Cutting Thru The Crap...

Sue-Ann Levy


Levy: Toronto's garbage fight heats up
 
...talk to the citizens of the old City Of York where Comrade Miller cancelled 3rd party pickup to satisfy CUPE for their support during his election OR talk to the current residents of Etobicoke.

Ask Comrade Miller...

...he had no problem cancelling the contract in the old city of York to suckup to his union buddies so just reverse the process.

Garbage in, garbage out


By Benjamin Dachis

Tue Dec 21 2010

The issue is not just contracting out garbage collection, but how you do it.

Hold The Reviews Until After Opening Night...

Powering up City Hall's right: Levy


By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun

I hope those given the privilege of taking up positions of power and influence will not let it go to their heads, as Mayor David Miller and his acolytes did.

Will Rob Ford get trashed?: Granatstein


By ROB GRANATSTEIN, Toronto Sun

During the election, the idea of contracting out garbage collection in Toronto was tossed around as effortlessly as garbage men hurl empty green bins.

Good News, Bad News........

Bad news but Case knows when to pull the plug something dinosaurs like Moscoe, Mihevic, etc. refuse to face facts.

Case closed: Ootes retires

By SUE-ANN LEVY, CITY HALL COLUMNIST

Good luck George but you're dreaming.

Mammoliti promises to leash megacity monster

By BRYN WEESE, TORONTO SUN

Giorgio Mammoliti wants to tame Godzilla.

GIGO

Recycled arguments at City Hall

By BRYN WEESE, TORONTO SUN

Taking out Toronto's trash has become so complicated, not even the politicians can figure it out, at least when it comes to extra recyclables

We Elect Incompotents To Supervise Incompotents...

...and unless there is a major media scandal no one gets fired and elected incompotents are guaranteed for fixed terms where they build lucritive pensions and benefits.

It seems you really can't get good help

By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD

Compare the two.

On the one hand, we have the annual release, every March 31, of people making more than $100,000 on the public payroll.

The so-called Sunshine list has burgeoned by leaps and bounds since it was first released in 1997.

On the other hand, every December, Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter releases a scathing report of government mismanagement, ineptness and in some cases, just plain sloppiness -- often by those in the $100,000 club.

Put the two together and there's only one conclusion you can make: The more we pay in salaries, the more incompetence we get. Take a look at programs such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

We are a caring, civil society. We want to ensure that our neighbours, our friends, those among us who may have hit hard times or who are ill or disabled, can live with dignity.

We expect our governments to come up with programs that will support them when they are down on their luck.

But this is public money. Cash is scarce in an economy like this, so you'd think the government would make sure our money is well spent.

That, clearly, is not the case, according to McCarter. His report released yesterday outlines mismanagement, ineptitude -- and downright fraud in the Ontario Works and ODSP.

As of March 31, overpayments in ODSP had increased to $663 million. For Ontario Works, that figure is $600 million.

Here's how it happened.

McCarter says that fraud investigators rarely follow up on phone tips to the snitch line.

For a number of years, the ministry ignored five -- count 'em -- complaints about one recipient family.

It was later revealed that the family had received $100,000 in overpayments. One tip noted that family members regularly drove new vehicles, including a new imported SUV.

The report says oversight procedures are lacking. The Social Benefits Tribunal hears appeals and is often inconsistent in its rulings, McCarter says. An independent consultant hired by the ministry in 2008 noted that many tribunal members approved 100% of appeals, while one member consistently sided with the ministry.

"We think in some cases fraud has occurred," McCarter told a news conference yesterday.

Then there is the ludicrous dietary supplement program. Costs for it skyrocketed from $5 million in 2002-03 -- to more than $67 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The auditor general found several instances where every member of a large family was diagnosed with identical multiple medical conditions.

Truly needy are hurting

One health-care practitioner was responsible for diagnosing and approving almost 20% of dietary allowances in a sample of 1,000 applicants. Some families can scam the system for $50,000 tax free, according to McCarter.

What is most troubling in all of this is that those who are truly needy are hurting. They have to wait four months for help.

