What Customer Service?

So I wanted to go on the monthly billing plan to pay my municipal taxes. But after completing the forms and mailing in a void check, I'm still on the six times a year system. No problem to switch it, right? Wrong. For the past two days, the one phone number provided to call customer service has had a busy signal: there's no way to leave a message or information about how to do it online. Nice, very nice…..

Is David Miller Getting Nervous?

With an election nine months away, there are signs David Miller is starting to feel the heat. After promising sweeping reform and vowing to get Toronto’s house in order, the city is faced with a huge deficit and a mayor who appears afraid to talk tough with salary-seeking unions or consider the possibility of users fees as an alternative to higher property taxes.How else to explain the public dressing down that Miller delivered to Glen Grunwald when the Toronto Board of Trade CEO provided feedback last week at a public forum about the 2006 budget. Rather than thank Grunwald for his insight, Miller went on the attack. He later explained he wanted to “clarify” some of the proposals made by Grunwald. My sense is Miller’s re-election campaign is nowhere near a slam dunk because there’s a feeling he’s ineffective and the city is no better now than it was with Mel Lastman at the helm.

Island Airport: It’s Alive, It’s Alive

You have to give Robert Deluce credit for his persistance in trying to start an airline from Toronto’s Island Airport. His latest move is an agreement to buy 10 turboprop plans from Bombardier. Clearly, a bigger aiport is not part of Toronto’s waterfront revitalization efforts but guys like Deluce are allowed to create havoc because there’s too many parties at the table (city, province, Ottawa) and the lack of a single entity that can create a cohensive plans and make decisions.

Goodbye, Rochester Ferry

I’m not a fan of the Toronto Port Authority – a federal agency that serves no constructive purpose, mostly because Toronto doesn’t have much of a port these days. So it was with smug satisfaction to read about the demise of the Rochester-Toronto ferry service - something most people knew wasn’t going to work financially. Not now it’s apparently dead, the TPA finds itself with an $8-million depot sitting there like a white elephant at the bottom of Cherry St. If the Liberals had any real conviction and wanted to save their falling fortunes, they would kill the TPA and any chance the Toronto Island Bridge could ever be built. Unfortunately, they won’t do either because they have too many big donors with business interests in both areas.

 

 

 

Public Transportation a Hot Commodity

It is fascinating to see ridership on public transportation on the rise. Whether it’s higher fuel costs or frustration with traffic congestion, more people are deciding to take the better way. The TCC, for example, had 430 million passengers in 2005 – six million more than expected and 12 million more than 2004. The TTC’s record ridership is 463 million before funding started to disappear. Can you imagine what ridership would look like if there was better coordination between the different systems within the GTA? At the very least, ridership would jump if the TTC extended the Shepherd subway line to Scarborough Town Centre.

 

The System Failed Us

Jane Creba’s death is a huge trajedy but perhaps what’s most tragic is the man charged with her killing should never have been on the streets if our legal system did its job properly. Andre Thompson robbed a convenience story in North York last May with an imitation gun but all he got was two 30-day jail terms that were served concurrently. Is that how society is protected by slapping criminals on the wrist? I mean, there are bigger penalties handed out if you drive with an expired auto permit. Truth be told, Canada already has the laws on the books to ban handguns and lock up the bad guys up for a long time but they don’t appear to be applied in the right way. Who can we blame for that?

Let the Green Party Party

This isn’t quite a Toronto issue (although Green Party leader Jim Harris is speaking at the Empire Club on Jan. 12.) but the Green Party has a petition so it can participate in the two remaining televised debates. With 600,000 votes in the last election – and I suspect more in this year’s thrilling campaign – the Green Party is becoming a legitimate choice for many voters across the country. It makes little sense that the fifth-largest political party in Canada is excluded from the debates while a regional party – the Bloc – is included. You can sign the petition here.

The New New Toronto?

In the wake of the terrifying and troubling gunfire on Yonge St. yesterday, how long do you think it’s going to take before the police carry out a massive raid on Toronto’s most notorious gangs? There is so much public pressure now to do something dramatic, the ball’s really in the court of the police. They can act and make a make effort to turn the tide or they can stand on the sidelines.

Drowning in Garbage

I heard PC leader John Tory on the radio this morning talking about the garbage crisis facing Ontario – particularly Toronto – if the U.S. border is closed to our trash. While not the sexiest of issues, Tory makes a lot of good points when he wonders why Ontario doesn’t appear to have a long-term plan in place to deal with our garbage – be it through recycling, composting and disposal. Even though a lot of progress has been in diverting a lot of garbage, there’s a lot more that could be done. A good example is many apartment buildings in Toronto do no recycling or composting at all. That’s unacceptable given home owners are pretty much compelled to diligently sort through our trash to make sure the green and blue boxes are filled. Tory makes a good point when he says that while garbage isn’t a compelling issue now, it will be if our parks become dumps because the U.S. stops us from shipping garbage to Michigan.

More Police on the Streets

Toronto Police chief Bill Blair says the way to deal with crime in “troubled” neighbourhoods is a good old-fashioned police presence. So he intends to put more officers on the street to establish relationships with people in the community. I think it’s a great idea but only part of the solution. It’s fine to have police to deter criminals or wanna-be criminals from doing what they do but what about everyone else, particularly those on the fence. For whatever reason, I can’t understand why no politician has come out and made a commitment to provide solid and sustainable financial support in these neighbourhoods for community and social programs. To really help a troubled community, you need places for people – young and old – to play, social, learn and receive help/counselling. That way you address problems before they start. All I hear about is more police and new guns laws but they attack the symptoms, not the cause.