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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Well, all it takes is high turnover, a few deaths and an inquest or two. Give it a few years for the effects to percolate through and get the issue on the agenda.

AoD
 
hawc said:
Agreed. He should definitely have been criticized there more.

For starters I think we could turn a lot of fire departments downtown into Fire AND Ambulance locations. So we dont' have a huge red truck(s) racing to every medical emergency downtonw. TFD is obviously trying to protect its turf knowing that they're not as needed as they were 50 years ago. There are far, far few fires these days.
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Most new stations are constructed with a shared Fire/EMS property, but all the actual work and living areas are separate. TFS would never allow an ambulance crew to work out of one of their stations, there is a very deep rooted culture in a fire station. It's been tried and failed many times.

Personally I think the only pure medical calls the fire department should be going to is a cardiac/respiratory arrest.
 
Did anybody else read this article on the Star today?

What does Rob Ford want to do until 2014?
http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhal...what-does-rob-ford-want-to-do-until-2014?bn=1

Not even Mayor Rob Ford’s closest allies know what he wants to accomplish over the next 2½ years.

“I couldn’t say with certainty what’s going to come in the future,” Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said in an interview. “I’ve not talked to him about what he’s planning to bring forward. As far as I know, I don’t think there are very many major — I think he’d like to get that bag tax out of the way, I think that’s one thing. Other than that, I’m not sure what’ll happen. There are others that want to do things.”
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He brought up scrapping bag tax in most of his year end "interviews" that came out shortly before Christmas 2011. It's fallen by the wayside as the executive committee voted to not to debate it in council by a vote of 10-3 in mid-February of this year.

Ford told the National Post,

“All of a sudden the five cents is really becoming a sticking point with people and it wasn’t really before, so I want to get rid of it.”
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I emailed my councillor, Ana Bailão about it, expressing my support for it shortly before Christmas. This is what she wrote back...

I would like to confirm my strong support for the 5 cent fee currently attached to the purchase of plastic bags in our city. I believe this penalty, although minor, has had a significant impact in curbing the distribution and use of plastic bags.

There is a great deal of evidence documenting the harmful effects of plastic bags to the environment. From a hazardous production process, to long composting times, to the enormous amounts in which they are disposed of, plastic bags are a significant problem around the world.

I stand alongside a large number of Toronto residents who believe in the positive impacts of the plastic bag fee. If this issue is to be examined at Council, however, I will advocate that the revenue of the fee be put to a more specific use. Rather than being a general revenue source, directing these funds toward environmental programs will greatly increase the effectiveness of this fee in achieving its intended effect.
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I totally agree with her response. If nothing changes, fair enough... I can live with that. If the city re-examines the bag tax, maybe we can use it for something better.

And really... it's 5 cents, are people that bothered by it? Keep a bin or some cloth bags in the trunk of your car and avoid paying it.
 
sarnya said:
He brought up scrapping bag tax in most of his year end "interviews" that came out shortly before Christmas 2011. It's fallen by the wayside as the executive committee voted to not to debate it in council by a vote of 10-3 in mid-February of this year.

I emailed my councillor, Ana Bailão about it, expressing my support for it shortly before Christmas. This is what she wrote back...

...I will advocate that the revenue of the fee be put to a more specific use. Rather than being a general revenue source...
Click to expand...

I totally agree with her response. If nothing changes, fair enough... I can live with that. If the city re-examines the bag tax, maybe we can use it for something better.

And really... it's 5 cents, are people that bothered by it? Keep a bin or some cloth bags in the trunk of your car and avoid paying it.
Click to expand...

It's really frustrating how false messaging continues to surround the bag bylaw.

It's not a tax, as the city gets no revenue from it. By calling it a "general revenue source", it suggests that even councillor Bailão either doesn't understand the bylaw or is also spreading falsehoods.

We need to stop calling it the "bag tax" and start calling it the "bag law".
 
I can't believe a 5 cent bag charge is significant in any way, shape or form. Aren't there more important issues this city has to deal with, like maybe public transit, traffic and affordable housing?
 
sarnya said:
Did anybody else read this article on the Star today?

