This city deal looks like a win-win
Given how cash-strapped Toronto is these days, we need to find creative partnerships with the private sector when it comes to improving our city.
Yesterday, Mayor David Miller and Astral Media Inc. CEO Ian Greenberg rolled out the start of a $1 billion, 20-year project providing Toronto with 26,000 pieces of so-called "street furniture."
That means things such as park benches, bus shelters, newspaper boxes (arrgh), waste receptacles, bike locks, information billboards, even public toilets.
It's a good deal for the city and taxpayers, assuming it works as advertised.
Under the contract, Toronto gets a guaranteed $428 million from Astral over the next two decades, more if revenues the company brings in by selling ad space on the bus shelters and billboards is strong.
In return for the right to sell ads, Astral will also pay the $250 million capital cost to manufacture these items, plus spend another $250 million maintaining them over the next 20 years.
As a result, property taxpayers won't have to foot the bill for these items -- save for a small fee for using the self-cleaning toilets.
If it all sounds too good to be true, let's hope it isn't.
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