Ford transition team ominously briefed on TIFF funding, green programs after election
Whenever there’s an election, the winner obviously has a lot of learning to do, so it’s always interesting to see what the winner wants to be briefed on. The Toronto Star is reporting today that after his election win, Rob Ford and his transition team were looking at specific parts of the budget. It’s not certain these are areas the Ford team wants to cut (in 2012?), but the Star certainly implies that’s what’s going on. All the programs Team Ford is looking at are dear to downtown pinko cyclists. Most come under the umbrella of the Community Partnership and Investment Program (CPIP), which distributes about $47 million in grants to various groups—HIV/AIDS outreach, the Royal Winter Fair, student nutrition programs and the Toronto International Film Festival among them. “It’s a program Doug Ford has expressed concerns about,” reports the Star. “Funding for it was flatlined in the proposed 2011 budget, which goes to a council vote next month.”
Shelley Carroll, rapidly becoming the go-to councillor for criticism of Ford’s budgets, says cutting CPIP makes no sense, and, “They seem to be looking at things based on who proposed the idea rather than whether it is working for people.” We’re shocked, shocked at the suggestion that a conservative mayor might be playing politics by attacking programs dear to his enemies. That never, ever happens in Canadian politics.
The Ford people are not looking at CPIP alone. Also shrinking nervously from the eye of Ford is the Urban Forestry Program, which was intended to double the number of trees in the city.
