Rob Ford's Toronto

[CDL.TO]

A recent study by the Fraser Institute has shown that Canadian families are spending more on taxes each year than they do on the basic necessities of life.

Dear lord, I can't even get past the first sentence.

Doug, that's NOT A BAD THING. A RICH family spends a very small proportion of their income on basic necessities. It's a poorer family that spends more money on basic necessities than taxes.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

And let's not forget health and education (plus transit, infrastructure, etc) can also be considered necessities.

AoD

 

[ShonTron]

Funny that if a mere member of the public sends a letter to the editor, they have to disclose whether it was also sent to another paper; and they are usually not published if that is the case.

I wonder if the word "Advertorial" was printed above the rant in any of the print editions of the three papers.

 

[bobbob911]

Yes I'm opposed to raising taxes. How do I want to fund transit expansion? How about cutting waste. Where to start? The Sunshine list would be a good place to start. The opportunities are endless for cutting costs if you have the political will.

Whether or not I agree with any of your suggestion of cutting waste, or that public employees making > $100K is a good place to start (I don't), can't you see that that's simply not going to happen any time soon, if at all? Rob Ford couldn't do it, Hudak (if he gets elected) won't be able to do it, and no other politicians will even attempt to do so.

So, if you want to get any transit built, it simply won't be on the back of "finding efficiencies". You are delusional to think otherwise. Your only two options are more taxes, or no new transit infrastructure.

I can't get over how gullible people are. Do you really think that we can trust this Liberal government with $Billions in new revenue? This is one of the most corrupt governments in the history of Canada!

I think this government can be trusted no less than I would trust any other government. Show me an Ontario government you would trust with $50B in infrastructure spending, if not this one. Hudak helped bury one subway line already, how trustworthy does that make him on this file?

Furthermore, this is going to be an ongoing plan - it will (hopefully) survive through many different governments. Making a decision about tomorrow because you don't trust the steward of today is foolish and shortsighted.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Yes I'm opposed to raising taxes. How do I want to fund transit expansion? How about cutting waste. Where to start? The Sunshine list would be a good place to start. The opportunities are endless for cutting costs if you have the political will.

Ford has been trying to find these magical efficiencies for years. So far he has found just about nil.

The fact of the matter is that efficiencies will never be enough to build transit. Toronto has an operating budget of only $14 Billion. In the completely unrealistic case that we find 5% efficiencies, we would only save $700 Million per year. That means that it would take well over a decade to fund just the $8.4 Billion Crosstown LRT that Ford wanted. And remember that there are literally dozens of other multi-billion dollar transit projects that must be completed in the coming years (our economy is bleeding $ Billions due to transit issues). At this rate, we'd be lucky if all these projects were funded by time our grandchildren are dead.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Yes I'm opposed to raising taxes. How do I want to fund transit expansion? How about cutting waste. Where to start? The Sunshine list would be a good place to start.

That "Sunshine list" has not be adjusted for inflation since 1997!

The Ford administration outsourced garbage collection in the west end. What next? Outsourcing city inside jobs to Bangladesh? It maybe cheaper. Don't have to worry about minimum wage regulations, unions, or fire regulations then, they cost too much.

 

[junior43]

The fact of the matter is that efficiencies will never be enough to build transit. Toronto has an operating budget of only $14 Billion. In the completely unrealistic case that we find 5% efficiencies, we would only save $700 Million per year.

Hmmmm. The province of ON's budget is $126Billion. If they found just 2% efficiencies, the Prov would have more cash for transit than their trying to take from us. Heck, just 1% in efficiencies gets us 3/4 of the transit cash we need.

I'm not against tolls, but considering all day daycare will cost 1.5 billion a year, and we didn't have to add a tax for it (even though we were running a deficit then, just like now), it makes me very skeptical. It's not like we just ran out of money when Wynne showed up, we've been broke for far longer than that.

Thanks to McGuinty, the liberals have too much baggage at this time to be asking for another tax. Interest on our debt is now $11 billion a year thanks to him. Maybe McGuinty should have thought of all this before coming out with the Green energy act, eHealth, Ornge, and bribing the locals (gas plants) for two seats during an election. No one has any faith in the province to act wisely - and for good reason!

If the lib's actually paid attention to the recommendations Drummond made in his report, and seriously started looking at ways to save money, people would be more open to tolls/taxes. But, considering Wynne's already stated, there's no more savings to be found (ummm, the Drummond report had tonnes of recommendations with only very few being used so far) she's shot herself in the foot at the starting line. Next month's budget should be very interesting.......

