Remember “where’s the beef?” More than two decades ago it was an advertising catchphrase used to sell hamburgers. Eventually, it entered the political lexicon as shorthand criticizing empty promises. Toronto’s 21st century equivalent could well be: “Where’s the gravy?”

There’s supposed to be an excess of the fatty stuff at Toronto City Hall. Mayor Rob Ford won office by relentlessly vowing to derail a bureaucratic “gravy train” and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, insists the place has “more gravy than there is at Thanksgiving.”

It’s odd. Despite that excess lard, the Fords and their budget committee backers, who approved a spending plan this week, are shelling out more to run the city than former mayor David Miller ever did. They’re even hiring additional people — breaking Rob Ford’s promises to do the opposite on both counts.

Growth in spending and staffing is, to be sure, slower than in past years. That deserves recognition. But if a bureaucratic gravy train actually exists, it’s still chugging forward with Ford’s hand on the throttle.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. On the mayoral campaign trail, Ford explicitly promised to slash his first operating budget by 2.5 per cent. With a confidence that could only come from ignorance, he insisted it would be easy. He was sure there was that much “gravy” just waiting to be scooped out of the system. Ford didn’t find it. His $9.4 billion operating budget spends about $68 million more than Miller did in 2010.

Likewise with staffing. After years of thundering against a bloated bureaucracy and unnecessary hiring, Ford’s first capital and operating budgets propose adding more than 440 net new positions to the municipal payroll. Yes, that’s far fewer than the almost 1,300 people Miller heaped onto the operating side of the city’s ledger over the past two years. But it’s beside the point — Ford promised voters he would reduce the size of Toronto’s government by 3 per cent a year. He’s counting on that attrition rate to cut $1.1 billion from the budget over his four-year term. This is a pitiful start.

Ford has kept some election pledges — eliminating a reviled vehicle tax, cutting politicians’ expenses, and carrying a vote to declare Toronto’s transit system an essential service. But other broken promises include a campaign “guarantee” to make no service cuts, and hiring 100 additional police officers on grounds that the city “can’t have enough police.” It turns out we can — with Ford cutting recruitment, likely resulting in fewer cops in uniform.

Never mind, says Doug Ford. Next year will be different. Consultants are being brought in to conduct an extensive review of the city’s operations and purchasing. They’re supposed to sniff out the gravy that has, so far, been elusive.

It’s ironic. After serving a decade on city council railing against costly consultants, Mayor Ford is spending taxpayers’ money on outside experts to do the job he was expected to do himself — find efficiencies. Perhaps they’ll succeed. But so much has gone wrong, so fast, that the Fords would be wise to consider what they’ll do if the “gravy train,” on which their agenda is freighted, turns out to be an illusion.

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