Ford releases full financial blueprint
Posted October 8, 2010 1:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Mayoral candidate Rob Ford unveiled his full financial platform, Friday, and is vowing to slash budgets while maintaining and improving services.
If elected, Ford claims the city will emerge with a $1.7-billion surplus that can be invested in the best interest of the taxpayer.
He said that by allowing competitive bidding for contracts, replacing half the number of retired workers in the city, and asking every single department to shed 2.5 per cent off their budgets, Toronto can save half-a-billion dollars by the end of 2011.
“You can call it microeconomics, fine, we can deal with the micro, we can deal with the macro, but we have to deal with some large-scale items, we’ve got to sell some of our surplus off,” Ford told reporters.
Some of the surplus he wants to sell off include some of the land owned by Toronto, including parking lots and buildings that the city doesn’t use anymore.
Ford said he in turn would funnel money into cutting debt and pumping up the reserves, as well as funding childcare and senior services.
He has already said in the past that under his leadership, the controversial land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee would be eliminated over the next two years.
