Would Things Be Different Today

If Mayor Mel and council, which included Comrade Miller, had accepted amalgamation as a fact of life and implemented the various components. As it stands today we still don't have harmonization of all services with the labour reduction it would have precipitated and millions and millions of $$$$ ito be gained by selling redundant property which were necessary to offset the downloads and make the process revenue neutral. If they had done so then the province couldn't dance around the issue.

Leaders failing Toronto TheStar.com - comment - Leaders failing Toronto

July 26, 2007

Premier Dalton McGuinty has it half-right. A slim majority of Toronto city councillors indeed failed their community last week by postponing action on two necessary new taxes. Their inability to make tough decisions was rightly criticized by the premier, especially since council had earlier fought hard to win new tax powers for Toronto.

But McGuinty overlooks another failure of leadership equally damaging to Toronto – his own. And Conservative Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton are just as lacking in leadership on this issue, which affects the lives of 2.5 million Toronto residents.

McGuinty indicated this week he would take no immediate action to reverse years of provincial downloading that have badly hurt Toronto. A comprehensive report is being prepared on provincial-municipal relations and it seems nothing will be done until it arrives in February.

The premier also noted that his Liberal government has given substantial new money to Toronto, ranging from a share of the gasoline tax to strong support for capital projects.

However, Queen's Park has also imposed costs on Toronto and other Ontario municipalities that properly should be paid by the province. With Toronto facing a $575 million budget shortfall, and cuts looming in services ranging from the TTC to libraries, the city cannot afford to wait six months in the vague hope of some relief from Queen's Park.