John Tory to remain mayor until 2023 budget passes, ally says

Councillors who back Tory hope to convince him to reverse his decision to resign and stay even longer: ‘He’s taken responsibility, and he’s human.’

Thestar.com
Feb. 14, 2023
Ben Spurr
David Rider

Mayor John Tory says he will remain in office until the 2023 budget is finalized, as his allies at city hall urge him to reconsider his sudden decision to step down.

Three days after his bombshell announcement that he was quitting after a Star investigation revealed he had a relationship with a former staffer, Tory had yet to formally submit his resignation Monday, leaving city hall abuzz with speculation about his future.

Sources close to Tory, speaking confidentially to discuss internal matters, say he is listening closely to those urging him to stay, and is not ruling out the possibility he will look for a way to rescind his resignation.

Coun. James Pasternak (Ward 6, York Centre) said his impression after meeting with the mayor on Monday was that he is “torn” about leaving office.

“I think that he’s getting some mixed signals,” said Pasternak, an ally of the mayor who broached the topic with Tory during a closed-door session about the budget.

Pasternak said Tory is getting support from people “worried about who could be in the mayor’s chair come spring” if he resigns. But after Tory’s shock announcement Friday in which he admitted wrongdoing, “I don’t know if he can really walk this back,” the councillor said.

Outside of city hall, some Conservatives and right-leaning Liberals are extremely concerned about the prospect of a progressive candidate winning a mayoral byelection and tilting city hall to the left on issues including the Toronto police budget.

Several told the Star they fear Toronto’s left, frozen out of the mayor’s chair since 2010, would cut police funding, enact successive property tax hikes and relentlessly battle Premier Doug Ford’s government.

Coun. Josh Matlow, a vocal critic of Tory, was taken aback by the suggestion the mayor could be waffling.

“I don’t get that,” said Matlow, who is widely believed to be planning a run for mayor.

He said Tory deserved credit for resigning “for all the right reasons” and acknowledging his relationship with an employee was inappropriate.

“So I’d advise him to do what he actually believes is right, rather than testing the political waters,” Matlow said.

In a statement Monday, Tory’s spokesperson confirmed he will attend Wednesday’s council meeting to debate the 2023 budget.

“The budget makes key investments in housing, transit, and community safety and the mayor will be working to ensure it is approved,” the statement said.

The decision to see the budget process through could mean Tory remains on the job for weeks.

That’s because under the province’s new strong-mayor legislation, if a majority of councillors vote to change the budget Wednesday, the mayor will have up to 10 days to veto the amendments. Council would then have up to 15 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority.

If council make no changes, the budget will be considered adopted after Wednesday’s meeting.

“(Tory) is committed to ensuring that this budget gets passed. If it means sticking around for a couple more weeks, I’m sure that’s something he will be doing,” Coun. Gary Crawford (Ward 20, Scarborough Southwest), Tory’s budget chief, told reporters.

The mayor’s office wouldn’t confirm he will stay on past Wednesday.

“Further details on the transition will be announced following the budget meeting,” the statement said.

Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale--High Park) said it would be reprehensible for Tory to use his veto to overrule a majority of councillors after saying he was leaving office.

“John Tory has said he intends to relinquish his authority to govern the city of Toronto. It would be appalling for him to issue a veto on any portion of the budget that council votes on,” he said.

Perks and other progressive members have signalled they plan to reopen parts of Tory’s budget to reverse a planned increase to the police budget and cuts to TTC service. They also hope to find funding to keep warming centres for homeless people open around the clock.

Perks said the prospect that amending the budget could provoke Tory to use his veto and prolong the budget process won’t deter those efforts.

As of Monday afternoon, some at city hall remained in active discussions to persuade Tory to remain in office past the budget process and finish out his four-year term.

“There are a number of us on council who think that the mayor should stay,” said Coun. John Burnside (Ward 16, Don Valley East), one of a group of councillors involved in the talks.

“The goal is honestly to get as many councillors as possible,” he said.

Burnside argued that Tory is best qualified to provide steady leadership as Toronto navigates a fiscal crisis and other looming challenges, and most residents don’t want another election so soon after the October vote that delivered the mayor a third term.

The councillor said he’s requested a meeting with Tory to press him to stay put.

Burnside wouldn’t say who else was leading the talks. But Crawford and Frances Nunziata (Ward 5, York South--Weston), both staunch Tory allies, are reportedly among them.

“I’ve been receiving calls from my constituents (saying) please, please, don’t let him resign,” Nunziata said.

The group of pro-Tory councillors contemplated circulating a petition asking him to walk back his announcement, but the idea was scrapped because some left-leaning members were wary of putting their support for the centre-right mayor in writing.

During his resignation Friday, the mayor described the relationship with his staffer, which began while the woman worked for him and ended earlier this year, as a “serious error in judgment” and said he would step down “to do the work of rebuilding the trust of my family.”

He said he had asked the integrity commissioner to investigate.

Toronto city council’s code of conduct doesn’t specifically address romantic relationships between council members like the mayor and the staff who work for them. In general, the code states that “members should perform their duties and arrange their private affairs in a manner that promotes public confidence and bears close public scrutiny.”

A 2016 integrity commissioner report that found the “inappropriate relationship” between then London, Ont., mayor Matt Brown and deputy mayor Maureen Cassidy violated council’s code of conduct hints at what may come as a result of the probe into Tory’s behaviour.

“The conduct disclosed is clearly incompatible and inconsistent with the ethical discharge of their official duties in the public interest,” commissioner

Gregory Stewart wrote. The actions of the London mayor and deputy put them in a position where they could have provided preferential treatment or special consideration to each other or to other people, he concluded, and do not hold up to public confidence or scrutiny.

In response to a scandal in Ottawa, the city council requested in October that their integrity commissioner review whether mandatory disclosure of close personal relationships between members of council and staff, particularly those who report directly to them, should become part of the code of conduct.

Integrity investigations found that former Ottawa city councillor Rick Chiarelli broke the code of conduct in 2019 for making inappropriate comments, including pressuring employees and job applicants to go braless.