Ottawa Is Getting A Toronto Ambassador: PATTON

Watch carefully citizens.

Ford has given Mayors strong powers to appoint public sector staff at all levels of the city administration (politicization – just need to be a friend of the party to qualify) and he has given Mayors the ability to pass Council business with only 1/3 of the vote.

Ford reduced Toronto City Hall from 47-25 seats disfranchising 22 wards from equal representation -during an election. Ontario’s Supreme Court Chief Justice ruled strongly against it as unconstitutional. Ford invoked the
Not Withstanding Clause within 24 hours.

Various bills on housing have not only excluded our Councillors from Site Plan approvals but citizens as well. The latest bill185 removes Community Associations and citizens from access to the appeal board on Site Plans, Zoning and Official PLan Approvals.

While we certainly need better coordination of City, Prov and Fed policy and implementation…….this office sounds more like a Trojan horse deepening the far right conservative agenda at the municipal level. Mayors need money….how much more of our democracy do think they have to sacrifice?

Does the Ottawa Ambassador get diplomatic privileges, coming as he does as the emissary of a foreign power? How much of his time will be spent on the social circuit and what sort of budget does he have for this sort of thing?

I hear he will have a staff of six. What will their roles be and what are they being paid? Add to that rent for the Class A office space they will occupy and the other expenses of running an office and what is this going to cost us through our provincial taxes? Will we be privy to the work the Ambassador and his staff are doing to justify the expense?

To whom does this Ambassador report, i.e. to Doug Ford or to a bureaucrat in some Ministry in Toronto? Is this a political appointment by the Premier or a civil servant? There is a rumour about in the land that this person has as one of his tasks to increase the number of PC MPPs from this area. That’s hardly the job of a non-partisan civil servant so we must surmise that it is a political appointment and therefore should not be funded from taxpayers dollars.

We need to see a full explanation of the purpose of this office, what the costs will be and who is paying them, the precise roles and remuneration of all staff, the public posting of the jobs including that of the Ambassador and the criteria for hiring them along with job descriptions. I would suggest that since the post of Ambassador was not filled through an open and public process as is required by provincial rules, he must be a member of the Premier’s political staff. Is he therefore to be expected to be a partisan or non-partisan actor in Ottawa government circles?

I would expect other Ontario municipalities to be seeking the same treatment. Where will it stop?

Many questions remain to be answered. Will the answers confirm that this is a person that Ottawa Council, including the Mayor, should be giving the time of day to or perhaps not so much?