MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Ford on the plastic bag ban, Mcallion wants new tax for transit, some bed bugs funding restored, a social media scorecard for city council
Just in case you were wondering how exactly Toronto came to ban plastic bags the other day, our fearless leader has an answer. Speaking on the John(ny) Oakley show yesterday, a miffed Rob Ford put the blame on an unengaged electorate. "Honestly, I get so frustrated because the people are just sitting back and listening, but they don't pick up the phone, they don't go down to city hall, they don't ask questions. It's frustrating, I want people to get engaged in municipal politics and find out who their councillor is and know how they vote."
Speaking of Rob Ford, who do you think would win in a fight — him or Hazel McCallion? Don't think fists. Think policy implementation... The Mississauga mayor is calling for the provincial government to put in place a new tax that would fund transit projects designed to ease gridlock in the GTA. It's always easy to ask the higher-ups for bucks, but the Hurricane might have her eye on the prize here. What do you think of the idea?
Bed bugs be gone! Well, sort of. $250,000 won't solve the problem, but at least the City was smart enough to heed Councillor Paula Fletcher's prodding to reinstate funding of the eradication team. I'm less itchy already.
Attention E-bike riders. Don't ride drunk! You might face criminal charges. Thanks for the tip, OpenFile.
Guinness world records jumped the shark ages ago, but this upcoming attempt is noteworthy for its ridiculousness. A group of people will gather in North York next week with the goal of fashioning the world's biggest QR code. Oh boy.
The Far Enough farm on the Toronto Islands — one of a number threatened by city cutbacks — has been saved thanks to a private donation from the operator of Centreville.
This social media scorecard for Toronto city council from the Academy of the Impossible folks is great — that is, if you can get by the clunky site design. So who takes home top honours? Councillors Paul Ainslie and Shelley Carroll, both of whom received A-. More like this, please.
And, lastly, a certain raspy-voiced gentleman paid a visit to Toronto yesterday. Boy does he have a nice car...
Photos by Georgie_grrl and Sam Javanrouh in the blogTO Flickr pool
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And at least you have to give the guy credit for raising the profile of local government to unprecedented heights. I'll bet many Torontonians can now name 5 or 6 current councillors -- I've never been able to do that before, ever. And people know a lot more about what the mayor does (or does not do), what Council does, etc. As a mayor he may be an international laughingstock and unmitigated disaster but as a political science education tool he's not half bad.
a few days ago someone joked that Rob Ford would make the perfect mayor for Keswick. I decided to look it up.
http://georgina.ca/council-mayor.aspx
Not only is he a 5 term mayor, but he was also involved with the Parkdale Business Improvement Association in the early 80's.
Mayor of Keswick >>>> Ford
All contact information can be found from this link:
http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp
"YU invests in youth through outreach programs, entrepreneur training, a girls' arts program, a summer day camp, BMX bicycle motocross programs and other activities."
I find QR codes kind of annoying but in the wake of last weekends events at the Eaton Centre this doesn't seem ridiculous at all.
It would be shorter to list who he hasn't blamed:
Rob Ford.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Council's decisions this week regarding plastic bags.
Council voted 23-21 to abolish the 5-cent plastic bag fee effective July 1, 2012. This is what Toronto taxpayers wanted. The 5-cent fee (6-cents with HST) was a nuisance.
The goal of the fee was to divert plastic bags from our landfill. That goal has been a success.
Consumer behaviour has changed, and plastic bags are now 100% recyclable – so there is no reason for any plastic shopping bags to end up in our landfill.
Council also adopted an "on the fly" motion to ban all types of plastic shopping bags – including biodegradable, compostable and photo-degradable bags beginning January 1, 2013.
The motion to ban plastic shopping bags was adopted without staff report, consultation or analysis — and the City Solicitor was not permitted to provide legal advice to Council before the vote. There is some concern that Council may have overstepped its authority in banning bags.
I do not support the complete ban of plastic bags. I will consult with the City Solicitor, who was not permitted to provide her advice to Council, to understand the City's legal position regarding this ban.
As promised during the mayoral election, I am dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city.
I will continue to work on behalf of the taxpayers to make sure you get the respect you deserve.
Thank you again for your valuable input on this important issue. Please feel free to contact my office again at any time.
Yours truly,
Mayor Rob Ford
City of Toronto