City-run groceries more ‘Doug Ford’ than Karl Marx: Councillor
· Toronto Sun
Will Toronto city council turn red with Big Apple envy?
Visit truewildgame.online for more information.
City hall is having what one might call a New York minute, with councillors about to ponder two big ideas that made headlines in N.Y.C.’s recent mayoral election.
Anthony Perruzza, the councillor for Humber River-Black Creek ward, thinks it’s time for the City of Toronto to consider running grocery stores, as new N.Y.C. mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to do during last year’s election campaign.
“There’s no question that what’s happening in New York has given it some legs,” Perruzza told the Toronto Sun .
But while Mamdani is an avowed socialist, Perruzza said his motion, coming before council in a week and a half, is “very much a pocketbook, very much a Doug Ford, make-it-more-affordable, let’s-help-people-out kind of issue.”
“If you’re looking for a lefty, ideological move here coming from Perruzza, that’s absolutely not the case,” he said with a laugh.
Perruzza is proposing a pilot project in which the city would run four grocery stores “in a non-profit environment,” perhaps set up in underserved neighbourhoods. One would go in each of the districts governed by Toronto’s four community councils, which cover North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke-York, and the area made up of East York and the pre-amalgamation city of Toronto.
Life ‘too expensive’
While his proposal is still in the ideas phase, Perruzza said he has put in thought and research. He said the idea isn’t unheard of in Canada, with governments even today playing a role in helping feed people in northern communities.
Meanwhile, in New York, news coverage about Mamdani’s grocery store pledge has included comparisons to an initiative by the municipal government in Atlanta.
Perruzza conceded that running a grocery store is no small feat, and it’s outside his expertise. “I know that it’s a business with a lot of moving parts to it,” he admitted.
Still, he thinks if city hall can help people eat well for less money, it should try.
“Everywhere I go, people are telling me things are too expensive, life is expensive, food is really expensive,” he said.
When council considers Perruzza’s proposal at this month’s council meeting, it won’t be the only signature Mamdani policy on the agenda.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has called for a paid snow shovelling program “ modelled on the successful approach in New York City ,” and won the endorsement of her powerful executive committee this week. (Mamdani’s shovelling program has been derided as “snowcialism” by the New York Post .)
Perruzza said it’s just a coincidence that both ideas will be debated at the same council meeting. He said while Chow’s idea has “obviously, clearly some very positive elements,” Toronto’s winters are quite different from the ones seen in New York.
Asked if he will support the idea, Perruzza said: “Let me think about that a little more.”
“Quite frankly,” he added, “a lot of people now across the city are being good neighbours in the sense that they’re helping out, they’re getting out with their shovels and they’re clearing their sidewalks. They’re helping us out with that. … I’m hopeful that we can continue that and build on that goodwill that Torontonians are already showing us.”
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Sun .
These Gotham-inspired proposals follow a somewhat novel unionization drive by Toronto city councillors’ staff, which was challenged by the city last year. That move came after New York City’s council staff unionized in 2021.
The Toronto staff’s attempt to unionize with AMAPCEO – which represents employees at a number of workplaces tied to government – remains before the Ontario Labour Relations Board.