It’s great to know that hundreds of people are willing to stay up all night to fight for their vision of Toronto. But, sad to say, that’s about the only good news to come out of Thursday’s and Friday’s filibuster-by-committee down at City Hall.Reports have a grand total of three of 169 deputants at Executive Committee speaking generally in favour of Rob Ford’s vision of Toronto. Deputants spoke for three-fifths of the time they’d normally have been allotted, and half the people who signed up to speak didn’t end up doing so at all because Mayor Rob Ford decided to run the meeting all night — all so everyone could get away for the long weekend on time.
I understand this was a giddy, caffeine-fuelled community experience for those in attendance. But it was not a great moment in democracy. It was closer to undemocratic.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti allowed beforehand that he expected to hear the same old big-government, union-friendly positions. And that’s pretty much what he got. Afterwards Mr. Mammoliti, who wants to turn the Toronto Islands into a red light district, confirmed he’d heard few ideas worth considering.
So, there’s no reason to believe any minds were changed. Indeed, deputants might have been better off appealing to councillors individually than as part of what committee members seem to view as an unhelpful, ideologically partisan horde. A 14-year-old girl weeping at the prospect of a library closure is a lot easier to dismiss at 2 a.m., when you’re drunk on Red Bull, than it is in your office when you can’t cut her off after three minutes.
The overall message was “cut nothing,” but that’s not the problem. The problem, as it has been for some time now, is that the Fords are going to cut what the Fords are going to cut. They clearly have their preferences, but with a few exceptions, we still don’t really know what they are. We don’t even know if libraries really are on the chopping block. All we know is, KPMG says we could cut them and save money. Duh.
We do know that Councillor Doug Ford relishes the prospect of shuttering a library in his ward altogether, which is extraordinarily hard-hearted even by his standards. Compared to the city as a whole, his ward is about dead average for its percentage of low-income families. How does he propose their children learn to read?
These skinflint Fordian outbursts and the vagueness of their intentions make a rational cost-cutting discussion even more difficult. Councillors can talk reasonably about outsourcing certain library services, but all people will see is Doug Ford, grinning, getting ready to light the fuse as children flee in terror.
And the tone makes people worry — hell, it makes me worry, and I’m not desperately dependent on city services or grant-funded programs and organizations. The longer the vagueness continues, the less time those entities have to come up with plan B. But knowing Rob Ford’s absolute opposition to all such grants — that much he’s always been clear about — one hopes they’re busy coming up with alternative funding.
Killing some of the big-ticket grants needn’t be fatal. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s $1.1-million grant amounts to $4.79 for every ticket it sold in 2009-10. The Canadian Opera Company’s $1.3-million grant works out to $9.61 a ticket, and just 15% of its fundraising. Giving $800,000 to the Toronto International Film Festival is like subsidizing a Maserati dealership.
Once the nitty-gritty is on the table, the discussion can begin in earnest.
What we saw this week was mostly just a protest march confined to a committee room.
Origin
Source: National Post
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