{"id":31068,"date":"2012-06-13T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=31068"},"modified":"2012-06-13T20:02:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T00:02:48","slug":"without-an-active-mayor-city-council-needs-to-show-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/06\/13\/without-an-active-mayor-city-council-needs-to-show-discipline\/","title":{"rendered":"Without an active mayor, city council needs to show discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For close to a year, city council has been the substitute for our crisis-a-day mayor. In its collective role as mayor, council has become acutely aware of the policy challenges that Toronto faces and at times has even put aside geographic parochialism to reach consensus on fixing what it can. Though it has had some successes, council sees many other city-wide problems that need to be addressed and, on the whole, seems eager to do just that. And yet council can\u2019t move quickly to do so. Nor, as last week\u2019s plastic bag ban shows, should it.<\/p>\n

With Rob Ford abdicating his duties, council has exercised its power wisely. Until last week, council had mostly contained its ambitions such that it defeated Ford almost only to maintain existing programs and policy directions. Transit City was reinstated. Cuts to valued public services were reversed. A sustainable vision for the Port Lands was upheld.<\/p>\n

Then council banned single-use plastic bags from being provided by retailers at the point of sale. I don\u2019t want to pull the alarm too quickly but that is exactly the kind of stunt city council can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With two-and-a-half years left until the next term of office begins, it\u2019s important for council to take a deep breath and consider the mandate and moral authority it has and needs to govern us through these unprecedented times. Council\u2019s good governance will benefit Toronto now and ensure that our next election is won based on the substantive policy debates we so sorely need rather than straw (or plastic) men.<\/p>\n

Most dangerous to city council\u2019s credibility and the success of those looking to unseat Ford in the next election is legislative opportunism.<\/p>\n

The peanut gallery watching the plastic bag debate last week mocked<\/a> the notion that a bag ban could win. It\u2019s unclear if the councillors who voted for the ban even thought it would win but whether the win was foreseeable, no councillor should have voted for it. To make big decisions on little more than a whim is the kind of act that calls into question the integrity of an institution.<\/p>\n

Voting against the motions of councillors David Shiner and Anthony Perruzza should not have been about council\u2019s view on banning bags \u2014 rather, it should have been about its view of due process. There had been effectively no debate on the ban, no technical research had been conducted and public consultation was non-existent. Not only had there been no electoral mandate for this decision but given the complete lack of public engagement on the issue council did not have the moral authority to bring about the ban either.<\/p>\n

Councillor Shelley Carroll tried<\/a> to do the responsible thing by pushing the decision off until it could be placed within the larger waste diversion picture. Ultimately, however, Carroll\u2019s motion only garnered 11 votes and later she, too, would vote to ban plastic bags.<\/p>\n

Though Toronto needs an activist local government to address our major challenges, given the regression that seemed likely during Ford\u2019s first six months in office, incremental progress or even \u201cgoing in circles<\/a>\u201d are good outcomes in the short-term. Just like it took time and discipline for Ford\u2019s anti-government rhetoric to take hold, it will take time and discipline for council to regain Torontonians\u2019 trust and rebuild a shared vision for Toronto.<\/p>\n

photo by Mack Male<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For close to a year, city council has been the substitute for our crisis-a-day mayor. In its collective role as mayor, council has become acutely aware of the policy challenges that Toronto faces and at times has even put aside geographic parochialism to reach consensus on fixing what it can. Though it has had someContinue reading “Without an active mayor, city council needs to show discipline”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20307,3908,408,20308,2725,17787,426,1504,6667,227,1276,19],"class_list":["post-31068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-active-mayor","tag-anthony-perruzza","tag-councillor","tag-crisis-a-day-mayor","tag-david-shiner","tag-mack-male","tag-mayor","tag-port-lands","tag-public-services","tag-rob-ford","tag-shelley-carroll","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWithout an active mayor, city council needs to show discipline - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/06\/13\/without-an-active-mayor-city-council-needs-to-show-discipline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Without an active mayor, city council needs to show discipline - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For close to a year, city council has been the substitute for our crisis-a-day mayor. 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