works in the city, railed against the idea in a debate with current chair Denzil Minnan-Wong on television Tuesday morning.

The former chair noted that privatizing the garbage collection service wouldn’t save any money for taxpayers and wouldn’t avoid the dreaded strikes, either. This is because the private companies are still unionized. There’s also the fear that companies could offer sweetened deals at the outset and then jack up rates after they’ve got their hooks in.

Minnan-Wong distanced himself from statements about taxes going down, arguing that De Baeremaeker’s stance is based in “hysteria.”

The real savings will come from benefits, as private workers don’t have as many.

While the salary freeze on behalf of council sets the right tone, many are wondering what sort of mood it’ll be as Ford runs his policies. The “jobs for life” provision many public workers enjoyed is also on the chopping block, as Ford’s council begins the process of getting rid of “assured positions” in the public worker sector.

This sort of fiscal management is par for the course in conservative sectors and it’s hard to say if the long-term benefits actually show up in any meaningful fashion. While the freeze and the hard negotiations are pleasing to supporters, others feel threatened by the relative ease with which Ford and his council swing the proverbial axe.

Job losses of any kind are generally hard on a city, even if they do belong to the “dreaded” public sector.

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