Next Thursday, Mayor Rob Ford wants to hear from you!
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says everyone can come to city hall next week to tell him what they think about proposed spending cuts.
The invitation, made Friday on a lunch-hour television talk show, comes as the city is in the midst of a massive service review, a money-saving exercise designed to find the gravy Mr. Ford pledged he’d stop flowing during the election campaign. Estimates for next year’s budget show the city short by about $774-million and Mr. Ford has said he will not raise taxes by more than three per cent.
The city has just wrapped up its first week of meetings to review a laundry list of proposed spending cuts generated by consultants – everything from reducing snow removal to privatizing long-term care homes and eliminating subsidies for 2,000 daycare spaces. Those meetings have stretched into marathon sessions as citizens wait hours for their few minutes at the microphone. Thursday, more than 100 residents spoke before the city’s parks and environment committee, which sat for more than 12 hours to hear pleas from citizens to protect programs. One Cabbagetown resident brought a petition with 7,413 signatures opposing the proposed closing of Riverdale Farm.
Next Thursday, the city’s executive committee, chaired by the mayor and filled with his supporters on council, will meet to consider cuts proposed by the consultants for agencies, boards and commissions. They included measures such as privatizing the Toronto Zoo, closing Library branches, axing the TTC’s night buses and making it tougher to qualify for Wheel Trans service.
The mayor, who is found of saying he is doing what taxpayers want, said the meeting will be a chance for the whole city to have their say.
“I encourage people to come to the executive committee next Thursday,” he said during an interview on CP24. “Everyone has five minutes to talk to me personally at our executive committee. I invite the whole city. I don’t care if we have to sit there for three days. I don’t want to have people … they have five minutes to tell me what business do you think we should be in. And it’s next Thursday at 9:30 at city hall. Come and let me know what you think – the average taxpayer out there – what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong. I want to hear from the people and I encourage them to come. “
During the same interview the mayor said taxpayers have three priorities: They want to feel safe, they want roads that are clean and without potholes and they want their garbage picked up.
These, he said, “are the three high-level issues that people really want us to deal with.”
As a city councillor and now as mayor, Mr. Ford has made a point of stressing his accessibility to the public, although media interviews are rare. He ended the interview Friday by saying he still returns calls to his office and makes a point of getting out and meeting people. “I have no problem meeting people,” he said, adding, “I love being mayor.”
Do you have ideas about the proposed cuts? What would you tell the Mayor, if you had 5 mins?
3 Comments User Comments
Add a commentRoland St. Arneault
July 23, 2011
12:14 pm
Since I was sacked without cause from the City of T.O. after 9 years just prior to a job promotion, the only really good thing I’ve seen happen was Union local 43 going the way of the dinosaurs !
43 was a corrupt bunch of gangsters and liars. I have no way of knowing if the new local is any better ?
Rampant theft was occuring at the Eastern Ave. Yard where I worked my 9 years, much of that was of vehicles and heavy equipment stolen under the sleeping noses of the security guards who for whatever reasons left the security gates “up” while they napped during most of the theiving ? hmmmmm
When my crew was ill my position kept me indoors as ground crew/handyman, I chose to wash vehicles and trained myself to operate all types of heavy equipment rather than sit in the lunchroom and gamble with the rest of men or go up on the roof and drink with many usuals.
My plan was to be an asset to the City and I was not planning to have another job until retirement as I loved my job !
Because the wash bay blocked many specialized vehicles in a large compound when that areas gates where locked, the only way out was through my bay.
Proceedure called for the security personale to open the gate to let anyone out which made sense as it was easier and closest to the roadway !
However far too many times I was threatened by so called City employees I had never seen before, because I refused to move my vehicles before I was finnished washing them to let them out through the wash bay ?
I directed them to the security shack, which had a door next to the gate they needed, and they gather in my face telling me “I didn’t know who I was dealing with?”
That evening happened about 5 months prior to my dimissal from the City for allegedly stealing City property ?
When I wasn’t on the road doing my regular job Mr. Mayor, I was in that City Yard doing anything I could to learn something new while performing my specified duties while most other guys there did as little as possible, except of course those that had other specificly specified duties that kept them busy all night !
Oh yes, I was on night shift most of my time with the City.
The thefts occured as I recall mostly during the late hours and this seems to have put me in a position to be a royal pain in the butts of those who had been organizing these thefts.
As I would pop up anywhere without warning on any night I imagine it P.O’d whoever was in control?
One night I was struck down with a stomach flu and did not show up for my shift, and that very night a large piece of heavy equipment was stolen from the rear yard and driven right through the locked gate to get away !
