Mayor John Tory stands firm on low taxes in the face of massive budget shortfall, declining city services and angry criticism
OTTAWA — As he makes his pitch to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford about the benefits of moving some of his government money to the city, Mayor John Tory insists they can’t afford to take Toronto’s money at this time.
It’s been a bruising time for Tory since Ford’s Fordism-inspired government got up and ran on the promise to cut corporate taxes, slash social spending and slash Toronto’s budget in half.
The result was the biggest government spending cut since the 1930s — a major embarrassment for the mayor, who was counting on the voters and Toronto’s business community to rally behind them and make him a hero.
But in the face of the opposition, Ford and his fellow conservatives have been unable to get their cuts through the legislature.
In the budget update, the city announced a $3.2-billion deficit and warned the city is about to close a city-run institution that has existed since the 1950s — the Toronto Public Library System. The city is currently borrowing $3.5 million a month just to pay for library services.
“When you’re faced with an administration that’s promising to cut services and run deficits year after year you know you’ve got a problem,” Tory insisted Wednesday. “If there was not a shortfall, we would have been in better shape.”
When asked by a Star reporter if the city has the money it needs to keep all of its services up and to ensure its emergency services operate for the long term, Tory said the city has already come up with many solutions.
“We have a very detailed plan on how we are going to fix this,” he said. “There are a lot of ways we can make sure we’re not having to raise taxes and cut