Toronto Affairs

Nov. 30 - Interested-Participant posts on the controversy over Toronto shipping our garbage to Michigan. According to the article he links from the Toronto Star, the EPA will be in Toronto to for three days touring solid waste transfer, composting and recycling facilities in Toronto, as well as in York, Durham and Peel regions. I could have saved them the trip: they'll find mountains of recyleables with no place to go because no companies are equipped to handle that much metal, glass and paper.

The program for recollecting the items was begun before a plan was made to re-direct the items. The blue box program is around 10 years old, and they still don't have a workable plan. That's how things work in Toronto.

Sadly, it is more likely that the US Congress will act long before the City Council here finishes "reviewing" the issue. The feckless Council doesn't want to take the kind of decisive action needed to find a Toronto solution to a Toronto problem, and their past actions have been to hope the problem would just go away.

The garbage issue was a point of debate in the recent mayoral race, of course. Failed canadidate John Tory had proposed building a garbage incinerator, which newly elected Mayor David Miller had rejected as too expensive and environmentally dangerous, but had no counter proposals. The paranoid faction won, even though other municipalities have incinerators with built-in safeguards that make the practice safer and cleaner than any other method of disposal.

Mississauga, our neighbour immediately to the west of here, incincerates their garbage. But they also have a strong mayor and council. Considering how fast that city has grown, you have to figure that there are more sensible people leaving Toronto than staying.

In an earlier post which featured an astonishing discovery of mixing hospital waste with garbage, Interested Participant wondered if Canadian environmentalists are of the NIMBY variety. I can affirm that they are, at least the ones in this neck of the country.

BUT anyone who reads the London Free Press will have noted columnists and letters to the editor which complain about the truckloads that merely pass that city on their way to Michigan, so in this case, at least, the NIMBY element isn't just directed at the US but within Canada as well.

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Toronto's $1million payout to departing politicians

Nov. 15 - In a not-terribly-suprising reaction to the $1 million payout Torontonian will have to pay to departing councillors, the mayor and staff, the reaction has been swift. The payout is not limited to defeated incumbents but also to those who chose not to run. Ain't public service grand? Monetary pay-outs are detailed in the article.

Some side-hurrahs are owed to Etobicoke Couns. Rob Ford and Doug Holyday (whose penny-pinching ways with their office budgets so infuriated their fellow councillors that a special resolution was passed at City Council in an effort to get those councillors to bill the city more) and have weighed in strongly against the pay-outs.

But some kind of special honourary award should be given to this man:

Councillor Fred Dominelli said he will not pocket his $3,578 cheque because he did not stand for re-election.

"I don't think I deserve the money and I don't want it," said Dominelli, who was appointed to fill Disero's seat in May. "I just got appointed and I feel guilty for taking the money from taxpayers."

But he won't leave the money in the city's coffers. He'll to donate it to a church that can't afford insurance.

"If I leave it with the city, the city will blow it on some foolish thing," he said. (Emphasis added)

That quote should be immortalized, say by engraving it over the entrance to City Hall.

Dominelli is challenging the rest of the outgoing council not to accept their severance cheques or to donate them to charity.

Tim Ivanyshyn, manager of council services, said yesterday none of the departing councillors has so far said no to the payout.

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Balancing the budgets

Nov. 14 - The Canadian Surplus shrinks to $1.6B for the first half of the fiscal year (April-September) which is somewhat less than the $4.6 billion recorded in the same period last year.

In Ontario, it seems there was a slight miscalculation by the incoming Liberal government for a projected deficit (as in the departing Tory government had balanced the budget as they had claimed) and there would in fact be a small surplus instead of a shortfall of $5.6-billion for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2004.

[Finance Minister Greg] Sorbara had said a day earlier that a final accounting would show 2002-03 ended up in the red to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars despite boasts by the Tories of a $524-million surplus.

"I double-checked my information and I wasn't entirely accurate," Mr. Sorbara said in an interview.

While the projected excess has "shrunk very significantly," there is likely still "a small surplus, not a deficit," he said, adding the books have yet to be closed on the year.

But even as one hand gives, the other is quick to take away. Toronto taxpayers may need to pay out over $1 million in severance pay to departing city councillors and their staff.

"Oh, my gosh," said budget committee member Jane Pitfield, who never figured the payouts would be so high. "Taxpayers would be shocked that so much money is being wasted."

I think Torontonians are way beyond shocked, but thank you for thinking of us.

"This is just highway robbery," bristled penny-pinching councillor Rob Ford, adding that councillors and their staff take the job knowing it could last only three years. "I guess we're not in such rough shape after all," said Ford, referring to the city's financial situation.

Councillors and the mayor are entitled to a month's pay for every year of service, over and above their pensions, up to a maximum one year's pay.

Note the inclusion of the phrase "above their pensions." Yes, they get a sizeable pension for being on the job for three years, but that's a scandal older than me.

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MFP inquiry reveals ethical idiocy

Nov. 6 - I've resisted posting about the ongoing inquiry into the MFP scandal (it's a Toronto thing) but this finally cracked my resolve: Ex-treasurer defends MFP role:

Former City of Toronto treasurer Wanda Liczyk says MFP salesman Dash Domi didn't outfox her on the computer-leasing deal that has blown up in the city's face. Liczyk testified yesterday at the inquiry into the MFP scandal that Domi booked her an appointment with an exclusive hair stylist, extended invitations to dinners and hockey and basketball games and got tickets for Leaf games for her sister because he was a "nice guy."

How f***ing stupid are the people who work for the City of Toronto? Hello? I used to be involved with a minor sports association, and whenever a parent walked up to me with a big smile and flattery I knew without any doubt that they wanted something! And I didn't control millions of dollars (fact is, I barely controlled anything: the game was settled on the field) but I knew I was being set up to be used.

That Ms. Liczyk is so needy and in need of affirmation indicates that she and the others involved in this scandal lack the basic qualification for stewardship: brains.

Liczyk spent another day on the witness stand insisting her relationship with Domi was typical for her and a salesman and there was nothing improper.

So he played you! It was his job. Admit it. Learn the lesson. Be an adult.

The inquiry is investigating why a $43-million computer deal with MFP ballooned out of control, costing tens of millions more.

I can't go on. Read the whole thing. It stinks.

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