Showing posts with label Petty Bureaucrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Petty Bureaucrats. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Reality Check...

Print copies of Christie's article and place on the fridge, beside every tv in the house, all the computers and the outside doors and get a life.

‘Stay warm’ and other silly advice for the urban helpless

Christie Blatchford: I am buggered if I’m going to look for instruction on how to fold a sweater or name a child, and I don’t need a bureaucrat to tell me it’s cold outside

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Don't Hold Your Breath Peter...

...Comrade Miller left but his outreach cadre at Silly hall are still in place and until you fre them "street pests" will carry on their nonsense.

Peter Worthington

Get rid of T.O.’s street pests

Now that David Miller is no longer mayor of Toronto, maybe there’s a chance for common sense to assert itself at City Hall.

Friday, June 10, 2011

How Many Truly Needy People On Waiting List...

...but TCHC have 2000 vacant units and 66% of it's houses empty because they are inhabitable. Some shake your head facts...

* 77,000 on waiting list
* $8M accumulated rent arrears
* housing stock need millions in repairs

Opinion

Levy: TCHC must stop the hoarding
 
Sell 900 homes: Outgoing TCHC head

It’s smart to sell TCHC homes


Former city councillor Case Ootes is a sensible guy.

 Full story

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Safety And Health Of Residents Is Mandatory...

...everything else is discretionary funding and you can apply the McDonald/Saramouche principal.

Politicos, Artsy/Fartsy, Social In-Activists, Culture, Etc. Etc.

Levy: Refusing to cut Toronto's budget

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Probably Not...

...unless the city beauracry is given the $$$ to form an artsy/fartsy committee, to hire consultants, etc. Simplicity and common sense is not a hallmark of city administration.

Art bike inspires councillor, but will he save it from the scrapheap?


Is the neon orange, abandoned bike on Dundas St. W. public art or an eyesore?

Friday, March 11, 2011

Wise Move By Mayor...

Chris Selley on TCHC: Outrage comes too easily to Ford’s critics


Comment

In the least shocking news of the week, Case Ootes was officially “revealed” on Thursday as the interim managing director of Toronto Community Housing — a one-man board of directors, essentially, to replace the seven members who resigned last week in the wake of the Auditor-General’s scathing report, and the four holdouts fired by city council on Wednesday. The long-time city councillor, who retired last year only to wind up as Rob Ford’s Mr. Fix-It — he also headed up the Mayor’s transition team — isn’t taking what you’d call a conciliatory line, exactly. But compared to some of the Mayor’s pronouncements, he sounds downright Solomonic.

The big question: Will CEO Keiko Nakamura be fired? Mr. Ford’s preference is clear: He already asked for her resignation, and was rebuffed. Mr. Ootes, however, says he hasn’t made up his mind.

“I have to have a full understanding of what exactly the issues are surrounding the CEO, and I can’t do that at this point,” he says. “I will get a better feeling for that once I meet with staff and meet with her” — a process he hopes will begin Monday.

His power to terminate employees will, he says, “be used as necessary and very judiciously and with a great deal of thought.”

In a statement, TCHC said “we look forward to working together with the city-appointed managing director to implement all of the recommendations made by the Auditor General and to serve tenants.”

As for the widespread assumption that Mr. Ford intends to dramatically alter the landscape of social housing in Toronto, Mr. Ootes urges calm. “We need to leverage the moneys we have to the maximum extent possible to provide [social] housing to the greatest number possible. And that might require different [service delivery] options,” he says. But, he insists, “there shouldn’t be any worry about my feelings as to the need for social housing and the need for the city to support social housing.”

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday echoes that view. He says the much-discussed idea of “privatization” is something of a misnomer (though it must be said that Mr. Ford hardly eschews its use). “[Privatization in] its true form would be you’d sell off all the buildings, or you’d sell off the water system, and someone else would forever run that as their business and you’d take the money and go the opposite way,” he says. “That’s not what people are thinking here. We’re talking about perhaps outsourcing the property management. … If anything, we’d be attempting to have more resources available to make [tenants’] lives better.”

Some will cheer, others will scoff. That’s how it works nowadays in this ideologically riven town. Ultimately, the only way for Mr. Ford, Mr. Ootes and their allies to prove their intention not to “disrupt anybody’s life,” as Mr. Holyday puts it, is not to disrupt people’s lives. Whatever your political stripes, you might as well let them get on with it.

