Toronto City Life

Posts Tagged ‘ economy ’

The bottom line

Posted on November 20th, 2013 – 3 Comments

Under Rob Ford:

Toronto’s debt burden, or debt to total revenues ratio, has risen by 3% (from 34% in 2010 to 37% in 2013).
Property taxes have risen 4.5% since 2010, supported by Rob Ford while simultaneously guaranteeing homeowner tax cuts which would have eliminated the surplus that Rob boasted was his doing.
Since 2011, transit fees have have risen and are set to rise approximately 1.6% per year.
Unemployment — for which Ford is personally responsible — is up 0.6% (from a “post-recession” high of 9.2% in 2010 to 9.8% at present).
Toronto services and service levels were cut under under the guise of government “savings” and reducing city debt while Rob Ford backed ever-increasing salary increases to the same city workers that he criticized.
The spending of tax money at City Hall has increased since 2010 while Rob has sunk millions of dollars into personally-championed schemes, project cancellations, and reports, easily offsetting and reversing any of the purported savings to the taxpayer that he’s been boasting about. This is before any tax increases, fee hikes, or new debts are included.

“This is the path the Fords have chosen, and it is clearly working!”
I Hate the War on Mayor Rob Ford

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay

Harper government horrified at prospect of less death, promoting human rights

Posted on October 30th, 2013 – Comments Off

Just when you thought that the deluge of crap around CETA had stopped, it turns out that the agreement may be stalled, if at least for a while. But for reasons more troubling than I could’ve ever imagined:

Canada is balking at the inclusion of language in a final text that would refer to the importance of affirming human rights and non-proliferation efforts. The EU insists that all major agreements it negotiates contain language that promotes human rights and fights the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction — and it doesn’t want to make an exception for Canada.

In case you didn’t catch that, Harper’s government is throwing a hissy fit because CETA has a few clauses about human rights and dignity, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other such bullshit. Thankfully, some sanity prevails here at home and heroes like Dick Cheney are safe to walk Canadian streets again. Yay!

Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay

Off the rails

Posted on August 5th, 2010 – 2 Comments

This is going to be a rant, dear reader. A long and arduous one about morality, law, taxes, and such. So if you’re not into that kinda thing, you may want to avert your gaze now. Well, maybe you may wanna stick around for the few pictures but the rest of the post will be a tough slog otherwise.

Okay?

Good.

So let’s talk about this concept of the straight and narrow, shall we?

Filed under: Patrick Bay, Pictures, Why I'm Right

The G-20, everything you probably didn’t want to know (part 2)

Posted on June 12th, 2010 – 3 Comments

…continued from part 1.

After researching what the G-20 does, I have to say, I really don’t think that they’re this evil body of leaders bent on taking over the world that some people suggest. I mean, I suppose it’s possible, and I guess you need to have some megalomaniacal qualities in order to get to that level in global politics, but it just seems like they spend most of their time sitting around eating munchies and making nice-to-do lists. I can’t begrudge them that, it’s what I aspire to myself.

But does it deserve the amount of money that our government is throwing at it? Will the, at present, C$1.2 billion be the sound investment that they’re saying it is?

Yes, that’s billion. I know, seems pretty high to me too, but to be honest I’ve never held an international summit so I wouldn’t know how much to ask for at the door. And, yeah, if we’re going to have global leaders here, we should probably buy them the good munchies, not the dollar-store crap. Presumably this second option is what was chosen in Pittsburgh, the location of the last summit, where they spent US$12.2 million (roughly C$13 million).

The costs over the past few summits (these are estimates because, apparently, these figures didn’t warrant detailed tracking or further study), are:

2009 (U.K) – US$30 million (C$30,000,000)
2009 (U.S.) – US$18 million (C$18,000,000)
2010 (Canada) – C$1.2 billion+ — projected

It’s estimated that about half of this, or C$500 million, is being spent on security. That’s gonna be some security!

Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

The G-20, everything you probably didn’t want to know (part 1)

Posted on June 10th, 2010 – 2 Comments

With just a little over two weeks to go until Toronto goes under severe lockdown for the G-20 summit, I figured it was high time to start taking a deeper look into this thing. After all, I’d like to know where the last of my tax money (that I was, quite literally, going to use to buy a load of bread), will be going. Maybe I’m getting it all wrong, maybe I’m not giving this organization a fair shake; maybe they do serve an indispensable function that benefits the whole world.

First, I wanted to start by looking at what the point of the G-20 actually is; who are they and what are they planning to do here. In the second part of this series I’ll be examining specifics to the Toronto summit; security, costs, and some of the things that would make me laugh out loud if they didn’t make me want to cry. The included photos are of the security perimeter fencing currently being erected through a large section of downtown Toronto (we’ll go on a tour in part 2).