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Morning Brew: Council OKs 2% property tax rise, Ford votes against own budget, TTC fires 8 enforcement staff, going for mid-rise, and taxpayers' group Twitter pulled
The first round of budget votes at city council took a bizarre turn yesterday when Rob Ford voted in favour of a motion that contradicted his own budget plans. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti's motion to freeze property tax rates and build a floating casino to make up the lost revenue garnered a "yes" vote from the mayor whose budget called for a 2% increase. The motion died, though, with only Ford, Frances Nunziata, and Glenn De Baeremaeker voting with Mammoliti. What are your thoughts on the tax increase?
The TTC has fired eight enforcement officers who it says issued false offense tickets for panhandling, loitering, and other offenses to members of the public with no fixed address. Five of the workers face criminal charges for obstruction of justice and fabricating evidence as a result. The fake tickets were likely a smokescreen for skipped shifts.
Toronto's chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat says Toronto needs more mid-rise apartment buildings in all of its neighbourhoods rather than a cluster of extra tall condos in the downtown core only. In the latest in a series of articles from the Toronto Star, Keesmaat says 5-10 storey buildings are key to the city's success. Do you agree?
A Saint John man is angry with Air Canada over a Christmastime incident that resulted in his13-year-old son being left alone at Pearson for six hours. The airline put the plane's other passengers in a hotel for the night when after flight was turned back due to bad weather.
The Toronto Taxpayers' Coalition, a group advocating for a downtown casino to fund subway expansion, had its Twitter account suspended yesterday, possibly for faking a verification mark on its page. Metro's Jessica Smith noticed yesterday that a blue check mark reserved for major corporations and celebrities appeared on the group's Twitter account shortly before the micro-blogging site suspended access.
IN BRIEF:
- Idle No More activities planned nationwide [CBC]
- Boyfriend in custody after Canadian woman studying abroad killed in Bangladesh [The Star]
- Toronto doctor pleads not guilty to 21 sex assault charges [CBC]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Photo: "Jesus Geese" by DdotG/blogTO Flickr pool.
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Seriously, what an embarrassment. No other mayor in North America would act so bizarrely or talk from the gutter like he does. Can't wait until he is gone.
I was suspicious about Keesmaat simply because the Ford administration hired her, but she has won me over. She is exactly who Toronto needs right now in this field. Any chance she would run for mayor?
If you are so obsessed about treating everyone equally, perhaps you would also be in favour of road tolls and other forms of user fees the Ford seems to be incapable of understanding. It can't just be "don't tax my lifestyle choices but please tax everyone else's".
Or at least that's what goes through the minds of developers.
There Christian, fixed it for you so that steve can understand better.
Steve, maybe the feds should tax housing gains, so all investments are as you say, "treated equally".