Toronto contemplates using the military to help clean up after the ice storm.
I think the troops have better things to do than clean up tree limbs...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01...storm-cleanup/
Toronto Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly says that his office is “exploring” what the Canadian military could do to assist the $75-million cleanup from December’s devastating ice storm.
Kelly told reporters Friday that his office made preliminary calls to “mid-level” representatives at the Department of Defence to see what the military could do to assist the cleanup, estimated to take between six to eight weeks.
“When I learned from staff it was going to take nearly two months to clear the debris … I thought ‘What would be the next available source of manpower?’ and I think that’s the army,’” he said Friday.
“I think it’s important right now to clean up this mess as quickly as possible. I’m not saying ‘call in the army.’”
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The deputy mayor said that he learned that it would be up to the province to ask the federal government for assistance.
Kelly also told reporters that he told Mayor Rob Ford to declare a state of emergency during the ice storm. He said city staff initially recommended declaring an emergency but later changed their mind.
Ford was against calling a state of emergency, which would have transferred emergency powers to the deputy mayor’s office. Ford lost emergency powers in a council motion that stripped him of many of his powers following his admission in November that he had smoked crack cocaine and the so-called “crack video” that he had long denied even existing, did in fact, exist.
Darren Calabrese/National Post
Darren Calabrese/National PostMayor Rob Ford, right, walks past Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly before a press conference to outline the plan for the city's ice storm cleanup at City Hall in Toronto Thursday, January 2, 2014. .
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has been dealing with Kelly exclusively throughout the ice storm crisis. Ford has appeared at numerous press conferences for the ice storm, while Kelly has said that he has been taking care of the situation from behind the scenes.
Toronto has been long-mocked throughout Canada for when then-mayor Mel Lastman called in the military to assist with a 1999 storm.
The military assisted with the 1998 ice storm in Quebec and Ontario, which escaped the same public mockery. The army also assisted with the cleanup in Halifax following Hurricane Juan in 2003.
How many divisions has the Big Smoke?
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