Here’s a shocker: Save and except a two-line statement, the Mayor of Toronto had nothing whatsoever to say about the Conservative government’s Titanic budget, which included virtually nothing for cities in general and the City of Toronto in particular. “Nada, zilch, bupkis,” as Howard Moscoe used to say.
Rob Ford was, as is his custom, AWOL yesterday, leaving his trusty sidekick Giorgio Mammolitti to bask in the warm glow of the media’s gaze with the truly idiotic suggestion that the Toronto islands be declared a red light district – a move that should cause us all to rethink the meaning of Hanlan’s Point.
Anyway, this tweet, from Ford’s policy chief Mark Towhey, flitted across my computer screen later in the day: “Home before 6pm. 1st time I’ve left office before 8-11pm in months. Not sure what to do with the daylight. Maybe I brought some work home?”
The current council’s total indifference to matters federal is a stark contrast to the way former mayor David Miller and his staff handled federal (and provincial) budgets past.
They lauded some and criticized others, but the point is they engaged. Miller knew that Torontonians of all political stripes send a whole lot of money up to Ottawa and wouldn’t mind seeing some of it come back down from time to time.
For the record, yesterday’s budget includes $228 million to repair bridges off Montreal Island, but just $25 million for Harbourfront over the next five years, which effectively renews a funding arrangement that has existed for a long time.
The Tories also pledged to enshrine the $2 billion-a-year gas tax transfer into law. While the move suggests they’ve heard the message that cities need long-term funding stability, the cynic in me wonders whether the decision to legislate the funding level will essentially handcuff future governments by making it more difficult to raise the limit.
What I don’t know is whether the brothers Ford feel these moves are helpful or harmful. I don’t know if they’ve made inquiries or received assurances about the $330 million Stephen Harper pledged for the dearly departed Sheppard East LRT. I don’t know if the various tax cuts and other morsels will benefit local businesses, because no one at City Hall was asked to do the analysis or serve up the spin. All I know is that there’s a lot of radio silence coming from the second floor.
I have complained before in this space about Ford’s disgraceful approach to public relations, and will again.
True, the administration’s reaction is moot because the government will fall later this week. But the Fords’ approach to such events is nothing if not revealing: seeing only trees and never the forest, they bulldoze along, bullying civil servants and wrecking stuff while paying no attention to the universe beyond an excruciatingly parochial world which houses the occasional smelly expense invoice, property tax bills and little else.
Ottawa, you see, is such a very, very long way away for the boys from Etobicoke. None of our business what happens there.
9 comments
Funny you should mention Mark Towhey in an article on the federal budget. Coincidentally, Towhey is the president of the Conservative riding association in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. No wonder he wasn’t working in the interests of Toronto while Harper left us in the cold.
If it were a Liberal government (or NPD government… insert laugh track here) there would have been something said from the Ford government here in Toronto.
Then you wonder why there’s “no money” to keep infrastructure in proper repair or to make improvements. The leadership at City Hall and also many bureaucrats are barely capable of even taking an interest in asking for it. Spend Toronto money on Toronto, including on our urban issues, because it’s not just a layer of government that has nothing to do with the feds, but pretty much the our practical day to day existence: how we get around, the buildings we use, and our places of culture and leisure. If Toronto issues have nothing to do with Ottawa, why do we even recognize a federal government?
We can complain all we want about federal neglect of cities, but it’s our local leaders who need to recognize what’s most important for us and engage with the feds.
Ford and his team are Conservatives in all but name, and it’d be unseemly for a local Conservative politician to criticize a Conservative Prime Minister’s budget (Ford sure ain’t Danny Williams).
While I agree the federal Conservative government is useless as far as Toronto is concerned, they’re just continuing the well-established Liberal tradition of using us as a tax farm to fund pork barrel in the so-called “have-not” provinces. Mainly Quebec. And the added insult with the Libs was that we used to elect all those MP’s who went to Ottawa and behaved as if Toronto didn’t exist. Short of Quebec separation the political equation is that Toronto will always be screwed by the federal government, no matter which party is in power. Toronto elites don’t care about the city’s welfare, or even basic fairness, and apparently Toronto voters never really pay attention. I worked in Montreal for two years and found they view Ontario as a giant pinata.
I agree with WK and Adam: the Ford Bros are parochial, but their team isn’t quite so – the mayor had no problem wading into extra-municipal politics when it came to getting money from McGuinty.
Their world is parochial, but also highly partisan.
Flaherty supported Ford. There was a reason for that.
The Champlain Bridge is owned by the Government of Canada (more precisely, the Federal Bridge Corporation) which is why federal taxes are being put to it. How is a massive piece of infrastructure over the St. Lawrence to be compared to Harbourfront?
Welcome to the big leagues. New York and other big cities in the US have the same problems. North American senior governments are not interested in cities and use them only as bank accounts to raid.