Saunders vows to root out waste

Former police chief cites IT as one area he can cut spending to fix city’s budget

Toronto former police chief Mark Saunders is vowing to find wasteful spending to fix the city’s pandemicravaged budget — but voters must wait until after the election to know what he would cut.

The former police chief told the Toronto Star’s editorial board Tuesday he is convinced the city doesn’t need so many people working on internet technology and he doesn’t see its digital platforms “talking to each other.”

“Sometimes when we’re doing too many things we’re doing nothing,” said Saunders, who has promised to keep property tax hikes below the rate of inflation despite the city’s unprecedented $1.5-billion budget gap for last year and this year.

“There are people at city hall dealing with the smoke and not seeing where the fire is. I have the ability of seeing that fire.” Pressed for an example of what he would cut as mayor, Saunders, touting his experience overseeing a Toronto police annual budget of more than $1 billion, said “IT for sure” and he knows he would find costly duplication.

COVID-19 triggered a dramatic boost in city spending on public health, seniors homes and more while slashing TTC revenue. Toronto faces a massive budget gap of $46.5 billion over the next decade, city staff say.

Other prominent mayoral candidates vowing to keep a lid on taxes include Coun. Brad Bradford and former city councillor Ana Bailão. Former Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter, Coun. Josh Matlow and former New Democratic MP Olivia Chow have all said property taxes or user fees must rise to address the budget crisis while the city lobbies the provincial and federal governments for a new fiscal deal.

Opinion polls suggest Saunders is running second behind Chow who, with less than a month until the June 26 mayoral byelection, has a commanding lead.

His mayoral priorities are public safety, especially on the TTC, enacting policies to boost the supply of affordable housing and fighting gridlock. His proven leadership and priority setting would make him a better mayor than rivals with more political experience, he said.

The veteran officer, who retired in 2020 after five years as Toronto’s first Black chief, has highlighted random violent attacks, declaring that he is the only candidate who knows how to keep the city and its residents safe.

Asked how he would steer lowincome youths away from crime, Saunders said community outreach and police efforts need to focus on “high-risk” people already involved in gang activity, not just youths “at risk” of criminality.

“These folks have slipped through at-risk, they’re now in high risk,” so resources need to be aimed at getting them out of that life before they hurt people, Saunders said.

“That is going to involve all three levels of government but they need to hear the right story … When that gets put in place I know you will see a gun violence reduction,” he said, adding he would lead but not personally implement the change.

Saunders was asked how he can promise to keep Toronto safe when, in 2018, he publicly downplayed concerns that a killer was stalking men in the Gay Village just weeks before the arrest of serial killer Bruce McArthur.

Saunders said he was relaying that investigators didn’t then have proof connecting the eight murders, “but I spoke to the evidence more than listening to the sensitives of the community and what they were going through.”

He noted he has apologized for police failures that prevented an earlier arrest of McArthur and said that, as mayor, he would do “everything possible to build on that relationship” between the city and Toronto’s LGBTQ community.

Saunders made no apologies for his ties to Premier Doug Ford who, while not officially endorsing Saunders for mayor, has said it would be “great” to have him running city hall and that the new mayor should have crime-fighting experience.

Saunders, who was an unsuccessful Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2018 election and later Ford’s special adviser on Ontario Place redevelopment, said the new mayor will need relationships with Queen’s Park to succeed.

While he supports Ford’s controversial plan to put a towering private spa and water park on Ontario Place’s West Island, Saunders said that as mayor he would be pushing for Torontonians to get some kind of special access.

“How do we as Torontonians have access to that,” he said, when asked about low-income children whose families won’t be able to afford visits to the Therme spa.

“We’re the host city — we should have some kinds of perks.”