So the Board decided to have two by-elections for the vacated seats February 27th.
It could have saved $500,000 by appointing but if it had done that, it would have symbolically devalued their positions.
Trustees think that they are similar to other elected officials but they are not. Yes they are elected but no they have no real control over any taxing power.
You heard the expression, “no taxation without representation,” that fuelled the American Civil war. Well the opposite is true. No true representation without taxation powers.
Trustees have no taxing powers. All their money comes from the provincial funding formula. It is the Province that calls the shots because the province pays for everything.
But trustees are elected. This is an anachronism held over from before 1997 when they had real control over partToronto’s property tax.
Since trustees have to, by law, balance their budgets and that budget amount is set by the province trustees have little or no power to do anything creative.
All the family centres, pools, daycares etc. were set up before 1997 and so are not funded now by the province.
So there is pressure on the Board to cut back on them.
NowToronto’s parents and residents voted for trustees who supported all that stuff.
So now, those people are not getting represented at the Board. The only representation there is the Province because it pays the full amount.
So there will be elections. How quaint.
Let’s hope there will be some progressive people elected so that the Board starts to show some resistance to the provincial cuts like school land sales.
