Toronto

31 readers

1 users here now

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Friends:

Support lemmy.ca

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

durablenapkin@lemmy.ca

Ontario is removing Bloor, Young and University bike lanes. (globalnews.ca)

submitted 2 weeks ago by tracer_ca@lemmy.ca to c/toronto@lemmy.ca

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's happening, the worst mayor Toronto has ever had is removing three major recently completed bike lanes at tax payer expense. That's right, Ontario tax payers are footing the bill for Ford to meddle in Toronto municipal infrastructure. This is of course to distract us from failing healthcare and education while appealing to his mostly car centric base.

There is a protest happening Wed. 23rd of October, please come out if you can. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/rally-ride-for-road-safety-tickets-1045417761667

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] AnotherDirtyAnglo@lemmy.ca 29 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Uh, first, Doug Ford was never mayor. It was his shithead junkie brother.

Second, Ontario can order Toronto to remove them, but Toronto can refuse or take them to court. I doubt the MTO is going to send a crew into downtown Toronto -- it's not their turf.

Third, if Ontario contracts a third party to do the work, they'd be setting themselves up for getting named in a lawsuit.

This whole thing is a clusterfuck, and Thuggie needs to get a new hobby.

[–] tracer_ca@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Doug Ford was never mayor.

I think you missed my jab there. You're right he was never elected the mayor of Toronto, but as the Premier of Ontario, he has meddled in what would be Toronto municipal jurisdiction more than any premier before Mike Harris amalgamated Toronto. The joke in local politics has been "He's the worst mayor of Toronto ever" when he does stuff like this.

Second, Ontario can order Toronto to remove them, but Toronto can refuse or take them to court. I doubt the MTO is going to send a crew into downtown Toronto – it’s not their turf.

They can, but will they? Olivia Chow has been abscent from this discussion since it started. And as someone who actually cycles to her job, she has stonewalled CycleTO. She's going out of her way to not present herself as a cycling mayor for some reason.

Third, if Ontario contracts a third party to do the work, they’d be setting themselves up for getting named in a lawsuit.

He just has to legislate it away. There is no risk for him. And at worst, taxpayers will pay for it.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

The premier is in practice the head of government of every municipality. Mayors have very little power. For one thing, they are just the face of council and have no more power than any other member of the municipal board. But more relevantly, municipalities and their councils only have advisory power. The province can disband a council, merge it into another one, or override any decision they make with their own decision instead.