News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 8.9K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.1K     0 

MTown said:
Imagine the Ford political mantra goes from Subways. Subways. Subways. (Folks) to Greece. Greece. Greece. (Folks)
Click to expand...

Ironically, injudicious capital heavy transit expansion where ridership couldn't hope to recoup the operating cost (nevermind capital costs) nor having the potential to support reasonable densification) is precisely one way to dig oneself further into the hole.

AoD
 
Last edited:
animatronic said:
So, not to disrupt the lovely dissertation on sub-sovereign debt, but here's some interesting stuff that's Ford related:

He's on record for saying he's made lots of charitable donations, including $50k for parks, his entire Councillor salary etc.. But his name doesn't show anywhere on United Way or other honour rolls. So poked around a bit.

He said he'd donate $50k to Toronto Parks in July 2013. There is a charitable foundation for this called www.torontoparksandtrees.ca. In 2013 they didn't report any donations, but in 2014 they reported $50k from another charity and $410,275 in tax-receiptable donations. In 2015 the foundation recorded $143k in receiptable donations.

So the $50k looks like it could be from Doug, but that means he donated through a difference charity and it took at least 6 months to get to the parks. On the second count the $410,275 is roughly similar to his salary but all backloaded to his final year (once he announced a run for mayor).

Probably worth poking around a bit to see what's going on.
Click to expand...

In the four years he was councillor, Doug never did anything remotely charitable without crowing about it in front of the cameras. If he had given away that much money, you can be sure it would've at the very least involved a giant novelty cheque.
 
Roy's Square said:
In the four years he was councillor, Doug never did anything remotely charitable without crowing about it in front of the cameras. If he had given away that much money, you can be sure it would've at the very least involved a giant novelty cheque.
Click to expand...

Or sprinkling the greens in a photo-op. On another note - I have noticed he want to cancel the foreign buyer tax - guess he is going for the ethno, specifically Chinese vote with this one.

AoD
 
Last edited:
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Or sprinkling the greens in a photo-op. On another note - I have noticed he want to cancel the foreign buyer tax - guess he is going for the ethno, specifically Chinese vote with this one.

AoD
Click to expand...

Brilliant idea. The foreign buyer tax is bad for business, not to mention discriminatory. It should be scrapped.
 
Regarding the debt to GDP question, what sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is that we’re a federal state. As Ontario taxpayers, we’re responsible for our share (however defined) of the federal debt, as well as our provincial debt. As of 2016, federal debt was approx 31% of Canadian GDP and Ontario debt was around 38% of Ontario GDP. Tricky Ontario accounting moves aside, the combined 69% isn’t that bad by international standards. Worse than Australia’s 41% but certainly better than a lot of countries, including the US. Of course, one could argue that running a deficit to fund current spending, in an economy that’s not in recession, isn’t a great idea. And it’s likely that interest rates will continue to rise over the next three or four years, which is of concern for a province that has been rolling around $30 billion of debt a year (refinancing maturing issues plus financing the deficit plus new bonds issued to fund capital spending, which isn’t counted as part of the deficit). Presumably this jumps to something like $40 billion a year now. As a boomer, I can sleep well at night with this set of numbers, but the math isn’t great for millennials if we’ve permanently embedded a deficit of 1% of GDP in good times, rising to 3% to 5% of GDP in recessions.
 
pman said:
Regarding the debt to GDP question, what sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is that we’re a federal state. As Ontario taxpayers, we’re responsible for our share (however defined) of the federal debt, as well as our provincial debt. As of 2016, federal debt was approx 31% of Canadian GDP and Ontario debt was around 38% of Ontario GDP. Tricky Ontario accounting moves aside, the combined 69% isn’t that bad by international standards. Worse than Australia’s 41% but certainly better than a lot of countries, including the US. Of course, one could argue that running a deficit to fund current spending, in an economy that’s not in recession, isn’t a great idea. And it’s likely that interest rates will continue to rise over the next three or four years, which is of concern for a province that has been rolling around $30 billion of debt a year (refinancing maturing issues plus financing the deficit plus new bonds issued to fund capital spending, which isn’t counted as part of the deficit). Presumably this jumps to something like $40 billion a year now. As a boomer, I can sleep well at night with this set of numbers, but the math isn’t great for millennials if we’ve permanently embedded a deficit of 1% of GDP in good times, rising to 3% to 5% of GDP in recessions.
Click to expand...

I agree. Debt for debt's sake is a stupid MO.

I could continue slowly growing my own personal debt and getting by, no problem. I'm however smart enough to realise that I'm wasting money servicing said debt and it's actually detrimental to future spending so I'm paying it down. Occasionally, when necessary, I have to add to it or not pay it down as quickly as planned so I can pay for things that are needed. I want my government to act the same way. Part of it is my money, after all.
 
tiffer24 said:
Hahaha.

Ford’s platform would lower hospital wait times, drastically cut hydro rates, reduce the size and cost of government — but he promises all that will be done through almost $6 billion of to-be-identified “efficiencies,” not job losses.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...-costs-size-of-government-but-no-layoffs.html
Click to expand...

Hmm...this all sounds so familiar...I just can't put my finger on it...

‘I will assure you that services will not be cut, guaranteed’
 
LMVDR said:
Brilliant idea. The foreign buyer tax is bad for business, not to mention discriminatory. It should be scrapped.
Click to expand...
"Bad for business?" What kind of business exactly?
Housing affordability?

And "discriminatory"? You betcha. Like a lot of laws. Does a residency requirement before you're allowed to vote sound "discriminatory"? How about age to buy alcohol? How about being covered by OHIP?

Here's a hint if you want to impress people, LMVDR: Come up with something original instead of reading from a cue sheet. Otherwise, you're just hilarious. Or is that what you're intending?
 
tiffer24 said:
Hahaha.

Ford’s platform would lower hospital wait times, drastically cut hydro rates, reduce the size and cost of government — but he promises all that will be done through almost $6 billion of to-be-identified “efficiencies,” not job losses.

https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...-costs-size-of-government-but-no-layoffs.html
Click to expand...

I found an efficiency! I'm going to stop paying taxes to help shrink the size of government. That's what uncle Dougie would want, isn't it?
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top