A marathon session of Toronto city council's executive committee continued overnight Thursday and into Friday morning as councillors heard from hundreds of union members, arts groups, social agencies and others on the Rob Ford administration's deliberations over cutting services to rein in a budget deficit.
When the last of well over 300 people spoke at 6.40 a.m. ET, the meeting had run for over 21 hours, the longest continuous meeting of either council or one of its committees since the modern megacity was created in 1998.
Throughout the night, presenters chose different methods to get their point across. One sang a song, another read a poem, one wrote a short story, a young man performed a puppet show and a retired teacher delivered a satirical essay. Most simply berated the committee.
But the message was the same: don't cut anything.
The executive committee's task is to consider cuts suggested to the city's agencies, boards and commissions by auditor KPMG. While no final decisions have to be made at the meeting, the powerful executive can make recommendations that will carry weight over the coming months as the city decides what to axe and what to save.
Among the services and assets on the chopping block are libraries, water fluoridation, the affordable housing office, the Toronto Zoo, city-owned theatres, night buses and crossing guards.
People packed into the second-floor committee room at city hall – at several points, every available seat in the house was taken – and spilled over into adjacent rooms to watch on television monitors.
When the session first started, leftwing opposition councillors were favourable to the speakers, while rightwing executives in Mr. Ford's inner circle asked probing questions, demanding community groups and social agencies tell them what services to cut.
"I'm not hearing any suggestions on how to deal with our shortfall," said budget chief Mike Del Grande to one arts group. "Yeah, you're important, fine. But we have a huge debt."
But as the hours ticked by, executives stopped asking questions altogether, while the opposition continued to ask questions, turning the exercise into something of a filibuster.
There were some moments of tension: when two men tried to swap speaking times, Mr. Ford refused to allow it and deputants shouted their displeasure. The mayor eventually ordered one of the men removed by security. On another occasion, the public clapped so loudly no one could speak, and Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who labelled the dissenters "the socialist party," threatened to move a motion to stop the proceedings entirely.
On numerous occasions, the excitable crowd booed and screamed at the mayor, who largely displayed a quiet cool and stuck assiduously to the schedule, cutting people off after their speaking time was up.
Many more times, the crowd whooped and cheered their favourite speakers.
"We're closing schools in the poorest neighbourhood, yet we give police an 11 per cent raise?" said Nigel Barriffe, a primary school teacher in Mr. Ford's north Etobicoke district, before receiving a standing ovation.
"Rise up!" Mr. Barriffe exhorted them. "Rise up!"
A crossing guard shouted at councillors that children would be hurt if her job was outsourced. A 14-year-old library user cried as she talked about the importance of the institution.
There were, of course, moments of levity, too. Like when Susan Wesson sang a song about the importance of libraries. Everyone – including the executives – burst into applause after.
"Thank you very much. Thanks for livening up the evening," said Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who had taken over the chair while Mr. Ford left the room for a break.
Desmond Cole, meanwhile, busted out a puppet named "Roy" to implore councillors not to make cuts.
The 29-year-old explained afterward that, after being to many of these deputations, he wanted to do something different.
"A lot of people get emotional and passionate about these things that we said. I knew there was going to be enough of that, so I decided to do something light-hearted," he said.
Retiree Mary Hynes, 67, earlier facetiously suggested the city close all libraries, do away with the transit system and shut down its website so that disadvantaged people in need of services would move away and more money would be saved.
A few prominent Torontonians, including transit union leader Bob Kinnear, Ontario College of Art and Design president Sara Diamond and Mr. Ford's own arts advisor, Jeff Melanson, also appeared.
"How much did you pay for (KPMG's) cut and paste ideas: cut services and contract out? You must all be slapping your foreheads saying: why didn't we think of that?" Mr. Kinnear said, before arguing that the TTC's cost-recovery at the fare box was better than that of any other major North American transit system. "Our workers operate the most economic efficient transit system on the continent."
Mr. Melanson asked his boss not to chop grants in the city's cost-saving exercise. He did, however, say the city was right to consider whether it should continue owning theatres.
"Hold the line on arts funding," he said. "When you give up a $10,000 grant to an arts organization, other investments go."
In response to a question from left-leaning councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, he acknowledged that when he first took his post, he made it a condition that arts funding would not be cut.
The speakers repeated similar arguments, saying they would rather raise taxes than cut services and that cuts now would translate into higher costs in successive years. One woman even offered a cheque to pay more in property tax and five dollars to pay the vehicle registration fee Mr. Ford axed last year. Leftwing Councillor Adam Vaughan brought them to the city clerk.
Mr. Ford made it clear on the outset he would sit all night but would not say whether the executive committee would make any recommendations on what to cut.
He also suggested some of KPMG's recommendations were "over the top."
Asked to name programs he would be interested in axing, he named the community grants he has always opposed, as well as the city zoo and city-owned theatres.
"I am going to sit here all day and all night and all morning until everyone has had a chance to speak," Mr. Ford said earlier.
Opening the meeting, the mayor said: "This process is one of the largest community consultations in Toronto's history."
Taxpayers, he said, need to set priorities for the city.
"Are libraries more important than child care? Is policing more important than safe roads? That is what we are here to discuss today. You tell me. We are here to listen. … It only makes sense that we take the nice-to-haves out of the budget."
In a letter, former mayor Art Eggleton warned City Council that efforts to fix the city's finances shouldn't be made on the "back of the poor."
Mr. Eggleton argued that slashing child care, libraries, affordable housing, children's meal programs and dental services for the poor could be "detrimental" to the quality of life in Toronto.
"We can't afford to abandon the vulnerable in our society. We shouldn't balance the books on the back of the poor. We will pay a lot more in the long run if we do," he wrote in a letter sent to Mr. Ford and City Council earlier this week.
Mr. Eggleton, who is now a senator, said councillors must look at the long-term implications of some of the proposed cuts, warning that: "We can't afford Toronto going from world class to mediocrity."
Mr. Ford invited everyone to come to the meeting, promising to give them five minutes to have their say. However, at the beginning of the session, councillors voted to limit remarks from the public to three minutes and to place the same time limit on questions and comments from councillors. Still, with 302 speakers registered by late Wednesday afternoon, councillors and staff were preparing for a sleepover.
"I'm bringing my pyjamas and my pillow," said Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, part of the mayor's inner circle.
City staff can't recall another meeting that has attracted as much interest from the public.
The executive session follows two weeks of standing-committee meetings and hours of remarks from the public, all focused on more than 400 pages of findings from a KPMG study of 155 city services. The study is part of the mayor's pledge to find the "gravy" at city hall, and close an estimated $774-million funding gap in next year's budget. A review of service fees and efficiency studies also are taking place.
After this week's meeting, the same committee will face a second mammoth session in September, when it meets to consider all the recommendations sent to it from the city's standing committees. That meeting, on Sept. 19, will face an equally long list of controversial cost-cutting options including eliminating subsidies for 2,000 daycare spaces and selling nursing homes.
The full range of savings measures will be debated at the end of September at a special meeting of city council.
With a report from Jill Mahoney
Adrian Morrow