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JSF-1 said:
I think this also further drives the point home that Toronto as a single-tier city with only 1 council just doesn't work. However this amalgmation horse has been thoroughly beaten into the ground I see no end in site. Its no wonder why some of the worlds most successful cities tend to be two-tiered or atleast have some sort of regional authority above to handle the big things. The job of a City Councillor is to focus on the local level issues, the problem is that Toronto City Council is expected to perform the jobs of both a lower and upper tier municipality. This would be fine if the City was a single entity from the start, but it's not. The City isn't single tier by nature, but by law and while we can think we are one unified city, the truth is we are still 6 at our core, each with its own culture, and expecting a single Council to be able to handle this is stupid. The obvious solution would be to go back to the former Metro system and let local Councillors deal with the local stuff, while the Metro Councillors deal with the bigger regional stuff like you see in many major cities around the world; however we know the Liberals after 10+ years wouldn't do it, we know the Conservatives certainty won't because they believe they can do no wrong so nothing will change.
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If Toronto's system of governance were applied to a similarly sized province, say Alberta, MPPs would be in charge of running the province, while also worrying about the placement of park benches in any random neighbourhood park.
 
leopetr said:
The city council passed a hotel tax and a DVP toll that the province then stepped in and blocked.
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I realize this is semantics, but technically that authority has never been granted to Toronto so the province did not block it, they said "no" to the request for the authority to do so. They did, however, give Toronto $170M/year which is roughly equal to the revenue the proposed toll was expected to generate. Other municipalities combined received $130M/year based on a ridership formula.

Kid asks to borrow the car and the parent says no, but buys them and their siblings a taxi ride to the desired destination instead.
 
rbt said:
I realize this is semantics, but technically that authority has never been granted to Toronto so the province did not block it, they said "no" to the request for the authority to do so. They did, however, give Toronto $170M/year which is roughly equal to the revenue the proposed toll was expected to generate. Other municipalities combined received $130M/year based on a ridership formula.

Kid asks to borrow the car and the parent says no, but buys them and their siblings a taxi ride to the desired destination instead.
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Somebody told me that Toronto did get the authority to impose tolls. Didn't hear anything about hotels though. I think they can use alcohol/tobacco taxes, movie taxes, vehicle registration, billboard taxes, and a couple of other things which I forget.
 
White Pine said:
Somebody told me that Toronto did get the authority to impose tolls.
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That's incorrect. It was speculated that Toronto should be allowed to toll the roadway they owned, but that isn't something they can actually do.

Didn't hear anything about hotels though.
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Toronto implemented a mandatory 4% hotel tax on April 1st 2018. Prior to that it was a volunteer tax paid by most major hotels as it funded regional marketing that they benefit from.
 
JSF-1 said:
I think this also further drives the point home that Toronto as a single-tier city with only 1 council just doesn't work. However this amalgmation horse has been thoroughly beaten into the ground I see no end in site. Its no wonder why some of the worlds most successful cities tend to be two-tiered or atleast have some sort of regional authority above to handle the big things. The job of a City Councillor is to focus on the local level issues, the problem is that Toronto City Council is expected to perform the jobs of both a lower and upper tier municipality. This would be fine if the City was a single entity from the start, but it's not. The City isn't single tier by nature, but by law and while we can think we are one unified city, the truth is we are still 6 at our core, each with its own culture, and expecting a single Council to be able to handle this is stupid. The obvious solution would be to go back to the former Metro system and let local Councillors deal with the local stuff, while the Metro Councillors deal with the bigger regional stuff like you see in many major cities around the world; however we know the Liberals after 10+ years wouldn't do it, we know the Conservatives certainty won't because they believe they can do no wrong so nothing will change.
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It is time Toronto severs itself from Ontario and become its own province. This way, Toronto can control its own destiny.

Ontario can have a new capital.
 
W. K. Lis said:
New York City has the authority, and does, to impose a sales tax and an income tax. Toronto has to beg the province.
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Every city and state we have gone to had hotel fees added to our bill for the city and state.
 
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So remember a while ago when I was concerned about flooding between the rails if there was going to be grass planted here? This is what it looked like a few days ago after the rain.
 
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