A controversial bill reducing the size of Toronto council has cleared a major hurdle.Following a raucous all-night legislative session that began at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the Progressive Conservatives concluded the requisite six-and-a-half hours of second-reading debate of Bill 31, the Efficient Local Government Act.Aimed at cutting council from 47 members to 25 after the Oct. 22 election, it is the reintroduction of Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act, struck down as unconstitutional a week ago by Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba.Read more:Will there be 25 or 47 wards? Toronto city clerk at the centre of electoral stormOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Never mind the charter, Doug Ford has diminished our democratic normsAs Toronto waits for Bill 31, MPPs will take time off for a plowing match. Here’s what you need to know — starting with the basicsThe Tories are introducing a time-allocation motion and the bill should then pass second and third reading and receive royal assent Thursday. The deadline for registering as a municipal candidate would be two days later.For the first time in Ontario history, the government will invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override Belobaba’s decision.Premier Doug Ford, who never once mentioned any plan to slash Toronto council during the June 7 provincial election campaign, said he wants to “fix a broken city hall” and save $25 million over a four-year term.“By working overnight on behalf of the people, we are sending an important message,” the former one-term councillor, who lost to Mayor John Tory in the 2014 mayoral election, told the legislature around 6:15 a.m.“We will do whatever it takes to get the job done. We will do whatever it takes to deliver better transit, to fix housing, to make sure we don’t have a housing crisis — and make sure that we take care of the crumbling infrastructure,” he said.“We&# ...
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