Days before city councillors decide how, or whether, to fight the province’s move to slash council nearly in half during an ongoing election, Premier Doug Ford wants to change the agenda for the special meeting.

In a letter Friday, Ford urged Mayor John Tory and council to also discuss fatal shootings and gang violence at Monday’s meeting, expected to be the last before the civic election.

The public request, framed by former councillor Ford as a needed response to an urgent Toronto problem, appears to have fallen flat. The city clerk’s office said adding guns and gangs to Monday’s agenda is impossible because long-established rules dictate special meetings must be confined to the topic for which they were called.

Ford critics say the request is an attempted distraction and bid to further divide a council already split on the controversial move from 47 wards to 25 three months after candidates started campaigning.

“Once again, Doug Ford is attempting to divide Torontonians, asking them to choose between community safety or defending democracy,” Toronto Centre New Democrat MPP Suze Morrison told the Star’s Rob Ferguson. “Mr. Ford’s reckless decision to trample on democracy and meddle in ongoing municipal elections is wrong and New Democrats will continue to stand against it.”

But Ford said the number of fatal shootings Toronto has experienced this year (31 by mid-August, the same number as in 2005, the notorious Year of the Gun) is “unacceptable and requires immediate action from all levels of government without reservation.”

“The people of Toronto and by extension Ontario need and deserve to feel safe in the city and our great province.”

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Tory wrote back that adding gun violence to the agenda would be unnecessary even if it were possible — council has already approved hiring more police officers and applying for $32.6 million in funding for community programs. It has also urged Ottawa to ban the sale and possession of handguns in Toronto, which Ford opposed.

“As you would remember from your time on city council, special meetings are confined to the issue for which they were called, so as to ensure their efficiency, accountability and transparency on behalf of the people of Toronto,” Tory wrote to Ford, whom he defeated in the 2014 mayoral election.

On Friday, the city clerk said the province’s move to slash council, which Ford framed as a cost-saving measure, is costing the city an unanticipated $2.5 million.

The clerk also said that, with the city scrambling to prepare for a 25-ward election, reverting to the 47-ward election in time for election day on Oct. 22 should any legal challenge succeed “raises unacceptable levels of risk and undermines the trust and confidence of candidates and voters.” She also outlined that she is “concerned” she won't be able to do the necessary due diligence required to run the election.

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The brewing breakdown in Toronto-Ontario relations started July 26, when the Star broke the news of Ford’s plan to cut the number of councillors to 25 in mid-election.

The news apparently surprised Tory, who later told reporters Ford had mentioned the plan in passing at the end of a meeting a few weeks before, but that he hadn’t taken Ford seriously.

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Sources at Queen’s Park say Ford’s plan was a closely held secret. Most of Ford’s cabinet ministers didn’t know about it until it was raised as an “add-on” at the end of the July 25 cabinet meeting.

In Ford’s office, senior aides were deeply divided on the wisdom of the move, sources said. Some doves worried it was a needless provocation at a time when the new government has many pressing challenges. Some hawks believed Ford should act swiftly during his honeymoon with voters.

That honeymoon is not happening in Toronto, where the NDP won more than 40,000 votes more than the PC party in the recent provincial election. Ford did not suggest cutting any other municipal council.

Anger reverberated through city hall in the days following. Candidates who had been running for a council seat under the city’s 47-ward system and concerned residents protested outside council chambers during what was supposed to be the last meeting of the term.

Tory’s initial response to Ford’s move was to call for a referendum before the election, which some deemed tepid and helped push a high-profile challenger, former Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, into the mayor’s race.

With Tory’s support, but by a small majority of 24-17, council agreed to convey its opposition to the province, request a binding referendum on council size and consider legal options.

Ford’s letter Friday noted passage of Bill 5 makes him “very pleased city council will be able to conduct business for citizens of Toronto more efficiently and effectively.”

Councillors received a confidential report from the city solicitor Thursday to prepare for their Monday meeting, viewed by the Star, which told them there is no obvious legal path to beat Bill 5 but there are a couple of possible gambits.

First, they could start a legal challenge to Bill 5, and join or support other legal proceedings aimed at stopping the switch to 25 wards. If the city fails in the legal proceedings, however, solicitor Wendy Walberg’s recommendation is to “not pursue an appeal due to the timing of the election.”

The other option is for council to take no action to challenge Bill 5 and take no position in any legal proceedings aimed at stopping the switch, other than perhaps to have “friend of the court status” to provide it with information.

Within Walberg’s report is a suggestion that council could, if it decides 25 wards is the only or best option, direct city legal to support the Ontario government fighting any court actions — a very unlikely proposition given council’s stated determination to stand up to Premier Ford.

“I think we have to have a thoughtful and constructive discussion about how we can continue to make sure people understand that we feel so strongly about the lack of consultation and the lack of proper process, that we might be in a position to pursue legal remedies,” Tory said Friday, ahead of Monday’s meeting.

“We’re going to get advice from our solicitor as to what remedies might be best that we can seek and what the chances are and how we go about that. I hope it’s a very thoughtful discussion because it is a serious matter.”

With files from Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson

David Rider is the Star’s City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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