Would-be mayors debate future of new home industry in Toronto
By on Sep 13, 2010
The five remaining Toronto mayoral candidates met with members of the Builders' Association and Urban Development Institute (BILD) this morning to discuss and debate their platforms as they relate to the new home industry in the GTA.
"The Mayor matters so it matters to BILD that our membership is engaged in the election, understands the candidates' platforms and ultimately get out to vote on October 25," said Joe Vaccaro, Vice-President of Policy and Government Relations at BILD.
Candidates Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman and Sarah Thomson had the opportunity to make opening statements and then answered previously submitted questions from BILD members. Issues discussed ranged from the development approval process to the land transfer tax and development charges to development standards.
In their closing remarks, the mayoral candidates offered a summation of their position, and outlined their very different approaches to leading the city of Toronto.
"With [me] you get competence, you get experience and you got trust," said Pantalone. "We have an amazing city in Toronto, but the world is full of what were once amazing cities, but they are no more, like Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit. Unless you have someone with experience managing Canada's largest city, we could be headed for trouble."
"I'm a business person and I'm a family man and we have to have these people leading the city," said Ford. "I've been there, done that and I know what it takes to make a prosperous city. It's spend, spend, spend with anyone else at this table. With me you will not, guaranteed, get new taxes."
"I'll work to open the doors at city hall and invite the people back into the role of leading our civic government," said Thomson. "Our politicians are not listening to us. I'm mad as hell, I hope you're mad as hell and I hope you'll join me in taking back our city."
"I'm fundamentally optimistic about the future of the city of Toronto, but I'm frustrated that city government isn't near as good as the people of Toronto," said Smitherman. "I want to create jobs for our people and I want to start by restoring fiscal credibility at city hall with a tax freeze next year, a freeze on new hiring and a freeze on spending."
"We can no longer afford the so-called experience of career politicians," said Rossi. "It's time for a new look, new skills and a new approach with a real track record of fiscal accountability."
"I think it was high level, mostly intelligent and the thing I liked most was that, for the first time in this campaign, they were talking about developer and builder and building issues," said Stephen Dupuis, President of BILD, following the debate. "The one area they were unanimous on, all the candidates, was eliminating the free Metropass, which was a ridiculous idea that somehow got approved. It looks like the one thing we can say with certainty is there's been an across the board promise to get rid of that."
