Photo by HiMY SYeD / photopia.
The Budget Committee held a meeting during the lunch break of Thursday’s Council session. It lasted from 12:45–12:50 p.m. Only their second get-together (and the first at which business was conducted), there were only two items on the agenda: 1) “Establishment of Sub-committees of the Budget Committee,” and 2) “Election of Vice Chair.”
Number 2 resulted in Doug Ford being named the committee’s second-in-command — no surprise. But buried in item 1 [pdf] are the details for the public’s only opportunities to provide input during the expedited (i.e., rammed through) 2011 budget process.
The public consultations, broken down by community council area, are as follows:
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NORTH YORK DISTRICT: January 19, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber of the North York Civic Centre (5100 Yonge Street, at North York Centre station)
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TORONTO AND EAST YORK DISTRICT: January 19, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Council Chamber of the East York Civic Centre (850 Coxwell Avenue, at Mortimer Avenue)
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SCARBOROUGH DISTRICT: January 20, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Council Chamber of the Scarborough Civic Centre (150 Borough Drive, at Scarborough Centre station)
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ETOBICOKE YORK DISTRICT: January 20, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in the Council Chamber of the York Civic Centre (2700 Eglinton Avenue West, at Keele Street)
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Yep.
The North York and Scarborough meetings will be chaired by Doug Ford and attended by budget committee members Frank Di Giorgio, Peter Milczyn, and John Parker.
The Etobicoke York and Toronto and East York meetings will be chaired by Mike Del Grande and attended by budget committee members Michelle Berardinetti and Chin Lee.
(I honestly think they may have mistakenly gotten it backwards: that is, the North York/Scarborough Sub-Committee consists of three Etobicoke councillors and one North York councillor, and the Etobicoke/Toronto/East York Sub-Committee consists of three Scarborough councillors. Fancy that.)
See you on Coxwell!
5 comments
Woohoo! I’ve hearing about this “East York” place for years. Michael Prue and Justin Van Dette keep raving about it.
It’s about time us downtown pinkos got off our asses and ventured beyond the Old City.
See you there!
Cosburn bikelane rolls right past the East York Civic Centre (a couple streets north) Stay strong Goldsbie! You can leave the Gladstone neighbourhood and remain true to Toronto!
Point…
…missed.
This sounds like the stampeding that the Harris/Eves
people did when something came up. Hurry things along
and require a decision before anyone can mount an
effective opposition.
Remember how the wards were re-designed earlier
this decade? The announcement was made on Monday
and the decision had to be by Thursday because Queen’s
Park does not have a sitting day on Friday.
It got City Hall in a fluster and everyone running about
excitedly with the fear of more dire consequences from
QP if they couldn’t come up with a solution.
That’s a classic case of stampeding.
Ford’s been doing it since day one and the right
leaning press is rejoicing in it. The right leaning
press also pointed out how some of the councillors
tried to thwart debate by asking questions!
And what is a city council to do–act like an echo chamber?
All one need do is cast one’s mind back to the many
council meetings where Ford himself slowed proceedings
by asking the trivial of questions on so many issues and
stalling procedings. Now the Fordists are complaining
about the shoe being on the other foot.
Watch for more stampeding in the future and reflect
on how much better off Stampede City is with its
new mayor.
Downtown pinkos needn’t worry about coming to Coxwell. We elected Jack Layton federally, Peter Tabuns provincially, Mary Fragedakis to council, and Cathy Dandy to the school board. South and east of us are progressive councillors Paula Fletcher and Janet Davies, and of course Michael
Prue’s constituency office is a couple of blocks away. It’s a full house. My street is solid
orange at election time, all the way to East York centre.
We’ve got your back. Come on out!