(Photo: Zoriana Zwarycz) And, just like that, it was as if the city’s fever broke. After nine months of Ford governance that started out doctrinaire and drifted week by week towards farce, the city snapped awake and shook itself. One poll after another showed falling support. Headlines, once deferential (or at least credulous) had become scathing. The ironclad support the Fords had enjoyed from loyal councillors buckled. The twin fiascos on the agenda this week–a waterfront land-grab and a raft of service cuts–ended abruptly with the Ford faction backing down or punting. The myth of the unstoppable Ford juggernaut that did what it wanted, cut what it wanted, and just didn’t care was shattered. All of this unraveled in the days leading up to the city council meeting this week, which had previously been pegged as an early Armageddon. In the event, there was an outbreak of civility. It was almost heady. The motion sinking Doug Ford’s waterfront plan was hailed as a “consensus” and given a standing ovation. Doug Ford bought everyone pizza. News circulated that he’d met Margaret Atwood and had a nice conversation about how no libraries would be cut. He even recognized her. It was the perfect ending. The music swelled. Across the city, dogs and squirrels made their peace. Somewhere, a cyclist stopped at a red light. The Ewoks did a dance. Yub nub! Fade to black! There remains only the small matter of the next three years. The victory of common sense and public opinion is neither to be overplayed or underestimated. It’s easy to feel a bit heady about it after these long months, but a real win isn’t to be found in whether the Fords have abandoned any given ill-advised scheme before them. The question is whether they’re ready to change the way they do business. Let’s take a step back to the beginning of the week, when the mayor’s inner circle met for the second all-night deputation extravaganza. It wasn’t quite the spectacle that the first all-night meeting was, but it proved to be more eventful in the end. The deputants themselves were a mixed bag, an assortment of compelling citizens, constitutionally outraged local activists, and characters who looked like they’d just wandered out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary. For months, the Ford camp has been hammering Torontonians with the same message track: The city faces a $774 million budget hole, which we must fill. The Fords and their crew have repeated the number 774 up and down the city, in print, in person, on the air, until floating sevens and fours haunted dreams across Toronto. It’s probably the mayor’s PIN number. To this, a second number was added: the immutable fact that if we didn’t find these $774 million, we’d have to suffer a 35 percent tax hike. As deputants spoke, the mayor’s lieutenants peppered them with questions that drove home these talking points. For instance: The city has a $774 million budget hole–how would you fill it? If we don’t manage this budget, we’ll have to raise property taxes by 35 percent. Do you want to pay a 35 percent tax hike? Councillor Norm Kelly asked one deputant whether he believed in the $774 million figure, as if it was an article of faith. This continued past 5:00 in the morning. Councillors who weren’t on the mayor’s team had been told next to nothing about the cuts–including facts as simple as how much money each cut would save. They had two minutes each, in the middle of the night, to get details. Still, some had the chance to put the screws to the city manager in public. Asked about the budget shortfall, Joe Pennachetti sputtered and insisted that it was $774 million–or at least $600 million or $500 million. And then he added that the tax hike would be huge; at least double-digits –15 or 20 percent. And then he added that in previous years, the budgets had partly been balanced by unexpected revenues, which were not expected this year. This was a fine paradox: No-one expects the unexpected revenues. (Cue the unexpected revenues, bursting through the door.) Ignoring his own staff’s confirmation that the figures he’d been using to cudgel Torontonians off were only accurate to, say, the nearest $200 million, the mayor made a speech boasting that he had the guts to do what should have been done 14 years ago, and make the tough choices that would save the city’s finances. Then, in a flurry of last-minute amendments, his office variously pushed off and delegated many of the cuts, so that very little happened at all. This wasn’t a victory for anyone, except perhaps the local trickster god. (The trickster gods of municipal affairs were always low in the pantheon, but they make themselves known.) Earlier that evening, the city gave an Award of Excellence for design to the Fort York Bridge. You might remember it as the bridge the city killed just as it was about to get built. The press release contained a glowing quote from Peter Milczyn, one of the councillors who voted to kill it. We are reminded that this is still Rob Ford’s Toronto. The good news is that we know now that the Fords’ lock on city council isn’t unshakeable, and that councillors aren’t insensate to public opinion. Toronto is finding its balance again, and reasoned voices are reasserting themselves in the process. The bad news is that this is far from over. Ford might have used the budget numbers opportunistically, but the city is still going to face a structural deficit. There is still going to be a budget shortfall. It could well be a big one. The mayor’s office is going to need to be crafty, clever, politically astute, and trusted by citizens and councillors alike to take it on. Maybe we should tell the Ewoks to hold off on the fireworks for the time being. __ Ivor Tossell is Toronto Standard’s Urban Studies columnist.
