Boges

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/94511/Calgarians-raise-stink-over-flood-claims Apparently insurance companies don't even offer policies for flooding due to river waters. The premium would be too high because not enough people would take out the policy to make it worthwhile. If they're being shamed to pay out on claims they never agreed to cover that means rates will increase for the rest of us. People don't like insurance companies but I can't fault them here.

The only interesting part of this Byelection story is the potential that Doug Ford might run in the Etobicoke riding.

This is effecting oil pricing. So that effects us. Here's what I don't get. The military will tell Morsi to take a hike. Will they have another election? And if the MB wins again, then what happens? It appears the regions outside of Cairo are perfectly happy being led by the MB. Not that I support the MB or anything but it appears that a very loud minority are trying to dictate who leads the country. It would be akin to the anarchist groups undertaking mass protests to overthrow Harper and the Military telling Harper he has to go. Pretty crazy stuff.

Some Ontario communities would suffer, but I'd argue that many would be just fine if they could keep their share of a VAT and income taxes. But are gauging income taxes on where you work or where you live? Remember people may make their money in Toronto (income taxes) but they pay their property taxes and pay for much of their goods and services where they live outside of Toronto. Lots of money leaves Toronto simply because people can't or won't pay $400,000 plus for a 500 sq ft box. Also a lot of money comes into Toronto because of this Condo Boom where people that were raised in the burbs and work in the burbs choose to live in a condo downtown. The highways leaving Toronto are almost as busy in the morning as the highway coming in. It wasn't long ago Greater Toronto Communities had to make payments to Toronto to help them pay for social services. Toronto has lots of rich people, but it also has a lot of very poor people too.

Then why is the Province cutting $150 million from the Toronto budget? Money they were given for social services that other communities don't get. You'd think Toronto would need that money. As mentioned a few posts ago. Toronto has powers to raise their own taxes to pay for transit if they want to. Of course Mayor Ford would never do that, but that's not the rest of the provinces problem. When you look at something like the TDSB. They are mired in debt because they can't adapt to the lower enrolment Toronto schools are seeing. The province gives all boards money based on how many students they serve. Toronto has an entire street full of Hospitals, are you saying a community like Oakville should be thanking Toronto for its one hospital?

For the purposes of better regional transit, I do agree with less competing organization working against their own collective interests. As for revenue tools, The only one I outright reject is an additional Regional Gas Tax. Even a boost to the HST won't be the end of the world but I think it'll be a deal breaker to many, including both opposition parties.

I think the PCs proposal of putting GO Transit in charge of all the regions transit will be a helpful start. Metrolinx is just a bloated and wasteful mess. http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/2524428-ontario-pcs-would-take-control-of-subways-expressways-hudak/ One of the big reasons people don't use regional transit is that is so disjointed. Where you have to pay up to 3 different services to get somewhere. A more streamlined system would be very helpful. Also you're acting like the Metrolinx proposals are the only way transit expansion will be funded. A third of the plan is already funded and construction has been started. Before they should complete those projects first before they ding the taxpayer for more money.

If the Ontario Liberals get re-elected, it'll be a pretty clear mandate to do this. And if the Liberals can go to the opposition and say, "look if you don't want to do this, then what would you do?" And if they come up with an unpopular response then perhaps Wynne will get re-elected. She actually doing a rather competent job other than on her opinions regarding this IMHO of course. We'll see. And these August 1 byelections will be a good litmus test.

Sure but current taxes are ones enough people agree are essential. These new taxes certainly aren't. It'll be very interesting to see a regional gas tax. What communities are considered outside of the GTA. Niagara, Cambridge, Oshawa? You create borders where, on one side people pay one rate and on the other people pay another you'll see some gas stations that'll suffer on the outskirts of the GTA. I don't see how it'll be do-able. These are the only proposals from a wasteful buraucracy the Liberals created. There are other solutions we could consider. It's interesting that Toronto City council refused to advocate for any of them. They know how unpopular they would be.

By that logic you can't disagree with any tax. Putting money into a pool and having people who are paid to know where to properly allocate the funds is very different from a new province-wide tax that only really benefits one region. Especially when the main recipient of the tax has been given special powers to levy taxes on their own. But reducing congestion is the talking point the Liberals keep trotting out. They say it's costing us money and we need to get people off the roads. People can avoid congestion if they want using the Toll Road we already have. . . but many don't. NOPE! the thing about the new HST is that the Feds collect it for the province. Therefore the province has to get the Feds permission to raise it. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/05/30/federal_finance_minister_jim_flaherty_rejects_hst_hike_to_fund_public_transit_in_ontario.html Nice Hyperbole there but we still do live in a democracy and these proposals will prove to be very unpopular. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/2013/05/31/metrolinx_hst_gas_tax_proposals_prove_unpopular_poll.html

Well those taxes have been passed into law. We're talking about proposed taxes that many believe to be unpopular and unneeded. If Toronto wants expanded transit there should be more user fees and tolls aimed at reducing congestion, not additional VATs for the entire province. First of all the HST thing won't happen as long as the CPC is in power and I don't think they're even able to do the gas tax thing province-wide, it'll have to be regional. Meaning there'll be an exodus outside of GTA communities to avoid paying the extra fee. These revenue tools need to be debated as part of an election campaign.

