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Miller refutes Harris report declaring city's demise
Allison Hanes, National Post Published: Friday, June 27, 2008
Toronto Mayor David Miller fired back yesterday at former Ontario premier Mike Harris, who this week put his name on a study declaring that Toronto is in economic decline and suggesting city hall and municipal taxes are to blame.
"Former premier Mike Harris has had his impact on the city. We've seen it," Mr. Miller said yesterday. "And I've spent the last five years working very strongly with Premier Dalton McGuinty to repair that damage."
Toronto is still dealing with the legacy of downloading by Mr. Harris's Conservative government in the 1990s, Mr. Miller said, when social services previously administered by the province were made the responsibility of cities without adequate funding.
"We've started to address the backlog that was given to us when it was downloaded," he said.
"We addressed one today. We're putting $75-million into Toronto Community Housing," the mayor said, referring to money from the sale of Toronto Hydro Telecom that is being put into major repairs to city-owned housing.
A day earlier, Mr. Harris defended his record as Ontario premier and said looking backward is "unproductive."
"If you want to be mired in the past, listen to me argue about how Toronto got far more uploaded than was downloaded -- $2-billion of taxes, property taxes, school and other things, but that's not a productive debate," he said.
The report by the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Toronto is slipping as the centre of the business universe in Canada.
Signs of the slide, it said, include a median income failing to keep pace with that other Canadian cities and a bleeding of management jobs from Toronto.
After refusing to respond to it on the day of its release, Mr. Miller yesterday dismissed the report, which was co-authored by Mr. Harris and Reform Party founder Preston Manning.
"It's been a very long time since I've bothered to read reports from the Fraser Institute," the mayor said. "They didn't give me a courtesy of a copy so I haven't had a chance to read it.
ahanes@nationalpost.com
Allison Hanes, National Post Published: Friday, June 27, 2008
Toronto Mayor David Miller fired back yesterday at former Ontario premier Mike Harris, who this week put his name on a study declaring that Toronto is in economic decline and suggesting city hall and municipal taxes are to blame.
"Former premier Mike Harris has had his impact on the city. We've seen it," Mr. Miller said yesterday. "And I've spent the last five years working very strongly with Premier Dalton McGuinty to repair that damage."
Toronto is still dealing with the legacy of downloading by Mr. Harris's Conservative government in the 1990s, Mr. Miller said, when social services previously administered by the province were made the responsibility of cities without adequate funding.
"We've started to address the backlog that was given to us when it was downloaded," he said.
"We addressed one today. We're putting $75-million into Toronto Community Housing," the mayor said, referring to money from the sale of Toronto Hydro Telecom that is being put into major repairs to city-owned housing.
A day earlier, Mr. Harris defended his record as Ontario premier and said looking backward is "unproductive."
"If you want to be mired in the past, listen to me argue about how Toronto got far more uploaded than was downloaded -- $2-billion of taxes, property taxes, school and other things, but that's not a productive debate," he said.
The report by the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Toronto is slipping as the centre of the business universe in Canada.
Signs of the slide, it said, include a median income failing to keep pace with that other Canadian cities and a bleeding of management jobs from Toronto.
After refusing to respond to it on the day of its release, Mr. Miller yesterday dismissed the report, which was co-authored by Mr. Harris and Reform Party founder Preston Manning.
"It's been a very long time since I've bothered to read reports from the Fraser Institute," the mayor said. "They didn't give me a courtesy of a copy so I haven't had a chance to read it.
ahanes@nationalpost.com