2 weeks Ago
, Oct. 29 The rationale Premier Doug Ford provided for gifting $200 per person is that as taxpayers he should return some of the money we paid out in taxes. As taxpayers should it not be our expectation that those funds be used where most needed? To send out cheques to many of us who aren’t in need of the funds is not an efficient use of our tax dollars.
As a volunteer at our local food bank, I see firsthand one of many examples where our dollars could be channelled for the greater good. It’s not likely Ford will do an about face in this case as it is fuel for his re-election. Given that, I encourage those who don’t need the money to forward a cheque to a cause of your choice.
Premier Doug Ford calls his $3 billion pre-election giveaway a “rebate” of taxpayers’ money. No, Ontario is running hefty deficits every year and Ford doesn’t have a spare nickel for rebates. Ontario’s accumulated debt exceeds $400 billion and keeps growing.
The only way Ford can come up with another quick $3 billion is by more borrowing. And the unpleasant truth is that borrowed money always has to be repaid with interest. Who pays it? Us, the taxpayers.
But Ford plans to be re-elected before we figure it out. Thanks for nothing but more debt. , Oct.
24 What a generous gift made by Bruce McKean to a facility in need of this kind of support — as does the whole, inadequate system of mental health supports. I don’t like to be the skunk at the garden party but when I go into a hospital where every elevator wall, every poster, every flat-screen TV is begging me for dollars, I want to ask, yell, why is health care paid for increasingly by those amongst us who have lots of disposable income? It seems every door, every piece of furniture and equipment has someone’s name on it. In a fancy press conference a year or so ago, the Minister of Health (our MPP here in Dufferin Caledon), to much applause, announced that the MOH would fund operating costs of an MRI.
The rest of it, the machine itself, is up to the deep pockets in the riding. This is not universal health care. It’s social policy by plutocracy.
For years now, we have watched this government siphon off public dollars into private pockets. Why are we not in the streets protesting this? Why does Ontario have the second lowest per capita funding of health care in the entire country? Premier Ford, quit squandering our money. You can keep this household’s $400 — your latest attempt to bribe us with our own funds.
And please return the licence fee for our mostly-polluting cars. , Oct. 28 On a number of occasions, I have taken the GO train from Burlington to Toronto.
This trip takes around an hour and the train’s top speed is 144 km/h. In comparison, the average bullet train from Japan travels at 320 km/h. If I could take a bullet train to Toronto instead, I could reduce the length of my trip by more than half.
If bullet trains are successfully implemented, commute times will be significantly reduced. This in turn will improve people’s lives, strengthen the city, and allow for future growth. People all around the world are currently reaping the rewards of bullet trains.
Why shouldn’t we? , Oct. 26. An affordable and supportive housing program can’t be financed with property taxes.
The causes of the present housing crisis date back to the 1990s when the Michael Harris provincial government closed halfway houses, ended the co-op program and downloaded provincial social housing to cities without giving them the ability to tax incomes or consumption to finance them. Whatever the historic reasons for the crazy relationship between municipalities and provinces, Canada will never achieve its potential until its cities and towns have the revenue and authority to properly serve the needs of their communities. The rent “situation” is not just about price.
Try being a single mom with three or more children. Landlords have huge restrictions. Applications for a three-bedroom townhouse often state, “not suitable for children” and our government has no supports or resources to address unhealthy living situations such as black mould making children sick.
Our government needs to examine housing issues more extensively, especially for those most vulnerable. One of the quickest ways to relieve Toronto’s gridlock is to provide free parking lots at the Go and TTC stations from the edges of the city to the midpoint in the suburbs. Parking is expensive.
For an added incentive, make the TTC trip free too. , Oct. 13 By removing bike lanes, the provincial government is only putting more people in cars, creating more traffic and a higher demand for gasoline.
The provincial government should really be making bike lanes more separate, creating physical barriers to keep cyclists safe from cars, and out of their way. Drivers find cyclists can be a nuisance when they have to share the road, but every driver knows how bad traffic already is in southern Ontario. Creating more of it is the last thing anyone wants.
I love riding my bike and I wish that I could more, but actions like this make it difficult and force people like me who don’t enjoy driving to get in their car and get stuck in traffic. Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, should be called “The Killing for Convenience Act.” Simply put, Premier Doug Ford, without consulting the municipalities that make up the Association of Ontario of Municipalities, has made an uninformed and counterproductive decree that increases the chance of killing, maiming and carnage of cyclists and pedestrians on downtown city streets.
By removing bike lanes and increasing driving speeds for the convenience of the suburban driver he will ensure that Toronto’s “Vision Zero” for cycling and pedestrian safety is completely blindfolded — we will literally be the roadkill of his bill — collateral damage in the “war against cars.” It’s clear that in this war, cyclists, public transit users, and pedestrians in downtown Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and other cities have lost. Yes, indeed we will be paying for Ford’s convenience — the tested, documented and proven need to cut two or three minutes out of a of 30 commute in a private vehicle driven more than 80 per cent of the time by a single individual — with our lives.
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