The NCC helps ‘Put Toronto First’

Peter Coleman
President National Citizen’s Coalition

May 9, 2008.

We are excited to announce the beginning of the Put Toronto First project- designed to make city politicians more accountable and to give Torontonians a voice in how their hard earned taxpayer dollars are being spent.

The city of Toronto has not progressed under the current reign of Mayor Miller: Councilors are constantly at odds, budgets are barely being balanced and the average citizen has been left feeling that they have no input as to what is really going on.

This campaign is intended to give a voice back to the people of Toronto and to make your politicians notice that you do care, do want changes and do want Toronto to be a world class city that we all can be proud of again. For the past month we have been surveying Torontonians, asking for your input and passing on your thoughts and recommendations to politicians and the media in a quest to improve the city we all call home.

The web site, www.puttorontofirst.com will be a first for the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) in that we have assisted in the creation of this exciting project, but the exciting thing is that the content and the issues going forward will be totally determined by you. 

As a part of the launch of the Put Toronto First project, we have had street teams roaming many diverse neighborhoods of Toronto asking citizens just like you to tell us what Toronto issues most concern you. So far, over 2,000 Torontonians have ranked their concerns, as you now have the chance to do on this site, and the overwhelming majority have told us that Toronto’s Taxation and City Hall’s use of your tax dollars are of the greatest concern. This means that these are the first issues that PTF will take on – with your help and discussion.

We will tackle this issue head on and delve into the city’s finances. We will find experts that can help us get into the numbers and really inform taxpayers where their money is being spent.   We will answer the questions that Torontonians raise on this site – click here to be heard.

The city has an annual budget of $8.2 billion, a staggering amount. It is the 6th largest budget of any jurisdiction in Canada, and larger than many provincial budgets. What needs to happen is that accountability has to return to all levels at City Hall. All councilors have to work together, all councilors input has to be listened to and the Mayor has to show leadership by starting to be a team player for all and not just for himself and his favoured councilors at City Hall.

Questions need to be answered!
Why does the City Hall budget chief make more than the Prime Minister of Canada? Her compensation is $350,000 per year while the Prime Minister of Canada makes $250,000 per year. Doesn’t seem to make any sense, does it?

In the past year outspoken councilor Rob Ford, who does a great job for his constituents was soundly criticized by some at City Hall because it was reported that he spent almost none of his annual $53,000 expense budget for running his constituency office. Was he congratulated? No. In a perverse twist of logic, staff at City Hall thought that he should be investigated because he had not spent his money. Shouldn’t he have been congratulated on frugal spending of taxpayers’ money? Oh, no, Councillor Ford was making some of the big spenders look bad and that just would not do.

These are just some examples of financial issues and problems at City Hall. We intend to delve into all of this and keep Torontonians informed as to how your money is being spent. We will congratulate those who are doing a good job and we will encourage those who could use some improvement.

The web site will have a weekly focus and we will do our best to keep things current. We encourage people to get involved, send us the issues that you would like us to deal with and inform your friends about what we are doing. It is time that Toronto becomes a world class city and with your help it can be. Torontonians deserve better and we hope that this campaign will assist in making Toronto a better place for all. 

Click here to register, for free, and you will be informed via email once per week of what people are saying, the facts around key issues, when to ‘vote’ on upcoming issues, and how they are being addressed.  Every two weeks we will publish an independent editorial that presents a balanced perspective on the issues that you have selected and the discussion that PTF visitors are having around them.