Another PC premier, another dishonest attack
If you ever thought of Toronto as a big city, capable of managing its own affairs, give your head a shake.
Another premier, another charlatan, another misguided politician looking to tap into voter disenchantment with government, has taken the axe to Toronto in the name of government efficiency.
By dicta. By edict. Without consultation. And, shamefully, with the support of so many who will lie and deceive and tell the people what they love to hear.
Premier Doug Ford announced Friday he would unilaterally cut the size of Toronto city council to 25 from 47 councillors, calling council the “most dysfunctional political arena in the country.”
In talking to voters across the province, he said, he has found “nobody who wouldn’t want to trade in a bunch of politicians for $25 million” — the amount he says the move will save taxpayers.
Ford’s right about you. Consistently, you don’t like poli- ticians. He’s tapping into the anti-government mood. But he is reckless by tossing a bomb into the city on the day nominations close, less than three months before the Oct. 22 election.
Because he can. And because he doesn’t need to consult with the city to determine how the country’s largest city will manage the changes. This is what we mean when we say the city is the creature of the province. Or, the premier can abolish the mayor and dissolve the City of Toronto with the stroke of a pen. No questions asked. No matter what the residents think or say. Just proclaim it!
Ford can unilaterally implement the policies his brother Rob wanted to implement as mayor, and do so without debate and vote.
Even though he did not run on such a platform, and did not seek such a mandate from the people of Ontario, Ford can act, unchallenged.
In effect, Ford can control city council from Queen’s Park. So much for Toronto.
The greatest modern example of this imbalance of power occurred in the mid-1990s, when Ontario’s last PC govern- ment amalgamated the six cities into the current megacity of Toronto.
Back then we had six mayors, six fire chiefs, six city councils and more than 100 city councillors in Metro Toronto. Premier Mike Harris argued that cutting the six to one would save wads of cash and create unimaginable efficiencies.
Twenty years later, the first PC government since Harris’s regime is telling us again, “We’re going to run city hall a lot more efficiently than before.”
It won’t happen. And frankly, most of the supporters of this strong-armed action don’t really care if it does. They are more interested in the politics of the decision.
They see this as a way of reducing the number of “progressive” councillors and weakening the power of Liberals and New Democrats. They see it as a way of keeping the suburban power control over Toronto.
The past 20 years has been the most challenging period for Toronto — precisely because of the way the Harris government implemented amalgamation. Toronto has barely recovered. What it needs is stability and support — not another chaotic period.
The argument offered is this: if L.A. can function with 15 councillors, so can Toronto. (Well, Chicago has 50, so?) City council can’t end transit gridlock, fix the $1-billion public housing backlog, and build infrastructure because the large number of councillors are stumbling over themselves, arguing and unable to decide. Bunkum.
The housing backlog was created when the Harris government downloaded the cost of social housing onto Toronto. Ford, barely elected premier, has not relieved the burden. In fact, he has announced further cuts on this file.
Transit? Harris cut funding, truncated the Sheppard subway, filled in the Eglinton West subway and set the TTC off on a downward spiral.
The Fords aggravated the situation. Doug’s late brother, Rob, created the delays by insisting, as mayor, that “subways, subways, subways” replace the approved and paid for LRT plan, proposed by Rob’s predecessor David Miller.
Doug Ford’s transit pronouncements are adding to the delays and confusion — in- dependent of the size of city council. For example, Ford has announced he will amend Toronto’s current transit plans — a move that will lengthen, not shorten the approval process. It’s a red herring to suggest that the size of city council has anything to do with the number of times council must vote on the Scarborough subway extension. A new, 25member council will have to vote on the Scarborough subway extension another three or four times — just like a 100member council would. It’s the approval process, stupid.
The reason the Scarborough subway decision is taking so long is because provincial governments keep changing the rules — for political reasons, and because they can.
“David Miller tried to get transit going,” Ford said Friday. “Nothing happened.”
Ford — not the size of council — is directly responsible for the stalling of the Miller plan. Only people like Donald Trump get away with such dissembling. And they do because voters, enamored with their own perception of politicians, embrace the latest snake charmer professing to save them money.