|
January 31, 2009 - "City's
$93-million snow job"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Del Grande feels the city certainly
has not gotten off to a good start. "I feel with all the snow
they had last year, overall they did a better job than so far
this year," he said. "This year between sidewalks and windrows,
it's been terrible."
Read
Full Story... |
|
January 21, 2009 - "Council's
$980,000 gift"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande, who voted
against the proposal to give the hospital the $980,000 to buy
the laneway, said the city should not be responsible for hospital
funding but if they want to be, they should at least discuss
the policy before handing over the money carte blanche.
Read
Full Story... |
|
December 23, 2008 - "Merit pay blues at City Hall"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
So much for Miller's broom.
As Coun. Mike Del Grande notes: "I think that broom is probably
in splinters."
Read Full Story... |
|
December 11, 2008 - "Big black capital budget hole"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
For one thing, those new jobs
Miller talks about are more dream than reality. As Coun. Mike
Del Grande observed, the city is not spending anything more
"significant" on capital projects than in the past.
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 31, 2008 - "Road Repairs in the Slow Lane"
(The Toronto Sun: Bryn Weese) |
| |
"The frustration is that the
basics continue to take second stage to pet projects," Del Grande
said, noting while only $173 million is being spent on roads
this year, $70 million is being spent on bike lanes over the
next four years, and $100 million to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Read Full Story... |
|
October 30, 2008 - "Repair
roads, rinks, not Nathan Phillips Square: councillor"
(The National Post: Allison Hanes) |
| |
But Councillor Mike Del Grande
(Scarborough Agincourt) argued the city should not be increasing
its debt, raising property taxes, creating new taxes and imposing
user fees without re-evaluating what is truly necessary spending.
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 28, 2008 - "Beat
the taxman, toss it now"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande said he
suspects it will not be an easy transition to the new garbage
tax scheme. He's already getting "phone calls all over the place"
about the bins and the pink tags.
Read Full Story... |
|
October 19, 2008 - "Flushing will cost 9% more"
(The Toronto Sun: Bryn Weese) |
| |
But Coun. Mike Del Grande said
if any of the user-pay customers are being told to flush their
system while the city replaces lead service connections, it's
not fair to make them pay more
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 19, 2008 - "Raiding
the reserve funds"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
At the community services committee
last week, a plan was approved to yank $2.9 million -- virtually
all the money left in the city's Social Housing Stabilization
Reserve Fund -- to subsidize dozens of homeless projects should
funding not come through from the feds by the end of next March.
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 19, 2008 - "Raiding
the reserve funds"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
At the community services committee
last week, a plan was approved to yank $2.9 million -- virtually
all the money left in the city's Social Housing Stabilization
Reserve Fund -- to subsidize dozens of homeless projects should
funding not come through from the feds by the end of next March.
Read
Full Story... |
|
September 24, 2008 - "City
Considers $1 Tax For Emergency Preparedness"
(City TV Staff) |
| |
"I think citizens are well prepared
to fund a pool of money that the city would administer, and
when we get these types of issues and concerns, et cetera, then
there's a pool of money to help deal with it," Mike Del Grande
outlined Wednesday.
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 10, 2008 - "Expense
account policy set to go before city council"
(The National Post: Allison Hanes) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough
Agincourt) shares Mr. Ford’s views on restraint when it comes
to taxpayer-funded expense accounts. He cuts a cheque each year
to the clerk’s office to reimburse free food offered at council
meetings and finds most of his supplies at the Dollar Store.
Read Full Story... |
|
May 27, 2008 - "Filling the Panhandlers Cup"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
It's not just the obscene amount
of money being poured into the problem with no targets, but
the signal Socialist Silly Hall sends to the public with this
plan -- namely that beggars have more rights than hardworking
taxpaying citizens.
Read Full Story... |
|
April 23, 2008 - "Discipline
Lacking in TTCs IT Spending"
(The National Post: Peter Kuitenbrouwer) |
| |
"It's very disconcerting," said
Councillor Michael Del Grande, the committee's vice-chair. "I
have great concerns that with projects of an IT nature the TTC
has no grasp of how long projects are going to take or how much
they will cost."
Read
Full Story... |
|
April 22, 2008 - "North
York Arts centre cost taxpayers $1.25 million in 2007"
(The Scarborough Mirror) |
| |
"The mayor's blue ribbon panel
talked about looking at assets strategically and determining
whether you keep them or sell them - well as long as I've been
on audit committee this has been coming up over and over again,"
said Ward 39 (Scarborough Agincourt) Councillor Mike Del Grande.
