Council split on halting Ford’s meddling
Debates reveal divide on charter city, ranked ballots and development
Toronto city council considered three items this week designed to respond to new meddling in local affairs by Doug Ford’s provincial government — but were split on how to deal with it.
On Friday, council voted against asking the federal government to give the city powers under the constitution to provide a firewall against the province and prevent interference on development, elections and more.
The motion was defeated because such a change would itself require provincial buy-in.
“In other words, the provincial government would still hold all the cards,” said Coun. Gord Perks. Coun. Josh Matlow, who moved the motion, said he hoped council would ask the federal government to lead the conversation about creating “charter city” status for Toronto and giving the city more jurisdiction over its own affairs, which are now ultimately controlled by the province.
“We can’t keep being non-existent when it comes to governance in this country. Cities don’t exist constitutionally, we are creatures of the province,” Matlow said, adding he believes the federal government is a big supporter of cities.
Coun. John Filion, who seconded the motion, said he thought the motion would draw attention to the “abuse” wrought by Premier Doug Ford’s government, whether it be ranked ballots or the cut to the size of council during the 2018 election. The motion lost 10 to 12. Earlier this week, council rejected an attempt to condone the provincial decision to scrap ranked ballots, instead sending a motion from Coun. Shelley Carroll to the mayor’s executive committee for possible debate.
The motion, which asked the province to withdraw recent changes under Bill 218 — an economic recovery bill — failed to get the two-thirds of votes required to be debated.
At the same meeting, councillors heard that the province had issued orders for the West Don Lands, overruling the city planning process on three sites.
One of those, a mixed-use development at 373 Front St. E. and 90 Mill St., was set to be approved at council.
Instead, Coun. Kristyn Wongtam, who represents the area, moved to ask senior city staff to try to work with the development group building that site on provincial land to secure new agreements for community benefits that were scrapped by the provincial order.
Under the city process, city planning and city councillors secure benefits like parkland or daycares or cash-in-lieu of those benefits through what are called section 37 agreements.
In the ministerial zoning order issued by Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clark, the community benefits council was set to approve have been stripped out, including more than $500,000 for parkland and local streetscape improvements.
All city planning staff can really do now is ask the developers to include the community benefits.