Now The City Has No Excuses: PATTON
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been giving the city money for all kinds of good things. But that’s a problem.
The Tyranny of a Helpful Province
Mike Patton is the former communications director for Mayor Larry O’Brien and a Conservative activist.
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Oh, Mike! It will take far more than a generous sprinkling of dollars from the province to right the Good Ship Ottawa!
It may be a bit more challenging for Council to still find ways to run the ship aground but I have confidence they will battle though and manage to prevail. Just look at their track record. They’ve consistently been able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory while barely breaking a sweat.
My hope, and it’s a faint one, is that Ford will actually impose some intensive oversight on the City and ensure that they aren’t up to their usual questionable management and that this money goes where it’s intended to. He has to put in place strong accountability and penalty provisions to build a fence around Council so they can’t use these funds for things other than were intended and that residents can finally see some results in, among other things, the housing and homelessness file.
It’s a good thing that Ford and his government aren’t overly enamoured with Ottawa’s political and bureaucratic leadership and so may even build in controls to curb Council’s use of the funds. Then he needs to seriously consider putting an administrator in to clean up the city. Maybe the way Council treats this funding will give him the impetus to do that.