Daily BrewToronto council avoids decision on transit funding; Rob Ford celebrates
People have said for years that Toronto's city council is dysfunctional, so spoiled by infighting that nothing gets done, and that point was underlined yesterday during a debate on transit funding.
Anyone following the council’s debate on transit funding on Thursday were gifted with shouting fits, name-calling, time-outs and eventually ungracious indecision.
The debate was intended to determine what revenue tools the city would recommend the province consider to fund while building Toronto-area transit infrastructure.
The province asked how we'd like to fund transit growth and we responded with a resounding "no."
The debate turned out to be about what ideas the city wouldn’t recommend, leaving the politically-taxing decisions to those at Queen’s Park. Council had less of an issue voicing their thoughts on how that money, whatever money, should be spent.
[ Related: Toronto council rejects funding tools for transit expansion ]
CBC News reports that the final result of Thursday’s transit vote was to reject all but two revenue tools, and council even managed to avoid endorsing those. Ideas such as a car tax, similar to one ended early in the Rob Ford administration, voluntary highway tolls and a parking levy were rejected outright.
In the end, council only gave tacit approval for the province to consider a sales tax and development charges to fund transit. Actually, that's not right. They just managed to avoid not disapproving of them.
The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee writes:
It was a slap in the face for the thousands of Torontonians who came out to meetings or filled out surveys about what taxes they, as citizens, would endorse. It was a rebuke to the community organizations, from the Board of Trade in its downtown office tower to the self-organized community groups in their church halls, who sweated over the issue and managed to choose which taxes to support.
It was a gross dereliction of their duty as elected representatives to deliberate and, in the end, to choose.
[ More Brew: Ontario plan for ‘high-occupancy toll roads’ gains traction ]
While everyone was trying to shine a positive light on the result, or lack thereof, it was Mayor Rob Ford who declared victory. The Toronto Sun's Don Peat said Ford high-fived his council allies, declaring the lack of plan a victory.
“I feel fantastic. We fended off the wolves today and saved the taxpayers at least $1,000 a household and I couldn’t be happier,” Ford said. “This is one of the greatest days in Toronto’s history right now.”
Ford's primary goal is to avoid hitting Toronto residents with any new taxes, and it is a noble pursuit. But the province is still free to use revenue tools in its quest to improve Toronto’s transportation infrastructure. All that happened yesterday was Toronto’s decision makers effectively sidestepping the nasty task of making a decision.
Metrolinx, the province’s transit agency, will release its investment strategy on June 1. Only they know whether Toronto’s list of non-recommendations will impact their final decision in any way.