Perhaps they expected me to pop up at any moment and took the shortest route away ?
I just wanted to give you this brief history of mine as I do not know the situation at Eastern Ave. now that Local 43 is gone and if the theft situation is any better or worse since I was framed for it and taken out of the picture.
George Pace hired me back then and was at my trail, however none of my requested 5 witnesses showed up to testify for me, and there was to my surprise 5 eye witnesses for the crown !
All 5 supposed City employees whom I had never seen before and knew absolutely nothing about me or the thefts in question. Basically they testified and said nothing and the City could not find “cause” !
Still I lost my job.
I offered to return to work for George as a spy for the City taking names, dates, and photos of everything going there….. but I never got a call back ?
Now how to help you save money in the City of T.O. ?? hmmmm, well for starters I wouldn’t fire all your garbage men !
I have been a garbage man and we work damn hard ! We know who is a good worker and who is a slacker just there for the cheq. ! The probation period usually sorts those types out very well, but you could always extend that from 6 months to 2 years !
Any honest long term employee would appreciate having a job that pays, and the money they make will afford them the opprotunity to buy thier own extended health care until they earn full time benefits …
I have also worked with private waste management companies doing the same work, and although we worked just as hard, our contracts didn’t mandate we return for late pick-ups and we didn’t have foremen driving around with small trucks cleaning up behind us and collecting those late homes !!!
The City will not get the same dedicated service you all enjoy today and you will pay for it in the following ellection…. but thats not the worst of it Mayor ! Our City will suffer for it ! And then it will have to be put right again
There is another underlying problem you may be aware of ? The Free Masons ! They had there hand in everything at Eastern Ave. Yard !!
My Supervisor – Shipley, and all of his foremen were Free Masons ! Hell the even asked me to join thier little group after I became full time and I politely said no thanks.
Things in my life went to crap fast from that point, thats to say no support from my bosses and being left out in the cold every time I had an issue I needed help with on the job ? Why ??
I would suugest cleaning house and making sure you don’t have Masons running your show or back stabbing what it is “you” think you’re trying to accomplish here with these CUTS ?
Instead of charging people more for parking and reducing bike lanes on main streets in the City, you should give every person liviing in T.O. a TAX CUT or REBATE, some kind or incventive to buy a E-Bike or E-car to help pollution control, and develope a new big market here in the City and Province promoting business and jobs in the most expensive City in Canada to live !
We don’t need to burn gas in staionary cars trying to get into and out of T.O. every day !
Dedicate one lane to E-bikes and get rid of the parking spaces on all primary roads in T.O. !
Gasoline vehicles need to be full or parked at TTC staions outside the core, while violators are fined and the fees used to upgrade the Cities roads and facilities !
Thats it for now Mayor, except to say this … why save 774 million $ to start another losing hockey team? daaaa
North Toronto Working Mom
July 24, 2011
10:50 pm
Great. So I’m supposed to find time in my busy working day, where I am struggling to afford what little day care I can find, to come down to city hall?!? What BS. Perhaps if Mayor Ford were serious about listening to the taxpayers, he would listen to more than just retirees with time on their hands to come to City Hall. Sure, I want my elderly neighbour’s windrow plowed! But more important to me is child care, after-school child care, and not having to quit my job (or move out of Toronto) because of the lack thereof. Without Moms in the workforce, the local economy goes down the drain, along with Ford’s sinking budget. What does Mr. Ford think of that?
RainbowRay
July 25, 2011
2:00 pm
IF what I read is true, I’ve read where he’s proposing to cut back on some homeless shelters as well. IF that’s really trye (and I hope it really isn’t) then I think he’s making a terrible mistake because if anything, UNFORTUNATELY the city needs more of them and many of them are discrepti, run down, neglected and many of the staff are POORLY trained.
I think there is to much bureaucratic BS at city hall and if thingsare to be rectified, then things need to change.l It’s a shame that Toronto needs homeless shelters and food banks, but that iis the reality of life for some people unfortunately and CUTTING BACK on them is not going to help them, nor the city one iota; it will only create more problems (yes, COMPASSION is another problem as well not only in politics, but with the public as well; donations to shelters and food banks are just NOT ENOUGH in my opinion).
One more point, how about cutting back on the number of TIM HORTON’S donuts in Toronto as opposed to the number of LIBRARIES. Which would you, John Q Public rather have, more libraries and less Tim Horton’s (if we Really could cut back on them I mean) and more libraries or vice versa. Just a thought!
RainbowRay