Another Elitist Telling Us What Is Good For Us

Damn little about fiscal responsibility at City Hall! Nothing about contracting out services, nothing about reducing city staff, nothing about holding the line on wages, etc. I don't have a problem paying my share, and I do so at the federal and provincial level, and now I will be nickle and dimed at the municipal level.

It looks like it is not only Comrade Miller.....

Time to step up and pay our true garbage tab
April 10, 2007
Christopher Hume

Though some Torontonians would like to see the proposed garbage fees trashed, it's an idea whose time has come.

The arguments against the scheme amount to little more than quibbling with the details, which, admittedly, need work.

But let's get one thing straight, by any standard, living in Toronto is a pretty good deal.

Yes, property taxes have increased, but we get an awful lot in return. Indeed, life as we know it couldn't exist without governments to make it possible. Still, many of us happily pay more to work out in a gym two or three times a week than for all the civic services the city provides.

In other words, it's time Torontonians got real about the price of 21st-century urban life.

Of course, it doesn't help that municipal politicians are a generally cowardly bunch who would rather twist themselves – and the city – into knots rather than do the right thing.

And the councillors who aren't terrified of the truth are those who believe government is bad, and the less the better. Such nonsense has been the basis of many a political career in this city, province and country.

Yet those people who want government to back off are the first to complain when the snow isn't plowed, the buses are late or the garbage isn't picked up.

The fact is we produce too much waste and must figure out ways to cut back.

History and common sense tell us that when we have to pay for a good or service, we're much more likely to use it responsibly. That applies whether the issue is water, energy or garbage pickup.

The purpose of Mayor David Miller's program is to encourage Torontonians to produce less waste, and to recycle more assiduously. Both are laudable goals, and desperately needed.

If anything, Miller's plan doesn't go far enough; maybe $15 a month isn't enough to change behaviour. That amounts to 50 cents a day, less than the cost of this newspaper.

As for the notion of property tax rebates for those of us who would pay garbage fees – forget it.

Not only would that defeat the purpose of the program, it would add to the already Byzantine bureaucracy of Toronto City Hall.

And what about the businesses that create the waste in the first place?

It's true some are required to contribute to the costs of the Ontario Blue Box program, but the fees don't seem to have prompted the required change in corporate behaviour.

Yet we live in a country where people seem to assume they have the right to produce as much garbage as they want, that they have some kind of constitutional guarantee that allows them to waste resources as they so desire.

Is it any wonder that Canadians are among the worst per capita polluters on the planet?

Interesting, too, that Canadian business goes one step further; not only does it assume it has the right to pollute, but also that individual taxpayers should cover the costs. The kid-glove treatment has kept corporate Canada immune to the pressures of environmental responsibility.

There was a revealing instance last week when the Ontario government announced it would charge bottlers for water they take from the Great Lakes. Sounds good, until one realizes the fees will be $3.71 per million litres.

The environment has emerged as the No. 1 political issue in Canada, but it's one of those things that we want changed as long as it doesn't affect us personally. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Environmental degradation implicates all of us. That means cleaning it up also involves everyone, people and corporations alike.

Garbage fees are a good starting place, but there's more; what about road tolls, parking premiums, charging a deposit on plastic water bottles, and so on?

This city needs a strong dose of tough love. For Miller and his fellow politicians, that means no more Mr. Nice Guy. Anyone who says otherwise is just talking trash.