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Thursday’s Headlines

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• Sidewalk work delay angers pedestrians, store owners [ Toronto Star ]
• Time for Toronto to get angry [ Toronto Star ]
• Council to keep pay raises [ Toronto Sun ]
• Councillors reject pay cut [ Toronto Star ]
• Councillor petitions for pay cut [ Globe and Mail ]
• Time to tap the Tory brain trust [ Toronto Star ]
• City approved sewage to fertilizer deal [ Toronto Star ]
• City approves deal for Queen development [ Globe and Mail ]
• Political play a Queen St. flop [ Toronto Sun ]
• Deal reached in Queen St. W fight [ Toronto Star ]
• TTC cuts could be devastating [ Toronto Star ]
• Good news for city’s dogs [ Toronto Sun ]
• Tougher dog police as city passes parks plan [ National Post ]
• Leash-free zones get go ahead [ Toronto Star ]
• Dogs get their day – and room to run [ Globe and Mail ]
• Millions pledged to buy environmentally sensitive Ontario land [ cbc ]
• Toronto mayor orders spending review [ cbc ]
• Fixing Toronto’s cash crisis takes more than tax hikes [ National Post ]
• City spends $1.2-million on alternative theatre [ Globe and Mail ]
• Panoramaist : HTO Park [ Torontoist ]

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6 comments

  1. Well I guess it’s time to panic in budget land.

    My first choice on services to cut? The police.

  2. What they should cut is police overtime. I still do not understand why the TTC needs cops to guard its crap when renovating the streetcar tracks…

  3. Carlos, it’s provincial law that necessitates police officers at construction sites that intersect traffic. However, for what it’s worth, those policing costs are paid for by the people having the work done (so, in your example, the TTC would pay for it). Howard Moscoe tried many times to find a way around the police requirement but it seems there isn’t one.

  4. Presumably the police union would fight any effort to reduce paid duty as a hidden pay cut. But it seems like paid duty cops at construction sites spend more time on their cell phones than directing traffic; I’m not sure how much sympathy they’d get.

    But it’s probably academic given Adam’s point. Other jurisdictions allow flaggers to do traffic control, and both the city and province would save money, but if I was fighting to get Queen’s Park to do one thing to help the city’s finances, flaggers wouldn’t be it.

  5. I have to say, for the first time in the years that I’ve lived in Toronto, the city’s situation has me truly frightened. This is high-stakes politics, and the next few years could either yield great gains for Toronto, or send it into a freefall.

    Also: the National Post’s journalism is as yellow as its header. Anyone want to bet whether they’ll give Miller or Pantalone some column inches to provide a counterpoint to Stintz and Minnan-Wong?

    Yeah, didn’t think so.

  6. Cutting police is a political minefield, but they are definitely an expensive service.

    Any criminologist will tell you that more cops does not equal less crime, and today’s 25 year crime low reminded us of this important debate in Metro:

    “Police credit extra patrol officers and assertive policing for helping to reduce crime and an emphasis on monitoring repeat offenders. The aging population and economic conditions are among the reasons criminologists cite to explain decreasing crime.”