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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

W. K. Lis said:
Consider that the Town of Long Branch had a population of 9,625, New Toronto had 10,455, Mimico had 14,198, Swansea had 11,133, Weston had 16,476, Forest Hill had 24,056, and Leaside had 13,876. There are those who want larger wards with 75,000. I think a smaller ward would be closer to the sizes of the old towns and villages of Toronto.​
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There are arguments for many Ward sizes/populations but I can see no reason why we would want to base our choice on the size of former villages!
 
John Filion is up to his eyeballs in work. He has one staffer dedicated to rezoning applications, and nothing else. Proponents of halving council would have every Councillor's office doing the same amount of work an MP or MPP's office does, but with a fraction of the support those offices have. Plus the fact that an overworked councillor is in a poor position to understand the nuances and issues in their ward, which in turn means poorer-quality decisions are made in council. Reducing council's size is cutting the nose off to spite the face. Don't like the councillors we have? Support better ones at election time, and embrace preferential vote.
 
I don't pay property taxes, but if I did, having them raised wouldn't bother me one bit.

EDIT:

I do, and they should be raised.
 
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To anyone who was hoping that the next budget would finally have some common sense, it ain't gonna happen.

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r937 said:
renters pay proportionately ~more~ property taxes than homeowners
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Well, that's not entirely true.

The Mill Rate for an old apartment building is higher than an equivalent condo (1.7% versus 0.7%) building BUT the unit values are much lower. Many large apartment buildings sell for ~$150k/unit. So 1.7% of $150k for the old 1-bedroom apartment versus 0.7% of $300k for the new condo; they're not far from each-other.

New apartment building property tax rates are the same as regular residential; which given the much cheaper unit values works out to a lesser amount per year.

Of course, this completely ignores things like land transfer taxes.
 
The city (including the 905) should have the land transfer taxes for non-Canadian residents. If you're not going to live in it (in other words, buying a condo for investment purposes but still live outside of Canada), you pay the land transfer tax.
 
Desmond Cole's Toronto Star column this morning is worth reading.

John Tory extends Rob Ford's legacy of austerity

Takes on Tory's position on the Ward Boundary Review, in which Tory says that he want's no new councillors, takes on the lower-than-inflation tax increases that have benefited wealthier property owners over everyone else, and his failure to fund core social programs and infrastructure.
 
edmundoconnor said:
John Filion is up to his eyeballs in work. He has one staffer dedicated to rezoning applications, and nothing else. Proponents of halving council would have every Councillor's office doing the same amount of work an MP or MPP's office does, but with a fraction of the support those offices have. Plus the fact that an overworked councillor is in a poor position to understand the nuances and issues in their ward, which in turn means poorer-quality decisions are made in council. Reducing council's size is cutting the nose off to spite the face. Don't like the councillors we have? Support better ones at election time, and embrace preferential vote.
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there may be some councillors busy because a lot of development happens in their ward(s) but not everyone. My councillor is 68 years old. I mean come on - if the job was that stressful he would have retired like others do at 65 or taken early retirement because he has been well compensated and will have a pension at retirement. The only reason I see these guys still siting as councillors into their 60's and 70's is because it is not a stressful job. There is 311 that people now. Even in areas with development, applications are put into city, maybe a meeting with councillor, they hold a community meeting, residents are against, have some working meetings which makes residents think they are involved, planner does up report, development goes ahead. Councillor knows OMB is there and know they can pretend to be on the side of residents because in the end for the most part OMB will rule in favor. They do not need more councillors. The only way to reduce the inc0mpetent councillors who have this job for life due to such low v0ter turnout is to reduce the numbers
 
Col. Flagg and The Nation, quiet for so long finally speak on a gripping issue facing all Torontonians in these turbulent times:
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ShonTron said:
Desmond Cole's Toronto Star column this morning is worth reading.

John Tory extends Rob Ford's legacy of austerity

Takes on Tory's position on the Ward Boundary Review, in which Tory says that he want's no new councillors, takes on the lower-than-inflation tax increases that have benefited wealthier property owners over everyone else, and his failure to fund core social programs and infrastructure.
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The only two reasonable options are to decrease the number of Councillors to 25 - using the federal boundaries, OR

increase the number of Councillors to 50 - and have hearings to determine how to split each of the federal ridings into 2. Although this requires some discussion, there is only so much damage that can be done if one simple line is drawn in each riding.

With any other number of wards, there would be huge discussions and arguments about where every single boundary would go.
 
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