Look, it is a good thing we have a social safety net. The problem is, with so many people unemployed, it has to be administered in a fair and equitable fashion.

Honest people are hurting. And they are scrambling to pay their taxes.

So let's connect the dots -- from March 31 to December. We are paying the civil service a lot of money to do a very mediocre job. Every year, the auditor points that out.

We deserve better. Those guardians of the public purse need to pull up their socks.

And to the scammers and fraud artists? Get a life, get a job -- and stop sucking us dry.

Let's Start With 5 Cents For A Shopping Bag, $120 For A Garbage Can.....

Climate change: Life and death or cash grab?

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, Sun Media and ELIZABETH MAY

The thing to understand about the 12-day UN meeting on climate change starting in Copenhagen today, is it's not an environmental conference. It's an economic mugging.

Responding to the skeptics

Thomas Homer-Dixon and Andrew Weaver

Science takes on four common arguments against global warming
Dec 07, 2009

Geographically speaking, what on earth is Canada doing?

Jeffrey Simpson

The effects of atmospheric warming on our vast territory, immense coastlines and abundance of fresh water are already apparent
Dec 07, 2009

GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out)

Tackling our garbage turns politicians' minds into trash

By JOHN SNOBELEN

What is it about trash that seems to kill brain cells? Particularly the brain cells of politicians.

It is fair to say that more truly dumb stuff has been said about garbage than any other municipal issue.

Those of us with a few wrinkles might remember the interim waste authority. Back in the '90s, millions were spent not locating a new landfill. And that landmark effort at maximizing consultants' fees while finding no solution set the standard for solid waste planning in Ontario.

Toronto seems to have perfected the art of not finding ways to dispose of trash. Energy from waste? It might be clean enough for the Green party in many European cities but it's not clean enough for Toronto. Landfill? What -- and ruin all that good Toronto farmland?

The truth is local politicians will not consider any waste option that is uncomfortable. They will spend any amount and twist logic into pretzels rather than get on about the business of actually citing a disposal facility.

Trash, it seems, is tremendous fertilizer for political hubris. Note the pride of Toronto counsellors as they popped champagne corks at the closing of the Keele Valley Landfill. Those brave souls had solved Toronto's trash problems and, being true environmentalists, they managed to close the landfill. They did all this by simply trucking the trash to Michigan.

Al Gore would be proud.

BAD MANNERS

Dumping you garbage on a neighbour's property is not considered to be good manners out here in the country. Apparently in Toronto it makes you an environmentalist. Go figure.

Believe it or not, photos of champagne sipping Toronto politicians happily closing the landfill ran in Detroit newspapers. This mildly annoyed the politicians in Michigan who set out on a mission to close the border to Toronto's waste.

One would think that might cause those Toronto politicians to get serious about finding disposal options in Toronto. Not a chance.

Mayor David Miller and his cohorts proudly paid a record sum to buy a private landfill in London. What they really bought was a way around going through the political hell of siting a waste facility.

Never mind that the trash will still have to be trucked a long distance. Never mind that Toronto garbage is no more popular in London than it was in Detroit. Like I said, trash kills political brain cells.

Shipping trash all over southern Ontario is not the only evidence of twisted logic on the garbage front. The award for trash hypocrisy has to go to the ongoing sad saga of recycling.

Last week we were treated to the news that Toronto wouldn't be hitting the target of 70% recycling anytime soon. Gosh, what a surprise.

Recycling has been the great false hope for councillors who want to avoid actually dealing with garbage. Heck, rather than dispose of it, just ban it. Brilliant.

Let's be clear, some recycling makes sense. Recycling marketable items, like some metals and paper products, is more affordable than disposal. But when the cost and total environmental impact of the handling and reprocessing of materials is greater than the impact of modern disposal options you would have to be a fool to recycle. A fool or a Toronto politician.

The city hall gang claim recycling avoids the use of "precious" landfill space. They are silent, of course, on the obvious fact landfill space is only limited by the absence of political courage.

