Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he’s received calls from Ottawa residents and “all over the province” in the wake of his plan to reduce the size of Toronto city council, stoking speculation that he hasn’t ruled out using the province’s powers to shrink other local governments.
Ford firmly denied such plans last month, but when asked in an interview with Global News Radio 640 Toronto on Monday if the government would consider cutting other city councils, he mentioned that the Toronto decision is popular and that he’s getting tons of feedback about Ottawa.
“Well, right now, we said we’re going to focus on this,” Ford told 640 Toronto guest host Anthony Furey in reference to the Toronto council decision. “I’ve had numerous calls from Ottawa. I’ll tell you, Ottawa, I don’t know what’s going on out in Ottawa but I’m getting endless calls from the Ottawa region,” he said.
“Matter of fact, I’ve been getting calls all over the province and we’ve made a lot of decisions over the years, politically, and I’ve never made a decision that was so popular.”
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Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday, Tory cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod said there is no plan to cut the size of Ottawa council, adding that the premier said so at a recent meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
“I know having spoken with the premier’s office last night, there is zero intention to reduce the size of city council here,” she said.
Ford spoke with 640 Toronto hours after he vowed to invoke the rarely used notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to bypass an Ontario Superior Court ruling against the Better Local Government Act — legislation passed earlier this summer that would cut the number of Toronto council seats from 47 to 25.
In response to a legal challenge filed by the city and other parties, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled Monday that the Progressive Conservative government interfered with the right to freedom of expression for both candidates and voters in passing the legislation.
The Ontario legislature is set to resume on Wednesday when the government is expected to reintroduce the bill.
Ford also vowed to seek an appeal on the ruling, which he characterized as anti-democratic.
“I believe the judge’s decision is deeply, deeply concerning,” he said at a press conference on Monday. “The result is unacceptable to the people of Ontario.”
Since the Progressive Conservatives took office in June, the government has faced legal action regarding the cancellation of the basic-income pilot project and an electric-vehicle rebate, as well as the rollback of the sex-education curriculum.
In the interview on Monday evening, Ford said the administration’s various legal battles are a sign of its success so far.
“That’s really, really disturbing when the last government wasted billions and billions of dollars, every scandal you could possibly think of, and there was never a court challenge,” he said.
“We’re in office for a couple of months and we have 10 court cases that we’re fighting, so that tells me that we’re doing a great job. We’re actually standing up for people.”
— With files from Chris Whan and David Shum, Global News