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• Collapsed storm drain swallows wheel [ Toronto Star ]
• Mel: Hit up feds, province [ Toronto Sun ]
• Miller suffers tax plan defeat [ Toronto Star ]
• Miller’s tax push fails by a single vote [ Globe and Mail ]
• Councillors send mayor ‘message’ [ Toronto Sun ]
• Toronto city council votes to delay decision on new taxes [ cbc ]
• It looks good on him [ Toronto Sun ]
• Menus up for review à  la carts [ Toronto Star ]
• Jagged cans in Toronto schoolyard mowed, not malicious: police [ cbc ]
• Brewery offers $10-million towards rail museum [ Globe and Mail ]
• GTA gets a physical [ Toronto Sun ]
• GTA economy losing steam, report finds [ National Post ]
• Sagging standard of living a threat to GTA prosperity, report says [ Globe and Mail ]
• ‘Inclusive not exclusive’ [ National Post ]

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14 comments

  1. does anyone know where to find records of who voted which way on the tax vote?

  2. Mel should shut up. He’s basically gotten a free ride since he stepped down because he was sick and he didn’t generally interfere with the new council, but if he’s back in politics he better be ready for people to fire back – and that might affect his Bad Boy business too.

    I say this as no defender of the current mayor, incidentally, and someone who feels yesterday’s vote should not only be an opportunity to push the province and feds but also to reexamine revenue the Executive Committee declined such as parking and billboard taxes.

  3. Ben:

    Councillor Milczyn just sent an email about yesterday’s vote and included the voting record:

    Those Councillors in favour of the deferral were:
    YES Ashton
    YES Augimeri
    YES Del Grande
    YES Feldman
    YES Ford
    YES Grimes
    YES Hall
    YES Holyday
    YES Jenkins
    YES Lee
    YES Milczyn
    YES Minnan-Wong
    YES Moeser
    YES Nunziata
    YES Ootes
    YES Palacio
    YES Parker
    YES Perruzza
    YES Saundercook
    YES Shiner
    YES Stintz
    YES Thompson
    YES Walker

    Those Councillors and the Mayor who voted against the deferral were:
    NO Ainslie
    NO Bussin [Chair]
    NO Carroll
    NO Cho
    NO Davis
    NO De Baeremaeker
    NO Di Giorgio
    NO Filion
    NO Fletcher
    NO Giambrone
    NO Heaps
    NO Kelly
    NO Lindsay Luby
    NO Mammoliti
    NO McConnell
    NO Mihevc
    NO Miller
    NO Moscoe
    NO Pantalone
    NO Perks
    NO Rae
    NO Vaughan

  5. Did you really need to link to Sue-Ann Levy? She rarely has anything to add to the discussion except spite and contempt.

  7. Ben, the councillors that supported the deferral were (in alpha order):

    Ashton, Augimeri, Del Grande, Feldman, Ford, Grimes, Hall, Holyday, Jenkins, Lee, Milczyn, Minnan-Wong, Moeser, Nunziata, Ootes, Palacio, Parker, Perruzza, Saundercook, Shiner, Stintz, Thompson, Walker.

    This was a disasterously spineless decision percipitated by the half-truths sold to the public by the likes of the auto, real estate and alcholic beverages industries, among others. The same people who oppose any tax that has every been levied.

    However, the worst part about the vote was hat the councillors that voted for the deferral are being intellectually dishonest in the position they’ve taken. All of the 23 ‘defferal’ councillors refuse to concede that they will have to support some combination of significant property taxes or drastic service cuts in the next budget. By taking this position, they give them impression to less informed people that there is some magical third way to get out of the funding crisis the City of Toronto is in without taking anything from anyone.

    Mark, in the staff report on the new tax levies, it is recommended that Council request a report on implementing the Billboard Tax in conjunction with the new signs by-law that is apparently in the works.

    Though I totally agree with Mark on the Mel Lastman piece. His advice is astoundingly idiotic. Part of the reason the City was in such a mess was percisely because of Lastman’s tax freezes. The last thing we need is another property tax freeze. And if he has to be going senile if he thinks any federal government is going to bail out the City with almost $200 million.

    Also, I started a Facebook group on this to show that there is public support for new taxes that will go towards making Toronto a great and sustainable city. Just search for “I like Toronto and I’m willing to pay my fair share to make it great.”

    In October, when this issue comes back, City Council needs to see that the anti-tax sycophants that have been harrassing them aren’t representative of all Torontonians.

  8. Lastman told the Sun yesterday he’d advise councillors to defer the issue and direct Mayor David Miller to seek help from the provincial and federal governments.

    WOW, what a great new idea! Nobody has EVER tried that before?

    Maybe he can get his wife to shoplift enough stuff to balance the budget.

