Public Works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong testing the Sherbourne St. separated bike lanes (Toronto Sun file photo)
“The TTC has enough problems making the buses run on time and trying to run a capital program. They shouldn’t be buying new businesses that are just going to be sucking more money out of the system.”
- Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong on TTC chair Karen Stintz floating the idea of the transit authority riding to the rescue of the BIXI Toronto bike-share program (full story here).
“I know she’s in over her head.”
- Mayor Rob Ford talking about TTC chair Karen Stintz during his Newstalk 1010 radio show Sunday. Ford was fuming on the air Sunday over the push by Stintz and other councillors to debate what transit revenue tools to endorse at the next council meeting. Stintz called Ford’s leadership into question last week after his executive committee voted to put the debate over revenue tools off (story here).
But the mayor wasn’t the only one who was taking shots at Stintz Sunday:
“I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her.”
- Councillor Doug Ford on Stintz during Sunday’s Ford brothers’ radio show. Ford also complained about Stintz going to a New York Yankees game while she was on a taxpayer-funded trip to New York City last week.
“The mayor had an obligation to bring it to council for full debate. I don’t believe he showed leadership in this matter and I don’t believe he has a vision for transit and I don’t believe he has a vision for this city and I think that’s unfortunate.”
- TTC chair Karen Stintz reacting Wednesday to Mayor Rob Ford’s refusal to bring the transit revenue tools report to council ASAP (story here).
With language like that it sure sounds like she’s gearing up to run against Ford in 2014. So far, Stintz has been touted as a possible mayoral candidate but has yet to throw her hat in the ring.
But clearly the Fords – based on their language about Stintz in the recent past – are already expecting her to jump in the race (story here).
Stay tuned.
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong took to Twitter Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of the hiring of TTC CEO Andy Byford.
“Thanks to former Commissioners for making it happen!” Minnan-Wong tweeted. “Results show it was the best decision.”
What Minnan-Wong didn’t say was it is also the one-year anniversary of the sacking of former TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster.
Webster was dumped by those loyal to Mayor Rob Ford on the TTC commission – led by Minnan-Wong. Byford emerged from the closed-door meeting as Webster’s replacement.
“It is just no way to run a railway,” TTC chair Karen Stintz said following the 5 to 4 vote. “We’ve just turned arguably what should be the least political board and commission into the most political board and commission. It’s really quite interesting to me.”
Sources told the Sun at the time the meeting where Webster was fired and Byford was promoted was chaotic – some councillors shouted and swore at times during the in camera debate.
In a classic case of every City Hall action has an equal and opposite reaction, Minnan-Wong and the commissioners that dumped Webster ended up losing their spots on the TTC.
A few weeks later, Stintz led a revolt at council sacking those TTC commissioners who dumped Webster and locking in her position as chair until 2014.
TTC chair Karen Stintz fired off a letter to TTC commissioners today in response to the ongoing controversy over the sole-source newsstand contract approved last week. Here’s Stintz’s letter:
Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee dove into a debate on public consultation for taxes and tolls to pay for transit Tuesday (story here). Not surprisingly, there were several quotable moments from Ford and councillors during the debate.
Here are some of the highlights:
“I’ve always said to build transit in the city we have to get all three levels (of government) involved and the private sector. Until the federal and provincial government gets on board and we get the private sector on board I’m not going to sit around and just put a tax or a user fee on the backs of hardworking Torontonians.”
- Mayor Rob Ford
“That’s like asking which poison would you like to drink? Would you like the hemlock? Would you like the rat poison? … We should be asking them, would you like to take that poison?”
- Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong on transit funding consultation.
“If all we come back with is that we think the province should have a regional sales tax, then I think we’ve been doing our residents a disservice.”
- TTC chair Karen Stintz
“It will help Torontonians in every corner of this city. It is long past due that we’ve needed it. We are a generation behind.”
- Councillor Josh Matlow on the Downtown Relief Line.
“My community does not want to pay for somebody else’s thoughts and hopes.”
- Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti on transit taxes and tolls.
“This deal is like throwing a load of human feces on somebody’s lawn and then sending them a bill for the transportation costs in delivering it to their property.”
- Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti still livid an LRT is being planned for Finch Ave. W. in his ward.
“We haven’t approached them. We haven’t opened the doors. We haven’t welcomed (public-private partnerships).”
- Councillor Doug Ford lamenting the proposed taxes and tolls to fund transit.
“Public-private partnerships do not pay for transit. They finance transit and we need to pay it back.”
- TTC chair Karen Stintz
TTC commissioners voted 4 to 3 Thursday to contract out more than 150 bus cleaning jobs (story here). The debate was fairly lengthy and emotionally charged – lots of people were throwing around the word “war.”
Here’s a sample of what was said during Thursday’s contracting out debate at the TTC meeting:
“We don’t outsource for the sake of it. We don’t. We outsource because we think we can get the same job done at a reduced cost and a higher quality.”
- TTC chair Karen Stintz speaking to her TTC colleagues before the vote.
