City Council - The SmartTrack Study Debate

This morning, Mom and I went to watch what was going on at the Toronto City Council. It was very entertaining.

Speaker Frances Nunziata had an 'oops' when she accidentally called Mayor Tory, 'Mayor Ford'. She corrected herself right away and then apologized. Mayor Tory was a good sport. He said, "Old habits die hard," and he moved on.

One of the main items on the agenda was Mayor Tory's SmartTrack Proposal.
Lots of councillors asked questions about the plan including the distance between the stops and where the SmartTrack plan would serve.

At one point today, Councillor Ford challenged Mayor Tory's plan. Ford compared the Smart Track Plan to streetcars and he asked if Tory let people know that they were going to dig up Eglinton Avenue from Scarlett Road to Martin Grove in Etobicoke? He also questioned spending money on the study.
Mayor Tory responded by saying that we need to do the study before we spend billions of dollars on the project. And Mayor Tory reminded Ford who won the election. He said, "The fact of the matter is, I won the election."

I think everybody reacted to that. Some people laughed, and some people clapped.
Mom took a picture of my reaction.

Councillor Mammoliti asked about how the SmartTrack would help people in the North West section of the city. He pointed out that it does not help some of the poor neighbourhoods.  He said if it did, he'd hug the Mayor. :-)

I didn't want to leave but we had to go because Mom had an appointment. If only I could watch it all day.

When I got home I found out that the City Council approved the $1.65 million dollar study of Mayor Tory's SmartTrack plan.

Toronto City Council

We were at the City Hall Library today for "Aboriginal Celebration: Performance and Discussion" so we asked the security guards if we could watch City Council. They said "Yes" and they even said we could take pictures!

We ran into Councillor Doug Ford when we were on the way over to City Council.

I don't agree with a lot of what he says but I still respect him.  

When we went in, Councillor Michael Thompson was talking about having Police Background Checks being done within a 2 week period. Right now it takes a long time for the Background Checks. It would help a lot of people if they could be done faster.

When the Speaker, Frances Nunziata wanted to express her opinion on Councillor Michael Thompson's motion, she had to take her place on the Council floor. But for a very short time, we had the Deputy Mayor and the Deputy-Deputy Mayor in the Speaker's Chair because they didn't realize that the Deputy Speaker was in the room.

I got to take a picture with Councillor Michael Thompson.

And I got to take a picture with Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker.

Councillor Josh Matlow proposed having the City Manager review the use of paid duty officers at celebrations, festivals and other special events. He suggested using 'Peace Officers' instead.

Here is a picture of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam asking Councillor Josh Matlow questions.

I had a lot of fun watching City Council and learning how they do their business.