Electricity in Canada’s Biggest City to Skyrocket – Thanks to Road Work

As if the cost to light and power our homes in Toronto, Canada isn’t already set to increase by eight percent thanks to the Ontario government’s introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on July 1, another completely different cost may be tacked onto Torontonian’s hydro bills.

Road repairs – of all things. The City of Toronto is going to introduce a proposed fee at a meeting on March 2, calling for hydro companies to pay for the cost to repair roads and sidewalks which they have to dig up to maintain their power grids.

Cable companies, phone companies, hydro companies and other businesses which run their networks of cables and pipes under city streets have to dig into the roads and sidewalks to maintain their services. Without these constant repairs and upgrades, Canada’s largest city would be without many of the basic technological needs we’ve grown dependent on – like electricity to light our homes, telephone services to communicate vast distances, cable and Internet services to stay informed, and clean running water to sustain life.

The City of Toronto estimates almost 40,000 holes are dug every year by companies whose lifeline of cables and pipes run under city streets.

Out-going Mayor David Miller (he has said publicly he won’t be running for re-election in this year’s municipal election) claims that these cuts prematurely deteriorate our roads, and reduce the life our infrastructure, forcing the city to do costly repairs.

The proposal to be debated next week would recoup these costs, by charging companies digging up city roads about $20 CDN for every meter of road they dig up – recently paved roads would cost these companies slightly more if they were dug up.

Being labeled the “degradation fee” this new fee could bring in an estimated $4 million CDN, which the city claims would be funneled back into road repairs.

Hydro companies, cable companies, Internet Service Providers, telephone companies and others digging up Toronto roadways to maintain their underground networks would all be affected – and in turn pass this added operational cost onto their customers.

This new fee being proposed in Toronto will be directly passed onto consumers, either in the form of increased rates, or network service charges (usually charged to maintain the networks).

So if your phone line goes dead, and the phone company has to dig up the street to restore your service, you could see your monthly phone bill increase because of the costs associated with the repair.

Toronto’s city council for the past several years has squandered and over-spent to the point where property tax increases, public transit fare increases and user fees have become a City of Toronto norm.

When will politicians learn to balance their budgets, and use the funds available to them without digging deeper into the very people’s pockets that elected them into office?

Maybe when they no longer get elected into office. Probably one of a handful of reasons why the current mayor is not running in the next election – throughout his time in the Mayor’s seat he’s raised property taxes, public transit fares, and probably the most stinging to any potential re-election thoughts, inside and outside city employees walked off the job and went on strike this past summer.

Nicknamed the “garbage strike” by the media, because of the mounds of stinky garbage piling up because garbage collectors were among the many walking the picket lines, the city-wide strike this past summer pretty much ended Mayor Miller’s re-election hopes. No Toronto Mayor has ever bounced back to win re-election after a garbage strike. Though the Mayor publicly says he wants to spend more time with his family as the main reason for not running for office again, one has to seriously wonder if he’d even stand a chance.

Too bad around election time, those who vote get caught up in all the media hype and media-made issues, which rarely if ever fully hold public figures accountable for their past performance.

And it is little sneaky hidden fees – such as the proposed degradation fee – which fall off the radar during election campaigns, only to raise their ugly heads when it is too late, and the fee is law, and people suddenly complain about their hydro, phone and cable bills becoming unmanageable.

But by then, the election has long since passed, and all the politicians that put forward that little sneaky hidden fee are back in their comfy seats on council, contemplating their next little sneaky fee, while browsing through high-end catalogs to refurnish their council offices.

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Canada’s Largest City Continues Wild Spending Spree, Despite New Tax

Canada’s largest city continues to demonstrate its poor management of resident tax dollars, passing the latest in what could be a long line of service fees, increased fines and taxes.

Rather than trying to figure out why they are constantly running out of money, today Toronto City Council voted in a Billboard Tax.

That’s right – a tax on putting up a billboard advertisement. Originally – or so goes the talk at City Hall – the revenues generated from the Billboard Tax were to go into enforcing the laws regulating where, when and how large billboard displays were. However, just as the city’s council voted in favor of passing the new tax, they announce all money collected will go into the city’s general revenue stream, and be budgeted where needed.

This really comes as no surprise, as the City of Toronto, despite being the economic powerhouse of the country, is always short of funds.

Maybe if city politicians actually watched their spending, they’d realize where all the money is disappearing, rather than constantly looking for new ways to gouge their residents to make up for the loss.

It doesn’t take a lot of work to see where some of the wasted dollars are going. Anyone who’s walked outside for even the briefest of moments probably has stumbled upon the new, and modern stylish recycling and garbage bins dotting Toronto’s sidewalks. These new containers are the latest in street fashion – if there ever was a street fashion – they even have a nifty foot pedal which when stomped on opens the doors, so you don’t have to get your fingers messy.