Perhaps it's time for the province to relieve municipalities of the burden of waste disposal. There can't be many brain cells left.

JOHN.SNOBELEN@SUNMEDIA.CA

A Chapter From The Recycle History Book

City going green with organic bins

Time To Get Rid Of Textbooks By Marx/Lenin

Diverse, talented city a laggard on innovation

Other North American metropolitan areas such as Boston and Seattle are doing better at commercializing the ideas generated by their creative class

Aug 17, 2009 04:30 AM

Kevin Stolarick
Research director. Rotman School of Management's Martin Prosperity Institute
David Smith
Project Leader, Rotman School of Management

Having celebrated its 175th birthday this year, the City of Toronto is undergoing significant structural changes that will force it to adapt from a manufacturing-based economy into a creativity-driven, knowledge economy. These changes are forcing government, businesses and individuals to reconsider priorities and rise to new challenges.

More.....

Competition Negates The Use Of Essential When Providing A Service

Garbage collectors aren't essential

By SUN MEDIA

What are the practical things we can do arising from Toronto's civic workers' strike during the three-year period of labour peace we will now have?

Only contracating out will cure Toronto's fiscal woes

By JOHN SNOBELEN

So Mayor David Miller lost a strike. Too bad. But here's the really bad news; the taxpayers of Toronto were going to lose anyway.

Will Anyone At Silly Hall Take Blame?

Still waiting for a green bin audit

Now that Toronto's municipal strike is over, residents must once again get used to separating organic waste from their garbage

Let's Put Soapboxes Back In Public Squares And Parks.....

...which would give some bloggers the opportunity to share their views eye to eye rather than through comments. No email, no twittering, no facebook, etc.

E-mails of the day

By Michelle Malkin • July 28, 2009 12:01 AM

My appearance on FNC’s Hannity show last night (vid at Hot Air) to talk about Culture of Corruption prompted many bitter e-mails from Obama-bots, but this one takes the cake:

from Del Hughes delhughes@suddenlink.net
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 9:42 PM
subject Book
mailed-by suddenlink.net

How do you, an Oriental, get on national TV and say and write such hard things about the President and several of his staff without being sued for slander? If you wrote about me like you have written about all these other people, I would sue you for slander in heartbeat.

“Orientals” on TV! Appalling!

Guess what? Del Hughes was not alone in his/her dismay over a brown-skinned critic of Obama on the TV.

Look:

from barou yoplo yoplo54@yahoo.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 10:27 PM
subject Don’t Forget Where You Coming From
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

Miss,

I follow your steps since the election and apparently you forgot where you coming from.

I will be glad to have a debate with about your book, your vision, and you being an Asian who forgot where she is coming from.

You and your friends are not in a good position to judge anyone, nor having the right to assume someone is corrupted without a concrete proof. So be careful for what you wish for.

And here’s yet another race-based missive that landed in the in-box tonight. This one earns special recognition for creative spelling:

from Chatora8@aol.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 9:43 PM
subject (no subject)
mailed-by aol.com

Michelle Malkin you are a stupid asian BITCH.The only reason you are on t.v is because americans feel so so sorry for you.

It is obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about.

So go and sell your body some more.

So that you can send money back home to support your slummish asian family.

Michelle A.K.A undercover HORE.

Hey, so much for post-racial America! Why don’t we all just have a beer and stop racial profiling, hmmm?

One Out Of Four Isn't Bad For A Star "writer"

Four things we should be proud of TheStar.com - living - Four things we should be proud of

July 01, 2009

Antonia Zerbisias

My Canada includes:

The "rights" of unions supercede the rights of thos who pay the bills?

Collective Bargaining: Yes, I know the strike by Toronto city workers means kids can't cool off in public pools, parents' best-laid summer child-care plans have gone awry and garbage bins are overflowing.

I feel your pain.

Just like most of you, I don't have 18 sick days a year to bank and cash out.

I also know that, without unions, many of us would be working in Dickensian conditions.

