Mayor John Tory publicly voted to support a gender equality approach to city budgeting while allied councillors were instructed by his office to vote against it.

The councillor pushing for that equality says the move by Tory smacks of “dishonesty,” what preceded his participation in International Women’s Day events earlier this month.

At a February meeting of council where the 2017 budget was finalized, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale) moved a motion asking staff to develop a gender-based framework to look at next year’s budget and the impacts of budgetary and policy decisions on various genders, something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is planning for the upcoming 2017 budget.

Wong-Tam’s motion passed 26 to 18 with Tory’s support.

But what Wong-Tam didn’t know at the time is that what’s known at city hall as a cheat sheet was circulated by the mayor’s office to councillors allied with the mayor. That cheat sheet, which the Star has seen a copy of, told those councillors to vote against her motion. Seven of Tory’s hand-picked executive members voted against the motion.

Wong-Tam told the Star she was disappointed to learn about the cheat sheet instructions after the vote, saying she believed she had the mayor’s support after speaking with him that morning.

“You can’t stand publicly and purport that you support gender equality and that you can not stand in front of audience of women and tell them how important their economic participation is in civic life and that you’ll do everything you can to ensure that you can help, which was his message during International Women’s Day . . . and then be working behind the scenes to undermine those efforts to achieve equality,” she said.

The Star has also learned Tory voted in favour of adding a new position to the city’s newcomer office, which helps with resettling refugees, while the cheat sheet instructed others to do the opposite.

Tory has publicly advocated for Toronto as a welcome haven for refugees and is sponsoring a Syrian family as part of a private group.

Mihevc’s motion narrowly passed in a 24 to 20 vote. Eight of Tory’s executive members voted against it.

“I think the onus is on the mayor’s office to explain the discrepancy,” Mihevc told the Star.

The Star contacted Tory’s office for an explanation of why the mayor voted one way but his allies were instructed to do the opposite. A response from spokesperson Don Peat did not address those discrepancies.

“The mayor’s votes speak for themselves. He voted in favour of Councillor Wong-Tam’s gender equity motion and Councillor Mihevc's newcomer office motion because he supported them,” Peat said in an email, before listing other unrelated items the mayor supported at that meeting.

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Tory’s administration is not unique in instructing friendly council members on how to vote. It’s a practice that occurred both under former mayors Rob Ford and David Miller.

It remains unclear why the mayor’s office wanted some to vote against the gender equality and newcomer office motions or if the goal was for the motions to lose.

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