Toronto city councillor Doug Ford says he would close a library in his ward “in a heartbeat,” characterizing a growing movement to save branches that has the backing of literary icon Margaret Atwood as an "over-reaction” led by “library groups.” “I don’t want to be closing every single library in the city. They go to the extreme,” Mr. Ford said Tuesday when asked about the reaction to the consulting report that suggests the city consider “closing some branches.”
An online petition to protest potential closings has attracted more than 24,700 signatures and got a major boost last week after Ms. Atwood passed on the link to the petition to her Twitter followers. The response was so huge it temporarily crashed the site. Since then, Ms. Atwood has devoted several Tweets to the Etobicoke councillor, who got into hot water earlier this month by suggesting there are more libraries than Tim Horton’s outlets in his ward – which proved to be an exaggeration.
Mr. Ford, a rookie councillor and the brother of the mayor who has quickly gained a reputation at city hall for his headline-grabbing outbursts, said he hasn’t been influenced by the involvement of the world-renown author in the save-the-library movement.
“Margaret Atwood, I don’t even know her. She could walk right by me – I wouldn’t have a clue who she is,” he told reporters. “She’s not down here. She’s not dealing with the problem...Tell her to go run in the next election and get democratically elected. I’m happy to sit down and listen to Margaret Atwood.”
Mr. Ford estimates there are five or six library branches within a two-mile area near his ward, which includes what he described as a little-used location in an industrial area.
Asked if he would vote to close that branch he said, “Absolutely I would. In a heartbeat.
“And my constituents, it wouldn’t bother them because they have another library two miles one way and two miles the other way.”
Toronto is in the middle of a massive hunt for cost savings – part of pledge made by Mayor Rob Ford to find the “gravy” at city hall. As part of that exercise, it commissioned a consulting report on more than 150 services to determine which ones are core to the functioning of the city. That review has produced a long list of possible money-saving cuts that includes the suggested branch closings.
The executive committee, chaired by the mayor, will meet Thursday to consider the consultant’s findings for all agencies, boards and commissions, including the Toronto Public Library.
The mayor has invited all Toronto residents to attend the Thursday meeting to weigh in on the cost-cutting debate.
The final say on cuts will come at a special council meeting in September.
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Source: Globe & Mail
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