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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Toronto Media Garbage Chasers

Image via Wikipedia

When I was a journalist many eons ago, there were ambulance chasers in every newsroom. These are people whose eyes light up when they hear of a horrible fatal car crash, their hearts quicken when they get word from the police about a big fire ablaze somewhere, and they are almost ecstatic with glee when they get a story involving multiple deaths.

Since civic employees walked off the job in Canada’s largest city four days ago, the local Toronto news media has invented a whole new type of media hound – the garbage chaser.

These are reporters that wander the city’s streets, looking for massive amounts of litter. With the labour dispute in Toronto – both the inside and outside workers unions are on strike – many city-run services have been gaboshed, including garbage collection.

Without trash collectors in place, even the city’s own public garbage bins on city streets are off limits. They have been wrapped in plastic wrap, to prevent people from using them. Despite warnings from the mayor, people are still tossing their litter on the streets, there just aren’t any other spots for it.

Unless you do what one report suggests, and keep your household waste in your fridge, to keep it – ahem – preserved.

Now many reporters are following the trails of the latest breaking story – no not the labour negotiations between the city and the workers – that’s too obvious! They are following the trail of trash.

Nope, not the people dumping their waste illegally – if caught they could face a fine of almost $400, and repeat offenders could end up in jail.

Just the trash – unsightly candy wrappers, bits and pieces of discarded food scraps, paper, bottles, tin cans – other people’s waste.

“Oh, look!” exclaimed one television reporter, as she zoomed her camera onto the latest media fascination. “A piece of lettuce, there’s some fruit, I think it’s an apple.”

Thanks for the always riveting, sitting on the edge of your couch coverage!

I actually like this reporter, I’ve seen her do some hard investigative stuff in the past, and think her employer is wasting her talent on soft puff pieces – such as chasing garbage. She’d be an excellent person to cover something really important – say the negotiations between the city and the staff.

The trash is building up, it hasn’t reached the disgusting mile-high pile stages which it did in the last city strike back in 2002, but it is getting there. And usually Toronto is one of the cleanest cities in the world, with litter properly in its place, so it is newsworthy to a degree.

That degree is worthy of mentioning on the news, maybe one or two lines – but to actually send reporters out to cover the small piles of garbage forming, is a waste worthy of the trash bin.

If this strike continues for long, and the piles become the six-to-ten foot high stink bombs that they were back in 2002, then I could see reporters going out to get images and video. But even then, they should do more than just go after a garbage pile.

“News is about people” – I remember telling a junior reporter I was mentoring many years ago. “So don’t come back to the newsroom until you’ve talked to at least three people involved in the story.”

That was good advice back then – and it still rings true today. Unless of course, the garbage is talking. Then I’d be interested in what it had to say.

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