That’s what made the late night Kabuki city council meeting on Wednesday so bizarre.

At times, you’d have thought they were debating selling off every last TCHC building for pennies on the dollar, when in fact the outcome of the meeting was relatively banal, necessary and preordained: The board holdouts were going to be turfed. It could have happened Tuesday morning if progressive councillors had wanted it to, and we’d now be 36 hours closer to having a new board. (Council has until June 14 to install it.)

Indeed, much of the drama could have been avoided entirely if the four remaining board members — councillors Maria Augimeri and Raymond Cho, and two members elected by the tenants — had tendered their resignations like the others. They can all run again. The only thing they’ve really accomplished for their admittedly principled stand is to diminish their chances of winning.

That’s not to say they should have had to resign, or that they did anything wrong, or that Mr. Ford couldn’t have expressed his displeasure with the board and senior staff more tactfully. But the Mayor always had the votes to clear out the board.

The shouting, the grandstanding, the fist-pounding outrage, the catcalls from anti-Ford tenants in the gallery were all well and good. Democracy in action. Process is important, and this process was flawed. But people whose rhetorical volume dials bottom out at eight always have trouble being heard in times of genuine crisis.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Let's Not Forget Under Whose Watch This Occured...

...Comrade Miller and his Clown Council.....

...and a few of these porkers are still on council; Vaughan, Mihevic, Perks, Layton, McConnell, etc.

Toronto housing CEO shamed by rampant misspending


The CEO of Toronto's public housing agency said she was outraged by an auditor's report revealing thousands of dollars in misspent public money.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Cut Red Tape? What Are You.....

...some sort of labor hating right wing ding dong. If red tape is cut the size of government will shrink and the beauracrats and unions will not allow erosion of their power base.


Gerald Chipeur: Top ten targets for the red tape commission


On January 13, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Rob Moore, the Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, would chair a commission to cut red tape and reduce the regulatory burden on businesses.

Minister Moore is a lawyer and well suited to separate the wheat from the chaff. This exercise is necessary because all bureaucrats are slaves to the precautionary principle, which suggests that if a precaution can be taken, it should be taken. The problem is that they don’t take the overall cost to society into consideration.
For the past 25 years, my legal practice has focussed on helping businesses navigate the oppressive regulatory regime created by Canadian governments. There are three levels of bureaucracy in this country and each one produces its own set of red tape.

Here are my top ten recommendations for the Moore Commission:

Statutes and Regulations should not have everlasting life. All new statutes should have 10-year sundown clauses and all new regulations should have five-year sundown clauses, requiring the government to justify any red tape on a periodic basis;

Health Canada should be limited to international and inter-provincial matters. All regulation of retail business in a province should left exclusively to local authorities, as most of what Health Canada does falls under provincial jurisdiction;

Agriculture Canada should be shut down, as there is nothing Agriculture Canada delivers that cannot be delivered at the local level;

CRTC should be merged with Industry Canada. Technology has made this commission of little public benefit — shut it down and leave any necessary functions with Industry Canada;

Canadian Wheat Board should be dismantled. The modern world of international trade makes this agency irrelevant. It should be a crime to jail farmers for selling their own grain;

Canada Border Services Agency should be refocused. Canada should not duplicate the American paranoia about terrorists crossing our mutual border. Instead, we should unilaterally open our side of the border and reallocate border guards to the coastline;

Canada Revenue Agency should no longer regulate charities. The CRA has an inherent conflict of interest and has burdened charities with regulations that effectively deprive them of funds that are intended to help those in need. The Canadian International Development Agency should be given responsibility for charities;

Fisheries and Oceans forces maritime businesses to file confidential proprietary data and intellectual property and then destroys such businesses by distributing this proprietary information to their competitors. All government departments should be absolutely prohibited from distributing any private data without consent;

Parks Canada superintendents seem to resent any human activity in our national parks. All regulation of development in such parks should be left to local communities and not duplicated at the federal level; and

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority should be dismantled and the tax dollars redirected to real police work, as top security experts at Harvard University and in government agree that airport screening is of no value whatsoever.