How would you like to be a miner without a union ensuring that the company meets safety standards? Or a sweatshop worker without proper ventilation, light or even fire escapes?

Collective bargaining floats all our boats. Without it, there would be no minimum wage, no paid sick leave, no health and pension benefits, no vacations. Do you honestly believe workers would still get a fair break if the bottom liners had nothing to keep them in check?

It's not workers who drove us into this economic mess. Workers weren't paying themselves multi-million-dollar bonuses for running companies into the ground. In fact, as executive salaries were rising, workers' wages were falling.

This isn't the time to get rid of unions. This is the time to be strengthening them.

Why don't we impose the same responsibilities that PBS faces?

Public Broadcasting: Fully funded public broadcasting is good for Canadian culture, which includes tens of thousands of workers who perform and produce programming.

It is also crucial in an era when private broadcasters fail to live up to their licence requirements to provide local news and other domestic content.

Even more important, as much as I adore the Internet, it is no substitute for rigorous Canadian eyes and ears on all levels of government – as well as on Canadian corporations, which might otherwise rip off consumers while raping the environment.

Forget CTV and Global. They are beyond redemption, as they demonstrated during their campaign to make viewers pay for what they are now getting free – i.e. cable fees for local over-the-air stations.

I'm talking CBC.

I'm talking excellent original and thought-provoking programming on CBC Radio's Ideas.

I'm also talking The National, which is now riddled with commercials and no longer has the weight or authority it used to have.

That's because, to sell ads, it has to produce eyeballs. That means more Michael Jackson, less Stephen Harper.

And that's not good for Canada.

Freedom of Expression: Excuse me but since when did the interests of Zionist lobby groups determine who or what Canadians can see and hear?

In recent months, to list just three examples, there have been concerted campaigns against the staging of Caryl Churchill's controversial Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza and an academic conference at York University where the so-called "one-state solution'' was to be discussed. We also saw British MP George Galloway be denied entry to the country for a speaking tour, just because he brought aid to bombed-out Gaza.

Now comes word that the only way the respected Al-Jazeera English news service, currently applying for TV distribution in Canada, can win the support of these same Jewish groups is to have them become consultants.

Journalistically speaking, that is hardly kosher.

They are deserters! They voluntarily joined the armed forces.......

U.S. War Resisters: Canada's proudest moment this century was when it refused to join George W. Bush in his attack on Iraq.

Yet we deport Americans who didn't sign up to brutalize civilians.

Those kids were hoodwinked, both by their government and its lapdog media, into thinking they were joining up to protect their country from terrorism and Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Rather than welcome them, we send them back over the border and to certain prison sentences.

That's not my Canada.

Is it yours?

Raphael Alexander: Canada owes no sympathy to deserters

Posted: June 30, 2009, 11:30 AM by NP Editor

There is a ridiculously biased article involving the Conservative government and their current deportation policy on U.S. Army deserters. The tone it strikes is immediate:

Jason Kenney’s most memorable assault on U.S. war deserters seeking refuge in Canada occurred soon after he became immigration minister in October 2008.

Kenney dismissed them as “bogus refugee claimants,” a phrase that set off alarm bells among the deserters’ supporters because it was more loaded than anything said before by his Tory predecessors in the job.

How is it an “assault” on anybody to state the absolute truth of the situation? These are not genuine refugees, fleeing a war-torn country or a situation in which their lives are imperiled by actions beyond their control. These were men and women who knowingly and willingly signed into service with the military with the full knowledge of their actions and the consequences of desertion. Some of them even joined up long after the Iraq war had already started.

Click here to read more...

GIGO

Let's shame Toronto's garbage knuckleheads By RACHEL SA Raise your hand if the civic workers' strike isn't really affecting your daily life all that much.

Public Service

Map: Where to take garbage

City Of Toronto-Largest Slum Landlord???

,,,,where is The Affordable Housing Czar G. Mammolliti?

