September 8, 2006: THE TORONTO STAR

By: ROYSON JAMES

She's on her third campaign manager and there's still little evidence of momentum building behind her drive to unseat David Miller as mayor. But in her first major policy release on how she'd do the job differently, Councillor Jane Pitfield has created some separation between herself and the incumbent on the important matter of the city's financial mess.

And she may be learning a thing or two about political campaigning, such as, don't answer questions to which you don't have an answer, or questions you don't want to answer just yet, or questions that lead you away from the issue you called the press to discuss.

Pitfield's message today is an old one — safe yet relevant, an old chestnut but one with lasting appeal because it hits at an issue that infuriates voters: government spending.

Taxes are too high, she says. Spending is out of control. The current regime doesn't have a clue. The mayor is the "billion dollar man" because spending has jumped more than a billion dollars since he took over from Mel Lastman. Miller broke his promise on how high he'd raise taxes. And so on.

And how would life be different with Pitfield as mayor? She would:

·  Contract out some city services, where appropriate.

·  Roll back the 9 per cent pay hike council recently gave itself.

·  Conduct an independent audit of city finances by forensic accountants to find city waste.

·  Force all departments to justify current programs before adding to their budget.

·  Enforce a hiring freeze, though no massive layoffs. The city has 62,000 full- and part-time workers for 2.5 million people while the province has 64,000 for four times as many citizens, she says.

·  Eschew the new taxing powers given the city and not raise taxes on tobacco, entertainment etc. because taxpayers are already burdened.

"To pay for the spending spree, taxpayers have been hit with three consecutive tax increases at rates higher than inflation," she said. Her increases would be at or below inflation, as would salary increases for politicians.

It's a taxpayer-friendly package designed to present herself as a clear alternative to Miller, who is on the opposite side of all the above.

Pitfield said businesses are fleeing the city and she'll give tax relief to business at a rate three times faster than Miller has offered.

Accompanied as she was by a skeleton staff, little sign of a big city campaign buzz or the trappings of power or influence, Pitfield still appears too modest for the imposing task of knocking off an incumbent who has made few gaffes.

Are the straight facts on the city's fiscal challenges, already aired and repeated many times, enough to bring voters — and more importantly, campaign workers and donors — to her camp? One would think not.

But Pitfield said yesterday she's sensing a shift as disaffected Millerites look for an alternative.

"It takes courage to do what I'm doing. I'm doing this because I feel strongly we need someone to tackle the tough issues (such as) garbage, panhandling, budget," she told reporters as she launched her "first of five or six" policy planks, this one at the Sheraton Centre downtown.

"Don't pre-judge and don't underestimate me, because the best is yet to come. I have been waiting with relish for these nine months."

Then, she admitted that supporters are not often motivated to join a campaign because the candidate is talking about budgets, even though it's the "number two issue in the amalgamated city."

One assumes crime and safety is number one.

Pitfield has improved, but she had to. There yesterday to talk about the city's finances, she managed to steer clear of other matters that would take her off message. A few months ago, she would have gone off on several tangents. If anything, yesterday she needed to provide more details about how she would fix the city's mess.

How much waste is there? What savings would the audit unearth? Ditto for contracting out? Where will she get money to fund the relief to business? Where's the money to replace the potential consumption taxes she says she won't tap? And where is the group of councillors and other big-name supporters behind her? Again, yesterday, there was only Councillor Mike Del Grande.

Yes, she's improving. But Jane Pitfield has miles to go before she sleeps — as Toronto's mayor.