Category: toronto

Let’s Read: Toronto’s Long-Term Financial Direction

For years, the City of Toronto has been deliberately taking in less revenue while expanding infrastructure and services. Forget the “efficiency” bullshit—this has largely been made possible through unsustainable and unreliable funding sources. In this new report, top City bureaucrats warn City Council that they can’t postpone tough decisions any more.

Here’s the full report. It’s like 40 pages. Are you gonna read it? Hell, no! So here’s the gist.

Continue reading Let’s Read: Toronto’s Long-Term Financial Direction

City Council Preview: March 2016

Hello, friends. We’ve crawled out of post-budget recuperation to bring you this guide to the next City Council meeting. On this month’s agenda: SmartTrack, the East Gardiner, bees, tennis, ca$h for gold, Black Lives Matter, and more.

Read more at Torontoist…

Torontoist Explains: City Council Revenue Tools

This post first appeared on Torontoist.com in February 2016. It is very out of date and is republished here for historical purposes.

Featured photo by edk7 from the Torontoist Flickr pool.

I won’t call them revenue tools. I think that’s a misnomer. We have to have more taxes or fees to offset the cost of government.
—John Campbell (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre)

John Campbell is right. A “revenue tool” is just any way the City can bring in more money. Using “revenue tool” may circumvent that knee-jerk response people get when you say “taxes”. The difference is that John Campbell thinks taxes and fees are inherently a bad thing, and others don’t. Welcome to the plight of the Toronto Revenue Tools Debate.

Continue reading Torontoist Explains: City Council Revenue Tools

City Council Preview: February 2016

Friends, we can all agree that the municipal budget is the most exciting part of the year. But don’t get distracted—there’s a regular City Council meeting this month, too. On the agenda: Uber, fireworks, Toronto Hydro, subways, animal control, and even some good old-fashioned Rob Ford drama.

Let’s check it out, and understand the agenda better than those 15 councillors who never raise their hand in class.

Read more at Torontoist…