Ford Makes Jokes in First Public Speech after Stripped Powers

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Giving his first public speech after Toronto city council tarnished his budget and mayoral powers, Rob Ford made jokes frequently causing smile and laughter. During his speech, he stated that “we’ve reduced council and the mayor’s budget by $6.4 million over four years,” adding that “even more in the last three days,” signaling towards the recent stripping of his budget and responsibilities on Monday. The council voted to assign most of his duties to Deputy Mayor, Norm Kelly.

However, the embattled mayor drew a hard line when it came to the budget and tax increases. He stated that “I have said I want a one-and-three-quarter per cent tax increase — that’s including a reduction in the land transfer tax; that’s including a half a per cent for the subways.” Ford informed a cheering crowd at an economic development event at Casa Loma that “I don’t believe that’s going to happen.”

Speaking earlier on Thursday, budget chief, Frank Di Giorgio, hinted towards new expenditures and the commitment to building the Scarborough subway, when he stated that “it will be very difficult” to keep the property tax increase to 1.75 per cent. He stated that the persistent message of, “‘You have to find saving’ — there comes a time when you have to say, well, there are no more savings to be had.” However, Ford alleged that “this is not the way I ran the government,” and “I know we can achieve a one-and-three-quarter per cent tax increase to keep this city as great as it ever has been.”