City politicians ask: how were we supposed to know how a city works?

Budget chief Mike Del Grande stopped by the CBC’s Metro Morning yesterday and had to answer for the bevy of proposed cuts to city services announced earlier this week. And, not surprisingly, Del Grande denied the suggestion that Rob Ford’s no-service-cuts guarantee might have been misleading. “I don’t think Torontonians were misled,” he told host Matt Galloway. “I think if you look at the overall situation of the city, it’s changed dramatically in terms of the financial situation that you find yourself in.” Many things have changed about council and city hall since Ford took office, but the reality of coping with a budget deficit is not one of them—it’s sort of the city’s crummiest annual tradition. And as local city blogger (and sometimes Informer contributor) Matt Elliott points out, we saw a similar profession of ignorance from Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who asked in August, “Who knew during the election we were $774 million in the hole?” Listen to the entire segment [Metro Morning] »