After 8 years of improvising, Doug Ford only offers more of the same

It’s a question also worth asking of NDP Leader Marit Stiles and the interim Liberal leader, John Fraser. In between election campaigns, the three major parties are rarely held to account.

Today, thanks to a ritual of summer speechmaking, here’s a snapshot of where they stand after they sat down with their local counterparts at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario:

Turns out Ford is saying and selling more of the same, which adds up to less and less. When not relying on his anti-Trump talking points, his message to mayors is that the Tories are “delivering on our plan.”

That plan begins and ends with tax cuts. Surprisingly, given that his audience of municipal politicians feels the squeeze from provincial fiscal restraint, Ford offered a misplaced boast about his zeal for lowering taxes — which puts more pressure on the treasury:

“We have never raised a tax and we never will — in fact, we have cut taxes and fees,” the premier intoned at last month’s meeting.

Tough luck if you’re looking for help from Queen’s Park. All that said, what sells is the HST cut on new homes, which is helping home sales, he argued.

Ford then pivoted to a new talking point: his “data centre playbook” unveiled last month, which tackles the simmering debate over how to host those gargantuan computing and consuming facilities in inhospitable territory — conjuring up memories of the revolt over wind turbines on rural terrain.

The premier made the case for data sovereignty, lest we off-load our privacy offshore. But he vowed big data will pay its own way:

“Our framework will ensure data centres cover the full cost of their electricity usage. Ontario will not offer financial incentives to attract investments,” Ford told the mayors. “Instead, we will rely on our … clean and reliable electricity system.”

What he didn’t talk about is the hidden subsidy that Ontario keeps giving electricity consumers and manufacturers, costing taxpayers billions a year. So when Ford espouses a lean and mean governmental machine that cuts every tax and fee in sight, he doesn’t own up to the hidden subsidies that bleed our budget even more.

For all his tough talk about data centres, the premier didn’t mince words about drug users:

“Working with municipalities, we’re cleaning up our streets and cracking down on crime so people can feel safe again in their own communities. We’re shutting down drug injection sites (and) clearing encampments out of parks.”

That’s a legitimate concern for the mayors of Ontario’s big cities, who have lobbied Queen’s Park to declare a public emergency to deal with homelessness and the proliferation of drug use. The main two opposition leaders, however, chose their words more carefully.

“Drug use is being pushed from health-care centres into the streets, playgrounds, transit and public restrooms,” the NDP’s Stiles told her municipal audience. “There has been no support to get people off of the streets and into homes or shelters, and people don’t feel safe going out in their own communities.”

As to the complexities in those communities — the reality of drug use and encampments — Stiles had little new to say. Instead, she called out Ford’s obsession with overriding municipal councils — bike lane removals in Toronto, special economic zones here and there, plus ministerial zoning orders everywhere.

“We will never stop fighting against provincial overreach. Local democracy matters, local decision-making matters,” Stiles said. “The government brags they haven’t raised taxes while forcing municipalities to raise property taxes because they don’t want to take the blame.”

As for the Liberals, Fraser echoed the complaint that “Queen’s Park micromanages everything from your secondary plan densities right down to speed cameras and bike lanes.”

He also took aim at the government’s sleight-of-hand on taxes. “The premier likes to say he hasn’t raised taxes,” Fraser mused, but “keeping provincial taxes low by putting more pressure on municipalities isn’t solving the affordability crisis — it’s just moving the bill from one envelope to another.”

As to the Liberal alternative, the interim leader suggested his audience stay tuned as his party’s leadership race takes shape. Interestingly, Fraser asked the assembled municipal politicians to “come meet our leadership candidates … listen to our debates … challenge us” ahead of the Nov. 21 decision.

His comments were less of a prescription than an invitation to suss out the party that has pulled out ahead of the NDP in most public opinion polls and is closing in on Ford’s governing Tories. Which may be the most surprising takeaway from these summertime speeches.

To be sure, municipal politicians can be a tough crowd for provincial leaders in any season. In their speeches, the rival leaders showcased their parties’ political ambitions; solutions, not so much.