Toronto’s top city bureaucrat has always gone out of his way to appear publicly neutral on controversial political issues. But at the close of the first real week of the 2014 election, city manager Joe Pennachetti suggested he’s finished watching quietly from the wings.

In a Friday morning speech, Pennachetti spoke bluntly about Toronto’s revenue problem and the city’s housing crisis, and even made a veiled swipe at Mayor Rob Ford.

“If you hear anyone — I won’t say who — say we’re broke, it’s incorrect,” Pennachetti told about 120 law and business students and professionals at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in downtown Toronto.

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He also said that while the city’s financial footing is strong, if Torontonians truly want to be world-class, the city needs to take in more money — his preference being a sales tax or a slice of the HST.

“We are the sixth largest government in Canada,” Pennachetti said. “We do not have the revenue tools that we should have.”

This, he continued, is the only way Toronto can both grow and deal with issues such as affordable housing and congestion.

Tacking on 1 per cent to the price of locally purchased goods would bring in $500 million, which would “fix everything,” he said. But even half a percent would be enough to pay for transit expansion.

He pointed to the example of American cities, which often collect sales tax and parking taxes, among others, to expand and invest in infrastructure.

Pennachetti also defended the unpopular land transfer tax — “from my perspective, I needed it” — and praised environmental advancements the city has made — “It’s been an amazing story that often goes unnoticed.”

He also gave credit to his former boss, ex-mayor David Miller. It was during Miller’s tenure at the helm of city government that the city launched many of its fiscal reforms, including long-term financial planning.

Pennachetti was one of three speakers invited by the Osgoode-Schulich law and business students association. First was Miller himself, then mayoral candidate Councillor Karen Stintz.

Miller used much of his time to advocate for a return to the Transit City plan, or at least the broader goal of the LRT network that was killed by council during the Ford administration. In doing that, the former mayor took a shot at the current one.

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“City government in Toronto can be a tremendous force for helping us become a 21st century (city) that we know we can be and believe we should be. But it needs to show leadership,” Miller said. “That starts by ensuring that it has the respect of the people. It starts by making wise decisions. By building light rail … an entire network around the city, rather than a few stops, and continues by ensuring that everyone benefits.”

Stintz, wearing a campaign lapel pin, also focused her comments on transit. She said she expects Toronto to “move to a zone-based system” without tokens in the future and that she believes a good transit network accounts for all modes of transportation, from taxis and bikes to buses and light rail, and subways to cars.

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