BlueBehemoth,
The traffic information comes from
here (page 12).
I think you might be misinterpreting that data there Glen.
The way I read it is -
- Since 2002, more jobs have been created in or moved to the 905 area from either Toronto or
the rest of the Province as opposed being created in or moved to the City of Toronto.
- As of the time of the writing of that report
(Oct, 2005) there were more jobs
in total in the 905 area than there are in the City of Toronto.
(Since the 905 is a much larger physical area than the City of Toronto that would be logical.)
- As of 2001, there were more City of Toronto residents commuting to jobs in
Vaughan than there were City of
Vaughan residents commuting to jobs in
Toronto.
(That says nothing about the total number of City of Toronto residents commuting to jobs in the 905 or the total number of 905 residents commuting to the City of Toronto for work.)
The Bar graph they included after the statement you referenced on page 12 is only comparing changes (decreases/increases) to total employment numbers in the 905 vs. Toronto for 1990-2004 and not the aggregate total number of jobs for each. (Paraphrased from the paragraph above the one you quoted:
As of 2004 the 905 has added 800,000 jobs and Toronto has lost 100,000)
Since the stated purpose of the report you referenced is to make it clear to Toronto City Council that Commercial & Industrial Property Taxes in the City of Toronto are too high and that
single issue is driving business and industry to move out of the GTA to the 905 or elsewhere - The writer's theory to resolve that perceived issue is to raise residential taxes in the City of Toronto and to pretty much flatline the Commercial & Industrial taxes.
What the witer of that report has
failed to grasp is that, most people who work in the GTA also
LIVE here.
If companies that are in the GTA who are already unhappy with their Commercial & Industrial tax burden suddenly have all of their employees being outraged at their increasing
residential taxes then that will be EVEN MORE encouragement for those companies to flee the GTA. It's typical bureaucratic tunnel vision - they can't see the forest because all the trees are in the way.
The problem isn't Companies leaving the GTA because the taxes are too high - it's Taxes are too high because the City's spending is out of control. Keep in mind that the writer of that document is a City employee and the City's agenda will always be to defend its own financial position.
I don't know what "the Cordon Count" is but if you supply a link I'd be happy to take a look.
By the way - the Municipal expenditures for the City of Vaughan (which I left off the table in the previous message) are $3,230 Per Household or $921 Per Person.
This still tends to support my opinion that Metro Toronto's claimed spending of $8,291 per household or $3,244 per person per year is way out of line when compared to all of the surrounding municipalities. There is no reasonable way the City can justify these numbers. And cutting out the City Council's golf club memberships is
not going to make it all better.