City Council — February 2015
February 10 + 11, 2015
68 posts
At this rate, the final version of SmartTrack may have to meander through all 44 wards, with stations in each.
Councillor Ford wants to know how much money the feds and province have pledged for SmartTrack. Tory says no commitments yet.
Ford refers to SmartTrack "ripping up the road" on Eglinton. Seriously, man, you cannot build transit without ripping up roads.
"The fact of the matter is, I won the election," says John Tory. He might be taking Ford too seriously here.
To recap: Tory wants to spend money studying SmartTrack. Ford is angry that Tory did not specifically mention that study during the campaign
Studying transit plans before building 'em is for nerds. Real leaders just start digging in the general direction of where they want to go.
Mammoliti: "Why do the poor people in this city have to accept only scraps? They deserve subways just like anyone else does."
Minnan-Wong says Tory won the election and has a mandate to build SmartTrack. I am not a fan of this line of thinking.
The mystery: why do high density areas of the city have higher-order transit while low density areas do not? Councillors still baffled.
Mammoliti argues Finch Avenue is the "busiest tractor trailer corridor in the country" and also that it should have a subway.
Councillor Ford moves to kill the SmartTrack study. "We have to be concentrating on subways in this city."
Rob Ford also says we should start studying the widening of the DVP, instead of this SmartTrack thing.
Ford also calls SmartTrack "LRT" and, you know what, none of this is based in anything resembling reality and is an insult to truth.
Like Ford is so staggeringly wrong on so many different levels that it's not even funny.
"But what about the other side of the story?" There is no other side. This is categorically incorrect. We're all dumber for having heard it.
Please don't run quotes from that speech without giant disclaimers that say "THIS IS SO WRONG." Please please please.
Councillor Karygiannis now rises to talk about the need to extend the Sheppard Subway. The speaker might want to shut this down.
Karygiannis: "When is Scarborough and the people of Scarborough be looked at as equals and not second class citizens?"
It's the debate that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends.
Councillor Vince Crisanti now says North Etobicoke should have a subway. Lack of subways hold people back, he says.
Be warned. Councillor Rob Ford has held five items relating to the removal of individual trees. Council will debate these trees.
Council votes 28-9 to deny an application to remove this fine-looking tree. http://t.co/Og7yHkF6L6
Recommendation is the most controversial part of today's SmartTrack debate. Davis, Fragedakis have said they oppose. http://t.co/dWJpH7dTp6
At issue is the idea that supporting SmartTrack along Eglinton West effectively works against future phase of approved Eglinton LRT plan.
Suggested amendment to council's procedural by-law: automatic call-the-question vote at the top of every hour.
There we go. Councillor Gord Perks moves to remove all the Eglinton West stuff from the SmartTrack study plan.
From the 2010 EA, here's a map of the planned westward Eglinton LRT extension. (First phase ends at Black Creek.) http://t.co/KmZUQjE2ZP
And here's a map of the proposed Eglinton West section of SmartTrack. (In red.) http://t.co/vjTzJWmBoJ
Councillor Doucette says she'll support the Perks motion to eliminate the Eglinton West stuff from SmartTrack study. Yay, a scorecard vote.
I don't expect Tory to even come close to losing any SmartTrack-related votes today, but at least this'll make it interesting.
Shelley Carroll says she will support going forward with the Eglinton West SmartTrack analysis, but she wants it to be a real study.
Former TTC chair Augimeri says she thinks the Sheppard Subway requires a $12m annual subsidy. She's frustrated she can't get exact figures.
Did Tory just take a veiled shot at Ford for using TTIL to conduct his subway studies? Impressively obscure, if so.
Tory says the Eglinton West section of SmartTrack is important because it links to a lot of jobs in Mississauga.
Rob Ford motion to kill the whole SmartTrack study FAILS 2-41. http://t.co/iivKwZv25C
Gord Perks motion to remove the Eglinton West section from the SmartTrack study FAILS 9-35. http://t.co/JpmmnwvEbZ
SmartTrack study plan as a whole passes 42-2. And so we beat on. http://t.co/aWeMmgXfVp
I don't know what Councillor Perruzza has against SmartTrack but I assume his explanation involves frequent CHANGES to the TONE of HIS VOICE
Council now debating the establishment of advisory committees. A bit surprised there was no real push to bring back the cycling committee.
Karygiannis rises to speak on subject of suicide barriers, then starts railing against McNicoll garbage, then advocates free senior fares.
Public health motion asking TTC to consider installing platform edge doors at subway stations passes 35-4. http://t.co/dIVkpaXq1S
Councillor Rob Ford speaking, is misinformed on subject.
Motel rooms used as shelter space cost City of Toronto about $80 per night. Block of 20 rooms holds between 60 and 90 people. #luxury #swag
And here we go. Council looking at Mammoliti's motion re: a Finch Subway. This needs to be shot into space, never to return.
Council votes to refer Mammoliti motion's re: a Finch subway to Executive Committee. Hope they kill it dead. 14-28. http://t.co/sYAKGg10Lp
Council votes 35-7 to name the Sherbourne bike lanes after @AlanHeisey. So stay out of 'em, delivery trucks. http://t.co/jZWJvoOFQ6
Tory loses a vote! Council votes 27-14 to support motion requesting report on additional warming centres for 2016. http://t.co/f96KE7jnhd
This was the text of the motion, as put forward by Wong-Tam. Tory felt it should have dealt with through 2016 budget. http://t.co/RgW4wzOr8I
Rob Ford skirts very close to accusing city staff of purposefully omitting information from a report to council.
He is now using the "well, it's my personal opinion" defence. Which holds up as well as his "I didn't read any documents" defence.
Nunziata asks Ford repeatedly to withdraw his comments. He won't. So he's asked to leave the council chambers. This guy was mayor once.
Ford is refusing to leave, yelling about respecting taxpayers and such. Nunziata asks him to leave again. He again says no.
Ford asks Nunziata for a recorded vote on whether he should have to leave. She says that is not necessary.
Nunziata calls a five minute recess. Ford is still in the chamber.
Background: Council has a report about supporting a city exhibit at Expo 2015. It doesn't mention $20K cost of sending councillor & staff.
Staff say the trip cost should have been included, but was inadvertantly left out. Ford says he finds that hard to believe.
And no, the narrative of this Toronto council term is not a Tory versus Ford battle of wits, no matter how badly some want it to be.
Meeting resumes. Mammoliti is here to defend Ford. What a hero.
Ford again demanding a recorded vote before he'll leave. Nunziata says that's not in the procedural bylaws.
City security is here! But first: a vote to uphold Nunziata's decision to remove Ford. Oh man.
Councillor Ford finally stands up to leave. Mammoliti says he'll be leaving too.
The disappointing thing is that everything else council does today will disappear under the weight of the requisite Ford story.
Now Councillor Karygiannis is demanding answers to his questions about what exactly a quorum call is.
After all that, council votes 31-3 in support of a Toronto presence at Expo 2015 in Milan. Okay. http://t.co/WX95nU5qtt
"Oh yes, I forgot that he's gone," says Nunziata, after being reminded that council doesn't need to always do recorded votes.
For the curious: here's what Toronto Council's procedural bylaws say about removing members from meetings. http://t.co/YBNzHZXgvq
John Tory votes against Janet Davis' motion calling for a National Childcare Plan. http://t.co/C2VSsabrOu