Read
Full Story... |
|
April 1, 2008 - "Council's
Joke is on Us"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Del Grande figures the actual
tax levy is another 15%, if one factors in the land transfer
and vehicle ownership taxes -- expected to raise $175 million
this year.
Read
Full Story... |
| March
27, 2008 - "Fiscal
Fruitcakes Laud Budget"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande so eloquently
described, just a case of "collective euphoric amnesia" orchestrated
by their puppeteer, the mayor.
Read Full Story... |
| March
3, 2008 - "Toronto's
Budget: Show me the money!"
(The Toronto Sun: Theo Caldwell) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande, the only
chartered accountant on Toronto city council, has requested
complete budget data for years, to no avail. Moreover, despite
accounting credentials that are unique among his peers, Del
Grande remains excluded from the city’s budget committee.
Read Full Story... |
|
January 27, 2008 - "David
Miller's money juggle"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
There's also newly proposed
fees to take down private trees, the garbage levy slated to
begin in June, higher water rates and new recreational user
fees. "Life is great (at City Hall) as long as the outreached
hand gets more," says Coun. Mike Del Grande. "It's a pay as
you go if you're in the middle class."
Read Full Story... |
|
December 9, 2007 - "Searching
for City Savings"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
I suspect they simply don't
have the time to sift through the hyperbole and won't be in
a position to "peel back the layers of the onion" to find the
real savings, as Coun. Mike Del Grande puts it.
Read
Full Story... |
|
November 21, 2007 - "Unhooking
Downspouts May Cost $65M"
(The National Post: Kelly Grant) |
| |
Toronto Water estimated it could
cost as much as $65-million -- or the equivalent of a 10% increase
in water rates -- to unhook that many downspouts from the city's
combined sewer system.
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 23, 2007 - "Pay
a bit more, Miller tells Toronto taxpayers"
(The Globe
& Mail: Jeff Gray) |
| |
Councillors endorse mayor's
controversial land-transfer and vehicle licensing fees 26 to
19 after bitter, day-long debate
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 23, 2007 - "Council
approves new taxes"
(The Scarborough Mirror: David Nickle) |
| |
In
the 26-19 council vote that approved the land transfer tax,
Norm Kelly (Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt), Raymond Cho (Ward
42, Scarborough-Rouge River), Glen De Baeremaeker (Ward 38,
Scarborough Centre) and Adrian Heaps (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest)
supported it, while Paul Ainslie (Ward 43, Scarborough East),
Ashton, Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt), Chin
Lee (Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River), Ron Moeser (Ward 44,
Scarborough East) and Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough
Centre) opposed. Read
Full Story... |
|
October 18, 2007 - "Mayor Dismisses Savings Plan"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
"The fact is, instead of commenting they are items worth looking
at, his dismissiveness indicates he's not open to any kind of
change," he said. "The mayor's broom has lost its bristles ...
he continues to play the role of the emperor with no clothes."
Read Full Story... |
|
October 14, 2007 - "Swing Her Axe" (The Toronto Sun:
Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Del Grande
challenges Miller & Co. to take a look at these cuts before
he goes to taxpayers for more tax money -- that this proves
the city is not as efficient as the mayor and his media mouthpieces
constantly maintain. "It's like an onion ... you have to
continually peel," he said. "You have to look under the numbers
and question the numbers."
Read
Full Story...
|
September 10, 2007 - "Debate
heats up as Scarborough councillors vote on community centre
closures"
(The Scarborough
Mirror: David Nickle) |
| |
"The essence I get is those who
voted on this (to defer) are the bad guys," Del Grande said.
"Well I didn't get to vote on which services should be cut...so
it's OK to spend a million and a half to buy a theatre, but
not to fund this."
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 12, 2007 - "Hunting City's Pet Projects" (The
Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Kudos to Mike Del
Grande: Here's a man who puts his money where his mouth is.
Instead of taking the pay hike which brought councillor salaries
to $95,000 this year, he donated the $5,700 extra to some 11
charities, including many dedicated to the environment. He even
gave $100 to the city's chief financial officer to cover his
city-sponsored dinners and coffee breaks.
