Jean Cretin & The Liberals Had Their Red Book

And now No Plan B Mayor Miller has his Blue Book which seems to give him unlimited spending power without council oversight.

Mayor's one-cent bid under fire
Councillor wants to put website, buttons on hold until council approves Miller's funding campaign
March 07, 2007
Donovan Vincent
CITY HALL BUREAU

Mayor David Miller has no authority to wage his "one cent now" campaign because he didn't get council approval first, says one of his vocal critics at city hall.

Councillor Karen Stintz was responding to a letter Miller sent Monday to all city councillors, soliciting support for his campaign to get Canadian cities one cent of the six cents of the GST.

Miller launched his campaign last week, a bid that includes a website, pins showing a penny with the word "Now" superimposed, along with bumper stickers and posters. There are "one cent now" signs in the lobby of city hall and some city staff have worn the buttons. The campaign has cost more than $100,000 from the city's corporate communications department.

Miller is lobbying Ottawa to hand over one cent of the federal tax to Canadian cities for transit and infrastructure. It would mean more than $400 million a year to Toronto's budget.

Miller has asked Toronto residents to question candidates in the next federal and provincial elections about their position on the one-cent request.

But Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) wants Miller's campaign debated and voted on by council, and for now wants the signs removed, the website suspended, and city employees to stop wearing the buttons.

Yesterday, she circulated a letter to that effect to the mayor and to council.

"Mayor Miller doesn't believe he needs the support of council, and I believe he does. Civil servants are promoting his campaign, which I think is inappropriate," Stintz told reporters.

As for the campaign itself, Stintz says she has questions about how the federal money would be allocated, and added that uploading the costs of social services to the province should be a priority, rather than the one-cent campaign.

She was supported in her position by Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) who said the campaign "clearly crosses the line."

But the mayor's spokesperson Stuart Green said Miller doesn't need council approval because the initiative is in his "Blue Book" of campaign promises.

Although other mayors, like Brampton's Susan Fennell, sought council approval before waging similar campaigns, Green said "those mayors didn't campaign on the issue, this mayor (Miller) did."

He said there are city resources available for such initiatives. "If councillors are putting their partisan political views ahead of the good of the city and the good of the country, that's their prerogative. The mayor is about advancing this agenda, he's about getting a share of revenues that grow with the economy for the city of Toronto and for other cities in the country," he said.

One cent now isn't a political campaign, it's advocacy, Green added.