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Ford to slash Toronto city council to 25 councillors from 47, sources say

PornAddict

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https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...il-to-25-councillors-from-47-sources-say.html

Ford to slash Toronto city council to 25 councillors from 47, sources say
By ROBERT BENZIEQueen's Park Bureau Chief
Thu., July 26, 2018
Premier Doug Ford is slashing the size of Toronto city council almost in half before the October election, the Star has learned.

In a stunning development, Ford is also cancelling planned regional chair elections in Peel and York, thwarting the ambitions of his political foe Patrick Brown, the former Progressive Conservative leader, as well as those of former Liberal cabinet minister Steven Del Duca.

Premier Doug Ford plans to table legislation as early as Monday that will cut the number of Toronto councillors to 25 for the fall election. “This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on (Toronto) council,” said a senior government official.
Premier Doug Ford plans to table legislation as early as Monday that will cut the number of Toronto councillors to 25 for the fall election. “This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on (Toronto) council,” said a senior government official. (ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR)

Conservative sources said legislation will be tabled as early as Monday to cut Toronto council from a planned 47 councillors to 25, and ward boundaries would match federal and provincial ridings.

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The surprise moves, which were never broached during last month’s provincial election campaign, come as the deadline for candidates entering the Oct. 22 municipal election looms at 2 p.m. on Friday.

“This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on council,” said a senior government official, referring to the one term Ford spent at Toronto city hall between 2010 and 2014.

“Having too many people on council makes it hard to get things done,” the source said, claiming the reduction in councillors should save $25 million. It’s not clear where these savings would come from. By reducing council by 22 councillors, the city would eliminate nearly $9 million in salaries, office and staffing budgets.


There are no plans, however, to reduce the number of MPPs at the Legislature, which was expanded to 124 members from 107 in the June 7 election.

The overhaul of wards will wipe out a 2016 decision by Toronto council to redraw the city’s boundaries, which increased the number of wards to 47 from 44 for the 2018 election. That was the result of a four-year review that determined the increase was essential for effective representation.

The city’s clerk previously said any boundary changes would need to be in place before January of this year in order for her and staff to prepare for the October election.


That’s when he will announce that nominations for Toronto elections will be reopened until mid-September after the legislation passes in August.

Along with potentially creating council havoc for Toronto Mayor John Tory, who defeated Ford in the 2014 mayoral race, the premier appears to be taking aim at Brown and Del Duca, the frontrunners to win the chair jobs in York and Peel.

Brown stepped down as PC leader on Jan. 24 after CTV News broadcast a report alleging sexual impropriety with two women. He has denied any wrongdoing and is now suing CTV, which stands by its story, for $8 million.

Sources said Ford tried to find a high-profile candidate who could stop his predecessor from winning the Peel chair’s job, but was unable to do so.

But another PC source insisted the premier is not being vindictive against Brown or Del Duca.

“We’re putting a pause on those elections. There will be not be elected chairs of these regional governments,” the source said, noting there will still be elected chairs in Halton and Durham.


“It will go back to what it was before the Liberals changed it in 2016 without any consultation,” said the Tory insider, adding there is no need for another layer of elected politicians.

Also affected are Niagara and Muskoka, which will return to having an appointed chair.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie praised Ford’s action, saying an elected chair would needlessly create “a super mayor.”

“From what I understand, the provincial government is looking to move forward with legislation to have regional chairs appointed, not elected,” Crombie said in an email Thursday night.

“If that’s the case, it will signal that mayors and local councils are being heard on this matter. In the past, I’ve have been quite vocal in my opposition to a regionally elected chair,” she said.

“As you know, Mississauga is the third largest city in Ontario, and our council is perfectly capable of controlling our own destiny and working with the appointed regional chair to do so. In fact, in Peel, we voted 22-1 in 2017 against electing a regional chair.”

The sweeping changes will require amendments to the City of Toronto Act, the Municipal Act, the Municipal Elections Act, and the Education Act, though there will be no change to the number of school board trustees being elected this fall.

Still, the government is bracing for legal challenges since candidates have been campaigning for three months and have paid to hire staff, rent office space, and buy advertising.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark conceded Thursday “there’s been lots of suggestions out there on municipal reform.”

“I can’t speculate on something like that,” said Clark when asked about the changes.



Opinion | Edward Keenan: John Tory hasn’t made the case for moving Toronto to a ‘strong mayor’ system

While Ford has been a proponent of a “strong mayor” system, that will not be addressed in the legislative amendments.

What the smaller council and redrawn wards will mean for Toronto residents remains to be seen.

