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Mayor John Tory's Toronto

W. K. Lis said:
From 1982 to 2003, there were municipal elections in Toronto, every three years. From 2006 to today, there were municipal elections every four years. See link. That's how we ended up with Rob For and his cronies for four years (2010 - 2014).

Maybe it's time to roll back the clock to elections every three years (along with ranked ballots). Better chance to change the members at city council.

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Who the hell is Tooker Gomberg?? Sounds like a Dickens character.
 
The problem with term limits is that one can force out excellent Councillors; the good side is you can force out the bad ones. (Of course, there may be disagreements on who falls into which category!) A good Councillor (like the late Pam McConnell) had a multi-year plan for 'her Ward and managed to do a large number of things by tackling them piece by piece - over several terms - and gathering Section 37 funds to help them happen. Look at Berczy Park, St James Park, the Regent Park and Wellesley community centres and pools, and lots of upgrades and repairs to community housing. Frankly, better to reduce the advantages a sitting Councillor has in elections and encourage other candidates and then let the voters decide if they want a person to get Term 5 or want them out after Term 1.
 
Another problem is the "Executive Committee". The "Executive Committee" is composed of the mayor, deputy mayor, and the chairs of the seven standing committees who are appointed by the mayor and four "at-large" members appointed by City Council.

Current members of the committee:
The committee existed in the old City of Toronto beginning in 1969. Before that Toronto had a Board of Control, as did former cities North York and Etobicoke.

The Board of Control was elected by the electors in the city. See link for the history.
 
At Council last week, Transportation were instructed to:

Motions (City Council)​
1 - Motion to Amend Item (Additional) moved by Councillor Josh Matlow (Carried)
That:

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services to seek and implement measures to increase the snow clearing sidewalk pilot for this winter, including the possibility of obtaining more equipment and stretching the hours of service.

2. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services to report to the December 2, 2020 meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council with the streets that will receive sidewalk snow clearing during the 2020-2021 winter season, the rationale for not providing full sidewalk clearing harmonization, if applicable, and a path forward to full harmonization for the 2021-2022 winter season for City Council's consideration.​


No report was presented. Now what?
 
I kind of wonder if the ban on parties should be lifted. I think the lack of party platform/coherent vision leads to voter disengagement (and pathetic turnout) and a general listlessness in policy as councillors are only accountable to their constituents individually and not collectively responsible to the whole city. Not sure if the mayor should remain an at-large election (kind of like a president as today) or should be more like a prime minister (leader of the bloc with a plurality of support on council).

Toronto has a larger population than most provinces. If they can support partisan politics, I don't see why Toronto could not.
 
afransen said:
I kind of wonder if the ban on parties should be lifted. I think the lack of party platform/coherent vision leads to voter disengagement (and pathetic turnout) and a general listlessness in policy as councillors are only accountable to their constituents individually and not collectively responsible to the whole city. Not sure if the mayor should remain an at-large election (kind of like a president as today) or should be more like a prime minister (leader of the bloc with a plurality of support on council).

Toronto has a larger population than most provinces. If they can support partisan politics, I don't see why Toronto could not.
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Of course, parties are MUCH involved - just as 'groups of individuals". I agree it may be better to be more open and allow them and many other places actually have quite separate "municipal parties'
 
Report to next week's Executive Ctte meeting recommends moving forward with Vacant Home tax in 2022.

Its seeking formal direction to staff to do the work required and report back to Council by June 30th, 2021.

Report here:


Recommendations:

1. City Council direct the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to undertake the following steps to develop a vacant home tax program and to report back with a recommended taxation, collection, exemptions and enforcement design for a vacant home tax by the end of Q2 2021 for implementation commencing in the 2022 taxation year:

a. Establishing a dedicated interdivisional project team to lead the implementation of a VHT;
b. Engaging with Provincial staff to develop any necessary regulations;
c. Engaging with City Legal to develop the necessary by-law to implement a VHT
d. Engaging with CIT and others to build the necessary technical infrastructure to administer a VHT including a universal declaration system, compliance/audit database and payment system;
e. Undertaking public education and awareness campaigns to ensure homeowners are aware of the tax, applicability of the tax and requirement to declare on an annual basis;
f. Form an audit and compliance team to develop audit procedures and protocols, review annual declarations, identify non-compliance with the tax and create annual reports on the impact of the tax; and
g. Studying the creation and governance of an external advisory team consisting of industry experts and academic institutions who can advise the City of monitoring, evaluation and implementation.

