Rob Ford ran for Mayor of Toronto on, among other things, a promise to stop the gravy train. Then he spent something like $100,000 on consultants to find savings. Not much came of this.

Now we read daily that the Toronto District School Board is habitually overcharged for repairs, renovations, and simple installations. We read that the Catholic school board manages with 70 workers and TDSB uses a closed group of some 900. If one of these cannot do the job, they get half a percent anyway as a contractual fact.

Two examples jump to mind: almost three thousand dollars to put in a simple outlet. Well over a hundred dollars to install a pencil sharpener – by putting in four screws.

So, it’s dumb question time. How come none of these auditors could find this anomalous spending? On my property tax, it looks like about a quarter is for education. How much of this is being wasted on these repairs?

Here is a link to the TDSB cutting to balance its budget.

Here is a link to the trades council giving gift cards, over a quarter of a million dollars worth, paid for by our tax dollars. There is a nice recap of the overcharging in the same article.

Back to the dumb question. Gravy is invisible when you don’t look for it.