City
Morning Brew: Guilty Verdict in Asian Angler Assaults, Waste Diversion Battle Brewing, Selling Crown Corporations?, Rocco Should Know Better, Mansion Blaze, Shooting Statistics
Photo: "Walking the Dog" by Todd Michael M., member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
While racism still no doubt exists, here in the big city most of us feel that our multicultural co-existence is something to be proud of and to celebrate. The same may or may not be true in some parts of rural Ontario, and a racially motivated assault case that just wrapped up has us wondering if it's still the 1940s in some parts. Guilty verdicts were delivered in a case that involved a violent, racially-motivated confrontation, throwing of Asian anglers into Lake Scugog (aka "nipper-tipping"), a fight, a car chase, and a crash resulting in a victim with brain damage.
If Toronto is to succeed in its ambitious waste diversion goals, we need residents and landlords of apartment buildings to share that ambition. But should levies be charged to landlords to account for failure by tenants to abide by recycling protocols? The Greater Toronto Apartment Association and the City of Toronto are likely going to have to settle the debate in the courts.
Should the Province of Ontario be selling Crown corporations to generate monies to help get out of severe debt? The LCBO, Hydro One, and Ontario Lottery & Gaming (OLG) are being considered. In my opinion, Ontario consumers would benefit immensely from the sale of the archaic retail monopoly that is the LCBO, and the bloated and scandal-ridden OLG could use a serious shakeup. But I'm still on the fence about privatization of power.
Newly announced Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi has gotten himself into trouble already. The Liberal Party (with which he is still employed) suspended his email account after he used it to send messages asking for support in his bid to become mayor. Does he not see this as a conflict of interest? In related news, Rossi is also allegedly hiding something sinister related to the number 23 (see embedded, outlandish, conspiracy nut video below):
As many as 70 firefighters were called to the scene of a 3-alarm blaze at a mansion in the York Mills and Bayview area last night. It'll be interesting to see the finer details of the story once the ash settles (there's an unconfirmed report that the home contained a weapons stash). I also wonder how much renters' insurance costs (and if the tenants had it!) for a swanky place that comes in at cool $6,500/month.
As we near the end of the year, and look with optimism at homicide stats, we also need to take note of the increase in the number of shootings Toronto has seen this year. Note that the number of incidents of gunfire in which no one was injured is way up, which may or may not be attributed to the increase in the sideways gun holding technique.
And in case you missed it yesterday, infamous bike thief Igor Kenk pleaded guilty was was sentenced to 30 months, most of which will be credited for time already served awaiting trial. Just punishment? Hmmm.
Hat tip to @goldsbie for Tweeting the Rossi video.
Discussion
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Also, instead of selling off OLG, why not open another casino in Toronto? Why not toll highways and bridges and use that revenue to create public transit alternatives?
I'm all for competition and not necessarily keeping Crown Corporations but why must it be that the municipal and the provincial governments cannot (or will not?) make the tough choices that are needed to straighten this province and city around? Yeah, it may not be the most popular thing to do and for some it's steeped in boring policy talk but this is our future here being thrown away because it's politically convenient.
Once that is done THEN we can look at the sphere of government control and determine what services gov't should and should not provide.
Good points. Ontario taxpayers must ensure forensic audits are done to each and every Crown Corporations, right down to each departments and employees. It's OUR money and there's still lots of waste going on, hence the huge debt. Remember, they serve US. That's why they're called public SERVANTS.
407 ETR anyone?
You don't sell off your assets to meet cash flow needs.
But yeah, a Casino down by Ontario Place would be good. It'd help the cab industry and make those useless Exhibition streetcars less useless.
The casino in Montreal is a pain in the ass to get to but of course people still spend 20 bucks on a cab to get there...
I think selling off (profitable) crown corps should be only considered as a last ditch effort. The province only has so many sources of income, and getting rid of a few might bring in some money in the short term, it will only hurt the province in the long term when that initial payout is long gone and they are struggling to fund basic services.
