“I didn’t overstep my boundaries, I did what the taxpayers want. They want subways. That’s it. They don’t want streetcars. I was out in Scarborough over the weekend, people came up to me and said they want subways. That’s it,” Ford told reporters at the weekly weigh-in for his weight-loss program.
His comments came in the wake of a report by a lawyer who is an expert in municipal governance. It says the mayor didn’t have the authority to cancel the Transit City light rail plan without city council approval.
Nor was it within his authority to sign a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the province pursuing an alternative transit plan, said Freya Kristjanson, who was asked for her legal opinion by Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s).
“Toronto has a weak-mayor, strong-council system of municipal governance. This means that the power of the city resides in city council. The mayor has very little independent authority unless it is specifically delegated to him by council,” she said.
Her opinion is based within the legal framework of the City of Toronto Act, which took effect in 2007, said Kristjanson.
Any acts approved by council — and her report shows several resolutions concerning Transit City were approved by city council — must be “rescinded or amended by a subsequent vote of council,” she said.
Kristjanson was counsel to Mayor Hazel McCallion during the Mississauga Judicial Inquiry and commission counsel to the Walkerton inquiry into the town’s contaminated water supply.
“Until changed by a vote of council, Transit City remains the first transit priority of Toronto. There has been no vote to rescind or change these priorities or commitments in the 13 months since Mayor Ford took office,” she said.
Through a resolution or bylaw, council can grant the mayor power to act.
“The power to appoint chairs of committees was given to the mayor of the City of Toronto by Toronto City Council through the council procedures bylaw,” says Kristjanson’s report.
When Ford signed the MOU with the province, he was speaking for himself, not the city, Mihevc stressed at a Monday news conference.
“Rumours of the death of Transit City have been greatly exaggerated,” said the former TTC vice-chair.
He refused to say whether he paid for the legal work but was adamant no taxpayer dollars went into the report.
“Public transit and mobility are absolutely critical. We need to get it right. This is a lot of taxpayer dollars. We need to use them widely,” said Mihevc.
The province has opened the door to a debate on what kind of plan to which it should invest its $8.2 billion in transit funding.
“Let the best plan win out,” he said.
Ford would not say whether his transit plan — which calls for burying the east end of the Eglinton light rail line and building a subway rather than surface light rail on Sheppard Ave. E. — would win council support.
“It’s all subways. It’s all about subways,” he told reporters at the weekly weigh-in. “So it’s the taxpayers that elected me to get the subways in, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Councillor Norm Kelly, a staunch Ford ally who sits on the Toronto Transit Commission, appeared to back the mayor’s right to abandon Transit City.
“The mayor is the one politician who talks to all Torontonians,” he said. “The mayor has every right to give his advice to Metrolinx.”
“When people have a weak policy case, they argue procedure,” he said of the lawyer’s report.
Because the province has committed the full $8.2 billion for the Transit City plan, it can take advice from the mayor or anyone else, said Kelly.
TTC chair Karen Stintz has proposed a compromise that takes some elements of Transit City, such as improved transit on Finch Ave., and marries them to Ford’s idea of extending the Sheppard subway, at least as far as Consumer’s Rd. or Victoria Park.
But the mayor has rejected her idea.
Stintz said Monday it was always her understanding that the mayor would take his transit plan to council once a report by Gordon Chong, the man Ford appointed to look at public-private financing options for a Sheppard subway, released his report. That has yet to happen.
“The MOU commits the city to a financial penalty and that penalty has not yet been fully revealed — and that’s an important point,” said Stintz, referring to the money spent on preliminary work for Transit City before Ford told the TTC to down tools on the project.
The province has estimated the city would be responsible for at least $65 million in those costs, although the final bill has not been released.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Tess Kalinowski
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