The war of words between Toronto-the-city and Toronto-the-provincial-capital  raged on Thursday as Mayor Rob Ford and Finance Minister Charles Sousa's office exchanged dueling statements about the effect of the province's decision to end $150 million in social services funding.
<div id="attachment_16089" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Sousa.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16089" class="size-medium wp-image-16089 " style="border: 1px solid black;" alt="Finance Minister Charles Sousa (Photo by Andrew Reeves)" src="http://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Sousa-300x200.jpg" width="300" height="200" /></a>Finance Minister Charles Sousa (Andrew Reeves/QP Briefing)</div>
Sousa's office released a letter this morning stating that "the city has choices": for example, the city could defer Ford's announced cut to the land transfer tax, which would save $34.5 million. That's about two-thirds of the impact of the provincial cut for next year, as the $150 million was coming over three years.
Ford rejected the suggestion outright, but his budget chief, councillor Frank DiGiorgio, was more equivocal saying he hasn't committed to voting for a cut to the LTT.
"I didn't say I would support it… I would say that if the funds are available I would support it."
"I might have some pool of funds somewhere that are hiding somewhere, I don't know."
Not for the first time since this controversy erupted, even Ford-critical councillors took Sousa and Premier Kathleen Wynne to task for abandoning the province's role in funding social housing.
Downtown councillor and Ford antagonist Adam Vaughan said Ontario and Canada need to get back into the practice of funding affordable housing, but until they do Toronto has the means to stand on its own fiscal feet.
"Fundamentally, Ottawa and Queen's Park have to get back into the housing game. We've been saying that for a decade. Moving money out of housing is unacceptable."
"That being said, for the mayor to go around threatening to make things worse is unacceptable… we have to make sure that the services Toronto needs are provided."
Vaughan said the city can afford to pick up the slack from Ottawa in Queen's Park with its healthy budget surpluses—but disputed Ford's claim that the mayor is being "punished for running an efficient government."
"We have a surplus. We have revenue capacity in this city… we have ample resources right now, we're running a surplus in large part because of decisions that Rob Ford opposed."
Vaughan also took Ford to task for endorsing PC leader Tim Hudak in the last election, noting that the 2011 Tory campaign platform called for an end to all uploading of Toronto's services to the province's balance sheet.
Hudak recently denied his party would end the uploading started under the Liberals in 2008, which the government says has meant a $1.8-billion benefit to the city. Instead he said he would implement it over a different timetable.
<div id="attachment_16090" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FordScrum.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-16090" class="size-medium wp-image-16090 " style="border: 1px solid black;" alt="Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (Photo by Andrew Reeves)" src="http://www.qpbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FordScrum-300x200.jpg" width="300" height="200" /></a>Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (Andrew Reeves/QP Briefing)</div>
Ford's wish to cut the land transfer tax has not yet been approved by any decision at Toronto City Council. The matter will be before the city's Executive Committee on <a href="http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.EX33.28">Wednesday, July 3rd</a>, which will then report to the meeting of city council on July 16. The same meeting, Ford announced today, will see a report from the City Manager Joe Pennachetti on the implications of the provincial funding cuts. It is likely that Ford-critical councillors will try to stop any cut to the land transfer tax at that meeting.
Vaughan insisted that the extra taxation powers given to the city in the City of Toronto Act in 2006 are necessary in precisely these situations.
"We've always needed own-source revenue specifically because we need to control the money, and not go to the province cap in hand all the time," he said.
Sousa's office emphasized that the Liberal government continues to extend financial help to Toronto and has done so continually in its decade in power. Some of the amounts provided by Sousa's office include almost $1-billion in investments for social housing construction, repairs and improvements, as well as rental assistance; $364 million as of 2013 in uploaded services and $10.6 billion in infrastructure funding, the vast majority of which is the $8.4 billion for transit.
Given that the province's $8.4 billion is being spent on LRT lines council approved over Ford's vehement objections, it's unlikely he appreciates that largesse on the part of the Liberals.

Sousa to Ford: Use your power

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