Read Full Story... |
|
May 26, 2007 - "Councillors at odds over $17M land purchase"
(The Toronto Star: John Spears) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande (Ward
39, Scarborough-Agincourt) decried purchase. Citizens at public
hearings on new taxes have told the city to put its financial
house in order, but instead, he said: "Our priority here is
spending every last dime so we can say: Our reserve accounts
are gone. Woe is us, we need more money."
Read
Full Story... |
|
April 10, 2007 - "Dumping dollars down the chute"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande, in fact,
believes the garbage tax is all "smoke and mirrors." As he told
me yesterday, Miller now has a $220-million-plus dump (the Green
Land landfill) to pay for and no idea how he'll finance it.
(A report on just how it will be financed is due within a matter
of days.) Read
Full Story... |
|
February 9, 2007 - "Councillors Call For Progress On
LandFill Deal" (The Scarborough Mirror: David Nickle) |
| |
A group of 14 Toronto councillors
are petitioning Mayor David Miller for a full council progress
report on the city's Green Lane Landfill purchase. Council voted
last September to purchase the landfill site near London, Ont.
as a place to store Toronto's garbage after 2010, when the city's
contract to toss its trash in Michigan will have expired.
Read Full Story... |
|
November 12, 2006 - "Spending Like There's No Tomorrow"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande: “Accountability
isn’t a word that means anything at City Hall ... I’ve always
predicted we’re going to end up like New York City and have
to declare bankruptcy ... we’re definitely headed in that direction.”
Read Full Story... |
|
November 3, 2006 - "Top Secret Deal Maker" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
With his trademark pitbull-like
persistence, Coun. Mike Del Grande has at long last solved the
mystery of who was behind the move to award an exclusive $710-million
subway car contract to Bombardier.
Read
Full Story... |
|
October 17, 2006 - "Little Piggies That Won't" (The
Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Del Grande said he wants to
roll back the hike because he doesn't think council collectively
has proven that it merits an increase -- especially since the
city's debt has gone up by $1-billion while services have declined
in the past three years. "We have not demonstrated that we've
been good stewards of the responsibilities we've undertaken,"
he said. Read
Full Story... |
|
September 29, 2006 - "Mega Blue Bins on Way to Your Curb"
(The Toronto Star: John Spears) |
| |
One of the
few skeptics about the new bins was Councillor
Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt).
Read
Full Story... |
September 29, 2006 - "Pitfield, supporters sign pledge
to roll back council pay raise"
(The Scarborough Mirror: David Nickle) |
| |
Pitfield
was likewise pleased to unveil her list of supporters among
council candidates. While 46 people signed, only a handful of
incumbents put their names down: Ward 39
Councillor Mike Del Grande, Ward
2 Councillor Rob Ford, Ward 25
Councillor Cliff Jenkins, Ward 11
Councillor Frances
Nunziata, Ward 17
Councillor Cesar
Palacio, and Ward 22
Councillor Michael Walker.
Read Full Story... |
|
September 26, 2006 - "TTC Cars get the nod" (The
Toronto Star: John Spears) |
| |
Councillor
Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt) accused fellow
councillors of hypocrisy for insisting
on made-in-Canada subway cars while buying foreign-built cars
for personal use. "Even the mayor drives a
Prius, which is built in
Japan
," he said.
Read Full Story... |
| September
25, 2006 - "Ban Eyed on Downspouts Tied to Sewer" (The
Toronto Sun: Rob Granatstien) |
| |
"It's another
tax," said Councillor Mike Del Grande.
"It affects every homeowner in
Toronto
. Once this gets out to the public they will
be furious."
Read Full Story... |
|
August 31, 2006 - "Oh the Hypocrisy" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande, who's
had to file two Freedom of Information requests to track the
decision-making by the TTC commissioners on the deal, says the
whole process has been "fundamentally wrong.
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 27, 2006 - "Toronto To Buy EMS Equipment Without
Bids" (The Toronto Star: Donovan Vincent) |
| |
The argument that's it's easier to stick with
Zoll for the defibrillator upgrades rankled Del Grande (Ward
39, Scarborough-Agincourt). He was joined in his objections
by Councillors Michael Walker and Frances Nunziata.
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 7, 2006 - "City
pays for stadium, but can't play"
(The Toronto Star: Vanessa Lu) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande,
a vocal opponent to the stadium, said he worries that this will
be like the SkyDome mess. When the baseball dome opened in 1989,
it had a final price tag of more than $600 million, paid mostly
by taxpayers. Rogers Communications bought it in 2004 for $30
million.