What does Rob Ford want to do until 2014?
http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhal...what-does-rob-ford-want-to-do-until-2014?bn=1



He brought up scrapping bag tax in most of his year end "interviews" that came out shortly before Christmas 2011. It's fallen by the wayside as the executive committee voted to not to debate it in council by a vote of 10-3 in mid-February of this year.

Ford told the National Post,



I emailed my councillor, Ana Bailão about it, expressing my support for it shortly before Christmas. This is what she wrote back...



I totally agree with her response. If nothing changes, fair enough... I can live with that. If the city re-examines the bag tax, maybe we can use it for something better.

And really... it's 5 cents, are people that bothered by it? Keep a bin or some cloth bags in the trunk of your car and avoid paying it.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that Ford just will sit back and take it easy for the next two years. He has failed Torontonians and 90% of his election promises will never be fulfilled (not that I wanted them to). All that is left for him to do are the day-to-day operations of the city.
 
Scrapping the bag "tax" wouldn't make a difference anyway. Most stores all over the province now charge a fee for their bags. Do people think Rob Ford controls all the grocery stores in Ontario?
 
If it can halve the amount of bags given out I'm all for it. I always have my knapsack on me wherever I go with two fabric bags in them for when I pick up groceries, the down side is the lack of bags for my garbage bin in the kitchen! Another evil are plastic bottles.
 
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...s-field-use-may-be-rescinded-says-councillor/

Policy that charges kids, youth clubs for sports field use may be rescinded, says councillor

Toronto sports leagues up in arms over new permit fees may yet get a reprieve from the city.

Councillor Janet Davis says a motion will be tabled at next week’s council meeting to rescind the policy of charging children and youth clubs an hourly rate to use city fields this year, and she is “optimistic” she has the votes.

“There is clearly a great deal of support amongst councillors to pursue waiving the 2012 fees,” said Ms. Davis.


She and allies are looking at ways to do that, but she said that it will take at least 30 votes on council to open the budget. Seventeen councillors attended a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday where groups voiced their concerns about fees they say were hidden in the budget.

The Toronto Sports Council is calling it a “tax on children.” The East York Baseball League, for example, got a $53,000 bill in the mail, when last year it paid nothing.

Mayor Rob Ford said on Wednesday that he has to sit down with Jim Hart, the general manager of parks forestry and recreation, to discuss the matter but that he wants to “come up with a solution.” He would not say whether he supports waiving the fees until he meets with city staff.

Ms. Davis, who represents Beaches-East York, believes the city has the money to forgo charging children and youth groups. She predicted a “huge surplus” this year, that will be larger than expected because of a new collective agreement with city workers.

The city expected the new fees to raise $1.5-million. Part of the rationale behind the pay structure was to dissuade groups from booking up space that they didn’t use, just because it was free.

“Every councillor right now is feeling a lot of pressure from their groups, and I find it hard to imagine that there is a councillor who is going to stand up to thousands of families in their wards and say, hmm, we just don’t have that $1.4 million when they know we do,” she said. “So, lets fix it.”
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How worse can it get for him?
 
I just find it revealing how remote even Doug Holyday is from whatever, uh, "agenda" Rob Ford has in mind, like, even he's utterly perplexed and flummoxed by this mayoral specimen, however much "in common" their political goals are...
 
CDL.TO said:
It's really frustrating how false messaging continues to surround the bag bylaw.

It's not a tax, as the city gets no revenue from it. By calling it a "general revenue source", it suggests that even councillor Bailão either doesn't understand the bylaw or is also spreading falsehoods.

We need to stop calling it the "bag tax" and start calling it the "bag law".
Click to expand...

To her credit, she calls it a fee and not a tax. She (or her staffer) might have meant that the 5 cents doesn't go to the retailer's general revenues, but to a specific area, such as a "green fund".
 
Well, imagine if Toronto elected Tooker Gomberg as mayor in 2000, and you'll get the picture.
 
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