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Begs federal government for help while promising to push ahead on spending millions to rename Dundas.
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The city’s coffers may be empty, and Mayor Olivia Chow may be begging the federal government for a bailout but that doesn’t mean we won’t spend millions to rename Dundas St.
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Governance at City Hall isn’t driven by reality, it’s driven by ideology.
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Originally pegged at $6 million, then $8.6 million, and now $12.7 million — just in city costs — the price to rename Dundas has ballooned. For the city there is the renaming of the street, the changing of the street signs or “blades” as the city calls them and a lot of administrative work.
The $12.7 million cost to rename the street doesn’t include the cost to residents or businesses who will have to change signage, promotional materials, legal contracts and more.
Henry Dundas was a Scottish politician who held enormous sway in the British Parliament in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The claim against Dundas is that he delayed the abolition of slavery because he amended a bill to make the abolition gradual rather than immediate.
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The reality is that without the amendment from Dundas, what was proposed would not have passed. Blaming Dundas for keeping slavery alive is a form of historical illiteracy because it’s not true, but Chow pushes this false narrative as part of her agenda.
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Before stating her continuing support for renaming Dundas, Chow detailed how destitute the city was without a bailout of federal cash. She said the city cannot afford to run their shelter programs or replace subway cars without federal support.
“Every night, the shelters are full. More than 200 people are turned away, and at least half of them are refugees,” Chow said.
“Our shelter costs have skyrocketed, and we have asked the federal government to support us, to help us pay the bills.”
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It’s a valid request, just as the request for the federal government to help pay for subway cars is valid.
But, … if you are asking for other levels of government to bail you out, you might want to make sure that you are watching how you spend your own dollars.
No one who has looked honestly at the historical record would think that in a time of financial crisis, the real priority of the City of Toronto would be spending close to $13 million to rename a street based on an agenda-driven report.
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When the move to rename Dundas began, council asked city staff to look at which other street or place names would be deemed inappropriate. The report came back with a list of 60 different names, including Yonge Street, Wellesley, Jarvis, Wellington and Brant.
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There were 12 streets identified in Toronto named after slave owners, and even a street named for former Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier was deemed to be in need of renaming.
Laurier oversaw some of the most racist immigration laws in Canadian history, perhaps only outdone by fellow Liberal William Lyon McKenzie King. The policies Laurier oversaw included banning Black immigration, passing an effective ban on people coming from India and increasing the Chinese head tax from $50 to $500 to stop Chinese immigration.
Will we rename all of these streets, as well?
They surely have a worse record than Henry Dundas, but they have not been singled out by activists. If it would cost $12.7 million for the city to rename Dundas, what would be the cost to rename all 60 streets deemed problematic?
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And if you can’t clean the streets, pick up the garbage properly and run the transit system to an acceptable standard, is this what the city should be spending money on?
Councillor Chris Moise said on Wednesday that renaming Yonge-Dundas Square would be paid for by his own community benefits fund. The renaming of Dundas Station, to be renamed Toronto Metropolitan University Station, will see the $1.5 million price tag paid for by TMU.
So municipal taxpayers won’t pay for renaming Yonge-Dundas Square, but taxpayers, in general, will still foot the bill.
There is no way for the city to rename Dundas without a massive cost. If the city had the money, that would be one thing, but when they are broke, it makes no sense.
Unless, of course, the reason is to spend $12.7 million to send a virtue signal from City Hall.
That is not worth the cost.
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