TORONTO

Mayor Rob Ford says he’s working on privatizing city jobs in parks and recreation.

Ford made the comment on Wednesday while lambasting a photo of a city worker at a community centre allegedly sleeping on the job.

“I’ve looked at contracting out parks and (recreation),” Ford said. “I’m working on it.”

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti — the chairman of the parks committee — said contracting out community centre jobs may make sense.

“Maybe, if I, for instance, feel that nobody is listening … if our management can’t pull up their socks and come up with a plan that gives better service to our taxpayers then you’ll hear me say that maybe it is our community centres that need to be contracted out next time,” Mammoliti said. “Bring in a level of service in this city that we’re proud of and not one that we’re disgusted in.”

There are around 10,000 city employees — many of them members of CUPE Local 79 — at community and recreation centres across Toronto.

CUPE Local 79 president Tim Maguire said the union has received no notification that the city is preparing to contract out community centre employees.

“Sometimes councillors, particularly some politicians, leap to the conclusion of contracting out work when they think something is wrong,” Maguire said. “If the city is looking at those things, they have to notify us. But they shouldn’t be leaping to that conclusion, they should be providing services by filling positions in the budget that are required to be filled.”