Read Full Story... |
|
June 29, 2006 - "TTC "Bomb Shell" (The Toronto Sun:
Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
These confidential documents
surfaced this week, only after Coun. Mike Del Grande filed a
recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The fact that a
councillor had to go to FOI for information that should be readily
available to him and others on council is in itself absurd,
given all of Mayor David Miller's talk about "openness" and
"transparency" at City Hall.
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 26, 2006 - "T.O.
ponders how to spend $1B"
(The Toronto Star: John Spears) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt)
objected to spending money on the Spadina subway line when the
aging Scarborough Rapid Transit line needs replacing.
Read Full Story... |
|
June 29, 2006 - "Close Vote Preserves Private Garbage
Contract " (The Scarborough Mirror: David Nickle) |
| |
A simmering plan to bring contracted-out city
garbage collection in Etobicoke and York back in-house moved
to the back-burner late Thursday, as Toronto Council voted narrowly
in favour of re-tendering the contracts.
Read
Full Story... |
|
June 7, 2006 - "Expo: Gambling On a Legacy" (Now
Magazine: Mike Smith) |
| |
"Something
has to happen before other levels of government will put money
in," said Councillor Mike Del Grande on the council floor. "Any
investment in Toronto is by excuse."
Read Full Story... |
|
February 22, 2006 - "Cost To Ship Garbage Rising"
(AM640: John Oakley Morning Show) |
| |
8:15am:
Cost to Ship Garbage Rising/Trucking company “knows they have
us between a rock and hard place.” Councilor Mike Del Grande
Ward 39 Scarborough-Agincourt |
|
February 21, 2006 - "Cost To Ship Garbage Rising"
(The Toronto Star: Paul Moloney) |
| |
At least one councillor warned Toronto residents
would be paying more because the tight deadline would give trucking
companies the advantage.
Read
Full Story... |
|
December 12, 2005 - "Streetcar Plan Soars to $95M"
(The Toronto Star: Paul Moloney) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande (Ward
39, Scarborough-Agincourt) said the timing of the new spending
is highly suspect. "This is sneaky," said Del Grande. "It's
underhandedness. This is why people from Scarborough, the area
I represent, have no confidence in the politicians down here."
Read Full Story... |
|
November 6, 2005 - "The Never Ending War on Government
Waste" (The Toronto Star) |
| |
Mike Del Grande, of Scarborough-Agincourt, wants
the amount of money found to be wasted by a city department
to be trimmed from that department's budget.
Read Full Story... |
|
November 3, 2005 - "Councillors To Wage War on Waste"
(The Toronto Star: Paul Moloney) |
| |
City of Toronto
managers found by the auditor general to have wasted public
money should have the amount deducted from their budgets, says
Councillor Mike Del Grande.
Read
Full Story... |
November 1, 2005 - "Council rams through "affordable"
housing, but the trick will be to find the funding"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy |
| |
Added Del
Grande: "This strikes me as another backroom arrangement ...
council just doesn't care how much they spend."
Read Full Story... |
|
October 28, 2005 - "Soccer Stadium a Go" (The Toronto
Sun: Zen Ruryk) |
| |
"It's a backroom deal," Del Grande charged. "You
can have all the money in the world, you're still putting my
taxpayers' money into this thing."
Read
Full Story... |
|
July 28, 2005 - "Metro Hall Brawl" (Now Magazine) |
| |
Debate over converting old council
chambers into 3-1-1 call centre more hysterical than historical
Read Full Story... |
|
July 15, 2005 - "Police Rapped Over Computer System"
(The Scarborough Mirror) |
| |
When I see this, that you start
with something at $8 million and you go to $20 million and you
basically bury stuff in the books so it doesn't show, that's
wrong," Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt),
a chartered accountant by training, fumed. "That's wrong and
we're no different than Enron."
Read Full Story... |
|
March 15, 2005 - "Toronto City Councillors spending your
money" (Canadian Free Press) |
| |
Though the financial picture
is generally foreboding at City Hall, there are some bright
new faces, who were near the bottom of the spending list, headed
by Cliff Jenkins, followed by newcomers Gay Cowbourne, Karen
Stintz, and Mike Del Grande. Too bad they are in the minority.
