North York councillor vows to be tough on crime, unions

City councillor Giorgio Mammoliti officially entered the race for mayor of Toronto Tuesday, Jan. 5, morning, vowing to get tough on crime and unions, shake up the city’s grants programs and advocating for casinos and lotteries as a way to bring in new cash to pay for it all.

Mammoliti, who represents Ward 7 (York West) and has sat on Toronto and North York Council for the past 15 years, was the first to announce that he would be seeking to replace Mayor David Miller in 2010, just days after Miller himself announced he was retiring.

The controversial councillor from north-western North York wasn’t quite as fast out of the gate to make it official – Rocco Rossi handed in his nomination papers just minutes after nominations opened Monday, Jan. 4.

But he was there the next day with $200 for his deposit to fill out the forms he needs to have before he can legally raise or spend money on the election.

When he was finished, he faced reporters and cameras, and used movie monster metaphors to explain his motivation for making the leap from the job of councillor to mayor.

“Thirteen years ago when the megacity was born you heard me talk about how it ballooned into a monster,” said Mammoliti. “I used Godzilla as an example of what the city would look like and it’s true. I think that all the leaders since at the helm have ridden Godzilla’s tail and Godzilla has frankly run rampant in the city. I think it’s time to tame Godzilla and I’m the person to do it.”

Mammoliti, who currently holds a membership in the Liberal Party of Canada, said he would let that membership lapse and run a mayoralty with no ties to any particular party – but with a particular emphasis on law and order services – and “out-of-the-box” thinking when it comes to generating revenue.

On that last point, Mammoliti reiterated that he would be interested in exploring both the establishment of a casino – a move rejected by previous councils and Torontonians in a 1997 plebiscite – and a city-wide lottery.

“A casino can bring us up to $300 million a year and we need to think seriously about that if we’re prepared as a city to move on and find other avenues of money that make sense. Casinos make sense,” he said. “And the lottery is something I believe the ability to introduce. The province has to come on board and agree that we need the tools to raise the necessary money so we don’t need to keep coming back to them.”

Mammoliti said he also wants to give city inspectors and other officials more “teeth” to enforce city bylaws – and he wants police to feel more empowered to deal with crime in the city.

“Enforcement officers have to have more teeth to do their jobs without obstacles,” he said. “And I think the crime factor in the city has to be addressed. It has to be a no-nonsense approach that isn’t about giving hugs to individuals that need to be put in jail instead.”

Mammoliti, 48, scoffed at Rossi’s promise to cut the mayor’s salary by 10 per cent as an incentive for other efficiencies – “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys” – but he did promise to get tough with city workers. He said he wouldn’t shy from slashing the city’s bureaucracy, and would get tough with city unions.

“I have a track record,” said Mammoliti. “I locked the union out when I was head of the Toronto Zoo and it worked. You cannot as a head of a city cave in to union demands. You can’t do it.”

He also said the city’s grants program, which gives out tens of millions of dollars to groups and individuals around the city, is a target.

“We have to think about the grants we give out at city hall,” he said. “Grants have become a business here. We need to shape up how we dole out grants.”

Over the next few months, Mammoliti said he will be looking for donations to cover the $1.5 million that it costs to run an effective mayoralty campaign. If those donations don’t come, Mammoliti wouldn’t close the door to abandoning the race. He wouldn’t say whether or not he would then run for his current seat on Toronto Council.

“I’ve said right from the beginning that it costs about $1.5 million to run a successful mayoralty bid,” he said. “Some candidates have access to that money with a phone call. I’m not in that position. I’m relying on the media, the communities of this city and myself speaking out. Hopefully that will raise the money I need. If I can’t, then obviously it becomes a problem in the campaign. Then I need to make a decision as to whether I need to move forward.”

– David Nickle

Posted in Mayoral race, News