The foregoing recommendation will, if implemented, do more for small business than all the billions in tax dollars expended to stimulate the economy over the last two years.

Gerald Chipeur, Q.C., is a Partner with Miller Thomson LLP in Calgary, Alberta.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Walking The Tall....

...give us details!


Ford won't be bullied on budget

By JOE WARMINGTON, Toronto Sun

Sometime today citizens will have a better idea of just who is really at the helm of this city.

Managers jobs at stake: Ford

By DON PEAT, City Hall Bureau

Mayor Rob Ford came out swinging Monday at those taxpayer-funded city agencies and boards that didn't cut their budgets as requested

Ford, Blair all smiles after meeting

By DON PEAT, City Hall Bureau

Mayor Rob Ford and Police Chief Bill Blair were all smiles as they came out of their first face-to-face meeting Monday.

Butchering sacred cows: Levy


By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun
It’s that time of year again. The moaning, whining and handwringing has begun in earnest by those city agencies who had a free budget ride under the David Miller regime.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Reality Of Comrade Miller's Legacy...

Mayor Miller: Leaving behind a mixed legacy


Sat Nov 27 2010

David Miller's policy achievements are many but his legacy includes a fundamental disconnect with city voters. (24)


Sunday, September 26, 2010

Toronto Should Be That Lucky...

A New Mafia: Crime families ruling Toronto, Italy alleges


Anti-Mafia prosecutors in Italy probing an international crime network say they've uncovered the new face of the Mafia in Toronto, alleging there are seven dominant mob families in the city

...if this was the case we would be making a profit,  not be at the brink of bankruptcy, and we wouldn't have a bunch of amateurs at Toronto Silly Hall under Godfather Miller nickel and diming us to death.

THE SILLY HALL MOB...

Good Place To Start...

Ford's agenda: A reality check

By JONATHAN JENKINS, Toronto Sun

With Rob Ford, Job One is cutting wasteful spending.

Rob Ford's tax hike: Granatstein


By ROB GRANATSTEIN, Toronto Sun

Rob Ford will raise taxes. He’s firm on it.

...does he have any choice? When you are in debt you increase income or reduce expenses...do you see civil service wages being cut or even frozen?

Rob Ford's $1,000 donation: Levy


By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun

When the Toronto Star tried to make hay of the idea there’s a link between my $1,000 donation from Ford and the columns I’ve written, I couldn’t help but think, gawd I go awfully cheap.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Hopefully Voters Won't Develope Short Term Memory Loss...


Bussin on hot seat at debate over pub deal


By CHRIS DOUCETTE, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: September 23, 2010 8:57pm

 Incumbent Councillor Sandra Bussin wasn’t able to Tuggs at any heartstrings at a candidates debate in the Beach Thursday night and she immediately found herself on the hot seat over the city’s controversial Boardwalk Cafe deal.

The sparks were flying inside St. John’s Norway Church — 470 Woodbine Ave., just north of Kingston Rd. — moments after the debate began when the first question put to the seven candidates on hand focused on the beach-front restaurant.

“The way (the city) did it was not right,” said Keith Begley, the first candidate to throw a match under the hot seat Bussin found herself perched on.

He alleged the city has lost money by signing the 20-year lease to Tuggs Inc, — which gives owner George Foulidis the exclusive rights he’s had since 1986 to sell food and beverages at the Boardwalk Cafe, Kew Beach, neighbouring Balmy Beach and D.D Summerville pool — without putting it out for tender.

Concillor Rob Ford, who appears poised to become the city’s next mayor, added fuel to the fire recently when he slammed the deal.

Bussin was quick to defend herself at the debate by pointing out Ford had no problems voting in favour of a similar 15-year sole-source lease in the western beaches.

Bruce Baker, who is also Vying for Bussin’s job, said it was the process that was “flawed.”

And he defended Foulidis saying the business owner wasn’t part of that process and all he did was secure the best deal he could for a family-run company.

A thundering applause filled the church each time a candidate slammed the deal and Bussin, who originally proposed entering into sole source negotiations with Tuggs.

The cheers were especially loud for Mary-Margaret McMahon, an obvious crowd favourite to win Beaches-East York when Torontonians go to the polls Oct. 25.