Read Full Story... |
|
March 3, 2005 - "Garbage tax is a cash grab" (The
Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
But the levy is nothing more
than one of the many desperate methods Mayor David Miller and
his fellow leftists utilized to balance the books. If I ruled
things at City Hall, they'd be slapped with another kind of
Waste Reduction Levy (let's call it the Levy levy) for throwing
endless money away on their pet projects.
Read Full Story... |
|
February 27, 2005 - "Is city budget the worst yet?"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande doesn't
think it's that far-fetched to speculate that the city -- if
it can't meet its debt obligation -- could be "on the verge
of bankruptcy."
Read Full Story... |
|
February 3, 2005 - "Can we spare $219M?" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande perhaps
put it most succinctly when he said in the business (i.e. the
real) world, problems are not solved without clear performance
criteria. But at City Hall, "goals are foggy and accountability
is non-existent ... the product of failure is more money," he
said.
Read Full Story... |
|
January 24, 2005 - "Let's Build program must be probed"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
As far as Del Grande is concerned,
this speaks to the issue of the culture of how business is done
at the city. "Without question this needs further investigation,"
he said.
Read Full Story... |
|
January 24, 2005 - "Alarm sounds on housing plan"
(The Toronto Sun: Zen Ruryk) |
| |
"Based on my review, the actions
and decisions of the administrators of the Let's Build program
raise a number of concerns," Rosen writes in a two-page response
to Del Grande.
Read Full Story... |
|
December 19, 2004 - "Budget report is plain truth"
(The Toronto Sun: Sue Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande says prior
to amalgamation the old city of Toronto was close to bankruptcy
-- and he's worried it's just a matter of time before the megacity,
which he feels is dominated by a "downtown mentality," is "broke
too."
Read Full Story... |
|
December 10, 2004 - "Del Grande bows out of budget talks"
(The Mirror-Guardian: David Nickle) |
| |
"I went through the budget process
last year and the numbers were announced, and not one iota,
not one decimal place changed, and I'm not going to legitimize
the process with my participation," said Del Grande at the outset
of the city's works committee 2005 budget presentation.
Read Full Story... |
|
October 22, 2004 - "Zoo seeks more funding despite improved
attendance" (The Mirror-Guardian: Stuart Green) |
| |
Despite having one if its best
attendance years since 1999 and even though it is predicting
a year-end surplus, the Toronto Zoo is planning to ask the city
for a 14 per cent increase in its operating subsidy in 2005.
Read Full Story... |
|
September 28, 2004 - "Did MFP teach them anything? New
city computers to cost $38 million" (The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann
Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande, who in
March managed to convince council to take a second look at the
proposed purchase, with the help of an expert panel, feels his
concerns weren't addressed. Total waste He's convinced staff
and few councillors have learned nothing from the inquiry. "MFP
is a total waste of money if no one learns anything," he said.
Read Full Story... |
|
August 31, 2004 - "The MFP black hole" (The Toronto
Sun - Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
And has the present council
learned any lessons? Not really, judging from Del Grande's ill-fated
attempt to stall approval of $100 million in new computers to
replace the MFP ones.
Read Full Story... |
|
July 29, 2004 - "Councillor challenges computer proposal"
(The Toronto Star: Kerry Gilespie) |
| |
In a letter, Councillor Mike
Del Grande has accused the city of planning to buy "soon-to-be-obsolete
computers from a pre-determined supplier and pay more than (it)
should."
Read Full Story... |
|
May 24, 2004 - "Pipe funds diverted" (The Scarborough
Mirror: Paul Moloney) |
| |
"The difficulty I have is we
increased the water rates to build up the reserve and do repair,"
said Councillor Mike Del Grande, a member of the works committee.
"I feel deceived, and I think my ratepayers in Scarborough have
been deceived."
Read Full Story... |
|
May 14, 2004 - "Ford hoards, but Moscoe gets the last
laugh on office budget" (The Globe & Mail) |
| |
Although the matter officially
died, six councillors advised city clerk Ulli Watkiss this week
that they will pinch some civic pennies in 2004.
Read Full Story... |
|
May 12, 2004 - "Six councillors say they will curtail
their office spending " (The Scarborugh Mirror: Stuart Green) |
| |
Under city policy, each councillor
is entitled to spend up to $53,100 on such things as newsletters,
mailings, office supplies and anything deemed necessary to do
their jobs. Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt)
reduced his to $50,000
Read Full Story... |
|
April 27, 2004 - "We Pay for their raises" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande feels
the focus of council this past week has been completely wrong.
