The community development and recreation committee is has voted 5 to 1 to cancel the fees paid for recreational programming and instead to provide them free across the city. The motion was moved by Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 26). It would take the city back beyond the amalgamation year of 1998 to time when the City of Toronto offered such programming free, but all the suburban cities applied what many call a token payment. The Wong-Tam proposal, now goes to full city council. The argument seems, on the basis of news reports, to have been fuelled largely on ambient emotion. Joe Mihevc (Ward 21) declared “Every child has a right to an education, every child has a right to health care, and we’re saying it be the right of everyone that we take the cost of recreation out of a common pot.” The city earns $30.6 million from the fees,
