Showing posts with label letters to the editor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label letters to the editor. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The High Price Of Populism


In this age of economic deprivation for so many, it is understandable that people seek relief wherever they can find it. Some do without, some shop at discount stores, some take second jobs. Unfortunately, some embrace whomever seems to be offering a helping hand. 

Here in Ontario, that 'helping' hand comes from populist politicians, most notably our own Will Loman ("Be well-liked and you will never want"), Doug Ford. Like the salesman he was through his Deco Labels business, which he still owns, Ford has never lost his appetite for public approval. And that propensity is leading all of us down a very dark economic road.

The province's latest budget, unveiled the other day, projects a tripling of the deficit to $9.8 billion, piling on top of the current debt of almost $400 billion. The government argues that it necessary to keep spending in these economically challenging times and making life more affordable for people.

And therein lies the rub. While the deficit and debt continue to grow, our populist premier is surrendering huge sources of revenue via an extension of the gas tax reduction, the ongoing elimination of auto plate renewal charges, massive subsidies to keep the price of hydro lower, and having the public pick up the tab for developers' charges, at the same time giving below-inflation increases to vital services like health care, education, etc.

Not everyone is fooled by this fiscal sleight-of-hand. Certainly, Toronto Star readers are not. Here are two of their letters

Perhaps if the Doug Ford government hadn't been so enthusiastic about shredding long-term stable revenue streams it wouldn't be in the deficit position it now finds itself. Since 2018 the province has lost approximately $1 billion a year each from the cancellation of the greenhouse gas cap and trade program, the elimination of vehicle licensing fees and reductions in the provincial gasoline tax. To this has to be added the billions in provincial revenues that are now having to be diverted to municipalities to pay for infrastructure needed to support housing, making up for the development charge revenues that were lost through Bill 23 — the infamous Building More Homes Faster Act. Then there is the ongoing $7 billion annual diversion of revenues to artificially lower hydro rates and hide the actual costs of nuclear refurbishments. In the longer term the costs of financing the government's "get it done" megaprojects, many of which, like the Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and Pickering B nuclear refurbishment, have been previously assessed as uneconomic, unnecessary and destructive, has to be considered as well, in a context of increased interest rates. Beyond the long-term environmental and climate consequences of these choices, different decisions would have left the province far better positioned to make needed investments in areas like education and health care.

Mark S. Winfield, Toronto

Gas tax cut diminished government revenues 

The Ford government could handily have trimmed its deficit in this latest budget by cancelling its gas tax cut. By the government’s own admission, this tax cut has diminished government revenues by $2.1 billion over the past two and a half years. Might not all that money have been more helpful providing affordable housing, supporting public transit, and fixing our overburdened health-care system?

Kenneth Oppel, Toronto

For people like Doug Ford, life and politics are but a shell game, one that fools far too many people far too often. But in the end, we all wind up paying a very steep price.

Friday, February 2, 2024

For A Few Dollars More



That's all it will take (actually, $12 million more) according to Police Chief Myron Demkiw to keep chaos and blood from running in the streets of Toronto. Reeling from the effort of city council to trim $12 million from what some might say is an already bloated ask of $25 million for a total budget of $1.1 billion, the good chief is warning of slower response times and all manner of disaster if his demands are not fully met.  

Clearly, the chief is engaging in fear tactics to get his way, despite the fact that increasing police budgets does not correlate with safer streets:

recent University of Toronto-led study found no consistent relation between police funding and crime rates across 20 Canadian municipalities, including Hamilton and Toronto. Lead author Mélanie Seabrook said the key takeaway for legislators is to give community needs and priorities more consideration when setting budgets.

Brighter minds than I offer some strong suggestions about what the chief and his ilk can do with his demands:

Here we go again with all the ballyhoo about the police budget. What I would like to know is how much of the budget is slated to be paid to suspended officers who are sitting on their butts at home while collecting a full pay cheque? It is long overdue for the mayor to ask the powers to be to provide a complete breakdown of the monies paid out to suspended cops over the years and to ask how many inevitably had to leave the service yet walked away with thousands of unearned money from taxpayers.  The police act is long overdue for an overhaul especially in these trying times when citizens cannot afford the basics of life.

