THE TORONTO PARTY Monthly Musings

May 2008

School trustee spending outrageous

Although our party has not focused on school trustee issue as much as it has on city council issues, there is no doubt that change is needed here too. Double-dipping on expenses, and paying themselves rent are only a few of the ways that these folks have taken away resources from the people who need them the most -- the kids in our schools. The provincial government is rightfully angry on how funds have been misspent. But there is a lot of talk and not enough action. The province should step in immediately and call in the police. At the same time, those responsible for oversight on the spending of the trustees should be immediately fired. Then to top it off, we should have a public inquiry into how trustees and councillors can spend taxpayer money like it was their own personal bank account.

What happened to the tree by-law?

Mayor Miller has fancied himself as the great environmentalist. He has initiated programs at Toronto all under the heading of environmental protection. Yet despite wanted to increase Toronto's tree canopy, the city continues to chop down trees at a whim. First it was at Woodgreen Ravine in Scarborough, then it was near the Old Mill Inn in Etobicoke. Now the city has cut down trees in park in North York without any community consultation. The reason for cutting down trees in the park: to prevent teenagers from loitering there. The city needs a reality check on its environmental compass. Read Sue-Ann Levy here on the latest timber fiasco and catch the comments of Tony Dickins.

Throwing millions more of taxpayer money away

The "tax and spend" crowd at City Hall are at it again. This time they have opened the city's coffers to panhandlers. The City will spend an extra $5 million to get panhandlers off the street. However the spending will not be through law enforcement but through social service programs. Based on statistics, the money that the City will spend on panhandlers will be $35,000 per panhandler. Despite spending more money, the City panhandling problem continues, and we expect it to continue. Throwing more money at this problem will not solve it.

April 2008

Will a debate on whether the TTC is an essential service ever happen?

City Council has once again failed to deal with a critical issue. Notwithstanding the TTC's campaign that each worker is worth $1 million and that a shut down of public transit would devastate Toronto's economy, a decision as to whether the TTC should be declared an essential service was deferred to Mayor Miller's all powerful Executive Committee. Do not expect the issue to resurface under this Mayor. The Mayor's committee is comprised of left-wingers who are not about to leave a public service union working in a monopolized service without the right to hold the taxpayers of Toronto hostage everytime a collective bargaining agreement expires. There is no such thing as an absolute "right to strike", and our city government instead of dithering should do what is necessary to ensure that what happened on Friday, April 25, 2008, when the TTC union withdrew public transit services at midnight, stranding thousands of people, never happens again. On the other hand, if the TTC union does not believe that public transit is an essential service, then we should have an open debate about privatizing the TTC either in whole or in part. The union and their pro-NDP pals at City Hall can't have it both ways.

Hand Guns top agenda instead of the TTC

Generally, Toronto is a safe city. Unlike cities south of the border, Toronto, for a city its size, has relatively smaller rate of violent crime. But in the wake of the TTC strike on Friday, April 25 and the provincial government's passing of back-to-work legislation two days later, it was fitting that City Council should have on Monday, April 28 discussed whether the TTC should be declared an essential service. However instead, the agenda was topped by a decision on a hand gun ban, which the city is powerless to impose and which the federal government has no interest in entertaining. Indeed, hand gun bans in North America are rare and where in place have done little to stop gun violence. Chicago is a case in point. With a hand gun ban in place for nearly 30 years, the city continues to be plagued by gun violence and a high homicide rate. Hand gun bans might sound good politically, but in reality they ignore the problems that lead to gun violence and other violent crime. Yet regardless of your position on this issue, you have to wonder where the priority of our Mayor and City Council is when the general public is interested in having a debate on the TTC.

TTC Goes on Strike!

Yes, you are reading the headline right. The TTC is going on strike notwithstanding the lucrative agreement handed to them by Mayor Miller and left-wing councillor Adam Giambrone. Knowing that the Mayor and the councillor already caved in once to their demand, it looks like the workers want to get even more out of their union pals, and so 65% of the TTC union voted to go on strike at a time when Torontonians believed that the public transit crisis had been averted. The City has no emergency road traffic plan in place for the strike and the general public has made no contingency plans. The move by the union could seal its fate as demands have already been made to declare Toronto's public transit workers an essential service. If so declared, TTC workers would be prohibited in the future from going on strike. Another option that has been called for is the uploading of the entire TTC to the province. It will be interesting to see how the power play made by the union gets resolved and whether Mayor Miller finally stands up and says "No" to their demands or whether more concessions will be made. Stay tuned.

TTC Strike Averted; But at What Cost?

