Rocco Rossi: Getting Toronto back on track starts with getting our fiscal house in order

• Posted on: March 03, 2010
• Submitted by: votetoronto2010 staff

Speaking to a sold-out luncheon audience at the Toronto Board of Trade, mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi delivered his second major speech of the campaign outlining more of his platform and giving the audience insight into what a “Rossi Administration” would look like.

Getting Toronto back on track, the central theme of Mr. Rossi’s speech, stuck close to the themes of the Board of Trade’s “The Growing Chasm” document. “Getting Toronto back on track starts with getting our fiscal house in order,” said Mr. Rossi. “Toronto is spending more – a lot more – than it takes in. And unless we take control, we’re headed for a fiscal crash landing.”

Mr. Rossi advocated on behalf of moving toward multi-year planning, regaining control of labour costs, re-inventing the way the City delivers its services, reducing the City’s debt and the need to speak frankly about the TTC.

Some key points from his speech:

• Multi-year planning provides a vision and fact base which allows the City to make tough calls
• The City often states that its fiscal problems can be traced back to downloading and from amalgamation, but it fails to look at how its own practices impact the fiscal situation
• By inviting all qualified bidders (including the unions) to compete for contracts the City can get better service while lowering its costs
• “Debt is strangling our city” while surrounding cities (like Mississauga) are debt free
• There has to be a better way to manage the TTC than what the City is currently doing and it involves talking with all levels of government and regional bodies

You can read his full speech here.

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