Mayor John Tory has said that it’s time to again examine privatized garbage collection east of Yonge Street. He made such privatization a plank in his election campaign in 2014 but soon after the vote said he had reasons not to proceed. The media has played all this with a straight face — as it should — but the reasons offered for not proceeding in the first place seem feeble. The story goes that a delay was called because the city was about to start negotiating a new contract with its unionized outside workers. A deal was signed earlier this year and the mayor now says that contract gives the city updated numbers to work with and see if the private sector can deliver a comparable service, but at a lower cost.
HUH?
Rob Ford concluded that west side privatization saved ten or eleven million dollars a year when CUPE employees were making less than they are today. That saving has never been effectively refuted. There seems no question that privatization will save the City money — and it would have done so two years ago. Cynical ratepayers will recall that Mr. Ford also pledged to privatize the east side collection. But he argued that it could only be done after the 2014 election. Is there a pattern emerging here? Mr. Tory should be concerned that taxpayers may reasonably decide they are being manipulated for the purposes of his re-election.