“This is far from over. We may have lost the battle but we sure as hell won’t lose the war.”
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear speaking to reporters after the vote.
“I will not turn my back on you. I will vote against this report.”
- TTC vice-chairman and Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker speaking to TTC workers before the vote.
“A lot of what has been said today is hyperbole.”
- TTC commissioner and Councillor John Parker before the vote.
“Who goes to bed and dreams up this Orwellian nightmare of Animal Farm where we eat each other in the barnyard where the weak are preyed on.”
- TTC commissioner and Councillor Maria Augimeri
“I ain’t on the gravy train people.”
- TTC cleaner Carmen Miller during her address to the TTC
“This is about making sure the TTC is as efficient as we can make it.”
- TTC commissioner and Councillor Peter Milczyn before the vote.
“Where’s the respect! Where’s the respect!”
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 workers as they left City Hall.
“You’re effectively declaring war on your own employees.”
- John Cartwright, president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, speaking to the TTC before the vote.
Here’s what city councillors said Wednesday during the transit debate (story here):
“It’s pink lipstick on a very fat pig with flip flops on.”
- Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti on OneCity advocates claiming a win
“I think it has been renamed the Toronto transit expansion plan and that’s just fine.”
- TTC Chair Karen Stintz on the death of OneCity
“-”
- Mayor Rob Ford who didn’t speak during Wednesday’s transit debate
“I would say that the province would not be wise to continue to spend large sums of money on the Scarborough LRT because council is going to weigh in on it at a later point this year.”
- Councillor Joe Mihevc
“They’ve fallen into the trap that Rob Ford set about retail politics, when it’s all about slogans and campaigns.”
- Councillor Adam Vaughan
“I’m very disappointed that didn’t happen.”
- Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker on rejection of his motion on studying extending the Bloor-Danforth line rather than replacing the Scarborough RT with an LRT
“I can assure everyone in Toronto the mayor is back in charge of transit and we’re going to move forward.”
- Councillor Doug Ford
“I just want to know what OneCity is … Where is it? Where’s Waldo?”
- Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti asking why no one has introduced OneCity on the floor of council
“We know that we’re failing (on transit), we haven’t kept up.”
- Councillor Peter Milczyn on transit
“We’ve clearly made a meal out of this particular issue, we continue to chew at the same old bone.”
- Councillor Michael Thompson on transit
“Building transit can’t be about political cover.”
- Councillor Shelley Carroll
“It’s a complete flame out.”
- Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong on the end of OneCity
“There have been people who have said, well you didn’t consult with me. My answer is I’m consulting with you today. I can’t show you my apple pie before it is out of the oven. Now that this apple pie, this transit plan, is out of the oven and it’s full, now we have something to talk about.”
- Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker last week on complaints from some councillors that they weren’t consulted by him and TTC chair Karen Stintz about the OneCity plan
Toronto city council meets this week for the last meeting before the summer break (story on that here). Here’s some of the more memorable quotes from city council meetings during the first six months of 2012:
“That whole meeting was irrelevant.”
- Mayor Rob Ford after city council voted in February to revive most of the Transit City plan.
“The people of this city have spoken loud and clear. They want subways, folks. They want subways, subways, subways.”
- Mayor Rob Ford during the Sheppard subway vs. Sheppard LRT debate at council in March.
“I think we’re going to get sued.”
- Mayor Rob Ford immediately after Toronto city council voted to ban plastic bags starting January 1, 2013.
“Just get rid of the damn bags!”
- Councillor David Shiner urging councillors to support a bag ban at the June city council meeting.
“This is a vote. We’ll get past it. We’re one city. We need to move forward together.”
- TTC chair Karen Stintz on whether she could work with Mayor Rob Ford after the Sheppard subway vote in March.
“My advice to the taxpayer would be don’t send us any more activists, don’t send us any more unionists, don’t send us any more cyclists … Send us some people down here with good common sense who just want to manage the city’s affairs, that’s what’s needed.”
- Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday in April following a debate on contracting out cleaning jobs.
“F— off.”
- Councillor Gord Perks to Councillor Josh Colle during a debate on gun control in May. He later apologized.
“You just don’t get anywhere with these monkeys.”
- Councillor Doug Ford during the debate over the Sheppard subway in March.
“I apologize for saying monkeys.”
- Councillor Doug Ford after councillors demanded an apology for him calling them monkeys during the Sheppard subway debate in March.
“There is no way that you can say that (Mayor Rob Ford) saved the day, that he won the day. He, frankly, lost the day quite miserably.”
- Councillor Joe Mihevc after the 2012 budget vote at city council in January.
“I have never seen councillors so confused as they are today.”
- Speaker Frances Nunziata to council during the March special council meeting on the Sheppard subway.
Don Peat is the City Hall bureau chief for the Toronto Sun. He covers municipal affairs at Toronto City Hall, a beat that has him writing about everything from garbage to transit to taxes to multimillion-dollar spending scandals.
Follow @reporterdonpeat
