When John Tory launched a pointed broadside against the TTC two weeks ago over the agency’s reluctance to make deep cuts to its operating budget, the timing seemed strangely off-key given the fact that it coincided with the mayor’s splashy pronouncement about Rail Deck Park, a mega-project with no pricetag.
But I’ve begun to wonder whether Tory’s stagey threat was actually the kick-off of a tedious season of mayoral muscle-flexing designed to cast hizzoner as a penny-pincher in the run-up to council’s looming – and inevitably irritating – fall debate over new revenue tools.
For those of you who are hopelessly mired in the epic shlamozzle that is the U.S. presidential race, a brief re-cap: on the day when the mayor, chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat and Councillor Joe Cressy unveiled the park plan, with its lovely images and dearth of cost estimates, he curtly informed the TTC it would have to find $231 million in cuts without affecting service levels, and this after Byford informed the City he couldn’t get to the 2.6% reductions ordered up by council.
Tory then hauled out that most tired of conservative tropes: a pledge to send in his own bean-counters to do the dirty if Byford couldn’t get his people in line.
Raise your hand if you’ve seen this show before.
The provincial Tories, under Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, used to enjoy pulling this stunt, complete with their own gun-slinging forensic accountant, on the Toronto District School Board whenever their trustees had the temerity to point out that students were being shortchanged. (The provincial Liberals have followed suit.)
In a self-aggrandizing variation on the theme, George Smitherman, when he ran for mayor in 2010, promised voters that he himself would be the guy who’d knock heads by bird-dogging the entire budget-cutting process.
Our former mayor, whose name I need not repeat, offered up a similar tactic in 2011 by retaining the accounting giant KPMG to do a laborious “core service review” of city spending which revealed — ! — that there wasn’t much to cut.
My working theory is that Tory’s little outburst wasn’t so much about finding savings as it was about being seen to be looking for them, especially in regards to an institution that few mayors can resist slapping around from time to time.
By sharp contrast, Tory offered up no such outbursts in June when Police Services Board chair Andy Pringle and chief Mark Saunders unveiled an organizational and financial overhaul of the $1 billion police budget that offered little in terms of savings and all manner of phony budget reductions, all while failing to account for a looming and presumably hefty outlay on new technology for front-line officers.
We know Tory is a friend of the police and little more than an erstwhile ally of the TTC. But I’d argue that the show of force was at least partly to meant to signal the political right – councillors and voters alike – that he’s not going to be a fiscal pushover when (if?) council approves various new taxes to address the structural shortfalls identified by city manager Peter Wallace. Indeed, I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if Tory, in the next few months, reprised his John Wayne shtick with other city departments.
If I had the unenviable task of providing Tory with strategic advice, I might be tempted to suggest he do more of the same. After all, the public’s attention span is short, and so the juxtaposition of fiscal tough talk with a fractious fight over new taxes may seem like the best hedge against the political capital Tory stands to lose each time he has to get up on his feet to answer questions about new revenues.
What’s more, as we inch closer to the 2018 election cycle, Tory’s going to have to do something, positionally-speaking, to respond to critics who accuse him of leading the charge on some spectacularly expensive infrastructure projects without offering up any really compelling strategies for paying for them (besides promising that other governments will foot the bills).
All that being said, it irritates me that he doesn’t have the guts to lead a serious debate, sans qualifiers, over the City’s true financial situation. Instead of playing showy and pointless games with highly effective managers like Byford, why can’t Tory arrive at this enormously important debate fully seized of the case for more diversified revenues to support both capital and operating outlays?
In order to make his arguments convincingly, I’d say that Tory actually needs to do exactly the opposite of the stunt he pulled on the TTC. The budget squeeze facing agencies tasked with delivering more services to more people shouldn’t present an opportunity for pot-shots and political positioning; rather, evidence of such pressures should provide the mayor with teachable moments during which he can show Torontonians that a city with better transit, more housing, new parks and re-built highways won’t come without costs.
Yet as has been clear throughout his mayoralty, Tory always seeks to be the guy who wants to have his subways and ride them too: he revels in the idea of being seen as the great city builder, but he doesn’t want the responsibility of enduring the short-term political pain that gets us from here to there.
So on the eve of a debate that will define his legacy, I’m deeply troubled by the fact that Tory has resorted to tired party tricks that subtly undermine the critically important point that Peter Wallace has been making for months now, which is that we will only get the city we’re prepared to pay for, and no more.
Surely if Tory doesn’t yet understand this point in his bones, as seems to be the case, he’s in no position to persuade anyone else of the same.
8 comments
Perhaps he should be running on the successful implementation of his signature priority: SmartTrack.
Tory is as right wing as his predecessor and yet he frames himself as a moderate. He’s a bad manager has terrible ideas and is a corporate enabler. Let’s hope there is a credible opponent to run against him in the next election.
It’s sad in this greenhouse century that so many of the ‘leaders’ are keeping the collective head up the tailpipe – a favourite stat printed in the Globe about 20 years ago told that Vancouver figgered out each private car has an avoided cost/subsidy of about $2700 each, per year. So in Caronto, that’s about $2.7B annually, but of course there’d be some debates about what level pays what, and who pays for climate chaos etc., vtpi.org has more info; and it does take work to discover it as car costs are well buried in all budgets.
But the point that cars cost us all is very much lost on the bulk of the politicians, and the TTC’s budget is more standalone. Sure, sometimes there’s dumb costly things done, and problems, but that’s often more politics not planning, and we all get to pay the price eg. Sheppard. Mayor Tory is far more carservative than transit-oriented, and spending huge sums on transit isn’t the same as investing in transit. At least he’s used transit before; it may even be a near-daily usage, so there’s a bit of hope.
John Tory wants to cut the TTC 2017 budget 2.6% (not even taking inflation into consideration) to help get improved transit for Toronto. Maybe John found a stash of Rob’s hidden supply in the Mayor’s office, because I don’t see the logic of it.
To actually cut the city operating budget, every mayor, councillor and employee knows what has to be done… cut the bloated staffing levels!
Loss of ridership is actually loss of revenue due at least in part to John Tory’s surprise decision to allow all “children” to ride free without id to prove age. I ride crowded buses all the time with kids filling blue seats and strollers blocking same. Nice.
John Tory’s like a flash sale. All sizzle, no bang. How did we fall for yet another mayoral loser? We were so desperate to get rid of Rob Ford we probably would have voted for that cat who entered the race if it seem like it had the best shot at winning
#Soknacki2018
The TTC will inevitably be swallowed by Metrolinx. Operations will maintain status quo while administration will change. Therefore, the budget of the TTC will become a provincial responsibility. Andy Byford will receive a golden handshake like his predecessor.