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Interest on our debt is now $11 billion a year thanks to him. Maybe McGuinty should have thought of all this before coming out with the Green energy act, eHealth, Ornge, and bribing the locals (gas plants) for two seats during an election. No one has any faith in the province to act wisely - and for good reason!

One can recite GEA, eHealth, Ornge and gas plants cancellation till they are blue in the face, but just what is the cumulative amount of excess spending beyond the value of the services provided for all these cases, and of what percentage of the 50B needed is that? Besides, considering we have a 10B deficit, a 2% saving of the overall budget doesn't even manage to come close to wiping it out - are you suggesting that we should go right back and increase spending by 2B per year without any attendant increase in revenue?

AoD

 

[nfitz]

It's because Ford is in a fight with a Liberal Premier who wants to raise our taxes.

Given that the "taxes" are to pay for transit that even Rob Ford promised us (but isn't competent enough to actually figure out how to build), then surely Rob Ford is a hypocrite to be fighting it. How did he think the subways he promised would be funded?

 

[Peepers]

Hmmmm. The province of ON's budget is $126Billion. If they found just 2% efficiencies, the Prov would have more cash for transit than their trying to take from us. Heck, just 1% in efficiencies gets us 3/4 of the transit cash we need.

..

These are important numbers that people need to take into account. Wynne says we need $2 Billion a year for transit expansion. As we see above this is just a small percentage of the total budget (about 1.6%).

Also keep in mind that not all of this $2 Billion can be considered new money? How much is currently in the budget for transit expansion? The actual "new" funding required is probably less than 1% of the total budget - i.e. an amount that can easily be found through cuts in other programs. For example why with declining enrollment is the education budget growing? The education budget is $23 Billion a year. Make a 10% cut (fire teachers) and you have an easy $2.3 Billion in savings!

Something else to consider is the province already collects $2.4 Billion in Gasoline tax and another $721 Million in fuel taxes and yet they only allocated $531 Million for infrastructure in the latest budget?

http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/paccts/2012/12_cfs.html#sch1

As the above FACTS prove there is no basis for increasing taxes or placing tolls on highway to fund needed transit expansion. We need a government that will do a better job a managing current resources. We need a government that will start to take some of the $3 Billion a years raised in gas and fuel taxes and spend it on what it was intended for! New highways and subways NOT cancelling power plants or offering all-day kindergarten.

 

[Peepers]

Given that the "taxes" are to pay for transit that even Rob Ford promised us (but isn't competent enough to actually figure out how to build), then surely Rob Ford is a hypocrite to be fighting it. How did he think the subways he promised would be funded?

My above response answers this question but I would add that Ford probably is expecting Queens Park to do a better job of managing current resources. They have the revenue to fund new transit as the numbers prove they just need to stop squandering revenue on billion dollar boondoggles.

 

[DSC]

Just heard Doug Ford interviewed on CBC Here and Now. He seemed quite confused and a bit unclear on his answers. The interview is at http://www.cbc.ca/hereandnowtoronto/ I must admit I tuned out after a while!

 

[hawc]

Cut Police spending. Cut Fire Department spending. Cut TTC salaries. Privatize services that can be. Do that first.

I can't just ask my boss for a raise just because I want things I can't afford.

There's nothing easier than just saying we need more money. Hey I need more money.

 

[Electrify]

Actually, less than the proposed Sheppard Subway extension. Besides, even if that waste is eliminated, you are still looking at a deficit of around 10B, which means by default you'd still have to find additional funding unless you want to add to the deficit.

AoD

Just to humour the idea though, what is the tally of all three combined?

That said, McGuinty is no longer the Liberal leader, and who they have in now seems far more competent and progressive than he ever was (though in fairness, he was light years ahead of the duo he replaced, which might be why I tolerated his failings as much as I did). So yes, as someone who didn't vote Liberal in the last election though in the two before, I am very likely to give the party another chance.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Ya, let's just cut everyone's wages because you don't make as much as they do and that's not fair. But heaven forbid we take on CEO's/CFO's who are making millions of dollars a year (plus bonuses) or touch those who avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes by secretly moving money to offshore accounts. No, attack those on the "sunshine list", and anyone who makes a good living salary and keep privatizing those good paying jobs with benefits or ship off the ones that we can to China and India. Oh, and Bangladesh. That will solve our transit woes.