A marathon session of Toronto city council’s executive committee continued overnight Thursday and into Friday morning as councillors heard from hundreds of union members, arts groups, social agencies and others on the Rob Ford administration’s deliberations over cutting services to rein in a budget deficit. By 6 a.m. ET, 300 of 344 deputants had spoken and the meeting had run for over 20 hours, the longest continuous meeting of either council or one of its committees since the modern megacity was created in 1998.
Throughout the night, presenters chose different methods to get their point across. One sang a song, another read a poem, one wrote a short story, a young man performed a puppet show and a retired teacher delivered a satirical essay. Most simply berated the committee.
But the message was the same: don’t cut anything.
The executive committee’s task is to consider cuts suggested to the city’s agencies, boards and commissions by auditor KPMG. While no final decisions have to be made at the meeting, the powerful executive can make recommendations that will carry weight over the coming months as the city decides what to axe and what to save.
Among the services and assets on the chopping block are libraries, water fluoridation, the affordable housing office, the Toronto Zoo, city-owned theatres, night buses and crossing guards.
People packed into the second-floor committee room at city hall – at several points, every available seat in the house was taken – and spilled over into adjacent rooms to watch on television monitors.
When the session first started, leftwing opposition councillors were favourable to the speakers, while rightwing executives in Mr. Ford’s inner circle asked probing questions, demanding community groups and social agencies tell them what services to cut.
“I’m not hearing any suggestions on how to deal with our shortfall,” said budget chief Mike Del Grande to one arts group. “Yeah, you’re important, fine. But we have a huge debt.”
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Source: Globe&Mail
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