Mayor Rob Ford said he would like to privatize the Toronto Community Housing Corporation amid a growing spending scandal at the city agency.
The comments came as TCHC's chief executive officer Keiko Nakamura said she would not step down, following an audit revealing wasted resources and controversial expenses.
Ford said Wednesday that he was surprised that Nakamura and the seven-member TCHC board had refused to step down, even after he called for their resignations.
Auditor General Jeffrey Griffiths recently found that between $4 and $10 million was wasted on sole-sourced contracts, and tens of thousands of dollars spent inappropriately on lavish expenses.
"I'm not going to tolerate these expenditures," Ford said Wednesday, adding that "thousand dollar chocolates" and "spas" are not appropriate expenses.
"It's outright nonsense and it's affecting the people who need it the most."
Griffiths met with Ford on Wednesday ahead of a meeting with TCHC this week.
Nakamura was not at the helm of the TCH when much of the waste occurred. Derek Ballantyne, who is now at Build Toronto, had been at TCHC as CEO from 2002 to May 2009.
However, Nakamura had been chief operating officer, starting in 2005 until taking over in 2009.
The audit stated that about $2,000 was spent on a meeting at a local spa, while $40,000 was spent for a staff Christmas party.
Golf trips, Holt Renfrew chocolates and expensive restaurant meals were also found in the audit.
In total, the audit found that $200,000 was misspent, along with the extra expenditures due to sole-sourced contracts.
Ford has even mulled selling off TCHC headquarters in the upscale Rosedale area. A real estate expert told CTV Toronto's Alicia Markson that the building, located on Yonge Street, could be worth between $9 and $11 million.
