Each week, we round up the latest news, views, and rumours from City Hall.
HEADLINES
Layton’s legacy
In a surprise announcement Thursday, Rob Ford revealed that next week he will ask council to rename the Toronto Island Ferry Terminal in honour of Jack Layton, the mayor’s former seat-mate at City Hall. There are plenty of reasons to choose the gateway to the Toronto Islands as a memorial to Layton as a councillor he helped island residents hold onto their homes, he married Olivia Chow on Algonquin Island in 1988, and his ashes were scattered there after his death last summer. But perhaps even more compelling, the terminal needs a lot of work, and revitalizing it is precisely the kind of city-building initiative that Layton would have tackled with vigor. It’s hard to think of a better way to honour the man, and the council vote to rededicate the docks is expected to be unanimous.
Union underwater
In his first three months as TTC CEO, Andy Byford has already had to deal with transit feuds at City Hall, employees caught sleeping/reading/texting on the job, and the shooting of a TTC collector. On Friday he was faced with another crisis, when torrential rains and a suspected blocked sewage pipe sent a river of shit flowing through Union Station, the city’s transit hub. Once again the spritely Australian was quickly on the scene, strolling through the polluted underground to oversee clean-up efforts in what must have been an excrutiating few hours for the reported clean freak. With the University line shut down and thousands of passengers stranded in the rain, the TTC deployed 118 shuttle buses to get people home. Roughly 11 hours and a new internet meme later, the trains were up and running again, and Byford presumably went home to shower.
BULLETINS
- Ford caused some confusion when he declared on his Sunday radio show he had abandoned his diet, and less than a day later took to the airwaves again to say he is still trying to lose weight, but will no longer conduct weekly public weigh-ins because members of the press keep showing up
- As promised, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid registered to march in the Pride parade this week, but unlike last year, there appears little will on council for a fight to withhold city funding from the festival over the group’s participation
- On Friday the executive committee of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority rejected Mayor Ford’s request to buy parkland next to his house, meaning he’ll have to find another way to build a Daniel Dale-proof fence
- Also on Friday, Ford reiterated his intent to start phasing out the “terrible” land transfer tax during his first term, but there remains lukewarm support even among his allies to eliminate a source of revenue that’s expected to contribute $330 million to city coffers this year
#TOPOLI DOCS
This TTC report about Toronto’s planned LRT network went before the commission’s board on Wednesday and briefly threatened to reignite the fierce debate over transit expansion that we thought had concluded in February with council’s decision to bury Ford’s subway dream. The report, authored by TTC staff, warned that Metrolinx’s plan to enlist a private contractor to try to design and complete the 19-km Eglinton Crosstown line by 2020 risks a massive traffic nightmare and unacceptable community disruption. The TTC also doesn’t believe 2020 is a realistic deadline, and recommended pushing it back to 2022-2023.
Despite the stinging critique however, TTC CEO Andy Byford and board members did everything they could Wednesday to impress on media that they are *definitely not* fighting with Metrolinx, and they will defer to the provincial agency from here on out. The TTC has little choice of course, because the province is the one putting up the $8.4 billion to build the network.
MEETINGS, MOTIONS, AND MINUTES
Following raucous protests (pictured above) at City Hall last week over the closing of the Schoolhouse men’s homeless shelter, at Monday’s board of health meeting Councillor Gord Perks (Parkdale – High Park) successfully moved a motion asking for a report on the importance of retaining spaces in so-called “wet” shelters. The 55-bed Schoolhouse facility is one of the few in shelters in the city that allows clients to drink alcohol on site, which supporters say is vital to a harm reduction strategy.
COUNCILLORS OF THE WEEK
As close allies of Mayor Ford, councillors Norm Kelly (Scarborough Agincourt) and Frances Nunziata (York South – Weston) don’t often agree with lefties like Pam McConnell (Toronto Centre – Rosedale) and Paula Fletcher (Toronto Danforth). But the four of them quietely worked togther on a special committee over recent months to come up with an appropriate tribute to Jack Layton, and seem to have found a winner with the rededication of Toronto’s ferry terminal.
CITY SOUND BITE
“You get the gift horse, and then when the horse dies you want to go out and buy a new horse with your own money.”
– At a meeting Tuesday, Councillor Peter Milczyn (Etobicoke – Lakeshore) tells the budget committee why he thinks reliance on one-time funding from the province leads to waste at City Hall.
NEXT WEEK’S AGENDA
City council’s monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and important motions on the agenda include renaming the ferry terminal for Jack Layton, abolishing the 5-cent plastic bag fee, a $124,000 grant for Pride, building 77 km of new off-road bike paths and new separated bike lanes, temporarily turning Yonge St. into a two-lane road, and measures to protect the High Park Zoo and the Far Enough Farm.
