Start At The Municipal Level....

Editorial: New Brunswick shows the way for tax reduction
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Bravo to the Liberal government of New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham. Almost alone in the Western world, the Graham government has ...

Chris Selley: Municipal governance in a nutshell. Or on a pita.
Posted: March 18, 2009, 6:18 PM by Chris Selley
Oh, happy day. Street food other than hot dogs is coming to Toronto—to eight, count ‘em, eight locations across the city—and it only took two years and untold tens of thousands of man hours to make it happen. Sorry, seven, count ‘em, seven locations. Nathan Phillips Square will feature both souvlaki (soo-vlak-i; it’s Greek!) and biryani (beer-ee-yani; it’s Indian!). Talk about exotic! And check out these other offerings: “jerk” chicken? Who’re you calling a jerk, pally? “Pad Thai”? Crazy! It’ll be like Epcot Center of the north. But I don’t mean to disparage the food or its creators. In all honestly, I’m sure it’ll be terrific. It has, after all, been approved by a panel of celebrity chefs.
Yeah, that’s right, a panel of celebrity chefs. What, you thought City Hall would just let anyone with a cart, a business licence, a food handler’s certificate and a “compliance report” from the public health department rent a spot and set up shop, subject to regular food safety inspections, and let the hungry passersby decide which were worth supporting? Sorry, wrong city. That sort of thinking could quickly result in a “fiasco,” as the city’s “economic partnership manager,” George Wheeler, memorably observed in May of last year. And, of course, it would raise the spectre of “cart conglomerates,” as public health board chair Jon Filion darkly suggested, who would hog all the action.
But hey, fair enough. If the eight vendors are as advertised—plucky entrepreneurs offering delicious, nutritious food (the 44-page application for prospective vendors stressed the food had to be healthy)—then well done, City Hall. The process was an unmitigated travesty of civic governance, but you got there eventually: eight whole food carts spread across 630 square kilometres. In three years, we might even get more! But you know what else might have helped out those small businessmen and women, protecting both them and us from the evils of cart conglomeration? Allowing food to be prepped in a home kitchen, rather than insisting on a professional one; not requiring all meat and eggs be cooked in advance, rather than on the cart (Mmm. Rethermed souvlaki!); not insisting proprietors run their own carts at least 70 per cent of the time; not forcing them to gain prior approval for menu changes from the Medical Officer of Health; and, perhaps most importantly, not requiring them to shell out up to $28,000 for a specific kind of brand-new food cart from a specific company—which company, it bears noting, was the sole bidder to become the sole cart provider. I can’t imagine why only 12 people eventually applied to sell food, can you?
That the city would actually push forward with this debacle, and that it would actually crow about its “success,” is yet further proof that it has vastly too many politicians, too much staff, and a complete misapprehension about what government is for. I suggest whoever runs against David Miller in the next municipal election—assuming someone does finally present him or herself—do so on a platform that involves, as a first step, halving the number of city councilors. It could not be clearer that they have far, far too much time on their hands. In the meantime, I offer my best wishes to the eight new street chefs. If nothing else, they must have incredibly good attitudes to have suffered through City Hall's bullcrap rather than tell it to get stuffed.
Photo: Chefs and judges, Oliver Li, left, Brad Long, centre, and Suman Roy look on prior to the announcing of the eight vendors who will be selling food on Toronto streets starting in the Spring 2009 as part of the Toronto a la cart program. The announcement was made at Toronto's City Hall on Tuesday March 17, 2009. Credit: Peter J. Thompson/National Post.