FIVE! Count em Five! Liberal MPs have quit in the last year. Each election could cost upwards of half million dollars. Is this a cost that the province just has to eat? Or should the fact that so many people are jumping the Liberal ship be evidence that we really do need an election? Here's a column from the Sun that argues that elected officials should be held to a higher standard to serve their constituents for a full term. Perhaps leaving office early (without a good reason) should come with a financial penalty. http://www.torontosun.com/2013/06/21/enough-with-the-byelections

And Toronto benefits from being a place that people want to live, work and visit. Toronto also charges far less property taxes than many places in nearby cities because the Province (during the Miller years) allowed it to charge taxes above and beyond provincial taxes. Now the current mayor doesn't like that but that's an internal problem. We see from the $150 million that the province is attempting to take away from Toronto to pay for social services, that Toronto is doing quite well, when it comes to money from the province. A 5 cent/litre Gas tax to pay for congestion in Toronto might be financially crippling to someone who has no other realistic transportation options elsewhere in the province. As someone in Toronto, who uses public transit, you might not care. But I guarantee plenty of people do, both opposition parties included. So, as I've said many times, getting these specific revenue tools passed into law will be very difficult for Wynne and Co.

Because new, province-wide, taxes made up to reduce congestion in one part of the province is simply unfair. People pay their share of taxes (based on income or usage) and everyone is entitled to a set level of services. In this instance everyone would be paying a brand set of taxes and in places outside the GTA they'll get nothing for it and for the people in the GTA suburbs that don't border Toronto they'll get very little. If this was going to be fair then people who contribute to the congestion should be forced to pay. Not everyone who buys a litre of tax (province-wide) or people who buy any consumer good (province-wide). To pay for a plan, that I don't believe was thought out very well.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/07/02/egypt_protests_country_on_edge_as_morsi_rebuffs_army_ultimatum.html Things haven't improved much under Morsi but he was democratically elected. Anyone could have predicted electing a MB rep would have turned out this way. But anyway, at what point will this nation be happy (by happy, I mean not at the constant brink of all out riots) and what leader will make this happen?

People always use Superstorm Sandy as evidence of Climate Change. In the 50's a Hurricane Hazel devastated Toronto. If a similar event happened today people would blame it on Climate Change. People thought Hurricane Katrina was a harbinger of things to come as far as Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast. We have yet to see an increase in comparable Hurricanes in Gulf of Mexico 8 years later. What about the Quebec Ice storms in 1998? I've heard people say that event would have been a simple blizzard if not for climate change. Do we have similar catastrophic winter storms to compare to that freak event 15 years later?

He's on the board of directors of Civic Action Alliance http://www.civicaction.ca/board-directors They've been big advocates for the Metrolinx Big Move. http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1187795/groundbreaking-support-for-civicaction-s-pledge-to-get-a-move-on The big thrust is the idea that without the Big Move, people's commutes would be up to 32 minutes longer in the future. According to them.

I would agree but perhaps he can establish himself in the centre better than any potential candidate. His name is mud in the rest of the province because of his failure to unseat Dalton McGuinty and his very Toronto-centric transit policy. But those weaknesses might help him in Toronto. He also has a bully pulpit every weekday from 4-7 on the radio.

I would agree. But it's all anyone has to gauge his popularity by. The worst news Ford got this week is actually that John Tory is thinking of running.

I don't know why you guys don't find this debate tiresome now. We're no closer to having definitive evidence a video exists or not, than we did the day the story broke. The fact the police didn't outright deny they have the video isn't evidence it exists. And if they do have it and are waiting for some trial, then how many months or years will it take for that to be public knowledge. Yet we find today that the mayors poll numbers are actually on an uptick.

I think many people believe automatic removal from office for any violation of the conflict of interest act is quite undemocratic. That's why there's a move to amend the act. He wasn't being removed for raising the money, he was being removed for voting on council trying to force him to pay the money back. Which an appeal court ruled that they had no authority to do. So the law also has no real teeth to enforce anything.

I think most rational people believe the penalty for Ford's crime shouldn't have been immediate removal from office. Heck Mayor Hazel next door didn't get removed from office and evidence is that she gave a sweet deal to her son. Nixon did something criminal, Clinton did not. You can more compare Clinton's impeachment to Ford than you can Nixon's.

So is this where we discuss Ford now that the other thread is locked. There are several alternative threads to choose from.

Didn't you know? Those police raids in multiple communities to crack down on guns and gangs were just a front to find the Ford video.

The whole crack video thing has simmered down now a fair bit. Finance Minister Sousa has given him some fuel to talk about other things with this $150 million in provincial transfer being taken away.