Rob Ford Proposes Cutting Size Of Council In Half

Councillor Rob Ford is notorious for finding ways to pinch pennies while at the same time pointing out what he perceives as the extravagant spending of his colleagues.   But his quest to save city money could conceivably cost him his job, if the motion he put forward Monday to cut the size of council in half is approved. 

Frances Nunziata is backing the idea of scaling back councillors from 44 to 22, but it’s easy to predict that most of their colleagues won’t be thrilled about the prospect of putting their livelihoods on the line.

Monday’s new council session also saw a proposal tabled to freeze councillors’ pay. 

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti is one of the plan’s vocal opponents. 

“In the G.T.A., we’re still the lowest paid councilors,” he argues.  “So you’ve got areas like Vaughan and Mississauga that are still about $20,000 more than us. And we’ve got a lot more work to do than they do.”

Councillors Cliff Jenkins and Michael Walker support the freeze on all city council staff, including the mayor, who takes home $163,000 a year.

“I think councillors should be considering a salary freeze now because we’re going to be going into negotiations with our unions, and they’re going to be asking for very significant increases. And if we don’t set a positive example, it will be hard for us to hold the line on our major salary wage settlements,” Jenkins argues.

As far as cutting the size of council, Ford believes it’s a logical idea that would save millions.

“It only makes sense,” he said.  “You know, we have 22 MPP’S and 22 MP’S, so our provincial and federal colleagues seem to do their jobs well, and I don’t know why we need all this duplication at a municipal level. No one can say we’re busier than they are, that’s for sure…Why do we need 44 councillors? I think we can run a more effective and efficient city with 22.”

Ford suggests a vote to decide who stays and who goes.

“All you do is match up the people. For example in my riding, it’s Suzan Hall and myself representing Etobicoke north. We would have to square off.”

“It would be 22 amazing races. It would be exciting, especially for the media. But at the end of the day, you know, the people out there would get to choose either one or the other, or maybe even someone new.

As usual, Ford was critical of his peers.

“We have a lot of deadwood. We have a lot of lazy councillors. There’s a lot of councillors out there that (are) basically keeping a seat warm collecting $100,000 plus an expense account of $53,000 a year, so it frustrates me.”

Councillor Adam Vaughan has his own take on the issue.

“I think the way to go personally, although I don’t think there will be much support for it on council, is actually more politicians fewer bureaucrats.  The fewer politicians there are the more bureaucrats you need to run this place.  Bureaucrats are a lot more expensive than politicians.”