Crawford and Holland on changes at city hall

Councillors Gary Crawford and Michelle Holland

By Hedy Korbee

A political showdown appears to be looming in southwest Scarborough between veteran city councillors Gary Crawford and Michelle Holland, who both support the provincial government’s controversial plan to cut Toronto City Council from 47 members to 25.

The Ford government’s decision to use provincial and federal boundaries for the upcoming municipal election means that Wards 35 and 36 would be amalgamated, forcing Crawford and Holland into a runoff along with any new candidates who want to challenge them.

Both sitting councillors said they’re in favour of reducing the size of council because it will make governing the city more efficient and give Scarborough a stronger voice at city hall.  They are not happy, however, that the change was imposed on the city without notice or consultation.

In an interview with Birch Cliff News, Crawford said city council is dysfunctional and reducing the number of councillors will make it more effective and save money at the same time.

“A council meeting costs on average about $100,000 in staff (time) and I don’t think we need to spend an inordinate amount of time debating issues back and forth,” Crawford said. “I’ve seen it myself where you’ll see a debate going on all day on a particular item. We’ll have questions and debates back and forth and when the vote comes at the end of eight, nine, ten hours it has unanimous support. Why are we spending all this time and energy down there?”

As one example, Crawford cited downtown councillors who are still trying to repeal the decision to build a Scarborough subway, first approved by city council in 2013 and reaffirmed  in March 2017.

“We have been putting together, as a city council, an integrated plan that benefits Scarborough. It includes the Eglinton LRT, it includes Smart Track and the extension of the Bloor-Danforth (line) to Scarborough Town Centre. My attitude is we need to just start building transit, period. This endless back and forth debating – we have to start building transit in Scarborough.”

Holland agrees that council will be more productive with 25 members and described it to Birch Cliff News as “divisive” and “very, very highly political”.  She blamed councillors who feel the need to be heard on every single issue because they have an ego or want to grandstand.

Ward 35 Councillor Michelle Holland

Holland cited an example of a new housing development in Ward 35 where the residents wanted townhouses and were dealing with a supportive developer but the city planning department was pushing a 12-storey building.   The residents’ wishes were approved by Scarborough Community Council but hit a stumbling block at full City Council when two downtown councillors forced a one-hour debate before passing the motion unanimously.

“I had actually gone around and spoken with all of the councillors and said this is coming forward, even the two people that were opposing it,” Holland said.  “It had nothing to do with the issue, it was like ‘I’m just going to get you. I just want to hold it. I just want to meddle’. That’s what it’s become and unfortunately it’s these people that have made it unruly for everyone. There are a lot of amazing, sane good councillors at city hall but they’re not being heard.”

Ward 36 Councillor Gary Crawford

Another issue that concerns Crawford, who serves as the Budget Chief,  is the large number of “notices of motions” moved by councillors during meetings, asking for staff to prepare reports on various issues.  A recent example would be a motion on the feasibility of converting all of the city’s swimming pools from chlorine to salt water.  Crawford said they’re sometimes called “newsletter motions” because they give councillors something to write in their communication with constituents. 

“Those reports cost upwards of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of staff time to implement and bring the fact that most of them come back and they say well this can’t be done that can’t be done,” Crawford said.

Governance review is required

Another point that Holland and Crawford agree upon is that reducing the number of councillors won’t solve all of the problems at city hall.  They both said the City of Toronto needs  a complete governance review.

Holland, who chairs Scarborough Community Council, said it’s unnecessary for stop signs, fence exemptions, tree removals and liquor licenses to be first approved by community councils and then proceed to full city council where they clog up the agenda.

“We get mired in these really long debates that maybe somebody has a different philosophical view on than what we decided at Scarborough Community Council. I think that the communities are inherently still different and that Scarborough still needs to retain its autonomy in its own decision making and that those decisions should be left at community council. I brought it to the mayor’s attention when I met him upon the election in 2014 and it never happened,” Holland said.

