Published in the Toronto Sun, 19 November 2022
So let me get this straight: Toronto council has accepted the cost of $6.3 million to re-name Dundas Street and Yonge-Dundas Square? Is Mayor John Torry going to tell us with a straight face that this will be money well spent and that there is nothing more important that could be done with the money?
Are there no roads that need fixing; no Toronto Community Housing units that need repairs to make them livable; no schools that need a new HVAC system; no budgets that need balancing; no debts that need to be paid?
Are there no homeless shelters and food banks that could use that kind of money?
I know that hospitals are a provincial responsibility, but if you have that much spare money, maybe pass some of that to Toronto’s hospitals, which we are told are in desperate need of additional money.
Mayor Torry, if you spend this money on this useless, virtue-signaling exercise, you have lost the right to go cap-in-hand to the province asking for more money to balance the city’s budget.
Given that Mississauga has stated it will cost them $1.8 million to re-name the section of Dundas Street through their jurisdiction, money that I’m sure Mississauga needs for other purposes, Premier Doug Ford should step in and tell both of them to drop the issue.
As an alternative to spending the money for a completely superfluous reason, perhaps Mayor Torry could hold a raffle for any Toronto resident with the surname of Dundas, and then officially declare that the street is now named after that person, not the Scottish politician, who may or may not have had good reasons for delaying the abolition of slavery.
You’re welcome, Mayor Torry. I take my coffee with cream and sugar.
(Of course this isn’t a good use of money. It’s just too bad the politicians don’t see that)
