Mayor Rob Ford will face the music of his own composition Monday when his hand-picked executive committee must tell council what city services the Ford administration wants to cut.
Unable to find buckets of waste to grease its wheels, Ford’s “gravy train” is instead fuelling itself by ripping through neighbourhoods, threatening to lay off police, firefighters, transit workers; to sell city-owned zoos and nursing homes; uproot grants to essential cultural and community agencies.
Instinctively, Ford, the driver, would overrun and devastate the municipal landscape. The only “core” municipal service he respects is police, ambulance, and, maybe, fire. The rest are “nice to have.”
But there are other considerations: Citizens are angry over the exercise and the clear fact that the mayor misled them last summer when he claimed city hall waste was so pronounced and overflowing, he would find $2 billion in waste without cutting services.
More critical — as Ford needs council approval to cut services — city councillors have started to push back against the proposed cuts as general unrest bubbles up in their wards.
So, here’s a guarantee: the city’s weakest, poorest, most vulnerable, least powerful citizens will bear the brunt of the cuts when the mayor casts his final vote.
Those who can defend themselves — police, the artistic community through the heft of entertainers and political fundraisers and philanthropists, and libraries with the aid of iconic authors like Margaret Atwood — will be spared.
It is the underclass that stands to bear the brunt of the cuts — no emergency dental and medical care; loss of a $5,000 grant that leverages other funds to deliver arts and community services; no chance of landing a subsidized childcare space; no Wheel-Trans for mobile dialysis patients; crowded buses arriving less frequently.
That’s not what Toronto voted for on Oct. 25.
They want an end to councillors buying bunny suits and expensive Christmas cards on the taxpayer’s dime — not the city turning its back on the agencies who sponsor and fund and deliver Christmas toys for needy kids.
They want to end the embarrassment on the waterfront — not enable the mayor’s friends and the greedy developer partners to repeat the mistakes of the past, this time with amusement parks and shopping malls.
Here’s a guarantee:
• Rob Ford won’t be cutting police officers, despite the smoke and mirrors on the police budget. He’ll find a way to protect them. It’s in his DNA. Didn’t he promise to deliver 100 more police officers when he became mayor?
• The powerful men and women who finance and support TIFF, the ROM and the AGO won’t allow council to cripple those agencies with cuts in grants. Already, calls have been made. The political machinery is revved and primed to short-circuit any such cuts. Political campaign donations are at stake.
• Ford won’t be cutting out the eminently sensible, North York initiated-Mel Lastman created service of clearing out the front of driveways after a big snowfall. That’s not what Ford Nation, grounded in the suburbs, envisioned when they lapped up his “gravy” claims. Guaranteed.
Consider that Ford’s hand-picked allies on the executive committee are getting cold feet and moving to protect their pet services and home political bases:
Giorgio Mammoliti, Ford’s mortal enemy turned ardent toady, said recently that he will not support any layoffs to fire fighters or paramedics. TTC chair Karen Stintz has told the mayor she can’t support cuts to the library. And budget chief Mike Del Grande — the custodian of the public purse — told reporters Monday he’ll find other savings to avoid the elimination of snow clearance from the front of driveways.
And Ford himself, even before his committee votes on the $6 million cut to the arts grants, has been busy crafting an alternate plan.
In all this, it is the poor who are exposed — unprotected and vulnerable. Guaranteed.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
Unable to find buckets of waste to grease its wheels, Ford’s “gravy train” is instead fuelling itself by ripping through neighbourhoods, threatening to lay off police, firefighters, transit workers; to sell city-owned zoos and nursing homes; uproot grants to essential cultural and community agencies.
Instinctively, Ford, the driver, would overrun and devastate the municipal landscape. The only “core” municipal service he respects is police, ambulance, and, maybe, fire. The rest are “nice to have.”
But there are other considerations: Citizens are angry over the exercise and the clear fact that the mayor misled them last summer when he claimed city hall waste was so pronounced and overflowing, he would find $2 billion in waste without cutting services.
More critical — as Ford needs council approval to cut services — city councillors have started to push back against the proposed cuts as general unrest bubbles up in their wards.
So, here’s a guarantee: the city’s weakest, poorest, most vulnerable, least powerful citizens will bear the brunt of the cuts when the mayor casts his final vote.
Those who can defend themselves — police, the artistic community through the heft of entertainers and political fundraisers and philanthropists, and libraries with the aid of iconic authors like Margaret Atwood — will be spared.
It is the underclass that stands to bear the brunt of the cuts — no emergency dental and medical care; loss of a $5,000 grant that leverages other funds to deliver arts and community services; no chance of landing a subsidized childcare space; no Wheel-Trans for mobile dialysis patients; crowded buses arriving less frequently.
That’s not what Toronto voted for on Oct. 25.
They want an end to councillors buying bunny suits and expensive Christmas cards on the taxpayer’s dime — not the city turning its back on the agencies who sponsor and fund and deliver Christmas toys for needy kids.
They want to end the embarrassment on the waterfront — not enable the mayor’s friends and the greedy developer partners to repeat the mistakes of the past, this time with amusement parks and shopping malls.
Here’s a guarantee:
• Rob Ford won’t be cutting police officers, despite the smoke and mirrors on the police budget. He’ll find a way to protect them. It’s in his DNA. Didn’t he promise to deliver 100 more police officers when he became mayor?
• The powerful men and women who finance and support TIFF, the ROM and the AGO won’t allow council to cripple those agencies with cuts in grants. Already, calls have been made. The political machinery is revved and primed to short-circuit any such cuts. Political campaign donations are at stake.
• Ford won’t be cutting out the eminently sensible, North York initiated-Mel Lastman created service of clearing out the front of driveways after a big snowfall. That’s not what Ford Nation, grounded in the suburbs, envisioned when they lapped up his “gravy” claims. Guaranteed.
Consider that Ford’s hand-picked allies on the executive committee are getting cold feet and moving to protect their pet services and home political bases:
Giorgio Mammoliti, Ford’s mortal enemy turned ardent toady, said recently that he will not support any layoffs to fire fighters or paramedics. TTC chair Karen Stintz has told the mayor she can’t support cuts to the library. And budget chief Mike Del Grande — the custodian of the public purse — told reporters Monday he’ll find other savings to avoid the elimination of snow clearance from the front of driveways.
And Ford himself, even before his committee votes on the $6 million cut to the arts grants, has been busy crafting an alternate plan.
In all this, it is the poor who are exposed — unprotected and vulnerable. Guaranteed.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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