City council votes to eliminate remaining TCHC board members
Posted March 10, 2011 12:19 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. -City council has voted to eliminate the remaining members of the TCHC board. Former City Councillor Case Ootes will now be the interim director until a new board is elected.
A date for the election has not been announced but may happen in May or July.
Mayor Ford told 680News he was happy with the results and said that this is the first step in restoring the public faith in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.
The special city council meeting lasted over six hours before an official decision was made.
The atmosphere throughout the meeting was charged and every seat was filled as people watched councillors discuss removing the remaining board members of the TCHC. Community housing residents wore t-shirts that said “tenant power.”
Members were highly emotional and it did not take much for minor outbursts to occur.
Tenants in attendance were extremely vocal, applauding for left-leaning councillors such as Adam Vaughan and jeering Mayor Ford.
At one point the chair of the meeting warned audience members that if they applauded or if there was an outburst she would ask them to leave. One member of the public challenged the chair to have him physically removed.
Councillors questioned the mayor about why members were not allowed to speak.
“Those tax payers and tenants were allowed to speak last week at the Toronto Community Housing. They’re allowed to speak at the executive committee, they’re allowed to speak at the audit committee. There are numerous times when anybody can come and speak for five minutes.” said Ford.
At one point Mayor Ford told Councillor Raymond Cho, one of the last remaining board members, to resign. To which Cho responded that he did not want to be removed from his position.
“Mr Mayor, through this council meeting you’re actually asking me to get lost.” said Cho, “I don’t want to get removed.”
His comments caused a roar of applause from spectators.
The two tenant representatives on the board were in attendance for, what may be, their final hours on the community housing board.
During the meeting councillors attempted to discuss the Auditor General’s report but they were told they were not allowed to speak about it or the spending scandal because it has not been presented to city council.
A motion to remove the remaining members of the TCHC board failed to receive the required two-thirds support on Tuesday.
Councillor Josh Matlow lost sleep Tuesday night thinking about this argument.
“I hope today that we come to our senses, refer this discussion to an audit committee that can be held as soon as possible, and actually discuss the details,” Matlow said.
Budget chief Mike Del Grande said he tried that route once.
“Wasn’t listened to by the mayor at the time, wasn’t listened by council, what is it that they’re going to do differently? I don’t understand,” Del Grande said.
A group of tenants gathered on Friday at Regent Park to urge Mayor Ford to keep community housing in public hands.
