Elephantine tasks and tusks will confront John Tory

john1John Sewell –

When John Tory walks through the doors into the mayor’s office, will he notice the elephants in the room?

Peering through the windows of the office during the recent election campaign he apparently didn’t spot them, but maybe once he’s behind his desk they will come into view.

One elephant is the large financial need of the city: money needed for transit, to fix the housing stock the city owns, to build new and much-needed affordable housing, to address the needs of the children in poverty—more than in any other city in Canada.

The strategy he announced during the election campaign of getting needed funds from other levels of government is looking increasingly unlikely. The federal government is already committed to giving away the tiny surplus it hopes to generate in tax benefits (technically called income splitting) for the most wealthy in society, and in a modest payment to families with young children. It has no money for Toronto or for other cities. If Toronto is to be given money by Ottawa other cities will surely also get money, so it is an expensive proposition.

The provincial government has its own financial problems and the provincial deficit of over $12 billion is not shrinking as hoped. The province is now thinking about increasing taxes but the last thing it wants to do is use political capital to increase taxes and then turn that money over to municipalities to spend.

If begging senior governments isn’t productive, how can John Tory feed the elephant that won’t go away?  He needs to find a new source of revenue. The most productive place to look is a sales tax. A 1% increase in HST tax in Toronto would generate about $2.5 billion a year; an amount that would go a long way to keeping the elephant happy.

To do this, Mr. Tory would have to ask city council to ask the provincial government for this new taxing power. That might take some work but it could be done. In all likelihood the municipal governments around Toronto—the regions of York, Peel, Durham, Halton and Hamilton—would want to join in this initiative since they also are short of money. I believe the provincial government would readily agree with the request, pass the legislation and co-operate in merging collection systems to ensure municipalities have the money they need without always begging at the door of Queen’s Park.

Another source of money might be a road tax so that instead of asking people to pay for congestion with their time, they would put down money so the commute didn’t take so long. A road tax makes sense in theory, but I’m not sure if it will work in Toronto where transit is already so jammed there is little alternative to driving. I believe we need to provide transit with some empty seats before road pricing is imposed.

The other elephant in the mayor’s office is bureaucratic gridlock. City hall is no longer an imaginative place where staff see their jobs as creating plans for a vibrant city, or working together to solve problems. Staffing levels are far too low to allow the redundancies required so some staff have the necessary time to think of different scenarios and how systems can be changed to provide a more comfortable city which responds well to change. The problem is evident in the deluge of condominium towers Downtown: we can’t we start spreading new housing throughout the city until we have a good plan that encourages that to happen. No one is creating that plan.

It is also evident in the response to the UBER taxi cab scheme, where instead of trying to find an innovative way to adapt the system of getting around the city with existing taxi service, staff suggested going to court. John Tory was right to question this staff response, but he hasn’t been clear about the need to address bureaucratic gridlock. Significant re-investment in city staff is required: a realignment of staff functions and better reporting relationships directly to city council rather than to the city manager.

This elephant also needs money and it needs administrative smarts that don’t now exist at city hall.

johnPeople can grow and change in public life and I hope John Tory does both. I hope he finds the elephants in the room and addresses them directly with the help of some of the more imaginative councillors and with members of the public. We have a chance of new beginnings and to greet opportunities with energy and ambition.

John Sewell is a former Mayor of Toronto.