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Morning Brew: Ford asks province for money, analysis of Gord Perks' last ditch attempt to avoid service cuts, reports on TCHC wasteful spending and G20 misconduct due today, and the Leafs lose in OT
The Toronto Star has obtained a four-page letter dated January 25 that was sent by Rob Ford to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan that asks for an injection of $150 million to Toronto in the provincial budget. Ford says he needs the funds for road construction and repair, public transit projects, a Fort York visitor centre and the renewal of programs to fund subsidized child care, housing and services for immigrants. I thought asking the province for money was David Miller's bag? Oh well. Apparently an email sent Sunday evening to Ford's spokeswoman Adrienne Batra requesting comment on the funding request went unanswered.
The Post's politcal panel discusses Councillor Gord Perks' last-ditch attempt to avoid service cuts in the 2011. Last week, Perks proposed hiking property taxes sufficient to raise $3.5-million, an amount that could have avoided cutting bus routes, closing the Municipal Affairs branch of the library and other service cuts. The idea was ultimately rejected.
Everyone at city hall is waiting for the much-hyped report that outlines wasteful spending by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, which is set for release today, according to Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday. "I haven't seen the report, but I understand there has been some inappropriate expenditures made there and ... I guess we'll see for ourselves," Holyday said Sunday. "We have to stop it; we can't let it go on and we have to deal with those who are responsible." Rumour has it the "waste" includes a lavish staff Christmas party, expensive chocolates, and mani-pedis all-around.
Speaking of reports, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Union of Public and General Employees is releasing a 59-page one today, recommending a full-scale public inquiry for the widespread and violent trampling of civil rights by police at last summer's $1-billion G20 summit in Toronto. "The many violations of civil liberties that occurred during the summit, such as illegal detentions and searches and excessive uses of force, cannot have simply been the actions of a few bad apples," the report states. "Rather, given the scope and severity of the violations of rights that occurred during the G20, it is difficult to view this situation as anything other than a failure of policy and training."
IN BRIEF:
- "The King's Speech" wins at Oscar Snoozefest
- Leafs lose in OT
- Canada ranks third with integrating newcomers
Photo by PJ Mixer in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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Cut local taxes.
Demand that people outside of my city cover my expenses.
But I still don't see why the province has to pay to fix it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&;source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=kipling+and+bloor,+toronto&aq=&sll=43.641448,-79.535179&sspn=0.008727,0.023378&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kipling+Ave+%26+Bloor+St+W,+Toronto,+Toronto+Division,+Ontario,+Canada&ll=43.64179,-79.535394&spn=0.008727,0.023378&z=17
When Dalton doesn't give money, Rob is a bad person
When Dave burns through tons of cash, runs up debt and claims a surplus by not spending all he borrowed, he is revered
Interesting logic
I mean, I guess the toll idea is more "charge the people who get the most use out of it" but neither idea is really unappealing to me.
When Dalton doesn't give money, Rob is a bad person
When Dave burns through tons of cash, runs up debt and claims a surplus by not spending all he borrowed, he is revered
Interesting logic[/b]
Ford is the only one of the three that cut taxes then cried poor. Harris and Miller both tried to balance the budget, albeit through radically different strategies.
But Rob Ford is still an idiot.
What a epic fail this guy is
I wish Toronto became its own province way back before amalgamation. We would be rolling in dough not having to support all these leech communities.
I hope people are waking up in this city and seeing the snowjob
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/mcguinty-rejects-ford-request-for-over-350-million/article1923517/
These are expenses that we have no control over and yet are expected to pay for because the provinces decides they want to. They can even campaign on providing more welfare to people and we would have to foot the bill for higher costs.
Property taxes are for the most part predictable and a source of steady income. It's great for paying things that have predictable annual costs (ie. road maintenance, garbage collection, parks and rec. etc). The problem is that this kind of tax is terrible for dealing with things like welfare because they are tied to fluctuating factors such as the economy. We could go from having virtually no unemployment to high unemployment and the city will then have to somehow deal with that issue and avoid debt (we are not allowed to borrow money to cover these things).
During the Harris/Eves era and early part of McGuinty's reign, the economy was good, so nobody had a problem with downloading these responsibilities (although anyone with a brain should have argued against it). But of course, every politician is just fine with setting Toronto up for a big fall. Places like Toronto will have more instances of welfare, settlement programs, child welfare costs (as opposed to places like Owen Sound, Sudbury, and even London), just because of our size and the fact that we are a hub for all kinds of people. The rest of the province gets a little break on their provincial taxes while Toronto is forced to find ways to make ends meet (while our city's tax dollars actually flow out to support their programs).
Miller squandered an opportunity in the last election to make this an issue. Now with the economy down and welfare costs up we are struggling to cover these costs. If the province wants us to provide these services (that are NOT truly our responsibility), they should pony up the costs. I'm glad that Ford is trying to get the province to pay, but he should lay out exactly WHY they should.
But the argument is mute, Queens Park rejected Ford.
Originally, I was thinking that it should only be Toronto that secedes (like, metro city limits). However, if you make it the entire GTA, then it's geographically around the same size as PEI (the smallest province), which would add... legitimacy?... to the whole idea. I'm fairly certain your comment was meant to be cheeky, which is cool, but honestly, why couldn't this work (either with just TO or with the GTA)?
1. Miller did try to do it, every year. From the G+M article: "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who frequently criticized his predecessor for begging the province for money"
2. Miller didn't run in the election, so how could he "squander an opportunity" to make it an issue?
The bes thing about a toll besides getting the income, and what I meant was a dollar per day, is that the people that didn't want to pay could just take transit instead. GO train, TTC whatever. Either way it would mean more revenue or less cars.
You would be forced to re-schedule non-essential trips into the city when its cheaper/not as busy or take public transit in.
Also, I agree with you about Miller asking the province for cash (sorry that it wasn't clear - poor writing on my part). Ford is doing right by asking but both have made the error in not pointing out WHY the province should pay nor have they made the case about why having the city pay for the province's responsibilities is wrong.
(Still think Ford is a doofus)
A lot of GTAers might work in the city, but not all Torontonians work in Toronto.
Best wishes
Premier Dad, Queen's Park"
For one, every major country operates on a system that is similar to the one you see in Toronto. Do you think New York City gets as much money it pays out in terms of tax from the New York government? Governments have operated the same way for centuries. This is not a new concept.
The reason why people even pay tax is to better the situation of everyone, not a select few.
While some make like to convince themselves this is not the case, there are actually industries that operate outside of Toronto.
Moreover, let's imagine a situation for where Toronto got a bigger share of tax revenue. People would be forced to move to Toronto just so they could support themselves. Combine that fact with the realization that immigrants already come here in droves and Toronto's population density becomes rather frightening. The increase in population would not necessarily be offset by the increased dollars received from the Ontario government.
Moreover, if we are going to allow Toronto to keep more of the money it gives out, why do we not just let the rich keep more of what they earn since it is essentially the same principle?
Outside of all of that though, I have to admit that in principle there is nothing wrong with asking the Ontario government for more money. The problem is that Rob Ford first decided to make tax cuts so he could keep his election promises and then asked for the money. He should have secured the money he needed first before he contemplated making any cuts. Even if he did that however, in light of the looming $774-million hole in next year's budget, Mr. Ford probably still should not have made those cuts.
I think we can all agree that ford is a mess. And the fact that he eliminated taxes just to ask the province for money is super embarrassing. the fact that he and his supporters bitched about it when miller did it HAS to have ford supporters bright red in the face and if it doesn't then they are stupider than we thought