2. City Council authorize a budget allocation of $5.0 million in 2021 and $6.0 million in 2022 to fund the estimated start-up costs associated with this tax program.

Observation made in the report:

However, using metrics from Vancouver's collections on a similar tax as a proxy for Toronto, if 1 percent of Toronto's housing stock is vacant and subject to the tax, at a 1 percent tax rate on average Toronto CVA, could yield $55 to $66 million in (gross) tax revenue per year.

Link to KPMG study underlying these actions:

 
DSC said:
At Council last week, Transportation were instructed to:

Motions (City Council)​
1 - Motion to Amend Item (Additional) moved by Councillor Josh Matlow (Carried)
That:

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services to seek and implement measures to increase the snow clearing sidewalk pilot for this winter, including the possibility of obtaining more equipment and stretching the hours of service.

2. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services to report to the December 2, 2020 meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council with the streets that will receive sidewalk snow clearing during the 2020-2021 winter season, the rationale for not providing full sidewalk clearing harmonization, if applicable, and a path forward to full harmonization for the 2021-2022 winter season for City Council's consideration.​


No report was presented. Now what?
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Josh Matlow tells me that the Report will come to TEYCC in January so I hold out little hope for spring 2021 sidewalk snow clearing!
 
I support a vacant home tax in theory but I don't actually support the philosophical zeitgeist underpinning these kinds of taxes. It seems as if government has spent a lot of time proliferating specialized taxes, fees, and targeted credits in order to make sure (at least it seems) that people feel "other" people are paying tax. I don't believe in this. It's fundamentally uncivilized. The tax take as a percentage-of-gdp is relatively stable but the complexity of tax and accounting increases parabolically. It's a giant productivity-sucking make-work project of nothingness. Everyone should pay tax. Every single citizen, with wealthy citizens paying more.
 
TrickyRicky said:
I support a vacant home tax in theory but I don't actually support the philosophical zeitgeist underpinning these kinds of taxes. It seems as if government has spent a lot of time proliferating specialized taxes, fees, and targeted credits in order to make sure (at least it seems) that people feel "other" people are paying tax. I don't believe in this. It's fundamentally uncivilized. The tax take as a percentage-of-gdp is relatively stable but the complexity of tax and accounting increases parabolically. It's a giant productivity-sucking make-work project of nothingness. Everyone should pay tax. Every single citizen, with wealthy citizens paying more.
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I support it in the current context; which is that the other, better options are not being pursued; and there is a problem with housing supply and the City is short of revenue.

All that said; there are better ways to address these issues; with far less tax complexity.

1) Remove special treatment for capital gains. Ie, tax it like any other income. This removes a great deal of the incentive for investing in real estate, as opposed to living in it.

I would be open to the idea of a CPI-level rebate/credit, but I think it may add undue complexity, and in fairness would need to apply to interest-bearing bonds/bank accounts/GICs which is probably more bother than its worth.

2) Simply ban people from owning more than 2 single-family properties at any one time. Developers can be exempted for redevelopment purposes; and there can be a 90-day window for when someone is moving or to deal w/inheritance etc.

Those 2 actions would address the majority of the issue.

While the shortage of municipal revenue could be more sensibly addressed by raising property tax for operating needs; and imposing tolls on the DVP/Gardiner for capital needs.
 
Northern Light said:
While the shortage of municipal revenue could be more sensibly addressed by raising property tax for operating needs; and imposing tolls on the DVP/Gardiner for capital needs.
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But, but, tolls might actually make it more attractive for people who work in Toronto to live in Toronto. We're Caronto. We can't dare do that!
 
zang said:
But, but, tolls might actually make it more attractive for people who work in Toronto to live in Toronto. We're Caronto. We can't dare do that!
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Caronto..............there's a phrase I haven't heard in a bit................where did Hamish Wilson wander off to anyway?
 
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