Council expanded to 47 after an independent consultant’s nearly four-year review concluded that this was essential for effective representation, a priority set out in a Supreme Court decision that called for every vote to have equal weight, known as voter parity.

Today, the city’s ward populations are not balanced, with some as small as 45,000 people and some as big as 97,000, according to 2016 census data.

As Toronto continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, there are concerns disparity will grow with it. This is especially true in high-growth areas of the city, such as the downtown core.

Council provided direction to the consultants to maintain an average ward population of 61,000. The recommended 47-ward option would achieve voter parity by the 2026 election, the consultants reported.

A challenge to the recommended option from Etobicoke Councillor Justin Di Ciano went to divisional court and was dismissed in March. The court upheld an earlier decision of the Ontario Municipal Board, which found a 47-ward structure achieved effective representation and that a 25-ward option preferred by Di Ciano did not achieve better voter parity for the 2018 election.

During their review, the consultants did consider an option consistent with federal and provincial riding boundaries and that would create 25 wards but “encountered challenges” trying to achieve voter parity, their report said.

Adding an extra ward downtown, for 26 wards, still left voter parity issues, specifically in Etobicoke.

There was also “little support” for that option at public meetings and among members of council, the consultants’ report noted.

And shifting the boundaries to achieve voter parity would defeat the purpose of aligning with federal ridings, the consultants concluded.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro
 

basketcase

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2005
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So he loses his bid for mayor and is now using Queens Park as a pulpit to get revenge and try and run the city?
 

Charlemagne

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2017
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This is not going to go over well with most Torontonians.

People already feel inadequately represented, especially after amalgamation. I suppose he's going to keep most of the councillors from the burbs since they are most likely to align with him.

Of course Councillor DiCiano is in support of this, ironically he's under OPP investigation for breaking election rules.
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
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So he loses his bid for mayor and is now using Queens Park as a pulpit to get revenge and try and run the city?

Not quite, but if it makes you feel better then go ahead and convince yourself that's his motivation. It doesn't really matter.

Los Angeles has 15 councillors with a population almost twice the size of Toronto.
Time to trim the fat (which is mostly leftist councillors who do nothing other than pursue pet projects and stifle progress of anything else).
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
6,722
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This is not going to go over well with most Torontonians.

People already feel inadequately represented, especially after amalgamation. I suppose he's going to keep most of the councillors from the burbs since they are most likely to align with him.

Of course Councillor DiCiano is in support of this, ironically he's under OPP investigation for breaking election rules.
People feel inadequately represented because the bloated council can't get anything done because there are too many cooks (or kooks) in the kitchen.
Time to thin the herd.
I also hope in time that the mayor is actually given more power.
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
79,747
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People feel inadequately represented because the bloated council can't get anything done because there are too many cooks (or kooks) in the kitchen.
Time to thin the herd.
I also hope in time that the mayor is actually given more power.
This stands to be as bad for Toronto as Harris' amalgamation.
What is it with you conservatives?
 

nottyboi

Well-known member
May 14, 2008
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I am no big fan of Ford, but I kinda support this. The city council are a bunch of twits. I will be quite happy to see half of them gone
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
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This stands to be as bad for Toronto as Harris' amalgamation.
What is it with you conservatives?
Smaller government is never a bad thing.

btw Toronto has been amalgamating, morphing and shifting since 1791 and will continue to do so...progressively.
 

Smallcock

Active member
Jun 5, 2009
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Great news. Too much useless lard in government. Hope he keeps cutting.
 

Charlemagne

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2017
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People feel inadequately represented because the bloated council can't get anything done because there are too many cooks (or kooks) in the kitchen.
Time to thin the herd.
I also hope in time that the mayor is actually given more power.
You probably don't live in Toronto. Most people don't feel this way, they want representation and service. This will be terrible for the customer service aspect of public service.
Doug did not run on this proposal either, this is an undemocratic misuse of power. Him and his brother were always bullies who threw a fit when they did not get their way.

I wonder if certain areas will want to go back on amalgamation.
 

jcpro

Well-known member
Jan 31, 2014
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In part, this is Rob reaching out from the grave to get revenge.
 

james t kirk

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2001
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They could reduce the size of city council in my opinion. I don't know about the size of the changes though.

The reality is that most people have issues at the municipal level, not provincial and definitely not federal. Everything from a proposed development to infrastructure to a tree to a noise issue and the person they turn to will be the local councillor. I think a more reasonable reduction might be more appropriate.

