Council reverses cuts, passes anti-Ford budget

The crowd in the gallery "applauds" with wiggling fingers as Toronto City Council begins debate on a motion put forward by Councillor Josh Colle to take to 15 million of the city's year-end surplus to prevent some cuts to transit and social programs.

The Toronto Star:

Mayor Rob Ford’s drive for significant budget cuts was solidly rebuffed Tuesday by a city council that put back about $19 million to fund previously threatened pools, arenas, transit service and child care centres.

The result was hailed by Ford opponents as a victory for the people, who came out in droves to say they wanted municipal services retained.

Left-wingers opposed to Ford’s budget-slashing agenda were pleased with the outcome, which saw many proposed cuts defeated by a vote of 23-21.

“Torontonians won this,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc. “He (Ford) lost every single vote today that was put on the table, save one around contracting out janitors,”

“So there’s no way you can say that he saved the day, that he won the day. He frankly lost the day quite miserably. They were working it all weekend, they were working it weeks beforehand, and they weren’t able to pull it off at the end.”

“The majority of councillors at the end listened to their constituents, their bosses, who were saying it’s intolerable to hurt the quality of life of Torontonians.”

The audience in the council chambers burst into applause when the motion by Councillor Josh Colle was passed to take $15 million of the 2011 year-end surplus and plunk it into restoring services.

The money will increase youth programming in priority centres; keep arenas open weekdays; save pools and homeless shelters threatened with closure; reverse planned cuts to transit service; and continue special mechanical leaf pickup in parts of Etobicoke and Scarborough.

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