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Mel's madness had a method
Lastman excelled at getting city cash
ROYSON JAMES
Mel Lastman was one of the most successful mayors ever in wringing money out of the pockets of the federal and provincial governments. That's what the evidence shows. But you won't hear it in too many quarters.
David Miller has built his mayoralty on the possibility of reaping even more cash from Queen's Park and Ottawa. He hasn't received a penny yet, but you'd think he's the one who invented the call for a new deal for cities.
Mel the appliance salesman was all about the sale and the deal and deep discounts. So it might be fitting that his achievements are routinely discounted at the dawn of the Miller era.
Fitting, maybe, but far from right.
It was Mel who got the two scrooges Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and then premier Mike Harris — Chrétien one who wouldn't lift a finger to help Toronto and Harris who put the boots to this city — to join him on the waterfront and announce $1.5 billion in waterfront revitalization cash.
Without checking the files, one can recall Lastman's successful begging missions. When Harris downloaded massive costs on the city in a supposedly neutral exchange of services that left Toronto $276 million short, Mel called Harris a liar. Stung by the truth of Mel's claim, Harris gave the city $50 million and $200 million in loans.
Of course, because the deficit was an annual one, Mel had to keep asking, cajoling, even embarrassing the province into coughing up more cash to balance the city's books.
One year the bailout was listed as money for the subway, another year for maintenance, another year for some unknown, unfilled bill. Through it all, even as voters grew tired of his perennial whine for cash, Mel kept going after the thieves. And each year he got back some of the city's cash.
The problem with Lastman is he couldn't be bought off. Many media pundits portrayed him as Harris' lackey, until his interminable battles made that proposition preposterous.
The province wasn't about to acknowledge that they owed the city money — even after the provincial auditor confirmed it — and Mel wasn't about to forget until he got it all.
Unable to silence Mel, the province spread the word that they can't work the mayor. If only he were more grateful and thankful for the crumbs he received, then the province could actually negotiate with the city. Every time they gave Mel something he cried for more.
What the provincial spin doctors failed to tell voters was that they never offered what was owed the city.
Never.
For example, Harris pulled out completely from transit funding shortly after he came to power. When he finally relented under pressure initiated by Mel, he didn't return to the former funding position.
Before? He paid 75 per cent of capital and half the operating costs of the TTC. After? Try 33 per cent of capital and 0 for operating. Hence, the constant carping.
The federal government found itself in a similar position. Chrétien responded to Lastman's cries for housing money, but the money was held up at Queen's Park by the Harris regime. Lastman showed his displeasure.
Ottawa failed to release enough money for child care and for immigration settlement and they heard about if from Lastman again and again. The federal government promised to help with transit funding, produced more than $70 million one year and considerably less the following year.
And Mel continued to be vocal about the inadequacy of the amount.
We are now in a supposedly new era of co-operation.
Premier Dalton McGuinty says he values Toronto and will do everything to get the province's capital city "firing on all cylinders."
Paul Martin as prime minister is expected to deliver a new deal for cities, greased with gas tax revenues.
If history holds true, neither Martin nor McGuinty will deliver nearly enough cash to address the city's needs. Each will try to get away with giving as little as possible. Both will try to buy David Miller's silence with crumbs when a whole loaf is required.
I don't buy any of the spin that if Mel had been more pliable the city would have gotten more. The opposite is true. Toronto would have received less and so would other Ontario cities and towns.
While Mel took the brunt of the criticism, all cities and towns got similar percentage shares of the money given Toronto.
For example, some like to complain that Harris gave Toronto $500 million for the waterfront. What they forget is that money came from SuperBuild.
And municipalities all across Ontario received their own corresponding share of money to be spent on Toronto's waterfront.
Mel's a one-man wrecking crew, but it was Mel who travelled to Winnipeg, Montreal and Calgary with the C5 mayors and urbanists like Jane Jacobs, Anne Golden and Elyse Allan of the Toronto Board of Trade to push for a new deal for cities.
It was Mel who called a city summit in Toronto to push the issue to the top of the agenda. That summit has spawned the Toronto City Summit Alliance, currently the most potent advocate for Toronto.
David Miller's election platform sported a budget that required oodles of money from the province and Ottawa. The city's finances, missing a permanent, sustainable infusion of cash, are some $350 million in the hole.
Miller says he and the mayors across the GTA and Canada have to form an alliance to deliver a new deal to cities. Intuitively, this seems the answer. But he hasn't delivered a single penny as yet.
There was method to Mel's madness. Look it up. He got Toronto a boatload of cash. Now, this occurred at a time when the money should have been delivered in an ocean liner.
Nevertheless, he delivered more than Harris or Chrétien ever intended to part with.