When help is trumped by civil rights Star.com - GTA - When help is trumped by civil rights

Joe Fiorito

The thesis: If you are vulnerable and you live in public housing, you're in trouble. No one is looking out for you.The staff of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation are not social workers; building superintendents are concerned with maintenance, not with the lives of tenants. If you start to slip in social housing, you may fall.As in the case of Dirty George, it won't be pretty.

What is a person to do? As we know from Monday's column, if you notice your neighbour slipping, you might call public health.We also learned that if you do, you had better be clever enough to describe the situation in such a way as to communicate a sense of urgency. That does not mean you should shout or be hysterical. That means you should be clear and direct about the scope of the problem. Only then is public health likely to send a nurse to make a home visit.But even then, the Privacy Act means a nurse might not get past the door.

Some people have suggested that, if you are concerned about a Dirty George, you might try calling the nearest Community Care Access Centre.Don Ford is the executive director of the Central East CCAC. His office is in Whitby but he came in to the Scarborough office so we could chat face to face. I caught him off guard when I told him I'd called the CCAC to ask for directions and spent what felt like a couple of minutes on hold.He frowned – that's a long time on hold – and I could see him making a mental note.

I put the question to him: Is the CCAC the place to call when you notice your neighbour slipping? He said, "Anyone can make a referral to the CCAC. You should provide us with the name and the details so we can determine what to do."The good news: "We are not required to go through a physician. A phone call, with the name and the location, is enough." That's promising.And then, "We do need the consent of the individual to intervene. We can't break down a door."

That old story again. And this is the bad news: A person whose judgment is impaired may not want to accept help, and that person has the right to refuse help – even if the way they are living is a threat to their neighbours.He repeated the stopper: "We can't intrude in a person's life." I said that was a conundrum. He said, "It is a conundrum – there is the potential that a service can be made available, but we can't break a person's civil rights."

So what happens if there was a problem but the person in need refuses help? "We'd have to determine what our options might be to conduct an assessment." That sounds vague, but every case is different. Assuming all goes well, what services does the CCAC offer? "We are able to provide personal support workers; people who can help someone get dressed, get up, get ready for bed, have a bath; we have nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, psychologists and social workers who can go in and develop a plan; some of our case managers are expert in issues of mental health."

But a person can say no?

"That's the trump card."

I made an observation about the fragmentation of the health system and the confusing array of services. He agreed with Liz Janzen, of public health. He said, "The most challenging component ... is managing the hand-offs, the transitions where different agencies work together. "I am not reassured.

GIGO

A price for plastic bags? What a load of garbage

by Marcus Gee

Toronto Silly Hall

For the war, but against the troops

BY Chris Bilton May 04, 2009 15:05

The start of municipal election season in Toronto is still at least six months away, but don’t think that mayoral aspirations aren’t gestating in the minds of a few city councillors even as we speak. This is kind of hard to imagine considering that for every scathing editorial, public backlash or inter-council criticism about the course he’s charted, David Miller retains his firm, executive committee-backed grip on the clamshell’s steering wheel. Everything seems like it’s under control — which might not necessarily be a good sign.

It seems like just yesterday that EYE WEEKLY was endorsing Miller’s Torontopia-friendly platform and reporting with delight as the post-Lastman parade danced down a road of right-wing bones. But there have been more than a few bulldozed-through decisions in recent memory — the garbage-bin debacle, street-vendor silliness, street furniture — that have done nothing but provoke a collective sigh of WTF? It’s time (or at least it will be very soon) to decide if we’re really content with the pedestrian-friendly, go-green, beer-drinking-at-the-Spacing-anniversary-party mayor, or whether we should begin to consider the alternatives.

Back at the beginning of 2008, we reported on the “Rising Right” at city hall and the mounting anti-Miller pressure from a loosely collected “unofficial opposition” led by Karen Stintz and Denzil Minnan-Wong. Along with Case Ootes and David Shiner, the crew presented a far less embarrassingly erratic conservative voice for the city than media hogs like Rob Ford would have us believe existed. And with the recent emergence of the Responsible Government Group (or RGG, led by Karen Stintz and Case Ootes) it appears that the opposition is getting themselves organized, and they may actually have some good ideas.

