The councilors of the Canadian city of Toronto are defying the mayor of the City as 24 of them signed a petition that reversed the decision to cancel the special meeting that was going to debate the matter of the downtown casino, a decision that was made by Mayor Rob Ford. During this meeting, the council can vote to kill the idea outright. Although that will mean that a casino in downtown will not happen, the gambling facility at Woodbine will still be a possibility. Due to this petition, the meeting is going to be held according to the original plan at 9.30 am ET next Tuesday. This petition was filed to the clerk office last Sunday sometime during the morning. Such meeting would need the support of a minimum of 23 councilors and it succeeded in getting 24 supporting councilors. The agenda for the meeting can be viewed at the official website of the city.

The meeting was cancelled by the Mayor last Thursday as he claimed that there is no point to have such a divisive debate concerning the casino providing that the province was not ready to give the city the one-million dollars annual hosting fee that the city was trying to get. The province has issued its formula regarding the hosting fees that the city would get if the casino is built, according to this formula, the city of Toronto would be given 53.7 million dollars per year.