In addition, I've often felt that city councillors were very much underpaid. I think they need to earn a lot more money and their salaries need to be increased.
 

nottyboi

Well-known member
May 14, 2008
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The problem of the bloated city council is that the politicians keep interfereing with the bureaucrats. So many technical studies are washed aside for politics and we move away from fact based actions. The transit system is one such example. I say slash away. If there are problems, then that can be addressed in a few years. Tory is painicking because he knows there will be a lot of big names running for mayor.
 

Anbarandy

Bitter House****
Apr 27, 2006
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The problem of the bloated city council is that the politicians keep interfereing with the bureaucrats. So many technical studies are washed aside for politics and we move away from fact based actions. The transit system is one such example. I say slash away. If there are problems, then that can be addressed in a few years. Tory is painicking because he knows there will be a lot of big names running for mayor.
Rob and Doug were the prime culprits of 'political interference and subterfuge' in fact based decision making process that you are whining about.

To trust Doug the Thug to do 'right by Toronto' is to disregard his history on city council.
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
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They could reduce the size of city council in my opinion. I don't know about the size of the changes though.

The reality is that most people have issues at the municipal level, not provincial and definitely not federal. Everything from a proposed development to infrastructure to a tree to a noise issue and the person they turn to will be the local councillor. I think a more reasonable reduction might be more appropriate.

In addition, I've often felt that city councillors were very much underpaid. I think they need to earn a lot more money and their salaries need to be increased.
Reducing the size of city council means that councillors would represent over 100,000 people.
There's no way you'd get any response from them.

Doug is just doing this out of spite since all his ideas at council were incredibly unpopular and he and the crackhead regularly were the only votes on some issues.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
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This stands to be as bad for Toronto as Harris' amalgamation.
What is it with you conservatives?
Worse. Harris divide each federal riding in two and each half got a Councillor. Ford imagines just one representative for each hundred thousand or so citizens. If that's such a good idea, Barrie would have a City Council of 1.5 members. OK, call it two.

But of course Dougie thinks Toromto is so special, he has no plan to extend the benefits of his wise plan to cities across the province.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
11
38
The problem of the bloated city council is that the politicians keep interfereing with the bureaucrats. So many technical studies are washed aside for politics and we move away from fact based actions. The transit system is one such example. I say slash away. If there are problems, then that can be addressed in a few years. Tory is painicking because he knows there will be a lot of big names running for mayor.
The real problem is that Harris gave the various local councils no power, so every stop light proposal, pedestrian crossing and building permit variance can wind up being debated by the entire Council. And decided on by uninvolved favour-traders from somewhere 25kms away on the other side of the City scratching each others backs.

All that small-potatoes local stuff should be decided by the few representatives elected by the community concerned, leaving only broad policy, and City-wide measures for the entire Council to deal with.

The trouble with Ford's plan is that it puts 'getting stuff — any stuff — done' ahead of 'getting what the people want and need done'. It might as well make the 25 folks who talk their way into City Hall into Barons and Baronesses instead of mere Councillors.
 

nottyboi

Well-known member
May 14, 2008
22,447
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The real problem is that Harris gave the various local councils no power, so every stop light proposal, pedestrian crossing and building permit variance can wind up being debated by the entire Council. And decided on by uninvolved favour-traders from somewhere 25kms away on the other side of the City scratching each others backs.

All that small-potatoes local stuff should be decided by the few representatives elected by the community concerned, leaving only broad policy, and City-wide measures for the entire Council to deal with.

The trouble with Ford's plan is that it puts 'getting stuff — any stuff — done' ahead of 'getting what the people want and need done'. It might as well make the 25 folks who talk their way into City Hall into Barons and Baronesses instead of mere Councillors.
we'll see what else he changes to avoid that. If they act like barons and baronesses, they will be unemployed next election. The focus on them will be even greater. As it stands the system is too politicized.
 

Bud Plug

Sexual Appliance
Aug 17, 2001
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Sounds like a good idea, although I think the bigger challenge is to get more problem solvers onto council.
 

oldjones

CanBarelyRe Member
Aug 18, 2001
24,495
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we'll see what else he changes to avoid that. If they act like barons and baronesses, they will be unemployed next election. The focus on them will be even greater. As it stands the system is too politicized.
Actually, with nothing to encourage useful coalitions, co-operation or parties, it would be more accurate to say it isn't politicized enough. And you only have to look at Denzil and Mammo to see how autocrats can settle in any system.

Over to you to 'splain how Duke Dougie's Diktat will keep such unaccountables out. And you might want to comment on Czar Ford's autocratic surprise re-constititution of our City without even a rumour, never mind a heads-up during the campaign, or even a pretense of consultation. Aren't the opinions of 2.5million Torontonians at least as deserving of a hearing as a few thousand sex-fearful parents?
 
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