Mixed Reaction to Ontario Government Plan to Cut Size of Toronto City Council

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed     Michael Thompson, Toronto city councillor, Ward 37 - Scarborough Centre

The move by the Ontario government to reduce the size of Toronto City Council by almost half and to cancel elections for regional chairs in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka is being met with mixed reactions from many Jamaican and Black community leaders.

Jamaica-born Michael Thompson, councillor for Ward 37 Scarborough Centre since 2003, -- the only black city councillor -- welcomes the plan.

Just hours before the nomination deadline on July 27 for the October 22 municipal elections, Premier Doug Ford announced the Better Local Government Act that, if passed, will “align the City of Toronto's municipal wards and the number of councillors with the number and configuration of the current 25 provincial and federal electoral districts.”

He said reducing the size of the city council is estimated to save Toronto taxpayers more than $25.5 million over four years. 

This means cutting the number of councillors from 47 to 25, almost half the size.

“I think it’s a good move. It’s a move that, if done properly, could do the very things which we want to do which is to ensure that an efficient decision-making, which is council, could reduce some of the delays and the backlog and time that it takes us to do things,” says Thompson.

He says as long as it is supported with the appropriate staff to help councillors to service a larger area, he thinks that it should be fine.

Thompson thinks that there are some governance issues that should also be addressed going forward.

He said he expected the move but it was just a question of when; he thought maybe it would be done in 2022.

The councillor has maintained a long friendship with Ford who called him the night before the announcement to discuss the issue.

“He has been very consistent with respect to this desire for reducing the size of council. So now that he is in a position where legislation allows him to do that he is obviously using the tools that he has available at his disposal to address what he fundamentally believes should be changes to a council, in terms of its size.”

Thompson says Los Angeles has about four million people and has fifteen councillors. 

He thinks the concern that some Torontonians have is about ensuring that people get the level of service, which can happen, with respect to ensuring there is the appropriate staff component.

He says he has four staff members to help him do some of the work that he has to do in terms of reaching out to the community but he is also very hands-on as well.

“I think it can work and I think if we can deliver service in the most efficient way, reducing the cost, reducing the time that it takes the big issues and so on – invariably you will because of the sheer size of council – and I think we can reach consensus in a much efficient, faster, smoother way. Because oftentimes people are compelled to talk for the sake of talking because people judge your participation based on ‘he’s not saying anything that means he or she is ineffective.’ That’s not the case, but that’s generally what happens, so people are always willing to speak on issues just so they can say that they spoke. That takes an inordinate amount of time.”

Photo contributed Beverley 'Bev' Salmon, former Toronto city councillor

Beverley “Bev” Salmon, Toronto's first black female municipal councillor, says she is very dismayed.

She was on metro council and said even with the existence of local councillors their workload was huge.

Salmon was elected to North York City Council in 1985 and continued as a Metro Toronto councillor until her retirement in 1997.

“At one point I was on over twenty committees and worked evenings, weekends, reading long in the night,” she says noting that she can’t understand Ford’s move.

Salmon said unless the government plans to upload the welfare and social services back to the province then she could see that councillors could perhaps have a lighter workload.

The province had downloaded a lot of services to the municipal level and that really made a very heavy workload, she said.

Photo contributed    Kamala-Jean Gopie, community advocate and philanthropist

Kamala-Jean Gopie, one of the first immigrant minority women to run for public office in Ontario, says while Ford was critical of the consultation by the former Liberal government regarding the sex education curriculum, he has not consulted anyone on this plan. 

“And you’re coming to change how the city runs and you don’t even give people a heads-up. There’s no consultation. Where is ‘for the people’?”

Gopie, who ran in provincial politics in 1981 and 1984, said the issue for her is the process by which Ford reached his decision.

“We live in a democracy. We live in the largest city in Canada, the fourth largest in North America, and we’re bigger than four provinces – Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and I think Saskatchewan. We have more population than those provinces. And now we can’t govern?”

She said the reality is that over ten years, Premier Mike Harris did amalgamation “against our will and said it was going to bring savings and all kinds of things and it did quite the contrary.”