  9. I was against this tax, yet I do not think I am a psychopath. Taxes are supposed to create social and infrastructural investments, not to patch budget holes or lift the responsibility the Province and Feds have over this city and its people. This tax would only push people out into the suburbs, hamper growth in Toronto and add to urban sprawl. Tax pollution and consumption, not investment. To think that the 1% cut in sales taxes by Harper would have been put into better use by municipalities makes me cringe.

    Toronto’s budget situation is a consequence of a country that is organized and governed as if it were still the 19th century. Toronto is falling back and there is absolutely nothing mayor Miller or city council can do to change things around, not even by raising new taxes. Things can only improve through actions by the Provincial and Federal governments, but I don’t see that happening anytime in the future.

    What is going to happen? Simple, property taxes are going to increase, city hall will have to start tackling the issue of unnecessary and incompetent bureaucrats it employs, cut services (which I don’t like) and start contracting out services (it must stand up to the unions).

    Things reached this point because of the scourge of Mike Harris and his acolytes, but it just got worst due to the horrible management by Lastman and the lack of leadership by Miller. “Saving $10,000 on free coffee isn’t going to put a dent in a $500 million deficit”, but politics is a matter of perspective and even though it is not true, City Hall creates a perspective of waste. Cutting “coffee privileges” would be a symbolic gesture by council to show it is willing to increase accountability in its expenses. The Province will not upload its unfair burned on Toronto until the view that it is a wasteful municipality changes. McGuinty gets away with such injustice because he knows nobody has any sympathy for Toronto.

  10. Carlos — the only thing I’d point out is that contracting out work does not make a difference financially. Already 55% of city services are out-sourced and providing good working wages to people is not a bad thing. While contracting out means the company who won the contract can pay a worker $12 an hour instead of $20 as the City would) it doesn’t mean the company doesn’t bill the City for $20/hr. In the end, the employee ends up suffering and you get people working for you that don’t care nearly as much cuz they’re making near minimum wage jobs.

  11. Thanks to all who posted the list. I am happily a resident of a ward whose councillor did not vote for deferral.

    It’s nice because I definitely don’t always agree with the guy.

  12. Carlos – While it’s a matter of perspective, it’s also a matter that these are people doing their jobs. Where I work, I get free coffee and I’d venture to guess that a majority of people who work in office settings also get free coffee. When I go to a meeting, it’s catered with sandwiches and pop. It’s an expense of doing business.

    Councillors are people doing a job and shouldn’t be nickeled and dimed just because they work in the public sector.

  13. First off – I am surprised to hear the NDP aren’t committed to uploading. If the NDP committed to it it would force the Libs to respond – too much to hope that the Tories would undo the damage from Harris.

    Adam – despite what your Facebook group might smugly imply I’m more than willing to pay my share. I want everybody to pay their share. Under the LTT – some people paid, some people paid some and some (who own their last house ever) paid none.

    Sales tax, income tax, property tax – these are universal taxes where everyone pays their share for city overheads like police, fire, councillor salaries etc. Garbage tax (although I would implement it differently) means people pay as they produce and are a disincentive to abuse. So is taxing congestion and/or downtown parking.

    Land transfer tax is a tax on a property merely changing owners. It is neither universal nor does it encourage better civic behaviour. It punishes first time buyers who want to buy in a rundown neighbourhood and rehabilitate 75 year old houses, but if that house is razed and condos are built, requiring much more sewer and utilities, that first time buyer gets a $2,000 credit. Where’s the financial (or environmental) logic?

    When Mayor Miller read out a constituent’s letter yesterday it wasn’t someone in their late 20s/early 30s – it was a 77 year old. Well, thanks, but somehow I suspect his constituent wasn’t facing down the barrel of paying another $3,700.

    Similarly – motor vehicle tax costs me $60, the same amount as the people who drive downtown and refuse to buy a metropass or take GO. That one bothers me less – congestion charging is a tough one to implement fairly as New York is finding out – but the principle of blanket charging for stuff that should be incremented does bother me.

    The only silver lining is that now that property in Vaughan is now $3,700 (on average) more affordable, maybe enough people will move there to make the Sorbara Subway profitable!

    Maybe the next time this comes up for a vote, Ontario will actually say whether they are okay with collecting the taxes on Toronto’s behalf – apparently they have “reservations”…

  14. Matt-You are absolutely right and I agree that I would rather pay $20 directly to a city worker than to a contractor. I personally have a bigger peeve with the city bureaucrats who constantly protect their little corner and impede the progress of our city. Give me a street sweeper anytime over any idiot sitting in a desk at city hall (and I am not talking about the clerks).

    James-The coffee perk was just an example, I didn’t literally mean them to cut coffee. What I am trying to say is that they will not get the Province to upload anything until they show their willingness to sacrifice, no matter how small the sacrifice might seem.

    Mark-You nailed it!