Councillors’ office budgets slashed

Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Dec. 17)

Councillor John Parker voted to cut offices expenses.

Another stop on the gravy train has been eliminated as Mayor Rob Ford and council voted on Dec. 16 to cut councillor office budgets by over $20,000.
The vote was 40–5 in favour of reducing the expense accounts from $50,445 to $30,000, which will save a total of $899,580 a year.
“This reduction is highly symbolic of the will of Toronto city council to listen to the voice of the public and demonstrate leadership in fiscal restraint and respect for the taxpayer,” said Ford in a statement.
In 2009, when the office budget maximum was $53,100, Councillor John Parker was near the top that year, but voted to reduce the amount to $30,000.
One thing he’ll no longer be able to afford is his constituency office on Laird Drive, which cost over $7,000 in 2009 but he’s not mourning that loss.
“I live in the ward, so my front door is my constituency office,” he told theTown Crier. “It was more productive and satisfactory for me to meet with them in their homes, offices, factories.”

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Rob Ford’s election platform vision

Mayoral hopeful shares his ideas for running Toronto
Ford’s thoughts on transit, taxes, controversies, consensus-building
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 24/10 for Town Crier.)

Mayoral candidate Rob Ford at an Aug. 24 Town Crier editorial board meeting. Photo by Francis Crescia/Town Crier.

Faced with a packed room full of Town Crier and cultural media reporters, mayoral candidate Rob Ford was peppered with questions about whether he’d welcome newcomers to Toronto.
“The official plan says we need another million people in the GTA or Toronto. We can’t even take care of the 2.5-2.7 million people we have in the city now,” he told the Town Crier editorial board this afternoon.
He said wait times in hospitals are too long, there are 70,000 people on the city’s affordable housing list and the homeless population is increasing.
“We don’t have the right to say you can’t move to Toronto,” he said. “Of course not. But in a perfect world, what I’d like to do is get us from the red into the black, have a surplus, reduce our debt, have our finances under control then I’d say great let’s welcome more people.”