Photo contributed   Rob Davis, former Toronto city councillor

“I think it’s an opportunity to break up the cartel of elected officials and allow people from other communities a chance in representing their community,” says Rob Davis, the first black councillor of amalgamated Toronto.

He served as York city councillor from 1991-1997 and was a member of Toronto city council from 1997 to 2000.

 “There are people who have been there for five, six terms, but it tells you that they have an undue advantage in the process and it’s incumbent on people like the premier of the province to maybe disrupt that.”

Davis said it is something that Ford had always advocated for and he thinks the unfortunate thing is the timing.

“Making the change in the middle of the campaign is not the ideal circumstance. What I would hope will be included in the legislation and we will know soon, when it comes out, is that he will include term lines.” 

Davis said this might be the first step in getting more people of colour elected to public office – that’s his hope.

Photo contributed    Garnett Manning, former Brampton city councillor

Former Brampton city councillor, Garnett Manning, says he has mixed feelings towards the plan.

He said in the 2000 election Brampton had 17 councillors and that number was reduced to 10 by 2003 through a process.

“It’s nothing new to reduce council. There’s always a time when you have to make some adjustment and reconstruct your council depending on the growth you feel is feasible for good representation.”

However, Manning said as much as it is the right of a premier to make changes, he still believes that it is “undemocratic, rude and disrespectful to the people of Toronto” the way Ford did it.

He said in Peel Region they worked hard to make the regional chair position an elected office.

The former councillor said to go through the democratic process and have that individual elected was always the desire. 

“Eventually it was done, and for him [Ford] to reverse it is really taking us back.”

Operation Black Vote Canada (OBVC) says a change like this is unprecedented, especially midstream during a campaign and three months prior to Election Day. “People were not prepared for this.”

“We really don't know how it will affect our candidates. Candidates have made their decisions to run based on having 47 Wards. We will have to wait and see what the real effects are to our candidates and communities. 

“What we do know is that there are 22 less opportunities to represent people across the city. Those living in marginalized communities will be negatively affected due to less representation and attention to their voices and issues.”

 The organization said there are also 22 less opportunities for “people in our community to put their names forward and run.”

“Those who were already registered will now have to run against 2 or 3 incumbents with name recognition and as we know it is harder to unseat one incumbent, never mind 2 or 3. The 3 new Wards were an opportunity to run with no incumbents and a better chance of winning.

“ We believed that we need more diverse voices at the municipal level that represent the breadth of this great city and this may not be the case as a result of this decision,” said Velma Morgan, chair of OBVC.

The organization held its municipal elections boot camp on August 11 in Toronto for those in the Black community who are running as candidates. 

Meanwhile, the Jamaican Canadian Association says it is “deeply concerned about these undemocratic actions, the lack of consultation with Toronto residents, lack of planning and transparency and involvement in local government. 

“Ward 7 Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has publicly expressed support for these changes without thought to the impact this will have on residents in his ward. JCA encourages you to speak out about these changes. Contact Premier Ford, your MPP and city councillor.”

 Better Local Government Act

The series of local government reforms proposed by Ford and Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, would allow for the redistribution of Toronto-area school board trustees to align with the proposed new ward boundaries, while maintaining the existing number of trustees.

The Act would extend the nomination deadline for some council candidates and school board trustees from July 27 to September 14, 2018, with additional regulations to help previously nominated candidates transition to the new riding ward boundaries.

The Municipal Act and the Municipal Elections Act would be amended to reverse changes, introduced in 2016, that mandate the election of new regional chairs in York, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka Regions and return the system that was in place prior to 2016. Other regional chair elections will remain unchanged.

These changes would be in effect for the upcoming October 22, 2018 municipal elections and the election date would remain unchanged. 

The government said changes to Toronto's municipal election timelines would only apply to city council and school board trustee elections and would only apply for the current election cycle. 

[This story was written before the Government of Ontario passed the Better Local Government Act on August 14, 2018. It has been published in the Aug. 16-22 issue of the North American Weekly Gleaner.]