Do the squatters on Toronto islands recycle, compost, etc. all their garbage? If not what is the cost per ton of removing "garbage" from the island? Do the squatters pickup the total cost?
Dumping dollars down the chute
Instead of garbage fees, how about attacking condos?
By SUE-ANN LEVY
So what do you think of Toronto's fair-haired mayor now?
In the little more than four months since being returned to office, David Miller has managed to dream up 10 new revenue tools, er, tax schemes (to bail out his spendthrift regime).
That's more than two schemes for every month Miller has been at the helm of this debt-ridden city.
Quite an accomplishment, I'd say.
The latest tax grab, which came to light last week, consists of a plan to take the cost of garbage collection off the residential property tax bill and charge homeowners separately depending on how much trash they generate (over and above what they put in their green bins and recycling boxes).
That scheme is on top of the nine different revenue tools, er, taxes, Miller and Co. plan to cash in on under the new City of Toronto Act. One -- a duplicate land transfer tax on new home sales similar to one being charged by the province -- could become a reality as early as this summer.
I haven't even touched on the mayor's intent to hand property taxpayers a 3.8% hike this year -- which is more than double the rate of inflation, the increase he promised to stick to in his election platform.
But what's a few promises when there are loftier goals for Robert Kennedy Jr. (a.k.a. Miller) to achieve like climate change and the like?
In typical socialist style, the garbage plan and the associated costs are rather sketchy at the moment. But I do know that the scheme is being proposed -- or at least that's the socialist spin -- as a means of getting the city's diversion rate up to a lofty 70% by 2010 from the current 42%.
The separate bill would be similar to the one being used to charge residents for water use. One scenario being studied is three different sized bins that would have graduated fees attached to them. The standard size bin would cost homeowners approximately $180 per year.
Now I'd be all for levelling a surcharge on residential property owners for excess garbage over a set amount if I truly believed it would accomplish the city's diversion goals.
ANOTHER FIEFDOM
But I'm skeptical the plan will achieve the purpose intended. Like most other socialist schemes as of late, I'm convinced this one, too, will serve to pay for yet another unionized fiefdom of garbage administrators, inspectors, billing agents and bylaw officers. Meanwhile, with garbage off the tax bill, Miller will have even more room to increase property taxes for other grandiose visions.
For one thing, if the Millerites truly wanted to get to a 70% diversion rate, they'd spend their limited resources tackling the apartment and condo sector, where diversion rates are a paltry 13%. For more than two years now, I've heard talk of pilot projects to test the green bin program in condos and apartments but no indication of results or follow-up programs.
Rod Muir of Waste Diversion Ontario recently told me the city's building department has missed opportunity after opportunity to improve the diversion rate by allowing at least 150 new condos and apartments to be built without a three-chute garbage system that separates recyclables, organics and residual waste. "We're nowhere," he said.
Coun. Mike Del Grande, in fact, believes the garbage tax is all "smoke and mirrors."
As he told me yesterday, Miller now has a $220-million-plus dump (the Green Land landfill) to pay for and no idea how he'll finance it. (A report on just how it will be financed is due within a matter of days.)
Del Grande thinks as the pressure increases to pay for the dump, the same thing will happen as did with the water rates -- which have jumped by as much as 9% (compounded) for the past several years supposedly to replace the city's aging infrastructure.
He adds there's only one way he'd support a separate garbage tax and that is if the Millerites would allow the private sector to compete for the collection contracts.
Coun. Doug Holyday feels based on the Etobicoke experience (where garbage has been done by a private contractor for years) contracting out garbage collection across the city could save about $30-million a year.
Of course, that will never happen at union-friendly City Hall.
Says Holyday: "We're talking about new fees but we won't do what's staring us in the face."
"These guys are looking for every way to tax anything that moves while not living within their means," adds Del Grande. "Why would they stop with garbage?"
Yes indeed, why would they?
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