“We have not, aside from amalgamation, gone through any large reorganization,” Crawford noted.  “I really believe that this is something that we need to do And it’s not just about bringing council from 44 down to 25. It’s looking at how do we how do we structure city council how do we structure the committees? We look at the community councils, Scarborough Community Council.  I think there is an opportunity right now to look at the whole governance structure of city hall, making it more efficient. At the end of the day it’s about making better decisions.”

A stronger voice for Scarborough

Holland and Crawford are both pleased that Scarborough will have slightly stronger per capita representation on a smaller council, noting that Scarborough would have 6/25 councillors in the new configuration (24%) versus the planned 10/47 councillors (21.3%).

Crawford said he hopes a smaller council will change the dynamic where “Scarborough’s voice is challenged over and over on the floor of council” as he put it in a statement after the Ford government’s bombshell announcement.

“I mean you’d have less of the ruckus going on with the downtown councillors, interfering and intervening in issues that are out in Scarborough and in our wards, just for spite,  just because it may not be in alignment with something that they view as what they would do downtown,” Holland said. 

There has been much concern expressed throughout the city that councillors will now represent wards of approximately 109,000 constituents as opposed to 62,000 but neither Holland nor Crawford see this as an insurmountable problem. The assumption is that the offices will be amalgamated and that constituency staff will be doubled.

Unhappy with lack of notice or consultation

Although both Holland and Crawford support reducing the size of city council,  they are decidedly unhappy with the way it was imposed without consultation in the middle of the election campaign.

“I’m shocked,” said Holland.  “I don’t think it’s the right move. I don’t like the process whatsoever. I think that we should have waited until the next term and I said that publicly in my speech at council. (Skip to 2:41.55) If we’re forced to do it we have to make it as good as we can make it. We have to make sure that it’s fair and democratic.”

“How they have handled this is not been appropriate at all from my perspective,” Crawford said. “I am not impressed at all with how this came about very quickly without the proper consultation, without reaching out to the communities and getting their opinion and voicing their concerns.” 

Crawford said he did not support a motion at council to launch a legal challenge because the city’s lawyers indicated that the province has the legislative authority to unilaterally impose change.

Gerard Arbour, Ward 38 candidate

That’s not enough for Gerard Arbour, a Cliffside chiropractor and Scarborough Bluffs activist, who announced his candidacy for the new Ward 38 prior to the Ford announcement.

“They voted, both Councillor Holland and Councillor Crawford, to not even voice opposition or mount a legal challenge to this. So what they’re saying is this is not OK, but really it’s OK. That’s my way of viewing the way they voted for it. So the timing and how it’s done is not acceptable and they should have voiced that with their vote, in my opinion,” Arbour said. 

Arbour is in a tough position now. He initially decided to run when it looked like Crawford would be making a bid for provincial politics, but that didn’t happen and now he’s running against not one incumbent but two.

“This is a tough uphill battle enough as a candidate. As a new candidate, I don’t have staff, I don’t have a manager, office staff. I don’t have the immediate ability to raise monies and things that. Yes it makes it a lot more uphill for sure and many of the new candidates feel like they’ve been thrown under the bus,” Arbour said. 

Arbour said he will decide by Sept. 14 if he plans to run in the new, expanded ward.

What happens now?

On Friday, Mayor John Tory sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford urging him to allow the election to proceed as planned on Oct. 22 with 47 councillors and called on Ford to allow a referendum before any changes are implemented.

Meanwhile, a new candidate for council, Rocco Achampong, has applied for an injunction in Ontario Superior Court

City council will meet on August 20 to hear from the city solicitor on whether legal action is possible.  The city clerk will also advise council whether it’s feasible to make the necessary procedural changes for the new ward boundaries and still hold the election on Oct. 22.  The list of items submitted by the city clerk is long and includes redoing voting subdivisions, reviewing and revising new voting locations,  generating a new voters’ list and  implementing  a communications plan for the public about the boundary changes.

“I’m still not sure if they can meet all the requirements and call it a fair and democratic election,” Holland said.  And if the clerks deem it as (something they’re) unable to do then they will declare that they will not proceed forward on October 22nd. I’m curious to know if she declares that, if Doug Ford, the Premier, will then change the date.