The City of Toronto spent thousands of dollars on these things, yet in these hard times, and with all the new taxes and other ways the city is trying to increase revenues, the first question that springs to mind is – just what was wrong with the old recycling and waste containers on our streets?

The previous containers collected the exact same stuff – pop bottles and cans, paper-based recyclables (like newspapers) and non-recyclables (trash). They were covered, and enclosed just as the new containers were, the only real difference that stands out is that nifty foot pedal.

Did our politicians actually ditch the old containers, just for a nifty foot pedal?

Transit fares are increasing dramatically in the New Year, as are property and water taxes. And the city is looking at implementing new fees on various city-run services which currently cost residents nothing, all because Toronto City Council is crying about how broke they are. But they aren’t too broke to spend whimsically on fancy recycling waste containers with nifty foot pedals.

Outrageous!

What’s next, a tax on breathing city-air to fund a much needed replacement of hand-dryers in public washrooms, because the old ones, although they work, they just don’t have that “new” hand dryer smell?

Pot holes riddle Toronto’s roads like raindrops, making any trip hard on drivers, passengers, and their vehicles. Sidewalks, bridges and other city structures are crumbling from age and wear and tear – yet instead of putting money into these much needed projects, Canada’s largest city purchases fashionable items which really didn’t need to be purchased in the first place.

Maybe in the up-coming municipal elections in Toronto in 2010, residents will exercise their right to good government, and vote the current council out.
Because whatever Toronto City Council is at the moment, is anything BUT good for the city.

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Mayor Miller’s Lastman

After over a month without many of the services major urban centers take for granted, Canada’s largest city is slowly starting to resemble what it once was.

The public parks are gleaming clean of trash, the lawns are being trimmed. And once again line ups are forming at the various city-run permit and licensing offices.

On June 22, all 24,000 inside and outside workers for the City of Toronto walked off the job, as both their respective unions called a legal strike. Until late last week, that meant there wasn’t any garbage collection, parks or recreation services, even emergency medical services were on a work-to-rule campaign, delaying ambulatory care across the city.

Much has been said in the press about how the long and brutal labour disruption has created a rift between the city, its unionized workforce, and the union leaders.

Image by nyxie via Flickr

But the real victims during all of this are on an even bigger war path - and rightly so. We’re talking about the over 2.5 million residents of Toronto, whose lives were put in disarray for over a month.

Without garbage collection, residents had to haul their own trash to temporary dump sites, only to be met by angry striking workers, who had setup picket lines and intentionally were blocking their access. Some of these confrontations even turned violent, with picketers jumping in front of moving vehicles, or simply attacking innocent residents with their signs.

In this world of two income families, many had to suddenly find someone else to take care of their kids, as all of the city’s daycare centers were immediately shut down due to the strike.

Even celebrations for our nation’s birth, Canada Day, on July 1 were cancelled due to the strike, because there was no one around to manage and run them. I guess Canada’s largest city employs people that just aren’t real Canadians - because if they were, they would have been patriotic enough to put aside their differences for their country for a couple of days. It wasn’t as if we were asking them to put their lives on the line, as we do our soldiers - who are among the most patriotic Canadians. Our city’s employees can learn a thing or two about patriotism and being Canadian from our military members.

Paramedics cut their services in half, as they worked-to-rule. An investigation is already underway as to whether their own arrogance has cost the life of a Toronto man, who may still be alive today, if the ambulance had arrived a few minutes earlier.

And just as the strike began, conveniently just as schools ended for the summer, all the public parks, playgrounds, splash pads, and community centers were forced to close and cancel all of their summer programs, leaving thousands of kids out in the street.

The real victims during the civic employees strike are those who live, work and play in Toronto, which is sad, because the residents of Toronto had no say whatsoever in the whole collective bargaining process.

Or maybe they do.

Last time the city’s staff went on strike, back in 2002, none forgot, especially when it came to the municipal election. Toronto’s Mayor at the time, Mel Lastman, was the running favourite, but he lost the election. Although many things contributed to Lastman’s outing, the strike was probably the biggest sticking point which ultimately pushed him out of the mayor’s chair.

History has an unfortunate way of repeating itself, and we’re bound

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

to see current Toronto Mayor David Miller take some heat from this strike during the up-coming municipal elections in 2010.

If history repeats itself as in the past, Mayor Miller won’t be the mayor of Canada’s largest city after the next election.

Is this fair? Is this right? Is Mayor Miller to blame?

Who knows? We aren’t privy to what goes on in the backrooms during the negotiations between the city and its staff.

But what we do know is this year’s summer was a washout for the 2.5 million people that call Toronto home. Not because of the weather, and not just because of the economy, but mostly because the city where they choose to live, work and play wasn’t there when they needed it.

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