City hall 'outsider' launches mayoralty bid.
Rocco Rossi announces his intention, Monday during a media conference at the Nathan Phillips Square Peace Garden, to join the upcoming 2010 Toronto mayoralty race.
Staff photo/DAVID NICKLE
Mayoralty candidate Rocco Rossi says he'd put a moratorium on new Transit City projects until he was convinced the city could afford to build and run the new light rail lines.
"I think there are some real problems that have been shown by what's happening on St. Clair where we'd be foolish not to have a long and deep look at that," said Rossi after delivering a half-hour stump speech to the Empire Club of Canada Thursday, Jan. 21. When asked if he was specifically referring to a moratorium on new light rail projects, he said: "On anything that we can stop right now, yes."
Rossi said if elected the only Transit City line that would still go ahead would be Sheppard - because construction has already begun. All others - the Eglinton LRT, the Finch LRT, the Don Mills LRT and others along Jane Street and into Scarborough - would be on hold until Rossi was satisfied the finances were in order.
"We don't even have capital funding for all of the lines, and as we've seen from St. Clair we have no mechanism in place to ensure that we'll build it under budget," said Rossi. "And we don't have the operating plan in place to deal with it, so I think we need to take a good hard look at it and put together a plan that makes fiscal sense for transit in the city. With Sheppard, we've broken ground and we've got to link to the Pan Am Games - so I think the bus has left the station on that one, but for everything else we've got options."
Rossi, a former executive director of the Liberal Party of Canada, was the first major candidate out of the gate when nominations opened in January; on Thursday, he delivered his first major speech in the 2010 campaign, to a packed luncheon at the Royal York Hotel.
During the half-hour speech, Rossi spoke about a range of issues coalescing into his campaign platform. In addition to promising the moratorium on Transit City, he also pledged to put the brakes on Toronto's bike plan, stopping new bike lanes on arterial roads.
"I spend a lot of time on my bike in the city, but as mayor I'd call a truce in the war on the car by opposing any further bike lanes on arterial roads - including Jarvis Street," he said. "I'd couple this with fast-tracking the completion of Toronto's bike lane network on quieter streets parallel to arterial roads. Because common sense and safety tell me that bike lanes and arterial roads don't mix."
He said he'd get rid of the elected officials sitting on the Toronto Transit Commission and replace them with private sector board members.
"We do need technical excellence, business sense and a desire to build a first-class modern transit system that works in harmony with cars, bikes, pedestrians and the rest of the region."
He promised to create a City Builder's Fund, that would funnel Section 37 fees from developers into the Toronto Community Foundation to set up a fund for community based projects.
"We need to use every ounce of our imagination to help strengthen these priority neighbourhoods," he said. "By creating a City Builders Fund, every time we build a condo on the waterfront we can build community in Malvern, Rexdale and Flemingdon Park - and we can do so in a way that involves our many civic entrepreneurs and builds engagement."
He wouldn't commit to a ceiling for property tax increases. But he said the city needs to plan farther ahead and manage its debt better. When he announced he was running, he said he'd sell off Toronto Hydro to pay down debt, and said he would review other city assets too. And he'd start a five-year operating budget plan to keep costs in line.
He also promised to keep labour costs in line.
"Last summer's civic workers' strike showed just how weak the city has become in the face of its major unions - and how utterly without a plan we are to correct this imbalance," he said. "As mayor I will bring us back into balance by pursuing outsourcing and managed competition for certain city services."
Rossi said he believed it possible to have city unions bid for the right to deliver the services they currently deliver.
In questioning afterward, he said language in the city's collective agreements preventing it from doing just that need not be an impediment.
"I've talked to enough lawyers who say there's room," he said. "There are ways that don't have a huge impact on benefits and service but have a huge benefit. A change in work rules can make for a far more efficient delivery of services."