Councillor Michael Thompson, a Christian who paid for a pastor to bless his City Hall office in December, would like to be clear: he does not hate Christmas.“I love Christmas,” he said, smiling but entirely serious, in an interview. “Don’t anybody think for a moment that Thompson doesn’t love Christmas. I do.”
Thompson felt compelled to make the unusual proclamation after he put forth a motion at Tuesday’s economic development committee meeting that raised the possibility of halting city funding to the Christmas Bureau.
The program, founded in 1956, costs $125,000 per year. It helps non-city donors such as the Star’s Santa Claus Fund distribute gifts to the poor.
Thompson, the committee chair and an ally of Mayor Rob Ford, said he did not want to stop the bureau’s work, merely to find corporations to pay for it. Nothing should be immune from scrutiny, he said, given the city’s budget woes.
“We are required to look at every nook and cranny in this organization in terms of where savings can be realized,” he said. “And I realize that certain things are not popular — but is that our job, to worry about popularity?”
Said left-leaning committee member Mary Fragedakis, who voted against the proposal: “I’m saving Christmas. Other people can cancel Christmas.”
The meeting was the second held as part of the city’s service review process. The committee considered a KPMG report on how to wring savings from economic development activities, which include assistance for Business Improvement Areas and the film industry.
Though the committee is composed mostly of Ford critics, members voted simply to refer the report to Ford’s executive committee. Some left-leaning councillors had criticized the conservative-dominated public works committee for doing the same on Monday.
“If they’re not going to make recommendations and we’re making recommendations, it doesn’t make sense,” Fragedakis said.
Two Thompson motions the committee rejected may provide a glimpse into the thinking of Ford and his supporters. He asked staff to study eliminating funding to “some” museums and galleries and to the popular Winterlicious restaurant promotion he believes may no longer need government assistance.
Councillor Josh Colle, a centrist, concurred on Winterlicious. “I think the program’s been so successful that it might actually be at the point where it can kind of go off on its own, leave the nest,” he said.
Leaders from Business Improvement Areas asked the committee to preserve the support offered to them by city staff. Film industry leaders also argued against cuts.
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Source: Toronto Star
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