Preville on Politics

Perfectly clear?

Posted on July 20, 2007 by Philip Preville

Mayor David Miller says he’s been clear all along about the consequences of failing to adopt the proposed new revenue tools. Hmmm. The city’s Web site includes a page full of reports, facts and figures from the last five months here. Nowhere can I find anything that spells out such consequences as the service cuts the city is now contemplating. I point your attention, in particular, to Question #2 of May’s public consultations, which misleadingly asks: “What type of expenditures should the new revenues be used for: Enhanced existing services? City-building type initiatives? To help solve the fiscal imbalance?”

Given the phrasing of the question, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the status quo — no new taxes, keep current city services as they are — was a perfectly viable option. When city staff reported back to the executive committee in June, they noted that the public remained unconvinced of the city’s need for new taxes and wondered why the Mayor and councillors weren’t a formal part of the consultation process. That June report went on to explain that the city’s 2008 budget shortfall will be in the order of $575 million, and that the new revenues will be largely have to be spent just to maintain existing services and bridging the shortfall.

It all reads like a very polite dance around the harsh truths of the matter. Truth number one: the city needs these new revenues even if the province uploads the cost of social services. Truth number two: failure to secure new revenues means service cuts. It’s all so obliquely stated that even Brian Ashton, who sits on the Mayor’s executive committee and had all these reports under his nose, didn’t believe the situation was so dire. If the mayor had been perfectly clear, he probably wouldn’t have lost Monday’s vote.

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Mark Dowling July 20, 2007 at 1:39 p.m.

Interesting to compare Mukherjee's reaction to the request to Giambrone's. Mukherjee doesn't have much to cut, $10million, but importantly said the Board would have to consider the matter before announcing what would be sacrified. Chairman Giambrone took the cuts at face value without questioning the degree to which TTC is taking the brunt and announcing service cut proposals without discussing them with his commissioner colleagues, a majority of whom voted to defer the taxes.

Philip Preville July 20, 2007 at 4:33 p.m.

Update: As of 4:30 Friday, it looks as though the TTC will vote to defer any final decision on service cuts. Bunch of Mackenzie Kings...


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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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