It looks like the high flying Toronto City Councillors will finally get their wings clipped after years of ludicrous spending sprees. The councillors’ budgets which are capped at $53,100 per year have been used for exorbitant restaurant bills, copious amounts of alcohol, limos, and the like. These expenses hardly sound like the necessities of the day to day running of an office, yet nothing has been done to put an end to this abuse of budgetary discretion – until now.

A new proposed policy has been presented that would:
• cap claims for business meals at $500.00/year
• prohibit charging the city for alcohol consumed at business meetings
• prohibit councillors from giving donations and sponsorships to community events
• only allow councillors to expense legal fees after first consulting the city solicitor
• require councillors who pay for office expenses out of their own pockets to provide receipts
• have the city add details of councillors’ spending to its website

This proposed policy requires council approval next month before it can be enforced and it will be interesting to see how the council votes. The reality is that the public no longer has any trust for the councillors who have been abusing the system for years for their personal gain. Their budgets are meant to give them the necessary funds required to run a council office. They were never meant to give carte blanche to civil servants who want to live the high life. Are the councillors who have been abusing the system just going to be permitted to carry on as though no wrong doing has been committed? There should be some penalty imposed including paying back funds that were used inappropriately. What do you think should be done?