Taxpayer Protection Plan

July 14th, 2010

Reduce Allowances handed out to politicians

• Reduce Councillors’ Expense Accounts to $30,000.

• Reduce Councillors’ staffing budgets to $175,000.
• Reduce Mayor’s office budget by 20 percent.

Currently, Councillors can spend $53,100 of taxpayers’ money on virtually anything.

While there are some legitimate uses of this account, like contacting or assisting
constituents, these funds have been abused year after year by Councillors who just can’t
seem to help themselves.

The most recent example of abusing these expense accounts is the lavish $12,000 party
Kyle Rae threw himself at our expense.

As Mayor, Rob Ford will reduce the expense accounts for each Councillor from the
current $53,100 to $30,000, limiting their ability to use taxpayers’ money to further their
own political interests. (Total savings $1,016,400.)

Rob Ford will also reduce Councillor staffing budgets to $175,000 from the current
$207,584. $175,000 is more than enough to run the administration in a City Council
office with high-quality, experienced staff. (Total savings $1,433,685.)

Saving $33,100 on expenses and $30,000 on staffing from each of the 44 Councillors will
save the taxpayers more than $2.4 million per year.

Finally, Rob Ford will reduce the Mayor’s office budget by 20 percent (from the current
$2,560,717 to $2,048,573), saving the taxpayers $512,144 per year. Much like
Councillors’ expense accounts, the Mayor’s office budget is one big expense account
with too much opportunity for abuse.

Together, these changes will save taxpayers about $3 million each year (Total savings
$2,962,228.)

www.robfordformayor.ca
(416) 628-8576
245 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9P 3T4
Publish all City of Toronto spending online

Taxpayers have the right to know how their money is being spent. For 10 years, Rob
Ford led the charge to get Councillors’ expenses published online, beginning on his own
website. City Council has since adopted this practice for Councillor expenses.

Now it’s time to publish ALL city spending so that citizens can see how their money is
being spent – and can hold their government accountable.

This will be done by expanding the city’s current Open Data initiative to make full public
spending information available online.

This will include all public expenditures – including the $9 million or more billed on
city-issued credit cards last year without Council being able to even see receipts for
purchases or a list of who has the credit cards.

To make City Hall truly transparent and accountable, it’s necessary to show where
taxpayers’ money is being spent. Rob Ford will open the books and let the public back in
to City Hall.

www.robfordformayor.ca
(416) 628-8576
245 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9P 3T4
Opening all major purchases to competitive bids

Opening all major purchases by the City of Toronto to competitive bids will make city
purchasing more open, transparent and competitive.

Taxpayers have the right to know they’re getting the best value for their money. Too
often, this doesn’t happen. Purchases are negotiated behind closed doors without
competitive bidding. This means there’s no way to know if it’s a good deal or not.

The biggest purchase the city ever made – $750 million to buy new subway cars – was
sole-sourced to one company without even looking at other bids. This is an unacceptable
waste of taxpayers’ money.

This type of back room wheeling and dealing happens too often at City Hall. Each year,
the city buys about $1 billion of goods and services, so it is essential to know this money
is being spent wisely.

Businesses in Toronto should also have the right to compete for the city’s business.
Right now, they don’t find out about opportunities until it’s too late.

As mayor, Rob Ford will ensure the city adopts and follows best practices for all its
purchases. Competitive bids will be solicited for every major purchase. The entire
purchasing process will be made open and transparent.

www.robfordformayor.ca
(416) 628-8576
245 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9P 3T4
Whistleblower protection for City of Toronto employees

In the era of sponsorship scandals and eHealth billion dollar boondoggles, whistleblower
protection is more important now than ever before.

As Mayor, Rob Ford will protect City of Toronto employees who do the right thing and
come forward to prevent waste, corruption, or mismanagement in their departments.

Every day, city employees witness waste, abuse and mismanagement of the public purse.
The city has a waste hotline they can call to report it, but there is no effective protection
in place for employees who blow the whistle on waste.


City employees who act in the best interest of taxpayers deserve protection. As mayor,
Rob Ford will enact a By-Law protecting employees from retaliation when they reveal
information about wasteful spending or mismanagement. This will make Toronto the first
city in Ontario to have this type of legislation.

To keep Toronto open and accountable, whistleblower protection is an important and

necessary step.

www.robfordformayor.ca
(416) 628-8576
245 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9P 3T4