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Weekend Newsstand: October 17, 2015
Who's gonna watch some batball today? Some Joey Bats-ball? It's going to be great! (Unless it's awful like it was last night.) In the news, first, though: the new city manager is not opposed to taxes, the TTC is considering suing Bombardier over late streetcars, and polling stations are meeting job actions in more than 350 Toronto public schools on Monday.
City manager Peter Wallace, who took the job in May, announced recently that cuts to costs and services alone would probably not be enough to pay for the city’s rising budgetary needs. In giving his first public address to the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Wallace added that “‘Revenue tools’ is not a dirty word,” and that the city needs to think long and hard about what kinds of taxes might make sense in order to fund which city services, and then make that case to the public. “Otherwise it’s way too easy to characterize it just as a tax grab. And it’s not meant to be a tax grab—it’s meant to add real value to our communities,” he said. Toronto is approaching its self-imposed debt ceiling of 15 percent of property tax revenues, and with a multi-billion-dollar repair backlog for Toronto Community Housing, and Mayor John Tory’s proposed TTC expansion, the city’s budget is only going to need more money as the years go on.
The TTC is considering suing Bombardier, makers of the fancy new streetcars you may have ridden on (but maybe not, since there are just 10 on the roads right now when there were supposed to be 67). Production and delivery delays mean there will be only 16 new streetcars operating in the city by the end of 2015; all 204 of the ordered streetcars were supposed to be delivered by 2019, but Bombardier has had delays upon delays. In a release about the latest delay, TTC chair Josh Colle (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence) said the transit commission is considering filing a $50-million claim for the late streetcars or even launching a lawsuit.
As labour disputes continue to roil public schools throughout Ontario, the Toronto District School Board is offering signs to schools that will make clear to visitors any buildup of dirt is due to job action and does not reflect the standard presentation of the schools. On Monday, 354 TDSB schools will act as polling stations for the federal election, and members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents TDSB caretakers, have said they will not assist Elections Canada in preparing polling stations either. CUPE has said it is conducting this work-to-rule job action, which includes not cleaning up to usual standards, in the hopes of putting pressure on TDSB and speeding up negotiations on a collective agreement for workers. However, CUPE said “the health and safety of our students and staff remain a top priority.”