Mayor David Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone happily announced that the pending TTC strike had been averted. They essentially avoided it by caving in to all of the demands of their friends in the TTC union...and then some. Not only will TTC workers get a 3% wage hike every year for the next three years (twice the rate of inflation), but they will also get more benefits and -- the kicker -- a guarantee that they will be the highest paid transit workers in the GTA. It's a good thing Miller and Giambrone aren't running the Maple Leafs. Now in making their announcement, the Mayor said that the contract was fair for the workers. What about what is fair for the taxpayer? What about what is fair for TTC riders? The Mayor says that the contract will not result in fair increases. Do you believe him? He also said he would keep property taxes at the rate of inflation. With this contract, every other City of Toronto union is grinning from ear-to-ear this morning because their pals at City Hall are ready to give them whatever they want.

TTC Strike Looms

The TTC is set to go on strike on Monday morning if a settlement is not reached by 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. The demands by the TTC are expected, and we also expect Mayor Miller and his pro-union pals to cave in as the payment of high wages, whether a worker is skilled or not, has become a priority for the city government. Regardless of whether the high wages are justified, it is noteworthy that Toronto's transit system does not appear to be modern. Why does our TTC system still require "ticket collectors" when other systems, both elsewhere in Canada and around the world, are fully automated? Why do Toronto's LRTs require drivers, when the system can be operated by automation? If the TTC union wants higher wages, then it should permit the modernization of our transit system. On another note, it is also time that public transit be declared an essential service -- funny, however, that a Liberal premier is the one moving in that direction.

Keep our pools open!

School swimming pools are being shut down across Toronto due to a lack of funding to keep them open. Does this sound familiar? Remember Miller shutting down the ice rinks? While pubic school enrolment is down and funding is up, the Toronto District School Board claims it has no money to keep the pools open. Well if it doesn't have the money -- and we should ask where is it going -- then it is time to involve the private sector in keeping the pools open. Swimming and exercise are part of a well-rounded education and thus our governments and our politicians should do more instead of allowing the pools to be closed. Parents and all Torontonians are tired of the excuses and tired of paying alot of taxes for no return from our governments. The Toronto Party supports the efforts of parents in their fight to keep school pools open.

Miller to go to China while TTC set to go on strike?

A lot of debate has raged regarding Mayor Miller's pending trip to China. Most of it has centred on human rights, Tibet, the Olympics, and the efficacy of spending $70,000 on a trade mission during Toronto's fiscal crisis. But here's another angle: with the TTC labour issue unresolved and it looks like ready to strike, why is the Mayor heading to China instead of taking action to resolve an issue that impacts millions of TTC riders and thousands of businesses in Toronto? The Mayor's first priority is to the people of Toronto; not to an ill-defined trade mission. After all, the provincial Liberals have also organized a trade mission to China. Let the province deal with trade. Let the municipal government deal with the public transit labour negotiations.

Mayor proposes to ban handguns -- across Canada!

Mayor Miller has once again demonstrated why change is needed at City Hall. First, he is set to go on a trade junket to China where he will speak on human rights issues. Now, he wants a national ban on handguns. The City of Toronto will soon be facing an economic crisis. Instead of becoming embroiled in national issues which are the jurisdiction of the federal government, the Mayor needs to concentrate on preparing Toronto's economy for the worst economic conditions in more than a decade. International human rights and national handgun bans should not be at the top of the Mayor's agenda.

Housing resales down 27%

The housing market continues to decline. In March, it was reported that house sales in Toronto dropped a staggering 27% from the year before. Could Mayor Miller's new municipal land transfer tax -- the only one of its kind in Ontario -- have anything to do with this figure? Although house sales in the GTA were also down for month, the decline was significantly smaller outside of Toronto. If the declining trend continues, it is likely that the City will be unable to meet its budget since a key component of the balanced budget was the projected revenues from this tax. It also appears that the new tax is causing some administrative headaches as requests for rebates for first time buyers are being sent to the wrong place.

Toronto Star fails Toronto

The Toronto Star has run a feature showing that Torontonians apparently pay the lowest property taxes in the GTA. They compared a postage stamp sized property, without a garage, in Toronto to properties in other parts of the GTA with a two-car garage and a lot more living space. The only factor used in the paper's comparison was price. But even the Star discounted from the property tax figure the education levy that we all pay on our property taxes and thus while the Star showed that the property tax on the average home in Toronto was a little more than $2,000, The Toronto Sun, more accurately, showed the figure to be a little more than $3,000. The Star according to Royson James, who arrogantly challenged Torontonians to "Read his lips", received a lot of angry complaints from Torontonians, and deservedly so. Notwithstanding the complaints, much like Mayor David Miller, the Star desperately tried to defend the analysis published in its paper. It is no secret that the Star is Mayor Miller's biggest supporter. As for its property tax analysis, if the study had been submitted for a University course on property tax analysis, we would grade it an "F", or return it to the student for further analysis using comprehensive figures and using better comparisons -- apples to apples would be a good start. If a property appraiser compared a postage stamp sized lot, and a small house, with no garage, to a house twice the size, with more land, and a two car garage, and said they are comparable he or she would lose a lot of credibility. The Toronto Star has lost a lot of credibility. Perhaps people would be better informed by buying other newspapers.