Gravy, Gravy Everywhere

... and no time to stop and think.

At precisely noon today, Toronto’s downtown elites felt a chill run through their bodies (and their lattes, presumably). Rob Ford was sworn in as mayor.

Ford immediately announced he’s scrapping the Transit City light rail project, which is a horrible idea says the Globe and Mail. Ford “cannot both preach fiscal rectitude and proceed with an expensive, wasteful, and unnecessary cancellation of the city’s public transit expansion plan.” The Globe can’t even figure out why Ford wants to scrap the plan, speculating his opposition is based on some intangible aversion to streetcars. “Fair enough,” says the Globe. “Different modes of transit provoke emotional reactions.” Do they though? Do Globe editors weep with joy at the sight of bicycles, and rage at 18-wheelers? Seems like as far as emotion-inducing subjects go, transit should remain at the bottom of the list. In any case, the Globe says Transit City will be efficient and, as it’s partially funded by the province and Ottawa, is “a good deal for the urban taxpayer for whom Mr. Ford demands respect.”

The Toronto Star editors contend that cancelling Transit City is not only ill-advised, but likely impossible. “With $130 million already spent on Transit City, and contracts worth about $1 billion already signed, stopping this work and switching to subways would mean a huge loss to taxpayers. Ford may not care,” they concede, but Queen’s Park, which already has a deal in place to fund Transit City, isn’t about to agree to swallow cancellation costs. Ford faces similarly insurmountable obstacles in his goal of cutting $3 billion from the city budget without cutting services. The library board has requested a 3.3 per cent increase in its budget just to keep up with inflation, and other departments will likely follow suit. “Ford’s fundamental dilemma is that there isn’t [$3 billion] worth of ‘fat’ in the system waiting to be cut.”

And in a wonderful display of the kind of immaturity one has come to expect in municipal politics, the National Post’s Peter Keitenbrouwer reports that outgoing mayor David Miller’s staff has left packages of gravy all over City Hall.