The Ford administration says waste-cutting is its motive for moving to scrap 21 citizen-dominated committees that advise council on everything from cycling to pedestrians to aboriginal affairs.

But critics charged Wednesday that axing the committees — which are made up of volunteers, including some councillors, and have no budget — is an undemocratic move meant to shut out anyone with opposing views.

Councillor Adam Vaughan said the Ford administration just isn’t interested in consulting some sectors of the community.

“They only want to talk to some people. They only want some of the information, not all of it,” Vaughan said. “What they’re trying to do here is cut off access to city hall for a significant number of people, and it’s unacceptable.”

A staff review requested by Mayor Rob Ford led to recommendations to terminate 10 committees outright, citing them as redundant, dormant or having completed their mandates.

A further 11 committees would be disbanded without reason, but bureaucrats would consider whether to use other civic engagement methods such as town halls or social media.

The recommendations from city manager Joe Pennachetti are outlined in a report going to next week’s meeting of the executive committee, chaired by Ford.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said the advisory committees are too expensive for a city facing a $774 million deficit in next year’s budget.

“It’s gotten out of control,” Holyday said. “We’ve got to start cutting costs any way we can that’s reasonable.”

The report itself says scrapping the committees would have no financial impact.

“There’ll be savings, believe me,” Holyday said. “The savings is going to be in staff time, and that can be enormous. It might be hard to measure, but there’s no way that you set up all these groups in place and they just sit out there and float by themselves.”

Holyday also said he supports scrapping committees because they “get too large and unwieldy.”

“You’re getting advice from too many places and everybody’s got their own, I guess, personal agenda . . . looking out for whatever they want to look out for,” he said.

Councillor Janet Davis, who has served on the tenant defence sub-committee, said she sees no savings from ending the body, which advised council on which tenant groups should get grants to help them fight landlords on maintenance and rent issues.

“I asked the mayor specifically, ‘Why are you cutting the tenant defence committee?’ and he said it costs too much money,” Davis said. “The committee costs virtually nothing.”

The eight councillors on the subcommittee don’t get paid extra and there are no travel, food or accommodation expenses, Davis said.

Only two advisory committees would escape the axe: the film and television committee and a community grants appeal committee.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Councillor Mike Layton said the move is shortsighted. “These are advisory bodies that come and give the city advice about what we should do around those specific issues and all are proposed to be taken away,” he said.

“It’s wild. I was preparing a letter asking to be on the cycling committee. I now have to revise that to say can you establish the cycling committee.”

Layton said the pedestrian committee, for example, recently received an award for its innovative walking strategy, “and now we’re scrapping the very committee that helped develop that program. It’s unbelievable.”

The aboriginal affairs committee is facing the axe at a time when chiefs from across the country are to meet in Toronto next near, said Councillor Adam Vaughan.

“That committee has helped advise us on policing, housing and children’s services, and we have the Assembly of First Nations coming next year, which is a huge political event. And here we are cutting off our relationship to the First Nations communities.”

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Vaughan said there’s nothing particularly controversial about the committee mandates.

“It’s cyclists coming to tell us where our strengths and weaknesses are around cycling, it’s pedestrians talking about mobility issues on sidewalks, it’s a whole series of stuff.

“On children’s services, it brings together the school board, the daycare community, and the province to have a forum about children’s issues and make sure city policy is as strong as it can be.”

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