Mayor Rob Ford made a false claim about Sugar Beach spending in an interview on Cantonese-language television on Friday.

Ford has lambasted Waterfront Toronto for spending more than $900,000 on the two giant rocks and 36 umbrella-like fixtures that adorn the park. In an interview with Fairchild TV, he added an entirely inaccurate statement to his attack.

Though Sugar Beach opened in August 2010, and though Ford posed for photos there in October 2010, he declared that the contentious spending decisions were made when he was away in rehab in May and June of this year.

“Obviously, I — as soon as I go away, they go and spend $1 million on rocks and umbrellas,” he said with conviction. He added: “The gravy train, obviously, goes back, right on the rails, as soon as I’m away.”

Ford’s incorrect assertion could ring true to casual followers of municipal affairs because the cost of the rocks and umbrellas only became public in late June, when Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong brought the information to the media.

The company that made the umbrellas, Soheil Mosun, happens to be located next to Ford’s family’s company in Etobicoke. Ford’s administration successfully pushed to appoint company owner Darius Mosun to the board of the city-owned Toronto Parking Authority in 2011.

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