Just last week, Stintz and Ootes were fighting to have an in-council debate on keeping public-school pools open — something that the city’s been dragging its heels on for years despite Toronto school-board and provincial-government interest. And then there’s regular naysayer Minnan-Wong calling for infrastructure spending of bubble-sized proportions. So just who are these progressive-seeming conservatives, and why do I find myself agreeing with them?

The recurring complaint about Miller’s mayoralty is that all policy flows from his office with little regard for criticism or objection. So even if we agree with the idea of waste diversion and increased recycling, we can’t in good conscience sit idly by and watch as thousands of ill-fitting garbage bins are foisted upon Toronto residents. When I spoke with Stintz last week, she was lamenting council’s vote to freeze wages of non-union employees, and her core objection was that councillors didn’t get the opportunity to vote for freezing their own wages. The decision to maintain councillors’ cost of living increases was made by Miller’s executive committee alone.

Few are willing to admit it, but in light of such decisions, this strong mayor model is starting to feel like the passive-aggressive bully-style leadership of Stephen Harper or even, gasp, George W. Bush.

Fiercely independent veteran councillor Michael Walker is sternly opposed to the far-reaching powers bestowed on the mayor because there is no room for checks and balances. “The [executive committee] can simply bury anything through process, and they always have a majority of the vote,” he says. “Plus there is always the threat that they can somehow hurt you politically. That’s a tyranny.”

Despite my appreciation of Walker’s philosophical position, I’m not so sure that the mayor’s newfound powers are necessarily the root of the evil here. The ambitious needs of a city this size require the mayor to be able to exert power, especially against the municipal inconsideration of bodies like the OMB, the federal and provincial governments and, as we are already seeing, Metrolinx.

Oddly enough, this is another one of things on which Stintz and I agree. Though she’s outspoken about her own voice not being heard in council, she understands the need for a strong mayor. She thinks that what we also need is a stronger council, and one that is better equipped to represent the city’s residents. “The challenge I find myself in is that it’s never clear to the public who’s making these decisions,” she says. “Is it the mayor, or is it council? And depending on the decision, the mayor seems to weave in and out.”

The RGG, according to the group’s press release, is an effort to provide an alternative to Team Executive Council. And though it’s not a formal alliance, it certainly looks like the early stages of campaign machinery.

Understandably, the alignment on both sides is the most troubling thing for Walker. For him, anything resembling party-politics pretty much defeats the purpose of having a community-based council. “If this is going to resemble provincial or federal governments then we are just wasting taxpayers’ money by having a municipal government,” he says.

Unfortunately (and in some ways fortunately), despite the RGG’s go-team efforts, their opposition has proven less than effective. Last week’s council meetings saw roughly six hours of debate over wage freezes with little impact on the mayor’s motion. As the Golden One himself tweeted post-adjournment, “Lengthy debate at Council about management … Adopted exec recs without amendment.”

If the Responsible Government Group is a precursor to a consensus candidate for the next election, no one is talking explicitly about it. If it’s a stab at party politics, no one is ready to admit it. And if this is the best opposition we’re going to see at City Hall, no one — and certainly no one in power — is going to worry about it.

While You Were Away.......

GTA summit points the way

If not bold, at least a beginning
by Royson James

Comment: Guess who is going to finance this..........

Summer vote unlikely as PM regroups

Hebert: Early indications are that Stephen Harper will not rise to the Liberal bait of a summer election. Instead, the word is that the government will likely come forward with adjustments to the employment insurance regime before Parliament adjourns next month. MORE...

Dr. Roy Picked Up On This Also.....

Ugly on the inside
Dear antonia z has decided to call for the assassination of Michelle Malkin. Now she says its a joke. I thought my opinion of this loon couldn't sink any lower. she fits in well at the red star, all bias all the time. Wonder when she will humoursly call for the bombing of Tory caucus meetings. she is so funny. this is a loon who is always tranting about domestic violence against women ( she feel
Dr Roy's Thoughts |