168 people come out to tell the mayor what he shouldn’t cut
Thursday and Friday marked the longest continuous city council meeting in Toronto history, The Toronto Star reports. Approximately 168 people accepted Mayor Rob Ford’s invitation to tell the city council what core services should and should not cut. Ford promised committee members and constituents that the meeting would go until the next morning if need be, and it did—officially ending at 6:30 a.m. after 22 hours and 25 minutes of civilian deputations and budget talks. Only 2 of 168 presenters (300 people were signed up originally) proposed any kind of budget cuts endorsed by KPMG, the agency responsible for drafting the controversial budget proposal, with the rest urging the mayor to keep core services like public libraries and the school crossing guard program intact. No official decision will be made until the next council meeting on September 19.