Strike Day 30: Smitherman Cleans, City Tackles Building Permits
Posted July 21, 2009 11:38 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Tuesday marked Day 30 of the ongoing civic workers strike and brought Liberal MPP and Deputy Premier George Smitherman and former Ontario Conservative boss John Tory together in an effort to clean up around Coxwell subway station.
It’s the second time Smitherman’s taken to sweeping up in public, saying he’ll continue as long as the strike does.
“For my part, as much as possible,” he said. “Trying to match up volunteers with hot spots.”
For his part, Tory said the strike should never have happened.
“I just think this strike could have been avoided if we had really been laying out all the cards on the table in terms of the financial problems and how serious they were long before the recession came along,” he charged.
“The City of Toronto has had financial problems for a long time and you have to be more honest with people including your employees.”
Both Tory and Smitherman have expressed interest in the mayoral post in the past, though both insisted Tuesday’s efforts were in no way connected to future bids.
Later Tuesday Mayor David Miller held a press conference, announcing that the city plans to resume issuing building permits immediately, trying to clear out a partial backlog of roughly 500 by the end of July. Those 500 were permits submitted on or before June 22.
“This is possible because we have been able to reassign some of Toronto Building management staff back to their normal duties as union staff return to work at other locations,” Mayor Miller said.
He also took the opportunity to continue his insistence that the city’s latest offer is fair, that the strike has always been unnecessary and that the time for a resolution is long overdue.
City Hall and some 24,000 members of CUPE 416 and 79 remain far apart on a deal.
There are conflicts over sick days, benefits, job security, scheduling and seniority rights.
