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Mayor Olivia Chow's Toronto

Richard White said:
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.
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You'll find lots of people here at UT who disagree with you, the majority in fact. But I can tell you that looking at many neighbourhood FB groups there's a lot of strong support for this tax hike, and for the expanded library hours, swimming pool hours and better transit service it will fund.

Also worth notiing here is that tax hikes for this year are as large or larger in many of the Cities and Regions surrounding Toronto, where there is no 'NDP mayor or chair'.

Richard White said:
What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.
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You keep making statements without evidence. I want polling data or something else of substance. What I see with these comments of yours is "I, Richard have declared that my personal opinions are widely held by almost everyone"

You are entitled to your own preferences, but not to suggest they are widely held by others without at least some substantiation.
 
Richard White said:
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.

What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.

Increased social spending have long been pillars of NDP platforms. Take Bob Rae who increased social assistance, child care payments and housing. Tommy Douglas came up with universal healthcare. Jack Layton was the only one who truly fought for Canadians other than Tommy Douglas.

I am done having this discussion.
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@Admiral Beez for one has stated many times he'd support higher taxes if it gets people off the streets.
 
Richard White said:
Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.
Click to expand...
I support raising municipal taxes and broadly support what Mayor Chow has been able to accomplish thus far.

I don't see CUPE voting in favour of strike as some sort of failing on the Mayor's office. Their ability to strike shows that we still live in an operable democracy where these things will be sorted out either through negotiation or arbitration, or however else they are able.
 
Towered said:
@Admiral Beez for one has stated many times he'd support higher taxes if it gets people off the streets.
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For what it is worth, I would join the Admiral, at least on this. All cities have problems (made worse by the disruptions of covid), ours were made worse by (non-NDP) Mayors who refused to raise taxes. I was bit doubtful about Olivia when she first ran but she has be quite 'brave' to do what I and many think is the "right thing'. Even the new tax rate is, compared to many places, quite reasonable - particularly when one takes into account that we are trying to 'catch-up'.
 
Richard White said:
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.

What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.

Increased social spending have long been pillars of NDP platforms. Take Bob Rae who increased social assistance, child care payments and housing. Tommy Douglas came up with universal healthcare. Jack Layton was the only one who truly fought for Canadians other than Tommy Douglas.

I am done having this discussion.
Click to expand...
For someone managing a building in River City, you sure seem out of touch with your residents.

I can say residents in RC 1 and 2 have been writing the city asking for more to be done for the homeless, specifically those in the encampment under Queen Street. Even more pressing given that the security guard at RC1 was attacked this week by someone from this encampment. General consensus amongst RC1 and RC2 is the city absolutely should be doing more.

There’s also been support from the community for the city to do more in other areas where encampments have popped up, including Corktown Common and Sackville Park. I know residents at RC3 have brought this up to the city as well, and the city has been quick to find housing for these people, to their credit.

I’ll add to the chorus here and say I support higher property taxes to provide more services and homes for the homeless, and in general. I want a city that works for everyone. Seeing that Toronto’s proposed increase is in line with other GTA cities just proves that the mayor is taking the correct approach here. No need to start a race to the bottom again. That’s what got us into this mess to begin with.
 
Tuscani01 said:
For someone managing a building in River City, you sure seem out of touch with your residents.

I can say residents in RC 1 and 2 have been writing the city asking for more to be done for the homeless, specifically those in the encampment under Queen Street. Even more pressing given that the security guard at RC1 was attacked this week by someone from this encampment. General consensus amongst RC1 and RC2 is the city absolutely should be doing more.

There’s also been support from the community for the city to do more in other areas where encampments have popped up, including Corktown Common and Sackville Park. I know residents at RC3 have brought this up to the city as well, and the city has been quick to find housing for these people, to their credit.

I’ll add to the chorus here and say I support higher property taxes to provide more services and homes for the homeless, and in general. I want a city that works for everyone. Seeing that Toronto’s proposed increase is in line with other GTA cities just proves that the mayor is taking the correct approach here. No need to start a race to the bottom again. That’s what got us into this mess to begin with.
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I think people misunderstand what it means to "ask for more to be done" about the homeless.

In general, they simply want them gone, and it always happens the same way whether it be Clarence Square, Trinity, or Allan Gardens, Its always the same, start with a bit of sympathy, give them time, then through incidents as you noted, causes residents to start asking the city to do something about it, when the city takes too long they then start saying "enough is enough go away".

That is where we are at. Especially now that some municipalities seem intent on using Fords new powers to skip to the end.
 
generalcanada said:
I think people misunderstand what it means to "ask for more to be done" about the homeless.

In general, they simply want them gone, and it always happens the same way whether it be Clarence Square, Trinity, or Allan Gardens, Its always the same, start with a bit of sympathy, give them time, then through incidents as you noted, causes residents to start asking the city to do something about it, when the city takes too long they then start saying "enough is enough go away".

That is where we are at. Especially now that some municipalities seem intent on using Fords new powers to skip to the end.
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In our case, it’s been more empathetic than simply ‘make them go away’. We already see that they just come back when when police take action.

It’s easy for people who don’t live next to it to think that simply ‘make it go away’ works when they aren’t around to see them just come back days later. It doesn’t work.
 
Ferry service to Ward’s Island is currently out of service Sunday due to ice buildup, the city said.
The fire boat used to create a pathway for the ferry during icy conditions is currently down for maintenance, the city said in a news release, adding people can access the Toronto Islands via bus service from Billy Bishop Airport, which has a pedestrian tunnel to the mainland.
“Unfortunately, the ferry cannot run due to ice build up in the harbour,” the city said.

SEE: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fe...cle_3019cfa4-dc06-11ef-87d0-2f0b7a9ec2fb.html
 
adding people can access the Toronto Islands via bus service from Billy Bishop Airport, which has a pedestrian tunnel to the mainland
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Since when has that been possible?
 
generalcanada said:
Since when has that been possible?
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When there is no ferry service for reasons like ice, people going to/from the island can use the BB tunnel to get to the island airport and they run a bus through the airport to Wards Island - doubtless controlled by the air traffic controllers while it goes across the runways. It is always 'possible' but only permitted when there is a 'no boats' emergency.
 
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I see it's 'Wrap yourself in the Flag Day" - not that I disagree but ..... (There is a typo, meeting is FEBRARY 5th)

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