“Maybe Mr. Rossi is just flat-out wrong in saying the people want a political outsider in the mayor’s office. Maybe it’s the fact that Mr. Smitherman noticeably loosened up once it became clear he wasn’t the heir apparent, but rather just another candidate. But whatever it is, Mr. Smitherman is winning the centrist sweepstakes, and Mr. Rossi is losing them.”

Read the rest of the article here.

“City can’t afford to keep its pools open in the summer. The books are so badly mismanaged and spending is so out of control that the children of this city, on a day where the temperature is 38 degrees with humidity, cannot go swimming,” he said. Their parents have paid their taxes and city hall has misspent the money.”

An extreme heat alert was in effect in Toronto on Wednesday. In the last week, the Kiwanis’ pool hours were shortened to 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., said Rossi, who grew up in the area and said he swam in the pool often as a child.

“This was our resort. We didn’t have the money for a cottage. But my parents paid hard-earned tax dollars for the service,” he said.”

Read the rest of the article here.

“George Smitherman says he can improve services and save money without road tolls or asset sales. It is a matter of “focusing on the city’s core responsibilities, being more careful about spending and making sure city hall gets it right.” That sounds familiar.”

Read the rest of her column here.

“Brian Zeiler-Kligman, the board’s director of policy, said leaders have to deal with the staggering debt.

“If we pay down the debt it will free up money for other projects,” Zeiler-Kligman said. “The city has a lot of assets that can be sold or ‘monetized.”

He said the city can sell Metro Hall and reduce the budgets of Toronto Police and the TTC to save cash.

“We are not looking to slash and burn city services,” Zeiler-Kligman told political hopefuls. “All of this can be avoided if we take some action now.”

Read the rest of the article here.

“What the statements show is a city rich in assets — land, buildings, vehicles, roads, watermains and transit lines — but one that is extremely cash poor, with a net debt that has risen during the past four years by an average of 12.5%.

Quiz your candidates.  See if they care to do their fiscal homework.”

Read the rest of her column here.

“Point is, Thomson can spin her subway visions until she’s blue in the face, and the think tanks can keep cranking out those headline-grabbing gridlock/smog studies. But in the end, only one number really matters, and that’s the quantum of the Ontario government’s political will. Which, as we all know, is zero.”

Read the rest of his post here. 

In the editorial pages of the Toronto Star, two economists from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Canadian Auto Workers lay out the case for why Toronto’s mayoral candidates should think twice about pledging any sale of public assets:

“From a balance sheet perspective, simply selling an asset cannot improve the government’s net position. Yes, the proceeds can pay off some debt. But assets have declined, too. The government’s net indebtedness (debt minus assets) is unchanged. There’s no change in the fundamental fiscal sustainability of the government and no savings from lower interest rates.”

Read the rest of the editorial here.

Photo courtesy: BlogTO

As noted on TEN a few weeks ago, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has decided not to run for mayor, instead filing to run for re-election in Ward 34:

“I want to focus on having a better managed city,” [Minnan-Wong] said. “We have to make the city more affordable.”

While Mayor David Miller has often said you can’t have a great city for free, Minnan-Wong said Torontonians are paying plenty and not getting enough back in the way of services.

“(Residents) know that city services aren’t free. They pay thousands for services, but they want their money spent wisely and well,” he said. “I’ve been an outspoken critic on council for us to set (spending) priorities. I will continue to speak up.

Read the rest of the article here.

“Pantalone’s single greatest strength – his insider knowledge of how government really works – is now his obvious weakness. Angry and frustrated, voters would rather punish government than fix it. And though there’s more to government than politicians; we’re content to get rid of one with the other.”

Read the rest of the article here. 

“The crazy thing about all this is that, compared with the clowns currently running the show in Ottawa and Queen’s Park, Miller actually looks pretty good on this one. He discovered more money than he thought he’d have, which beats the hell out of the Harper-McGuinty habit of coming up short by billions.”