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Morning Brew: Something stinks about Toronto's trash plans, archaeologists uncover old engine house at condo site, Justin Trudeau hits the GTA for the Liberals, TFC is getting a new facility, and get ready for rain
Something smells a little fishy about Mayor Rob Ford's move to privatize garbage collection in Toronto. The good news: the city's Solid Waste staff says Toronto can save up to $8-million a year by contracting out the trash pick-up west of Yonge Street, which would help with the forthcoming deficit. But when a contract has a term of more than five years, like the seven-year contract Solid Waste is seeking, "the Purchasing By-law states that council is required to make the award regardless of the overall contract value." This is where it gets dicey. The report from the Solid Waste staff recommends that staff do away with this rule and award the contract, which is worth over $200-million, through a "bid committee," without letting council vote on the deal. The report reasons the city will save money bypassing democracy because a council vote would delay a private pick-up by six months. That makes sense. Garbage totally outweighs democracy.
Dig and you shall find...remains of an old engine house from Toronto's 19th-century boom. Archaeologists uncovered brick and masonry foundation walls built by the Grand Trunk Railway in the 1850s at the base of the new Library District condo site, adjacent to the Bathurst Street bridge south of Front Street. According to railway historian Derek Boles, railways transformed Toronto from a warehousing centre to a manufacturing focal point. He says the unearthed remnants should be saved, but their fate is unknown.
I guess the Liberals see Justin Trudeau as their secret weapon. Why else drop him into seven GTA ridings in eight hours, including Liberal candidate Ruby Dhalla's embattled Brampton-Springdale riding. "It was important to come and show my support to Ruby," Trudeau said during a speech at Dhalla's campaign headquarters. "She is an important and valued member of our team." His brief visit is part of the Liberals' strategy to hold onto the 905 regions. And you know the man's dedicated to his party when he drove himself from Montreal in his ten-year old Toyota Camry.
Even though attendance has been low, that isn't stopping Toronto FC from building a world-class training facility worth $17-million at Downsview Park. The 5.7-hectare site, which will serve as a training base for the MLS team and its academy squads, will include three grass fields, one artificial turf field under a bubble and a 3,715-square-metre fieldhouse, which will house locker-rooms and offices. There will also be an area just for goalie training. Construction is slated to started next month. The fields are projected to be ready in April 2012.
IN BRIEF:
- Vandals destroy several TTC stations on Eglinton
- Jays lose third straight to the Red Sox
- Significant rainfall tonight for GTA
Photo by simon.carr in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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If that is your democracy, you can have it.
Go Rob Go!
debates process is eliminated and the councillors are
stymied and rendered ineffectual.
After the Harris Omnibus bill, many further decisions were
made by a cabinet "walk around"* and signed by several members of cabinet and the deed was done--completely
bypassing the floor of the House.
*Walk around. A cabinet minister would propose something in his/her portfolio and walk it around the cabinet table
and get several signatures thus making it a fait accompli.
Having said all this the union is getting exactly what they deserved. They cut their nose off to spite their face last summer. Why can't any of these union bosses ever look past the current contract negotiation? Why can't they look at the big picture?
- TFC sales are low because the ticket prices went up
Penny pinching fascists are the worst kind. Let's save some dollahs instead of having freedom!
It's not amazing, but it's for picking up garbage.
And some garbagemen can't seem to even do that with competence.
That other people working for the city earn more is entirely irrelevant.
The unions aren't the problem, the system is the problem, MORE jobs should be as "good" as union jobs. Union workers having relatively good jobs positively affects the private sector, it to an extent forces employers to offer competitive wages, benefits etc if they want to keep their employees, and have dedicated workers. Unions made your benefits, minimum wage etc etc. If you want a union job, apply for one somewhere, they offer peace of mind, you won't get rich and you'll still ahve to work hard, btu knowing that you will be able to eat, that you can pay your bills, is a huge load off. The fact that you're unskileld shouldn't mean you're treated as a secodn class citizen, it means there should be opportunity out there for you to better yourself, learn a skill and get a better job, without city services those opportunities aren't there, without unions there wouldn't be a lot of good jobs to strive for.
$53K per year IS a decent wage, especially for unskilled labour. And yes, driving a garbage truck is rightly classified as unskilled labour, since "skilled labour" = tradesman.
When I was earning a massive 27,000$ pushing paper at a real estate company I certainly didn't think the requirements of my job were worth 100 grand.
- Uggh garbage men get paid too much!
- Uggh my garbage wasn't picked up for a couple of weeks; apocalypse!
Make up, your effen, minds, neocons. Are garbage men valuable or are they not valuable? And also food for thought; my garbage is picked up LIKE CLOCKWORK. I highly doubt Jimmybob's Private Garbage Service will be as reliable.
This magical world where the private sector does everything so much more efficiently is mostly a wankfantasy that Randroids adhere to, much like Star Wars fans and The Force.
What make you say that, they got into a bid war to pick up your garbage. To keep the bid they will have to do a good job. These are private companies, not the city. Either do the job or get fired, like most of us have to do from day to day.
Why should social equality be paid for on the backs of municipal taxpayers? if a unionized private sector company can pick up garbage more cheaply and more efficiently than the public sector and not hijack us with thuggish behaviour whenever they decide go on strike then how can anyone be against this? practically every municipality in the 905 does it this way now and I bet there's no difference in quality compared to Toronto
Says the man who has clearly never been there. Parking lots miles and miles away from water filled with seagulls. thats what I think of when i think of etobicoke or scarborough
I guess you weren't around for that part.
A meaningless school yard bully tactic.
Talk about fixing something that simply 'aint broke but then totally screwing it up.
When you grow up and get a real job and have real responsibilities you'll realize that a $53k salary after 20+ years is actually really quite bad. Bad enough that you likely wouldn't be able to survive in Toronto as a homeowner with that as your sole income.
And keep in mind: If sanitation workers got paid minimum (or some other low) wage then you're going to end up with a lot of staffing issues. Who in their right mind would chose that job with its awful hours, awful and potentially hazardous working conditions and back breaking physical activity for the same as what they could be getting paid at a Walmart or McDonalds?
Give me a break, people. Expecting people to work awful jobs for low pay is one of the big reasons why Communism has never worked.