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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

Toronto budget chief echoes Rob Ford and suggests that city has too many managers

Taking a page from the late Rob Ford’s playbook, budget chief Gary Crawford suggested Monday the city could be run more efficiently — and cheaply — with fewer managers.

“The management or middle management ranks could potentially be bloated. We want to look at how do we reduce that properly,” Crawford said Monday a day before Tuesday’s wrap-up budget meeting.

[...]
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https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...suggests-that-city-has-too-many-managers.html
 
TOareaFan said:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Cuts to services and borrowing from reserves....all to keep property taxes low? I don't see a happy ending here.
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Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker said the city has always drawn on reserve funds to balance its budget, and while it may not be ideal, it is a valid method.
"I think it's a miraculous budget," he said.
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Fishes and loaves is a miracle, budgetary tricks, not so much. Then again, when you can spin BS into gold, everything is miraculous.

AoD
 
Toronto City Councillors have made service sacrifices before their money god.

10066157643_d39a05eb7b_b.jpg
 
salsa said:
As the public works committee discusses contracting out garbage collection in the east end, reporter Jennifer Pagliaro wrote an excellent twitter thread explaining how we got here. To summarize:
  • Tory ran against Ford in 2014 promising to outsource garbage east of Yonge Street.
  • After the election, Tory was briefed on efficiencies to public pick-up that would shrink possible savings from outsourcing.
  • In 2015, city staff report peer reviewed by Ernst & Yonge found no savings to be had from further outsourcing. Tory & allies strongly criticized the report, saying it left "unanswered questions".
  • Shortly after the report was released, the city's general manager for solid waste Beth Goodger, who signed off on the report, left the city. His departure was unexplained, he now has a similar role at City of Brantford. The city won't comment, has blocked FOI requests citing HR.
  • Tory executive member Jaye Robinson pushed for a new report under the new GM, only 1 year after the previous report. Tory holds a press conference saying that his mind is already made up, that he doesn't need to wait for the new report on whether the move will actually save money.
  • Surprise, the new staff report calls for outsourcing. But it doesn't say whether outsourcing will or will not save money. The data is secret.
  • However solid waste GM confirms on a cost per household basis, Scarborough public pickup is cheaper and has higher recycling rate than private in Etobicoke. The report doesn't explain this difference in the diversion rate, which is itself damning.
  • So now council has received two contradictory reports in just over a year on an issue mayor is deeply entrenched on. Today's debate has opposite sides quoting from two different reports as fact - one that says no savings, one that recommends outsourcing. Councillor Robinson challenges union leaders with Report #2 - "are you saying this report is wrong?" Yes, see: Report #1.
  • We've seen this before on the Gardiner debate and other issues. When Tory is confronted with staff report he doesn't like, he pushes for competing private report. Those who are still pushing for privatization are doing it for ideological reasons.
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Why not allow the public sector to bid against the private sector? What is the downside to allowing a public procurement process to play out rather than sole sourcing through a public sector union?

Instead of guessing which option is cheaper (that's all these reports are, and mostly biased), we can find out for real. I could care less who picks up my trash. Whoever can meet the requirements for the lowest price should be selected.
 
Migos said:
Why not allow the public sector to bid against the private sector? What is the downside to allowing a public procurement process to play out rather than sole sourcing through a public sector union?

Instead of guessing which option is cheaper (that's all these reports are, and mostly biased), we can find out for real. I could care less who picks up my trash. Whoever can meet the requirements for the lowest price should be selected.
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Having public service (in-house) bids on contracts is not uncommon. It has certainly been suggested here.

City Council authorize the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, and the Director of Purchasing and Materials Management Division, to undertake a procurement process for residential curbside collection services for District 4 only, including the authority to consider an in-house bid submission from internal City employees in the Solid Waste Management Services Division as part of a managed competition process, in accordance with the process set out in this report, including but not limited to the requirements as summarized in Attachment 1 to the report (January 6, 2017) from the Deputy City Manager, Cluster B and the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services.
 
DSC said:
Having public service (in-house) bids on contracts is not uncommon. It has certainly been suggested here.
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How does that work?

does the past cost to the City count as the bid price? Does the union head put in the bid price and possibly obtain concessions from the members to put in as competitive a price as possible. Are the overheads (i.e. city IT use, payroll, etc) somehow included (Is it as a marginal cost or an average cost per employee)?
 
W. K. Lis said:
Toronto City Councillors have made service sacrifices before their money god.
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If by money God, you mean their paycheque, you'd be right. Most of them got elected on a platform of small prop tax hikes (inflation). Tory certainly did.

If Tory had run on truth - such as a ~6% property tax hike to balance the budget, we'd have Mayor Doug Ford. The electorate are the ones to really blame, they won't vote for higher taxes in the current environment.

Love to see Tory fall on his sword in the last year of his term and jack them up to balance the budget, but it will never happen.
 
If you want more subway, we'll need more taxes. If you want more roads, we'll need more taxes. If you want more parks, we'll need more taxes. If you want better health care, we'll need more taxes. If you want more police, we'll need more taxes. If you want better housing, we'll need more taxes.
 
W. K. Lis said:
If you want more subway, we'll need more taxes. If you want more roads, we'll need more taxes. If you want more parks, we'll need more taxes. If you want better health care, we'll need more taxes. If you want more police, we'll need more taxes. If you want better housing, we'll need more taxes.
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Gravy train! Efficiencies! Too much middle management! Too much unions! Gold plated pensions!

A majority of the electorate are morons. See Rob Ford, Donald Trump.

Populism rules these days. Hopefully Trudeau's charisma carries us through.
 
Populismn brings Dark Ages. The electorate is uninformed and wants to stay that way. This process is being accelerated each year as media and journalism is in severe decline and we have papers like the Toronto Sun which somehow survive by publishing tabloid articles and rants from people who are illiterate, sexist and everything in between.
 
junior43 said:
If by money God, you mean their paycheque, you'd be right. Most of them got elected on a platform of small prop tax hikes (inflation). Tory certainly did.

If Tory had run on truth - such as a ~6% property tax hike to balance the budget, we'd have Mayor Doug Ford. The electorate are the ones to really blame, they won't vote for higher taxes in the current environment.

Love to see Tory fall on his sword in the last year of his term and jack them up to balance the budget, but it will never happen.
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I think another contributing factor is that wages have not risen significantly in the last few years (mostly stagnating in Ontario)- hence any additional taxes are seen as taking increasingly large bites out of income already under stress by rent, utilities (esp. hydro), food, etc.

Fees might be seen as more acceptable since you can choose not to pay them while taxes are mandatory across the board.
 
Wynne to halt Tory’s plans for road tolls on Gardiner, DVP
In a stunning about-face, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will announce Friday that she will refuse to give Toronto permission to go ahead with Mayor John Tory’s plan to toll the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.

Ms. Wynne, who is facing an election in 2018 and riding low in the polls, is expected to break the news at an event in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Friday morning, senior city hall and provincial government sources told The Globe and Mail. She had previously suggested she would not stand in the way of the city’s decision to impose tolls, approved by city council in December.

However, sources say Ms. Wynne will also announce an increase in the amount of the provincial gas tax that Ontario hands over to municipalities. One source says the new revenue could entail $170-million for Toronto to spend on public transit – close to the $200-million the city estimated the tolling plan would bring in. The gas-tax changes would also mean more revenue for municipalities across the province. [...]
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...tory-toll-roads-dvp-gardiner/article33789256/

So I wonder if this won't change the renewal of the Gardiner?
 
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