We should remember that when the 3Ms — Miller, McGuinty and Martin — try to snow us with pennies when loonies are needed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca
Lastman excelled at getting city cash
ROYSON JAMES
Mel Lastman was one of the most successful mayors ever in wringing money out of the pockets of the federal and provincial governments. That's what the evidence shows. But you won't hear it in too many quarters.
David Miller has built his mayoralty on the possibility of reaping even more cash from Queen's Park and Ottawa. He hasn't received a penny yet, but you'd think he's the one who invented the call for a new deal for cities.
Mel the appliance salesman was all about the sale and the deal and deep discounts. So it might be fitting that his achievements are routinely discounted at the dawn of the Miller era.
Fitting, maybe, but far from right.
It was Mel who got the two scrooges Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and then premier Mike Harris — Chrétien one who wouldn't lift a finger to help Toronto and Harris who put the boots to this city — to join him on the waterfront and announce $1.5 billion in waterfront revitalization cash.
Without checking the files, one can recall Lastman's successful begging missions. When Harris downloaded massive costs on the city in a supposedly neutral exchange of services that left Toronto $276 million short, Mel called Harris a liar. Stung by the truth of Mel's claim, Harris gave the city $50 million and $200 million in loans.
Of course, because the deficit was an annual one, Mel had to keep asking, cajoling, even embarrassing the province into coughing up more cash to balance the city's books.
One year the bailout was listed as money for the subway, another year for maintenance, another year for some unknown, unfilled bill. Through it all, even as voters grew tired of his perennial whine for cash, Mel kept going after the thieves. And each year he got back some of the city's cash.
The problem with Lastman is he couldn't be bought off. Many media pundits portrayed him as Harris' lackey, until his interminable battles made that proposition preposterous.
The province wasn't about to acknowledge that they owed the city money — even after the provincial auditor confirmed it — and Mel wasn't about to forget until he got it all.
Unable to silence Mel, the province spread the word that they can't work the mayor. If only he were more grateful and thankful for the crumbs he received, then the province could actually negotiate with the city. Every time they gave Mel something he cried for more.
What the provincial spin doctors failed to tell voters was that they never offered what was owed the city.
Never.
For example, Harris pulled out completely from transit funding shortly after he came to power. When he finally relented under pressure initiated by Mel, he didn't return to the former funding position.
Before? He paid 75 per cent of capital and half the operating costs of the TTC. After? Try 33 per cent of capital and 0 for operating. Hence, the constant carping.
The federal government found itself in a similar position. Chrétien responded to Lastman's cries for housing money, but the money was held up at Queen's Park by the Harris regime. Lastman showed his displeasure.
Ottawa failed to release enough money for child care and for immigration settlement and they heard about if from Lastman again and again. The federal government promised to help with transit funding, produced more than $70 million one year and considerably less the following year.
And Mel continued to be vocal about the inadequacy of the amount.
We are now in a supposedly new era of co-operation.
Premier Dalton McGuinty says he values Toronto and will do everything to get the province's capital city "firing on all cylinders."
Paul Martin as prime minister is expected to deliver a new deal for cities, greased with gas tax revenues.
If history holds true, neither Martin nor McGuinty will deliver nearly enough cash to address the city's needs. Each will try to get away with giving as little as possible. Both will try to buy David Miller's silence with crumbs when a whole loaf is required.
I don't buy any of the spin that if Mel had been more pliable the city would have gotten more. The opposite is true. Toronto would have received less and so would other Ontario cities and towns.
While Mel took the brunt of the criticism, all cities and towns got similar percentage shares of the money given Toronto.
For example, some like to complain that Harris gave Toronto $500 million for the waterfront. What they forget is that money came from SuperBuild.
And municipalities all across Ontario received their own corresponding share of money to be spent on Toronto's waterfront.
Mel's a one-man wrecking crew, but it was Mel who travelled to Winnipeg, Montreal and Calgary with the C5 mayors and urbanists like Jane Jacobs, Anne Golden and Elyse Allan of the Toronto Board of Trade to push for a new deal for cities.
It was Mel who called a city summit in Toronto to push the issue to the top of the agenda. That summit has spawned the Toronto City Summit Alliance, currently the most potent advocate for Toronto.
David Miller's election platform sported a budget that required oodles of money from the province and Ottawa. The city's finances, missing a permanent, sustainable infusion of cash, are some $350 million in the hole.
Miller says he and the mayors across the GTA and Canada have to form an alliance to deliver a new deal to cities. Intuitively, this seems the answer. But he hasn't delivered a single penny as yet.
There was method to Mel's madness. Look it up. He got Toronto a boatload of cash. Now, this occurred at a time when the money should have been delivered in an ocean liner.
Nevertheless, he delivered more than Harris or Chrétien ever intended to part with.
We should remember that when the 3Ms — Miller, McGuinty and Martin — try to snow us with pennies when loonies are needed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca