Province to overrule decision of a democratically-elected government body. Again.
This doesn’t even make sense from a logistical point of view. We’re in the middle of an election. People registered to run in certain wards. Can they get refunds on registration fees, and campaign funds spent? People have gone on leave from their jobs, put their lives on hold.
City staff just spent a bunch of time coming up with a new committee structures. Now that’s out the window. City spent hundreds of thousands on public consultations and studies on boundaries. Money down the drain, apparently.
And for what benefit? Some salary and office staff savings, I guess. But if you think your city councillor is bad at returning your emails now, wait until the workload doubles.
But I guess what does it matter, because, really, why even have a city council if the provincial government is just going to make decisions despite them.
(The worst part is going to be all the political hacks who call this a smart move because “fewer politicians!” plays well with a subsection of voters.)
Also: this only targets Toronto? Ottawa has 23 city councillors for a city of less than a million people. Toronto gets 25 for a city almost three times bigger? Nothing makes annnnnny sense.
