In a topsy-turvy week that saw the Ford administration embarrassingly out of the loop during the Occupy Toronto eviction, and the sudden departure of the mayor’s press secretary, there was also a looming backlash over the budget for Ford & Co to manage.The week’s thrills and spills are the clearest indication yet that, a year in, the power of the mayor – whose grip on reality has been tenuous at the best of times – is on the wane.
Indeed, some councillors are predicting a complete rejection of the budget. We’ll see about that. But the early political returns on the raft of cuts Ford proposed Monday, November 28, are decidedly unfavourable. Some councillors, even those not in the habit of voting against him, are calling town halls to hear what their constituents have to say, clearly manoeuvring to give themselves an out. Whether the mayor has given his allies on council enough to soften the blow for their constituents remains to be seen. Sacrificing pools for frills like leaf pickup in the burbs seems like a non-starter.
Among the cuts proposed in the 2012 budget: shared rec programming with the TDSB at 12 community centres, reduced Wheel-Trans service for dialysis patients, and the closure of daycare centres. On top of that is the 10¢ hike in TTC fares. (For more details, see Ben Spurr’s story on this page).
But as budget speeches go, this one also contained a few formulations one might not expect from the lips of a staunch fiscal conservative. Like “more funding for Ontario Works” and “more money to help low-income families access recreational services.”
For a guy who’s been bragging about taking a cleaver to “waste” at City Hall, it’s odd to hear the mayor describe as “modest” the “service adjustments” recommended for 2012. Oh yeah, and then there’s the 2.5 per cent property tax increase “that’s less than inflation,” which must have come as a shocker to Fordists who took his election to mean no more property tax increases, ever.
Another mild surprise: it’s going to take longer than expected to bridge the hotly disputed $774 million structural deficit. So not exactly the tsunami of cuts promised (although some would differ on that appraisal) – just a tidal wave. A “smart” budget, Ford called it. A “responsible” budget.
I’d call it the Ford soft sell. Gord Perks calls it a manufactured crisis and the worst budget he’s seen since amalgamation. In the view of council progressives, the proposed cuts are unnecessary. There’s a $139 million surplus, after all, that the Ford admin first tried to hide – it appeared nowhere in the budget documents released Monday – that could be used to cover the cost of service cuts. They’ve decided to stash that money in a reserve fund for capital projects. Hence the criticism that Ford is creating a cash crunch.
Arguably, the current budget mess was really created during the 2011 budget process, when Ford opted to blow the $346 million surplus left by David Miller to pay for a zero property tax increase.
Amid the self-congratulations after the removal of Occupy Toronto protesters from St. James Park on Wednesday, there was nothing but good press for the mayor.
Ford was happy to take credit for the measured police response, the “professionalism,” he called it, of the troops. But truth is, his office pushed the crisis button on the Occupy front and would have been happy to let the situation devolve into an all-out riot between cops and protesters.
Consider, City Hall insiders say, Ford’s order to issue eviction notices, which came out of nowhere just days after a group charged with finding a peaceful resolution to the occupation had been set up under deputy city manager Brenda Patterson at the behest of local councillor Pam McConnell.
The mayor wasn’t interested in open dialogue. In fact, he rejected overtures from the occupiers, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and 17 councillors who signed an open letter urging Ford to delay any move to evict protesters (remember that?) until council had time to discuss the issue. Instead, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday and a few other hotheads were dispatched to feed the idea that the public was growing impatient and wanted the so-called mess in the park cleaned up.
But then a remarkable thing happened. Others, including the police and occupiers, city staff from Shelter and Support Services, church leaders and even the local BIA and residents’ association, took it upon themselves to have a conversation about bringing the occupation to a peaceful close – to formulate a made-in-Toronto solution, as it were. And so it came to pass, thanks to some heavy lifting on McConnell’s part and in spite of the calculated political paralysis in the mayor’s office. Clearly, the police weren’t interested in a G20-style debacle that the mayor may have been not too sorry to see Chief Bill Blair wear.
If the Occupy experience teaches Ford’s opponents anything, it’s that it is possible to get things done without the mayor.
“The mayor can’t just click his heels and expect things to happen,” McConnell says. “That’s not the way the world works.”
To top it all off, there was the exit of Ford press secretary Adrienne Batra, which can’t be construed as anything but a negative turn for a flagging administration, and a rather significant one at that.
While her resignation, announced with “regret” in a terse statement issued by the mayor’s office Tuesday wasn’t a complete surprise to the City Hall press gallery, it was something of a shock for the mayor.
Batra, accompanied by Ford chief of staff Amir Remtulla, dropped the bomb on Ford only Monday (her last day is Friday, December 2) that she was leaving to become comment-page editor at the Toronto Sun and to do a spot as municipal affairs correspondent for Newstalk 1010.
Not exactly the best timing for the departure of the person responsible for messaging, just when the tough sledding is starting.
But it’s no secret around City Hall that she didn’t appreciate the mayor’s big brother Doug – that would be the councillor from Ward 2 – speaking on the mayor’s behalf, causing PR problems for the mayor and becoming a political liability.
For Batra, the frustration didn’t end there. The mayor himself, one might guess, can be a difficult person to work for, given as he is to fits of pique, stubbornness and a penchant for getting caught saying the craziest shit on tape. She no doubt got a little tired of cleaning up after him.
Interesting convergence. Batra will continue to help the right-wing cause, only from a different perch. Don’t expect dirty details to start filtering through the Ford-friendly Sun about an administration losing its grip. She’s not about to air its laundry in public. Batra’s too discreet, and smart, to burn her bridges.
But turns out the mayor’s office isn’t immune to the stresses of the crisis mode everyone’s been working under at City Hall since Ford took over.
Origin
Source: NOW
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