Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[afransen]

Yeah, he was a centrist and even wanted to abolish public funding for Catholic schools... which seems like a common-sense idea, but was a major reason he didn't win. I mean, why should we fund one specific religion's school? Last I checked, Canada didn't have a designated religion.

Public funding for Catholic schools in Ontario is constitutionally guaranteed. Tory flamed out because he planned to fund religious schools (ie, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, etc.) and people rightly did not favour it as it would lead to balkanization of minority groups. I went to Catholic school and knew many protestant and even jewish, hindu students attended it. Catholic school in my experience isn't as bad as many private religious schools that refuse to teach evolution, etc. There were masses and prayers but outside of religion class it didn't infiltrate too much into the rest of the curriculum.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Public funding for Catholic schools in Ontario is constitutionally guaranteed. Tory flamed out because he planned to fund religious schools (ie, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, etc.) and people rightly did not favour it as it would lead to balkanization of minority groups. I went to Catholic school and knew many protestant and even jewish, hindu students attended it. Catholic school in my experience isn't as bad as many private religious schools that refuse to teach evolution, etc. There were masses and prayers but outside of religion class it didn't infiltrate too much into the rest of the curriculum.

In the 1950's, mostly clergy did the teaching in Catholic schools. No longer. Missed the corporal punishment by this much.

From link.

 

[ShonTron]

Public funding for Catholic schools in Ontario is constitutionally guaranteed. Tory flamed out because he planned to fund religious schools (ie, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, etc.) and people rightly did not favour it as it would lead to balkanization of minority groups. I went to Catholic school and knew many protestant and even jewish, hindu students attended it. Catholic school in my experience isn't as bad as many private religious schools that refuse to teach evolution, etc. There were masses and prayers but outside of religion class it didn't infiltrate too much into the rest of the curriculum.

Constitutionally guaranteed, but easily remedied, as an amendment affecting one province only requires the will of the provincial government and the federal government.

Agreed that Tory went the wrong direction on the religious funding issue. A bold stance would ha e been promising to do away with the Catholic system. I doubt he even believed much in what he was proposing. He’s always been weak.

 

[Northern Light]

Yeah, he was a centrist and even wanted to abolish public funding for Catholic schools... which seems like a common-sense idea, but was a major reason he didn't win. I mean, why should we fund one specific religion's school? Last I checked, Canada didn't have a designated religion.

Shon Tron is entirely correct when he says:

Constitutionally guaranteed, but easily remedied, as an amendment affecting one province only requires the will of the provincial government and the federal government.

Agreed that Tory went the wrong direction on the religious funding issue. A bold stance would ha e been promising to do away with the Catholic system. I doubt he even believed much in what he was proposing. He’s always been weak.

Just to add.........at the time the constitution was written; all education in Canada was sectarian.......and crudely speaking.......Catholic education was synonymous with serving the French-language minority; while Protestant education served the English language cohort. (though both had at least some schools in the other language)

I'm not that old............LOL (mid 40s)

And when I started public school, 'The Lord's Prayer' was mandatory every morning along with the national anthem, and bible verses were standard memorization work for public speaking.

By the time I graduated elementary school that was all gone.

I just offer that as insight into how we got here.

*****

Public sectarian education was abolished in Quebec by way of constitutional amendment (as was the case in Newfoundland, where the denominational education system was more complex and not tied to language)

Ontario, had a large number of non-francophone immigrants who took up use of the Catholic system's originally small number of anglophone schools in Ontario.....and it grew, bringing us to where we are today.

 

[AlbertC]

Karen Stintz with an op-ed on Tory:

Is Mayor Tory's legacy kaput or can he comeback?

Both SmartTrack as well as Rail Deck Park are officially unfulfilled campaign promises and will never happen

trnto.com

 

[daniel_kryz]

I don't see any ideological issue with funding schools from all religions, but it would certainly cost a lot more money. Let's not forget that we still have the highest sub-sovereign debt in the world.

 

[Northern Light]

I don't see any ideological issue with funding schools from all religions, but it would certainly cost a lot more money. Let's not forget that we still have the highest sub-sovereign debt in the world.

Ontario's debt is a matter of concern, though the debt issue as described is overplayed. Ontario is also one of the largest sub-sovereign governments in the world.

That said, I support merging the Separate School system into the Public to eliminate the commingling of state funds with 'faith'.

I do so, both on principle; but also because it would produce savings of not less than 1B per year, and perhaps up to double that which could be reinvested in better education and lower post-secondary tuition w/o
the need to raise taxes.

i happen to feel Ontario should raise taxes as well, but those can be used for other public priorities, when dollars are more efficiently spent.

