Activity At The Kremlin/Fun House

Have they had their pictures taken yet?

One-cent campaign lagging in support from Miller's allies
March 22, 2007
Mayor David Miller unveiled his GST campaign almost a month ago and said he hoped to put public pressure on Ottawa to give Canadian cities 1 cent of the 6 cents of the GST. It seems, however, that even some of his strongest allies haven't got the message. Miller has a huge poster for the campaign in his office window, but a stroll through the city councillors' office area this week revealed only a dozen or so members had the green signs in their windows. Among those without the signs were several members of Miller's handpicked executive committee.

They're not taxes, but `revenue tools'
You call them taxes, but down at City Hall that word sounds so unpleasant. "Revenue tools" is a much softer phrase, and perhaps that's why city officials decided to title a shopping list of new ways for the city to raise money a "discussion of public policy revenue tools."
When asked last week how happy citizens and businesses would be to pay the "proposed tax increases," Miller avoided using the hated three-letter word.
"There are no proposed tax increases," he replied. "These are potential revenue tools."
Indeed, no one is advocating the new money-raising measures; the discussion paper simply outlines what's legally possible under the new City of Toronto Act. But in the body of the paper, seven of the eight new "tools" are clearly labelled a "tax." The exception is the "road pricing" option, which would be either a toll, or a congestion fee charged to vehicles entering traffic-clogged zones.

Cadillac' design too much for Walker
Lots of folks were recently blown away by plans to fix up Nathan Phillips Square. Councillor Michael Walker (Ward 22, St. Paul's) is not among them. "First of all, we don't have the $16 million that the city is supposed to spend for this project, and we haven't identified where the other $24 million will come from. And why can't we just do something in a modest fashion? Why does it always have to be a Cadillac?" Walker also doesn't like the fact that the winning design scheme calls for the Peace Garden to be moved from the central square. "That's sacred ground," Walker argues. "The garden was blessed by Pope John Paul II ... That land specifically was blessed by the Pope.You can't move the blessing with it."

Dispute over ward could get religious
If council's executive committee next week opts to get rid of numbers for city council wards and replace them with names, there could be an argument over who gets to keep Trinity-Spadina. Councillor and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone represents Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina, while rookie councillor Adam Vaughan represents Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina. Pantalone says the name comes from Trinity-Bellwoods Park, which is in his ward. He also joked that the Trinity name might go to whichever of the two is the most religious. Vaughan and Pantalone have been squabbling of late over the fate of the Front St. extension. Vaughan a couple weeks back almost had the votes to get funding for the road taken out of the capital budget, but he said Pantalone managed to keep the project going for now.
If the idea of naming wards comes to pass, Pantalone said he might call his area "Ward 19, We must do something about the Gardiner Expressway so let's keep the Front Street extension alive."

With files from Jim Byers, John Spears