On Saturday, Toronto Budget Chief Shelley Carroll defended sending money down the toilet.
She was participating in a budget town hall on NEWSTALK1010.
A caller named David wanted to know why the city keeps its contracting exclusive to a cozy, short list of preferred contractors.
A study by Cardus, backed up by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, claims the city loses $350 million a year as a result. All other cities in the province have discontinued the practice.
Carroll protested the $350-million figure, saying after they did a thorough review, the savings were, in her words, less than the Cardus report. Show us the numbers.
That said, she admits savings could have been realized years ago.
Carroll said, “It includes our fair wage policy. We want good contractors, good health and safety regulations, etc.”
Shame on her for insinuating that any business not on the city’s cozy, protected list is somehow running an unsafe, below minimum wage contracting enterprise.
Safety regulations already exist and apply to all businesses. If a company fails to meet those standards, consider that, but just across the board eliminating others from competing is irresponsible.
Fair wage policy is just another way for city councillors to pat themselves on the back while stabbing the taxpayers in theirs.
The host of the town hall, Deb Hutton said, “I see the city’s job as getting the best value, but why is it the city’s job to set a fair wage policy?”
Carroll gave a speech about how construction is high risk.
Yes, Shelley, we know construction is high risk, dangerous, physically demanding work. Thanks for the update.
That is an industry issue, not a City Hall issue.
As for her saying it is up to City Hall to set a bar for salary — she is just wrong.
You are budget chief, Shelley Carroll, not our mom. Not Queen of the Private Sector. Business knows better than you ever will what works best in terms of salary, benefits and how to do the job.
I’ll be blunt: Carroll’s answer was more touchy-feely, emotional, high school student council, than solid city policy.
She seems not to know, along with too many other councillors and the mayor, what their job is.
As Hutton said, Mayor Olivia Chow and Carroll seem to think they got elected to be the city’s chief social workers.
They got elected to effectively and responsibly manage the budget and the city’s affairs. The taxpayer is paramount, but they don’t care because they think they are the cool kids.
Carroll said the process is a lowest-bidder set-up, but the possible lowest bidder is not allowed to participate, so that’s another lie.
She also gave a lame, “By golly we are working hard to do better,” response, saying they are looking for ways to streamline the process.
We already know how to do better: Drop the protected list and open it up.
I have talked to councillors who have told me that the reason it exists is that unions help councillors at election time.
Union members volunteer to go door knocking and distribute flyers on behalf of councillors. I’m told those hours are not calculated against the councillor’s expenses.
If a private company can’t do that for a favoured candidate, unions shouldn’t be allowed to do so either.
But it works for the councillors, so there we are.
— Jerry Agar is the 10 a.m. to noon host on NEWSTALK1010