It Is Not About Office Budgets It's About Attitude

Spending $220,000 for an advertising campaign isn't a big deal in the overall picture but it is the attitude. The person responsible says that they were too far along in the project to cancel it and I would remind him that his boss saw nothing wrong with cancelling the Island Bridge and Union Station projects which had already received council approval and cancelling them had massive fiscal penalties. ATTITUDE. Sue-Ann Levy presents the suggestions of a number of people on ways to improve the fiscal picture but the people feeding at the trough would have you believe that office budget cuts is the only thing being put forward.

They spend your money like water Most critics fear Toronto city officials will never contain costs

By SUE-ANN LEVY

It's a delicious bit of irony that a city which refuses to shut off its own spending tap should undertake a slick, $210,000 radio ad campaign lecturing citizens to be more efficient about their summer water use.

I wish I could say this was not so, even as the city drowns in debt, its rainy day funds are bone dry and its leader -- namely Mayor David Miller -- wrings his hands about the need for more money, either from the province or through his controversial tax grab measures.

But in the mad, mad world at City Hall, it is indeed the case.

The ad campaign, prepared by a local agency, is running on 11 "big" radio stations during the (most costly) drive-home period of the day. It started on July 16, will end next Sunday and is aimed at shaving peak water use, says Toronto Water general manager Lou Di Gironimo.

"We did look at the issue of trying to cancel the ads after the cost containment notice came out ... but we were too far into the ad campaign," he told me last week.