Councillor Gord Perks thought it should be a “no-brainer” — use the city’s power as sole owner of Toronto Hydro to find out how much taxpayers’ money the utility is spending on Bay St. lawyers to fight a Toronto Star information request. But Perks’s colleagues did not vote at last week’s Toronto council meeting on his motion to issue a “shareholder direction” that would have compelled Hydro to give them the information, confidentially or otherwise. At the root of Perks’s request are Star freedom of information requests to Toronto Hydro. That’s a duty.” In an interview, the Parkdale councillor and frequent Tory critic added: “Council very deliberately decided not to find out how Toronto Hydro is spending public money. For some reason many council members including the mayor do not want the public to know why Toronto Hydro hired two of the mayor’s key campaign staff.

Source: thestar February 05, 2018 22:41 UTC