Mayor Rob Ford says he plans to try to privatize the Toronto Community Housing Corp.

Asked by Newstalk 1010 host Jerry Agar on Wednesday morning whether he would “go so far as to say” that he would privatize the TCHC, Ford said, “Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. I’m going to look at every service, how we’re delivering it — garbage, as you know, we’re contracting it out. I have no problem looking at TCHC and how we’re delivering these services. And if contracting it out is the way to go, that’s the way we’re gonna go.”

Ford did not say when he plans to pursue privatization, nor what his specific plans are. Asked if he had come to the belief that the TCHC should be privatized because of the two scathing audits released this week or if he held the same opinion before he saw them, he did not answer directly.

The complete privatization of one of North America’s largest landlords would be a complicated and lengthy task; the TCHC houses 164,000 tenants and owns a $6 billion housing stock. Privatization would likely face a fierce battle on the floor of council. And provincial law imposes rules governing the size of the city’s social housing stock.

Privatization may not necessarily mean the elimination of government-run housing in the city. Ford’s office is known to be exploring a change that would keep current tenants in TCHC buildings but give new tenants a subsidy to rent private apartments.

In the Newstalk interview, Ford said he would ask council to remove the seven civilian TCHC board members now that they have refused to heed his call to resign. Only a council vote can force their ouster.

Ford confirmed that TCHC chief executive officer Keiko Nakamura had rejected his direct request to resign. He said she should be held accountable for the waste documented by auditor general Jeffrey Griffiths.

“I can’t see any councillor defending how she’s run Toronto Community Housing,” Ford said. “When you list all these expenditures — and obviously, she was in charge of it, she oversaw this. How can someone stand up and justify it?”

Nakamura was not the leader of the organization while much of the waste occurred. Derek Ballantyne, now chief operating officer of Build Toronto, was CEO of TCHC between 2002 and May 2009, when Nakamura took over. Nakamura was chief operating officer from 2005 until her promotion to CEO.

On Monday, Nakamura said the audits had shown she had no role in the improper spending and procurement practices.

“As the audit reveals, I conducted myself with complete integrity in how I conducted my business,” she said. “Obviously, others were not held to the same standard.”

In the 1010 interview, Ford also called on “Ford nation” to vote the Ontario Liberal government out of office if it doesn’t accede to his demands for increased provincial funding for Toronto.

On Monday, the Star revealed that Ford wrote to McGuinty in late January asking specifically for more than $150 million for road projects, transit, child care subsidies and a new Fort York visitors’ centre. Ford also renewed his predecessor David Miller’s call for the province to pay half of the TTC’s $429 million operating budget.

McGuinty promptly said no, citing the province’s ballooning deficit.

Ford told Agar: “If (McGuinty) says no, obviously there’s a provincial election coming up on Oct. 6 and I want to work with him, not against him. But obviously if he’s not helping out the city I’ll have no choice to work against him, to call Ford Nation, and make sure they’re not re-elected in the next election. But I do not want to do that.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Told of the comments at Queen’s Park, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said: “That’s very interesting. There’s no more money.”

With files from Rob Ferguson