[unimaginative2]

Umm...all over the country?

 

[ahrvojic]

Hah, I mean a fairly significant portion of those federal and provincial tax dollars comes from the GTA anyway, does it not? This smacks of the common Toronto subsidization myth.

 

[unimaginative2]

Yeah, about 10% of tax revenue comes from the City of Toronto. 90% comes from outside the city. 100% of the benefit of the Queens Quay project goes to Toronto. I'd say Toronto is getting a reasonable deal.

 

[afransen TO]

You can't look at such things in a vacuum. For the most part, it's Toronto paying for Confederation bridges and Calgary paying for rural internet access subsidies.

 

[EnviroTO]

The numbers have shown time and time again that Toronto pays more in taxes then it receives back in services, infrastructure, and federal jobs as compared to other parts of the country. The GTA is by far the most populated region in Canada and as such by far contributes greater tax dollars to the operation of the country. At the same time the Federal Goverment purposely avoids locating significant Federal offices in the city in favour of government offices in Sudbury ON or Summerside PEI. I hardly see how spending $1 million in the center of the largest city in the country is something we should be so grateful for. Spending $1 million in a city of population 2.5 million works out to 40 cents per Toronto citizen. Similar to the federal government spending $328,000 on a project in Ottawa ON or $42,000 in St.John's NF. Nobody would make a big fuss about $42,000 spent in St.John's but making a fuss about $1 million in Toronto is the exact same amount per capita.

 

[unimaginative2]

So at what point are Torontonians supposed to start to be grateful? At the billion being spent on the first phase of the waterfront? This is just silliness. Every dealing with other levels of government shouldn't be a time to whine about how hard done by we are. We do pretty well. Of course, some things are unreasonable and need to be changed, but every region has its own problems in its dealings with upper levels of government.

 

[SD2]

So at what point are Torontonians supposed to start to be grateful? At the billion being spent on the first phase of the waterfront? This is just silliness. Every dealing with other levels of government shouldn't be a time to whine about how hard done by we are. We do pretty well. Of course, some things are unreasonable and need to be changed, but every region has its own problems in its dealings with upper levels of government.

And the money most of those regions get to fix their problems comes from the "have" provinces like Toronto.

$1 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions that the city contributes annually to the country.

You're basically arguing that we should be greatful that we only have to give $8 999 000 000 as opposed to $9 000 000 000.

I'm all for the redistribution of money to poorer areas of the country, but it's kind of silly to make it seem like they've done us a huge favour.

 

[unimaginative2]

I said a billion, not a million. That's the federal funding just for the first phase of the waterfront. Then there's their third for the subway, and their third for all the cultural insitution expansions. Go ask somebody in Regina, Kitchener, Windsor, or Edmonton whether they get that kind of federal support.

 

[SD2]

I said a billion, not a million. That's the federal funding just for the first phase of the waterfront. Then there's their third for the subway, and their third for all the cultural insitution expansions. Go ask somebody in Regina, Kitchener, Windsor, or Edmonton whether they get that kind of federal support.

Sorry I misread.

But the point remains; despite all that spending going to Toronto, we still pay for billions more in services for other parts of the country than we get back.

Secondly, Regina, Kitchener, Windsor or Edmonton are nowhere near the size of Toronto.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Has Edmonton ever gotten $300 million from the feds for a local project?

 

[BuildTO]

So at what point are Torontonians supposed to start to be grateful? At the billion being spent on the first phase of the waterfront?

There's a big difference between a billion promised and a billion spent. Is it actually being spent this time?

 

[afransen TO]

IIRC, the feds only contributed $500 million to TWRC.

 

[unimaginative2]

Scarberiankhatru's point is exactly right. I'm talking proportionally here. Waterloo Region is about a fifth the size of Toronto. I haven't seen $200 million dollars in federal funding for a single project in any of the time I lived there.

The province committed another $500 million to the waterfront. Both are higher levels of government.

I hate getting into this because I'm as big a Toronto booster as anyone. I support every dollar that's getting spent on improving Canada's largest city. I'd like to see a lot more money being spent. I just don't think it's reasonable for Toronto to complain it's hard done by, especially by the federal government.

 

[SD2]

Scarberiankhatru's point is exactly right. I'm talking proportionally here. Waterloo Region is about a fifth the size of Toronto. I haven't seen $200 million dollars in federal funding for a single project in any of the time I lived there.

Have their been any projects of the size and scope of Toronto's waterfront revitalization in the Waterloo Region?

What about their contribution to the country? I'm not too familiar with the Waterloo region's economic contributions, but would you say it's proportionally equal to the billions Toronto pours into provincial and federal coffiers each year?

I see those $500 million investments by the Federal and Provincial governments as 30 year's worth of committments rolled into one...that's basically how long the waterfront (or at least a major portion of it) has been wasting away.

The way I look at it...Toronto contributes billions each year to the country and province that go to less fortunate areas...in the grand scheme of things, what's a billion of that back for something we need?

I hate getting into this because I'm as big a Toronto booster as anyone. I support every dollar that's getting spent on improving Canada's largest city. I'd like to see a lot more money being spent. I just don't think it's reasonable for Toronto to complain it's hard done by, especially by the federal government.

I should also add...even if Waterloo has a project that's in need of a $200 million committment from the federal and provincial governments, but have yet to receive anything, does that mean Toronto should not be allowed to receive any funding for projects until other cities have been taken care of?

Just because every city has not received the money it deserves, it doesn't make it wrong when Toronto does receive it, especially considering that so much 'Toronto money' goes towards helping other parts of the country at the expense of it's own infrastructure and other needs.

 

[unimaginative2]

Waterloo Region is one of fastest-growing communities in Canada, with major economic contributions from companies like Research in Motion. It is certainly a net contributor per capita on par with Toronto.

Just because every city has not received the money it deserves, it doesn't make it wrong when Toronto does receive it, especially considering that so much 'Toronto money' goes towards helping other parts of the country at the expense of it's own infrastructure and other needs.

As I said in the passage you quoted, I am completely supportive of Toronto receiving money for projects like the waterfront. I'm just saying that Toronto shouldn't behave as if it is getting so ignored by higher levels of government, particularly the federal government.