Will city hall blow its new powers?

This amalgamated mess known as the City of Toronto is now under a new governance structure. The mess is thanks to Mike Harris. The new structure thanks to Dalton McGuinty. Thus the new bigger Toronto: product of two goofs.

The mayor and his cronies have great power. This can be a great good even if we have a mediocre mayor but he has good cronies. He has some, for sure. Flawed but overall good are Pam McConnell and Kyle Rae. Good and not really a crony is Adam Vaughan. Paula Fletcher rounds out the Downtown good guys who look after their constituents.

Then there is cronie Howie Moscoe who rivals Giorgio (tits-on-a-bull) Mammoliti and Rowdy Rob Ford for council’s position of Top Banana. Ford, albeit in many ways a right-wing lunatic, is also much-needed voice of reason (believe it or not) when it comes to holding to account city staff, whom the NDP bunch seem to regard as saints or, even holier, their Workers.

Moscoe is already a proven train wreck of a schemer. Under his long and exasperating tutelage the TTC has been demolished (helped by snubs from Queen’s Park and Ottawa). Expect the same from his new powers over the city licencing department, which needlessly and ruinously takes up priceless retail space on The Esplanade from Market Street almost to Church Street.

The 10 Downtown community councilors at city hall now have a lot more power to enact what’s good for their constituents without taking it to the massive and thus naturally (Harris’ plan) dysfunctional full council. That’s a big plus if their heads are in the right places. An example is the new glancing shot at the Island airport aimed by Vaughan, who got his friendly compadres to vote to tighten Lower Bathurst Street to squeeze traffic, much of which would go to the Island airport’s ferry.

It’s a major nuisance to the now-Tory pork barrel known as the Toronto Port Authority, but the city has its rights and community councils now have their powers. They also could likely impose a toll gate to collect some vigorish from flyers trying to escape the trek to Pearson. But the city still has a major problem. The thin-skinned blond who runs things seemingly hates truth, at least some truths. He runs a Orwellian freedom-of-information regimen where the city is free to conceal information it has a duty to disclose and the public has a right to know.

Rather than having to prove we can see the information, city staff and politicians should be required to prove to an independent commissioner that there is a compelling need (other than butt-covering) to conceal information.