When You Throw A Party...

...it can't be a BYOB event.

A G20 balancing act

Sat Mar 13 2010

The Group of 20 summit this June gives Toronto a valuable opportunity to perform before a global audience – but it's also a stage on which this city could potentially stumble. Based on past experience with summitry, some violence is probably... 

Now is the time to discuss city's massive police budget

February 26, 2010
Harvey G. Simmons

PATRICK CORRIGAN/TORONTO STAR

As the candidates for mayor of Toronto jostle for position, each of them has suggestions for dealing with the city's budget deficit: outsource Toronto Hydro, says Rocco Rossi; get the province to kick in more money, says Joe Pantalone; do business in a different way, says Giorgio Mammoliti; freeze hiring for all but essential services, says George Smitherman.
But none of the candidates has dared mention the elephant in the room – the Toronto police budget that stands at nearly $1 billion per year for operating expenses. The police now consume more of Toronto's operating budget than the fire service, Emergency Medical Services and public health combined.
Even worse, how many Torontonians know, when they howl in frustration at yet another hike in property taxes, that a greater percentage of these dollars – 24 per cent – goes to the police than to the TTC, public health, children's services and Emergency Medical Services combined?