Council
Comrade Miller & Executive CommitteeThis at a time when nearly 70,000 households are on the waiting list for a subsidized housing unit.
Only, now we know that money wasn't the problem. It couldn't have been. Not when the mayor can have staff reorganize itself to free up $400,000 to pay for a self-promoting newsletter taxpayers don't need and didn't ask for.
How many of those boarded-up homes could have been repaired for $400,000?
Of course, $400,000 is the equivalent of pennies in a city that deals with billions. No one is suggesting that $400,000 can make a dent in the housing repair backlog, pegged at $300 million. Even the $112 million earmarked for the problem this year doesn't eliminate the concern.
But 10 renovated homes, or 20, means 10 to 20 more families receiving proper housing in our city.
And using that money to write up warmed-over projects spun and massaged to tell citizens that their city is just humming along under the deft leadership of David Miller is a misuse of public funds and an abuse of public trust.
In case you missed it, Toronto announced recently it was publishing "Our Toronto," a quarterly newsletter it will send to each household. Apparently, it combines newsletters for water, waste and the TTC – a good move, one thinks, until one realizes the cost is doubled to $800,000. And city councillors did not get a chance to vote on the matter.
So, whenever the city contemplates closing swimming pools and libraries and community centres and cites a lack of money, we know the mayor has other options.
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