Rob Ford rebuked by province over transit

The Toronto Star:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford must accept his limited powers and work with city council on the $8.4 billion TTC expansion plan, warns Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli.

While Chiarelli insisted Friday he was “not going to comment on the mayor’s performance” over Toronto’s transit-funding debacle, he delivered a stern lecture to Ford.

While Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet previously endorsed Ford’s proposal for an extension of the Sheppard subway and a longer tunnel on the east end of the Eglinton LRT, that scheme was defeated 25-18 by city council two week ago.

Instead, councillors essentially revived the 2009 Transit City plan of former mayor David Miller, which would expand street-level light-rail route on Finch Ave. W., and on Eglinton east of Laird Dr. But the Eglinton line would still be underground from about Jane St. to Laird.

The memorandum of agreement between the province, Metrolinx and the City of Toronto says any transit plans are subject to approval by the governing bodies of each party. In Toronto’s case, this would be city council.

Stung by that defeat, Ford this week used his allies on the Toronto Transit Commission to fire TTC chief general manager Gary Webster, an LRT booster, without cause. That could cost taxpayers $560,000 in severance.

A long-time former Ottawa mayor, Chiarelli reminded Ford that Ontario does not have a strong-mayor system seen in major U.S. cities.

“In Ontario, council is supreme. Council makes the decisions and the mayor’s role is to demonstrate leadership, demonstrate consensus-building, be able to move with public,” the minister said.

“The best mayors are ones that can be facilitative in nature, because they do not have the power. No mayor in Ottawa or Kitchener or the city of Toronto can do things on their own. They need endorsement from council,” he said.

“That’s the reality. That’s the difficulty and challenge of being a mayor in Ontario — that you’ve got to build consensus, you’ve got to be able to get the votes at council. That’s your job — to lead by building consensus and moving forward. That’s the type of system we have.”

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