Councillor Mike Del Grande, Mayor Rob Fords budget chief, says he does not actually support the incendiary housing proposal he made last week.
Why, then, did he make it? Strictly to anger councils lefties, he told the Toronto Sun.
At a meeting of Fords executive committee, Del Grande tabled a formal motion to take $36 million in affordable housing money, $16.4 million of which was supposed to go to Regent Park, and reallocate it to a proposed housing project in the ward of right-leaning Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti.
Pam McConnell, the left-leaning councillor who represents Regent Park, was furious and that was the point, Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt) told the Sun.
Left-leaning councillors had complained to the committee about the inadequacy of federal and provincial housing funding, thus delaying for mere minutes the committees decision to approve the allocations proposed by city staff.
To retaliate, Del Grande said, he decided to do something with the intent of throwing it in the left-wingers faces.
We had a report, we were prepared to pass the report and then they started, what they typically do, start to bang their feet and stuff, he said.
The game-playing was with them, they were playing the game and I just responded to their game to give them a taste of their own game-playing.
Del Grande, known for his gruff demeanor and blunt talk, is a proud penny-pincher who sometimes brings a piggy bank to council meetings to remind his colleagues of the citys fiscal challenges. But his fake proposal comes at a cost: the committee voted to have the citys top bureaucrat, city manager Joe Pennachetti, write a report on it.