It should have been on labour costs.
Read Full Story... |
|
April 23, 2004 - "Police win some and lose some in budget
debate " (The Scarborough Mirror: Stuart Green) |
| |
Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del
Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt) said he would have preferred
to see the money come from the Information Technology department
that he contends is spending money on unnecessary computer upgrades.
Read Full Story... |
|
April 17, 2004 - "Squandering on garbage" (The Toronto
Star: Rob Granatstein) |
| |
Each year Toronto ships more
than one million tonnes of garbage over the border -- 125 truckloads
each day. It costs the city $55 million a year to ship the trash
to Michigan and then dump it there.
Read Full Story... |
|
March 23, 2004 - "City Hall budget crunch: But don't
expect the feds to answer council's prayers" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
Coun. Mike Del Grande thinks
the city will be forced to "raid" the $980 million loan outstanding
with Toronto Hydro and "sell the furniture to pay the rent."
Read Full Story... |
|
March 4, 2004 - "To council newbie, wild spending doesn't
compute" (The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
Taxpayers should give rookie
councillor Mike Del Grande a big thank-you today. For had Del
Grande not asked the tough questions, council would have rammed
through an absurd and certainly less than well-thought-out plan
to spend $83.4 million this city does not have on new, state-of-the-art
computer technology over the next two years.
Read Full Story... |
|
February 22, 2004 - "Hosed again? Auditor zeroes in on
inefficiencies in the city's fleet operations " (The Toronto
Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
"This is an amalgamation of
inefficiency," bristled Coun. Mike Del Grande. "It's incredulous."
Read Full Story... |
|
February 12, 2004 - "City firefighters' contract talks
heat up" (The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
| |
The heat will be on council
this morning to approve a sweet deal for my Toronto firefighter
friends that will end up costing this city at least $36 million
yearly by 2006.
Read Full Story... |
|
February 9, 2004 - "Rookies grapple with budget"
(The Toronto Star: Paul Moloney) |
| |
Councillor Mike Del Grande,
an accountant and former school board trustee, said he doesn't
detect a sense of urgency to grapple with the city's financial
challenges. "What they do is they take last year's budget and
they add or subtract from it," said Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt).
"But nobody questions the numbers in last year's budget."
Read Full Story... |
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January 11, 2004 - "Hear 'ye" (The Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann
Levy) |
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The public gets the mayor's
ear on budget priorities ... for $110,000
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January 8, 2004 - "Troubled waters" (The Toronto
Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
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Regional Airline Holdings Inc.
president Bob Deluce has served the city with a $500-million-plus
lawsuit. New councillor Mike Del Grande, who voted against killing
the bridge, said he thinks the lawyers are going to collect
"a lot of toonies."
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December 16, 2003 - "Your tax dollars at work" (The
Toronto Sun: Sue-Ann Levy) |
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Budget crunch? Not at some city
councillors' offices New fiscally conservative city councillor
Mike Del Grande has already decided one thing. His modus operandi
will be to treat "every (tax) dollar spent" as if it comes from
his own pocket.
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December 15, 2003 - "City to seek input on budget in
meetings with public" (The Globe & Mail: Jennifer Lewingston) |
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Several new councillors praised
the effort to engage citizens on the budget. "I think the idea
philosophically is a good one," said Mike Del Grande, councillor
for Ward 39 Scarborough-Agincourt.
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December 12, 2003 - "Airline gives city notice of $500-million
lawsuit" (The Scarborough Mirror: David Nickle) |
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"I'm not surprised," said Ward
39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt). "If I
was in that person's shoes I'd probably be doing the same thing.
But I kept hearing councillors and the mayor saying it wasn't
going to cost us a toonie. Then legal staff said, 'Oh, it might
cost us a little bit.' From a toonie to a little bit to who
knows what? I'm going to have a lot of unhappy people in my
part of town."
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December 10, 2003 - "Doom and gloom report given on city's
finances " (The Scarborough Mirror: Stuart Green) |
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"It was basically a doom and
gloom picture with respect to the financial side," said Councillor
Mike Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough Agincourt). "They think
all of a sudden people are going to live up to their commitments
on other levels of government and give us all kinds of dough.
Read Full Story... |
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