Morning Brew: Rob Ford in hospital, homeless man attacked on video, slow start for new garbage collection, fighting for electric trains, and OLG eases on casino

You've never made an error on the first day on the job? Ever? What about three months in? Cut Rob's decision some slack, willya?

Feeling ranty this morning, so please excuse me:

1) If you hate Rob Ford, stop carping about the garbage. I hope he is ok, no one would ever wish him any physical ill, but I want that fool out of office pronto. And do you know what makes people vote for him? Their complete and utter loathing for garbage worker unions. The famous garbage strike was three years ago but it still hits a nerve - whining over privatization simply hands Rob Ford votes. There is nothing wrong with following best practices and copying other cities on private collection. We WANT Ford to follow best practices on waterfront development, bike lanes, light rail, etc. so it does no good to try and make garbage an exception. Let it be if you want Ford gone.

2) Every city has jerks living in it who do cruel things. Not every city gives them an environment with people sleeping on the street or letting the sidewalk become awash in litter. Bad things happen when those conditions are tolerated. Get the homeless off the street by whatever liberal (housing) or conservative (jail) method you prefer, but Toronto has a serious problem not seen elsewhere that needs attention. And pick up the litter for crying out loud!

3) If you like rapid transit, stop protesting over the airport rail link! The thing is ten years behind, how much longer must the entire city suffer? Electric is great, love it, but the reality is that Toronto is a dirt-poor city when it comes to infrastructure and this is not the time to chase pipe dreams at the cost of everything else. There are what, two cities in North America that have electric trains to the airport vs a dozen with diesel? Nothing wrong with using a proven, cost-effective best practice (see: garbage collection) to get the job done. Diesel will work just fine, and when the day in 2125 comes that the whole GO system switches to cricket-powered electric hovertrains you can convert it then. In the meantime, I'd like to be able to get to the airport by rail like you can in 40 other North American cities.

privatized garbage collection works, most cities around Toronto like Mississauga have been doing it for a long time. Etobicoke where i live has been doing it for over a decade, with not one disruption in service. I don;t like Rob Ford but i have no problems with this. Of course they will be kinks that need to be worked out on the first week of service.

Were you one of the lowlifes who cheered the lowlife as he pissed on another human. Sitting on your perch of privileged looking down on those you think you are better then them.

"Sadly Rob Ford and company went about it (privatizing garbage collection) in a spiteful way, using the myth of the lazy overpaid civic union, all city staff, to justify contracting out."

The City workers did not help things in 2009 when, after going on strike, they deliberately made it difficult for citizens to drop off their garbage at the depots. They forgot that they needed the people on their side. A LOT of sympathy went out the window then. It was a tactical mistake that gave the Right a big advantage.

The people pushing this case are hardly anti-transit.

The case should certainly not be dropped just because the ARL has been delayed for over ten years. That long delay cannot be laid at the feet of electric train proponents or the local community groups along the line. This mess is all about screw ups and delays by SNC Lavalin, the government of Ontario and its associated institutions.

It is unlikely that this court challenge will win, but since the whole process has taken this long, I don't have a problem if the people most affected by the ARL want to have their legal kick at the can. The worst thing that could happen is that the province electrifies it sooner rather than some unknown, unlikely or indeterminate time later.

Agreed. If a private company can do the job to the standard we've come to expect, they pay their people a living wage with benefits, and the city can save money, then it's a no-brainer. The fact of the matter is that some people will automatically oppose privatization. I don't think that it is the solution to everything like many on the right do, but I also don't think it's inherently evil, like many on the left do.

If Ford had framed the issue as a simple matter of economics or efficiency, he might have received less pushback, but instead it was evident that it was yet another skirmish in the ideological war he seems intent on waging. Talk radio was on fire last night, with callers getting all worked up about garbage. Olivia Chow, who is like red meat to the right-wing, didn't help things either by chiming in with her complaint that her mother's pickup was late.

There are too many important things that need to be dealt with in this city for garbage pickup to take up anymore of our time. I'm perfectly content to give them a few months to get the kinks worked out, and then evaluate which method is better.

And to echo another point made earlier, CUPE has nobody but themselves to blame for this. I knew the 2009 strike would eventually blow up in their faces. It was a silly and petulant action during the worst part of the worst recession in generations, which destroyed any goodwill they might have been able to draw on from the public. And I'm about as pro-labour as they come.

Did they go over the cost comparison when they did the bidding? If the new garbage men are paid min-wage with no benefits and no sickdays, but the cost is just a little less (5% less, something like that), then I would prefer we stayed public. Better to pay a little more than to reduce the middle class anymore than it already is.
Also, we should make sure we choose a different company than the neighbouring municipalities so we don't create a monopoly. If we sell all our trucks and then only one company is capable of doing the pickup they can jack up the prices in a few years and we'd be screwed. I don't know if it's our size and being spread out or what, but Canada tends to produce so many monopolies in so many different industries.

Hmmmmmmmm, I do recall reading things, were was it again, oh ya one of them was The Sun, big promoters of the 'lazy overpaid civil working, Unions being greedy and corrupt'. Talk AM radio did a good job of promoting the concept too. It is also my understanding that it is the only media Rob will talk to. If they got it wrong Rob would have corrected them, but he let it stand, indicating that is what he believed.