The price of change

A look at the cost of adjusting ward boundaries and the fight to stop it,

Premier Doug Ford claims the move to shrink Toronto city council will save taxpayers $25 million over four years.

But what about the cost to taxpayers to impose this change in the middle of an election? The move resulted in city and provincial lawyers battling in court, while the government recalled the legislature for several days — including a weekend and overnight session — toward implementing legislation a judge ruled unconstitutional.

To date, the premier has not explained where the $25 million in savings will come from, and the city disputes this figure, saying the changes would result in savings of less than $6 million over four years.

While the true figure is up for debate, it is also unclear how much the public is on the hook for the ensuing fight.

Here’s what we do and don’t know about the costs:

Cost of changing the ward boundaries in the middle of the election:

Last month, city clerk Ulli Watkiss estimated it will cost $2.5 million morethan the current budget of $14.9 million to move from the 47- to 25-ward model in time for the Oct. 22 municipal election.

She told council last week her office has “hit a tipping point,” and it’s “becoming virtually impossible” for staff to carry out the election on the planned date.

Legal costs:

Both the City of Toronto and the Attorney General of Ontario have several lawyers on the file.

City spokesperson Tammy Robbinson said it legal department has not hired outside lawyers, and staff lawyers, who are on salary, don’t get paid overtime.

In a statement to the Star late Monday night, Ministry of the Attorney General spokesperson Brian Gray said in-house counsel “provide advice to and litigate on behalf of the government in a wide range of matters. Files are regularly assigned and reassigned as needed to support the work of government.”

Nelson Wiseman, director of the Canadian Studies Program and professor of political science at the University of Toronto, noted the push to move the legislation through quickly is “pulling people off of other files.”

“Not just lawyers. Staff people, the attorney general’s department, the political staffers, other things that ministers are working on. Here they are spending the whole night sitting there and there are files on their desks,” he said. Overtime costs:

Asked about overtime costs for the staffers during the special sessions, Todd Decker, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, said his office does not “separately track this type of information.”

He said assembly staff are on salary and would be given time off to compensate for extra work hours.

Decker added that the legislature is used to “adapting to the needs of a dynamic and active parliament,” whether for sittings of the house beyond the normal calender year or unplanned special events like a royal visit.

“We have always been able to manage this within approved funding allocations,” he added. He did not respond to a question about whether this means the emergency session was pulled off without any extra cost to taxpayers. Government House Leader Todd Smith said the cost of the extra sittings is “not going to be that much.” Travel: NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said MPPs living outside of Toronto would have had to make a special trip to Toronto for the weekend sessions.

This kind of travel cost would come out of MPPs’ travel budgets, a former political staffer told the Star. Policing and security:

The Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief Robert Benzie counted seven Toronto police cruisers, one SUV and eight police officers on bikes at the Ontario legislature late Sunday evening, as protesters gathered at Queen’s Park, decry- ing the Ford government’s all-night session. Asked Monday about overtime costs, Toronto police spokesperson Katrina Arrogante said she did not have the “approximate number of officers that were there,” and could not confirm whether they were paid overtime or already working a midnight shift.

As for Queen’s Park security, Legislative Assembly clerk Decker said “security is run on shifts on a 24/7 basis, and so some security personnel would be compensated in pay for working shifts in addition to their normal times.” For security reasons, he said, the the deployment of personnel is not disclosed.