“The bottom Line, it should have gone out to tender,” McMahon said of the deal.

chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Artsy-fartsy deal stinks to high heaven

Joe Warmington

Just what the east end needs: A hippie-style commune for poor, starving artists.
And paid for by you!
Perhaps, no matter who is elected by the voters Oct. 25, we can also let the future tenants, and those leftist councillors who slammed this disgrace through, decide who the next mayor is, too?
Why not? They just do whatever they want anyway. All other rational thinking disappeared a long time ago.
“There is a dearth of housing in this area for artists,” Councillor Pam McConnell said in somehow trying to justify this disgrace.
What there is a dearth of is common sense on city council.
But what there is an abundance of is communists, socialists and blatant waste-a-holics.
The stench of this deal hits one’s nostrils from miles away because every part of the purchase of the circa 1899 Harris House heritage home at 450 Pape Ave. to create subsidized rental work and living spaces for artists stinks to high heaven.
Despite staff originally not recommending it, and saying there was no money for it, council in a suspect-move decided to go ahead and borrow from another department’s budget about $2.2-million — $1.9-million of which is to purchase the Salvation Army property, once known as Bethany Home for pregnant teenagers, at the corner of Pape and Riverdale and an additional $275,000 for closing costs.
They are making it up as they go — at your expense.
It looks like a sweet deal for so-called artists who don’t seem to want to survive on the market economy like the rest of us have to. Others who want to live in this neighbourhood have to come up with $600,000.
This feels like a heist. Somebody call Chief Bill Blair.
“People borrow money all the time,” says Councillor Paula Fletcher. “It’s an opportunity to do something very positive.”
Positive for whom? For artists perhaps. Not for taxpayers.
“Maybe the city can give it to me,” jokes single mother Donna George, who lives in below standard Toronto Community Housing with her five children. “I am not an artist, but I would like to live there.”
“Artists can get a part-time job to make ends meet,” said neighbour Greg Gherini. “Make it a place for single mothers because they have it tougher.”
Front-running mayoral candidate Rob Ford said he will open up, and rip up, deals like this when he becomes mayor.
“There are 70,000 people waiting to just get into (housing) and now we’re setting up special housing for these people?” Ford told the Sun’s Don “Pistol” Peat. “We can’t afford it.”
Just what is going on here?
“I don’t think they know,” said an angry Councillor Doug Holyday. “I don’t think there is any proper plan for that property.”
I talked to Fletcher last night who admitted, “it could end up as seniors housing or something else.”
You know we are hard on Fletch but I can tell she really believes she is doing the right thing.
“I am sick and tired of the west end getting all of the housing for artists,” she explained.
“Joe, it’s a very low paying job and they struggle. Don’t worry this is going to work out. Next year we will have a social housing provider to partner with and we will get the money back. Next year, we will go there and I will show you. You and me.”
I am already looking for my bandana, paint brush and peace sign.
The alleged redneck and the former commie. It’s a date.
joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca

Your Comments

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Shame, Bloody Shame...

 
CH: JUST IN CASE his raid on the Department of Veterans Affairs wasn’t effective enough, retired colonel Pat Stogran has plans to revisit the site. That’s Pentagon-speak for more bombing runs. The country’s first-ever veterans’ombudsman has.. MORE...

Why is Harper at war with our Veterans ?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Dig Deep Enough And You Will Find...

...that it is an unelected bureaucrat/uncivil servant who make decisions about what you and I can/can't do but you should still hold your elected stooge to account. 

Kevin Libin: Bureaucratic ‘bullies’ foil annual libertarian retreat

A sign sits on the dock of the Jaworski family’s Orono home yesterday. The family, who have hosted an annual libertarian summit for the past decade, were charged last month with using their land for reasons unapproved by the government.
Liberty lovers meet their match as a freedom-minded family faces up to $50,000 in fines for using their property for reasons unapproved by government

About Me

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I lean to the right but I still have a heart and if I have a mission it is to respond to attacks on people not available to protect themselves and to point out the hypocrisy of the left at every opportunity.MY MAJOR GOAL IS HIGHLIGHT THE HYPOCRISY AND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFTISTS ON TORONTO CITY COUNCIL. Last word: In the final analysis this blog is a relief valve for my rants/raves.

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