 

[Northern Light]

I couldn't think of a better place to dump this...........Budget Ctte agenda is out for next week.

On that agenda are reports detailing the status of section 42 (parks) and section 37 reserve funds.

The information presented is only current to Dec 31st 2019.

I'm not sure why the time lag is so substantial..........but I digress.

Report link for section 42 here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-167461.pdf

So 644M was the amount sitting in the kitty; but of that 407M had been earmarked for specific projects. The balance was available for new ideas/projects.

Here's where the money went (past expenses)

I would contend that a lot of the parkland development costs here are being used for maintence of existing parks; I don't think they ought to be.

These funds should be used to fund development of NEW parks.

Maintenance should be funded through the normal capital budget process (cash-from-current and debt as applicable)

 

[Northern Light]

Here, you can see where the section 37 funds got used.

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-167645.pdf

 

[picard102]

And my main issue is his general hostile, disrespectful, cruel approach to being a city leader.

Cruel how? By not aligning with what you think should happen?

 

[Jonny5]

Let's not forget that we still have the highest sub-sovereign debt in the world.

We don't forget that, nor do we forget that it continues to be no more than a marginally irrelevant hyper-niche statistic found and quoted by talk radio entertainers that are desperate for clouds in the sky to yell for ratings ever since it was discovered, what, 12 years ago(?), and has still been of zero relevance to those institutions who actually lend out the big money. They know comparing absolute dollar values of debt is apples to oranges to 15,000 other varieties fruit.

But people do love how important "sub-soverign" sounds, even though it's the opposite of important. That's the only reason you hear politicians and entertainers talk about it.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Karen Stintz with an op-ed on Tory:

Is Mayor Tory's legacy kaput or can he comeback?

Both SmartTrack as well as Rail Deck Park are officially unfulfilled campaign promises and will never happen

trnto.com

I don't care about the issues Karen Stintz does, but IMO Tory's legacy is the continued societal decay of the city. Beggars, graffiti, litter and basic filth, this damn city is falling apart.

 

[DSC]

As we all know, streetlighting in Toronto is a mess. This agenda item (from Wong-Tam) MAY at least get us some information on the very murky streetlighting contract between the City and Toronto Hydro and push them on approving more standard lighting poles and luminaires.

Agenda Item History 2021.IE23.21

Agenda Item History 2021.IE23.21

app.toronto.ca

IE23.21

ACTION​

​

​

Ward: 13​

Shining a Light on Toronto Hydro by Updating Street Lighting Options​

Origin​

(June 18, 2021) Letter from Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam​

 

[W. K. Lis]

As we all know, streetlighting in Toronto is a mess. This agenda item (from Wong-Tam) MAY at least get us some information on the very murky streetlighting contract between the City and Toronto Hydro and push them on approving more standard lighting poles and luminaires.

Agenda Item History 2021.IE23.21

Agenda Item History 2021.IE23.21

app.toronto.ca

IE23.21

ACTION​

​

​

Ward: 13​

Shining a Light on Toronto Hydro by Updating Street Lighting Options​

Origin​

(June 18, 2021) Letter from Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam​

"The current agreement with Toronto Hydro requires the road to be properly lit, but not the sidewalk, leaving many sidewalks relying on adjacent buildings, if any, for illumination. In some areas of the City, this can create accessibility and safety concerns.​

​

There are also community design aspirations and existing local lighting standards that the current agreement does not assist with nor protect in the long-term. If a new light is to be installed or an existing light replaced, Toronto Hydro typically will default to a standard design, such as the “Cobra Head” Luminaire which is attached to 25 foot poles.​

​

This design, while functional, is not a suitable replacement for many areas of the City that have paid for and/or historically used other standards. As an example, Victorian-style lighting standards in some parts of the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood reflect both the Old Town heritage character and provide pedestrian scale lighting. Without an identical or similar lighting standard option, these lights are being replaced by Toronto Hydro’s standard and sometimes much taller poles as they are damaged or reach their end of life. Without an approved alternative, reinstating the previous neighbourhood-specific lights is both challenging and expensive."​

I've seen tree planting that avoids placing them under street lamps, so the trees don't cast shadows on the roadway.



"

 

[DSC]

I've seen tree planting that avoids placing them under street lamps, so the trees don't cast shadows on the roadway.​

The more common reason is that there are conduits leading to the streetlights and THEY are in the way of trees being planted at all. As the City has realised tree pits need to be larger than coffins, they are running into more and more poorly placed infrastructure that makes ANY trees impossible.