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Delicate flowers at TCHC board resign, blame the mayor

By John Michael McGrath
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David Mitchell makes housing repair announcements back in 2008 (Image: TOCommunityHousing/YouTube)
David Mitchell makes housing repair announcements back in 2008

And now, the latest in the “Rob Ford gets what he wants” series.

After the mayor demanded the resignation of the civilian members of the board of directors for Toronto Community Housing Corporation, they responded with a three-page letter explaining how that wasn’t going to happen. Well, that was Tuesday. Today’s Thursday, and this morning, shortly before 11, the civilian board members announced they were resigning after all. In their announcement, the chair of the board put the onus on the mayor. According to the National Post’s Natalie Alcoba: “We cannot effectively work when the mayor is unreachable for constructive dialogue,” said now-former TCHC chair David Mitchell.

In further questions with Toronto Star reporter David Rider, Mitchell said that Ford had shown a lack of courtesy and respect for him, not giving him the courtesy of a phone call or a personal note before calling for his resignation. (Our calls to mayor Ford’s office were not immediately returned.) We’re not sure quite how to describe someone who reacts to having their honour insulted by giving the insulter everything they asked for.

As of now, TCHC CEO Keiko Nakamura (who, unlike the board, could be said to have direct personal responsibility over the spending problems that are at the root of all this) will stay on, and insists that TCHC has taken steps to correct the problems identified in audits (like firing six bad apples.) Also staying so far are the two tenant-elected members of the board.

Apparently, the mayor will be presenting a motion at the next council to disband the whole board and start from scratch—unless, we suppose, there are enough councillors who want to stick their necks out on this issue and back a TCHC board that doesn’t even really exist anymore. We’d rate that as slightly less likely than a sudden desire to bring back the car tax.

TCHC civilian board members tender resignation [National Post]Board members quit after damning audit at Toronto Community Housing Corp. [Globe and Mail]TCHC citizen board members resign en masse [CBC.ca]TCHC board members resign [Toronto Sun]

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