Have defined bottom lines, eliminate patronage and legacy appointments to senior positions. Run leaner orgs.
Tightening up the RFP process was a good start. More transparency is needed but the Corwn agencies should remain as such.
If the province changes the regulations and opens it up to allow private and independant retailers to sell alcohol, than by all means get rid of the LCBO, but until than, I'll stick with the LCBO for my beer.
Rico, you get a much narrower selection of beers from the Beer Store... I know how much more interesting things there are going on out there especially in the world of Craft Brewing (both local, provincial, national and international)... at least the LCBO makes an attempt to give some more interesting selections, unlike the Beer Store.
At least the LCBO makes an attempt to cycle in a few interesting beers here and there, but it's still pathetic.
Far more useful for citizens and government alike would be opening up that market for competition. Alberta's government makes more money off liquor now than when it ran the business itself.
I don't think so. Private priority is making a profit, public priority is making it work. I'll take that at the cost of efficiency.
There is lots of horror stories from around the world where private companies take over public roles.
570 million f*cking dollars to build
sold to Rogers for 25 f*cking dollars
570 - 25 = 545 million dollar markdown.
So awesome
You could split the LCBO up, but it still wouldn't drastically reduce costs to the point where anyone except the super rich could afford to purchase them. Even dividing the LCBO into 6 would leave us with 100 or stores each, which would still require massive investment to buy.
Additionally, the capitol required to rebrand and renovate 100 stores would be enormous and you'd pay for it in the prices you pay for your wine and alcohol.
Another option is franchising individual locations, but in my experience, that always ends up for awful situations unless the franchisee is put under strict control of the brand owner (which would in theory still be the Ontario Government).
Compare a place like Subway or McDonalds which have strict control with someplace like Canadian Tire with lax control. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a few CT horror stories.
However, institute strict control and you'll start reducing the benefits, such as greater selection, better pricing, etc.
In the case of the LCBO, people are pointing out many different variables, no one is saying "leave it be" or "sell to a large brewer" are the ONLY options.... A number of peoples have said If they dont change the regulations along with it, than yeah options are pretty limited... cuz it would all depend on who has the money, resources to buy it and run it... enter the BRI.
And at the same time, people have pointed out some history of crown corps being sold to private companies and how that hasn't turned out great (and I think The Beer Store being the only private corp allowed to sell beer other than the gov is shit)
The only black and white thinking is when people just say privatization is the ONLY way... there is lots of grey areas in all the choices... as a number of people have pointed out, holding crown corps accountable is definitely RIGHT NOW, a step that is needed.
You don't understand. Having a separate education system funded by the public is segregation unless the religion is Roman Catholic - then it's part of our historic fabric as a province. I know this because our Premier told us all that at the last election. When he told us that, it was <b>in no way</b> because like me Dalton is RC, his wife is a teacher at an RC school and that's the system his kids have gone through. Dalton is just the kind of guy that knows segregation when he sees it.
Middleton put a person in a wheelchair with brain damage. There's no doubt the redneck deserves worse than whatever he gets.
joey/Loic here deserve the same thing. If you really want to push for vigilantism you'll likely get it.
The LCBO is the one of the largest purchasers of liquor in the world. Ontario has some of the lowest liquor prices in Canada as a result.
And the LCBO generates $2 billion annually that goes into the public purse to pay for all the stuff we increasingly take for granted - like, say, health care, roads, education, etc. etc. etc. (see www.lcbo.com/aboutlcbo/media_centre/quick_facts.shtml)
And there's good paying jobs at the LCBO. What, instead we should give it away to profiteers that will pay staff minimum wage while taking the majority of the loot for themselves?
Selling off the LCBO would be a bonehead move. Just say no.
I see the same thing happening with the LCBO or OLG, they will never get fair value.
The sell off will still create a monopoly, nothing will change other than the fact that the LCBO will no longer be publicly owned.