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Quotes of the day by those who would protect the status quo:
•“Public services delivered by public employees have worked very, very well.” — Councillor Glenn DeBaeremaeker
•“I can tell you there are many, many things we don’t know (about this garbage contract) ... we don’t know where the trucks will be stored or what day pick-up will be ...” — Union sister and long-time CUPE apologist Janet Davis as she rubbed her hands in despair.
•“I have big questions ... grave concerns ... about a contract valued at $200,000.” — NDPer Kristyn Wong-Tam.
Wong-Tam, whom I’ve newly renamed Wrong-Turn for her contrarian stance to anything that is good for taxpayers, undervalued the proposed new $17.5-million per year garbage contract with Green for Life (GFL) Environmental East Corp. for District 2 by a factor of 10.
But her comments and the others were far from the most striking part of a predictably testy debate at council Monday between those who have the gumption to do what’s right for the taxpayers and those who care far more about pandering to their union brethren.
It was newbie Councillor Ana Bailao — who has wasted no time morphing into a clone of her predecessor Adam Giambrone — who made the most absurd pitch to defer a decision on the contract altogether until the end of next month.
Bailao claimed she still had “unanswered questions.”
She also wanted city officials to “look at all options” including sitting down with CUPE 416 to discuss proposed efficiencies.
Where has Bailao been for the past year?
This union brass has proven, time and again, that it is not interested in making any concessions whatsoever, even when pushed to the wall.
When public works chairman Denzil Minnan-Wong asked her what efforts she’d made to get her questions answered, Bailao shot back that she’d only had two working days (it was actually three) and she had to deal with “constituent concerns.”
Thankfully her stalling tactic, er deferral, lost — although narrowly — 20-22 and the contract passed, finally after a day of debate, 26-16.
What these union apologists will never concede is the fact that the benefits of outsourcing go far beyond the $11-million estimated to be saved each year for the next seven years, or $78.4-million in total.
This move sends a clear signal to their CUPE friends that they’d better get their collective act together, or the private sector will leave them in their dust.
Putting aside the obvious for a moment, this scenario was indeed proof of what Mayor Rob Ford and those who’ve championed any attempts to bring in such efficiencies — Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, Budget Chief Mike Del Grande and Minnan-Wong — are up against.
There’s a core group of leftists on council — most of them holdovers from the Miller regime and a few newbies — who refuse to come to grips with the notion that the world has changed and that the city has a serious debt and deficit problem.
If there was ever proof that their first loyalty is to their union sisters and brothers who helped deliver them a council seat, not taxpayers, this debate was it.
We kept hearing that the bid was too low — as if the idea of a contractor being efficient was beyond their grasp.
Sister Paula Fletcher, noted Communist and wife of a labour leader, kept reminding council that there would be 30 fewer trucks doing the work — as if all of the residents impacted would have to personally wheel their brontasaurus bins to a transfer station themselves.
They trash talked the contractor and when that didn’t work, they produced garbage about dead-end streets, dumping in parks, recycling not getting done and customer complaints.
“A shadow of doubt still hangs over the matter,” contended Wrong-Turn just before the vote, no doubt worried that the private forces operating west of Yonge St. in her ward would give city forces east of Yonge St. a run for their money.
That, folks, is the scariest part of it all.
We might actually get good service.
Imagine that, service delivered with a smile, on time and on budget — without having to gift wrap our garbage first.
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