No: Timing is bad, and consultation is needed
Let’s get something out of the way here, premier: You like to say you haven’t met anyone who wants to see the size of Toronto city council increased. Fair enough. In fact, there seem to be very few people who want the status quo preserved at all costs.
But you announced massive changes to the makeup of Toronto city council right in the middle of an election campaign. That strikes a lot of us as rash, risky and unnecessary.
The people who are saying “Let’s talk about this” are not necessarily opposed to the idea of reducing the size of council — including Mayor Tory. We’re just baffled by the timing. It’s like shaking someone awake at 6 a.m. and telling them to blow out the candles on a birthday cake two months before their actual birthday. It’s not that they don’t like birthdays, premier, it’s just that your timing is way off.
But you know this, of course. You just came off a terrible week of bungling on the sex-ed file. In fact, in every announcement so far, you and your ministers have looked disorganized and out of your depth. So this is an attempt to change the channel, to distract people and to get control of the narrative.
It’s working, I guess, but it’s like lighting a fire to distract from a fire. There are a lot of unanswered questions.
For example — what about all the candidates who have raised money and paid out of their own pockets to run for races that no longer exist? What happens when they get together to take legal action for the costs they’ve incurred and the damage to their reputations?
The millions you want to save through this may, instead, become the millions you — and by that I mean taxpayers — have to pay in damages for changes you rushed through to achieve a short-term political goal without fully understanding the cost. Ask the Liberals how that went with the gas plants.
Premier, you’re making a fundamental change to the way people are represented in the city of Toronto. But the whole plan looks like it was cobbled together last-minute. We know this because, in the provincial campaign, the words “let’s reduce the size of Toronto city council” never crossed your lips.
What you did say — over and over again — is that important decisions require consultation with the people. It’s inconsistent to demand provincial consultations on the sex-ed curriculum and marijuana sales but not on sweeping changes to local government.
The other major change you’re making is to the regional chair elections. In Muskoka, Niagara, Peel and York Regions — home to three million Ontarians collectively — the people want to do away with the old, undemocratic method of appointing a regional chair from within council and elect them directly instead.
You’re rolling that back — and now those people don’t get to vote on who gets to be their top municipal official, responsible for delivering the most services of any government. Coincidentally, some of your political rivals were running in those elections — Patrick Brown in Peel, for example, and Steven Del Duca in York.
In the end, Ontario’s municipalities are “creatures” of the province and you can do to them as you please. But they rely on stability and a good working relationship with Queen’s Park as they work to build economic growth and new job opportunities.
At a time when Toronto and the regions are working hard together to attract investment, create jobs and keep taxes as low as possible, we need calm, prudent and stable leadership at all levels of government. We don’t need political and economic uncertainty, which will scare away new investors and job-creators.
In the end, premier, this may be good short-term politics. If you want to deflect attention away from other matters, then mission accomplished.
No one is talking about the poor performance of your government — but they are wondering if every morning for the next four years, we’re going to wake up to some new surprise, and with something else on fire.
It’s inconsistent to demand provincial consultations on the sex-ed curriculum and marijuana sales but not on sweeping changes to local government