S.O.S.
Paging Premier Doug Ford.
We’ve got a SNAFU needing your attention at Toronto City Hall.
There’s no better time than the present to modify the City of Toronto Act and cut Toronto city council in half –before the city is stuck later this year with an even more unwieldy council of 47 ward bosses making $114,306 each plus benefits.
The 25 would mirror the federal and provincial election districts.
The new premier would also be well-advised to implement a strong mayor system. That would avoid the perennial issue of the mayor being just one vote amongst the various agendas of 25 or 44 or 47 ward bosses — making it difficult to get any policy through council without pandering to the pet interests of a long list of councillors.
A strong mayor would have the power to craft a city budget, to hire and fire key city officials and to veto decisions by council.
To avoid the problem of seat-warmers making municipal politics jobs for life, the new premier should also consider imposing term limits of no more than three consecutive terms (or 12 years in total).
Think about the alternative. Some of the people running for re-election give a whole new meaning to the three Rs.
There’s former deputy premier George Smitherman, who left the Liberal government in a cloud of controversy. Can we say e-Health or the botched Samsung deal?
Smitherman, who was decimated by Rob Ford in the 2010 election, is now vying for a council seat in the newly redrawn Ward 23. One of his opponents is Walied Khogali, brother of infamous Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Yusra. Geesh.
Then there’s former council loudmouth Shelley Carroll. She resigned from council amid some teary (?) goodbyes and collected her year’s severance to run for Liberal MPP in Don Valley North. Having lost, she has now signed up to run again in her old ward boundaries, with barely an ounce of shame.
There are five Toronto school board trustees — having done such a good job of managing Toronto’s public schools (insert laugh track here) — who are trying to trade up to councillor.
The five are Jennifer Arp, Tiffany Ford, Chris Moise (Kristyn Wong-Tam’s little sycophant), Ausma Malik (Joe Cressy’s sidekick) and Ken Lister.
The last thing the city of Toronto needs is three more self-serving seat warmers like these to spend with impunity and foist more foolish policies on a city that is already sinking from “progressive” ideologies .
Commercial real estate broker Tony Natale was so concerned about the city being out of control, he took the ward boundary realignment idea to the OMB. The only private citizen to do so, he spent nearly $200,000 of his own money and through donations from others.
Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Justin Di Ciano also fought the proposal — which would add costs of nearly $1-million to the council budget, in addition to the scandalous $819,000 paid to consultants for a ward boundary review and $100,000 on more consultants to prepare for the OMB hearing.
However the city won, even though there was one opinion against the 47-ward idea. After city officials failed to get a bylaw passed that created 47 wards, it was snuck through by the former Liberal government and subsequently rammed through at May’s council meeting, buried in a long list of other Bills.
“We don’t have democracy in this city… just smoke and mirrors,” says Natale.
Councillor Cesar Palacio, who has fought the 47-ward idea from the get-go and has consistently pushed for 25 wards, says the “level of cynicism” is at all-time high when he goes to the doors because residents feel city services are worse than ever before.
“People out there talk about how dysfunctional council is and the sense of entitlement by the lifers (on council),” he said last week.
Natale says if council and the mayor aren’t careful about the direction they’re heading, this city could run into “major (economic) problems.
He says people can’t afford to live here, they’re working three jobs and borrowing “literally, from VISA” to meet their tax and other obligations.
“What I hear from people is that there are very few politicians they would trust,” he said, noting 25 wards provide much more voter parity than the 47-ward model.
Natale believes the October election could be postponed until November to allow the province to make the necessary changes to the City of Toronto Act and for the city to shift gears.
After that, it would be up to the current politicians, the has-beens and the wannabes to fight it out. But my prediction is that many will drop their efforts to win a council seat because it would become too darn difficult.
“This is the only way for the province and city to have credibility in reducing government expenses by reducing the cost of city council,” says Natale. “Now is the time.
