Toronto’s mayor is being accused of circulating a so called “cheat sheet” to councillors on his executive committee ahead of a council meeting last month when the 2017 budget was finalized.

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

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam moved a motion asking staff to develop a gender based framework to look at next year’s budget and the effects of budgetary and policy decisions on various genders. Wong Tam’s motion passed 26-18 with Mayor Tory’s support.

A published report says a cheat sheet was circulated by the mayor’s office to councillors allied with the mayor, telling those councillors to vote against her motion. The same report says Tory’s office did the same thing in another vote dealing with the resettling of refugees.

A spokesperson for John Tory says “the mayor’s votes speak for themselves.” But it remains unclear why the mayor’s office wanted some to vote against the gender equality and newcomer motions or if the goal was for the motions to lose.