I have said it before: if an officer is on paid leave, put their earnings into an interest generating trust account. He or she gets the money if they return to service, and if not, those funds are redirected to the police force. It is a simple solution to a long-standing problem.

Larry Snow, Oakville, Ont.

There was an interesting contrast of articles from columnist Edward Keenan and Police Chief Myron Demkiw regarding the police budget. What struck me was how the chief says how terrible things are in the service and somehow a loss of $12.6 million is a major threat to our safety. If the biggest city in the country is at risk of chaos due to the lack of $12.6 million it is time for the politicians to demand that a third-party independent forensic team review police service spending from top to bottom to see the truth of the matter. 

Len Bulmer, Aurora, Ont.

 Rather than attempting to intimidate the residents of Toronto by writing of facts without nuance, our police chief Myron Demkiw should be looking for the means to make his force more efficient and effective. I suggest Premier Doug Ford, who can always be counted on to have an interest in city spending, be brought in to rout out the waste in the police budget.

Peter Pinch, Toronto

Myron Demkiw, chief of the Toronto Police Service, is misleading us. He points out there are 1.4 million emergency calls to 911 a year, but does not say the majority of 911 calls do not involve violence and can be dealt with by community and social workers. He says that more officers equal less crime, but years of research has shown that the crime rate does not correlate to police spending in any consistent way.

Toronto is one of the safest cities in North America. The key to crime prevention is through reducing inequality. To reduce response times, we need better management of the 911 service, diversion of nonpolice calls and smarter deployment. But no, our police leadership doesn’t want to follow evidence. If they truly cared about our safety and well-being, they would support investment in stronger community and social supports. That is how we’ll get to a safer and thriving Toronto.

Anna Willats, Toronto

Lest you think this is solely a Toronto problem, my observation over the years is that city councils  traditionally rubber-stamp increases requested by police services board. You can be certain that if this practice changes, you will hear even more fear-mongering from forces across the country.  


Thursday, January 25, 2024

There Are Solutions

In my previous post, I mused about how much better society could be if we had fair and progressive taxation, taxation that forced those who make a lot to pay a little more. It almost seems as if such talk today is heretical, given the anti-tax mania that is cultivated by the far-right.

But you get what you pay or don't pay for, and today that means multitudes of homeless who cannot afford the usurious rents being demanded, families lacking support or waiting for years on a list while their children grow up without the aid they need, overburdened healthcare systems that one strives to avoid except in extreme circumstances, etc., etc. - a dystopian nightmare that seems to only be getting worse.

In today's Star, a reader offers a sound suggestion that would help ameliorate our current crises:

If huge wage 'earners' paid their fair share, it could make a difference 

Sadly, your editorial, truthful as it is, is not breaking news. For more than a decade, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has been telling its readers that the growing salary gap between the top one per cent and the rest of us is becoming more and more massive.

It is hard to believe, even for a cynical observer of world news, that in 2024, so many CEOs have earned more than $60,000 by Jan. 2, 2024 — more than the average worker earns in a year.

We’ve known this almost obscene fact for all these years, so we can’t plead ignorance. How fortunate that we have the CCPA to prod the consciences of our politicians and business leaders. These people with power do have some means to create a slightly less unbalanced society, smoothing that gaping wage gap even a little — by taxing the rich a bit more — most would not even notice the difference if they paid another $10,000 more in taxes each year. And if all of these huge wage “earners” actually paid their fair share, it could make a difference for the rest of us. Even billionaire Warren Buffett is famous for saying that his office staff pay more taxes, proportionally, than he does.

In this "Theatre of the Absurd" scenario, who will take the first step and raise the minimum wage to $25 or $30 per hour? This radical move might assure that the everyday worker, many with no sick days or health benefits, can at least avoid food banks and clothe their families for the winter weather.

Della Golland, Toronto

Clearly, there are at least partial solutions to the problems people confront on a daily basis. Unfortunately, those we elect to represent us are listening to only a small part of their constituency as they strive to perpetuate political careers that serve, not the common good, but only their own selfish interests. 

Monday, January 22, 2024

A Monday Thought Experiment


As a matter of course, I allow myself one hour of television news per evening, 30 minutes local and 30 minutes of either American or Canadian national news. It is a practice I highly recommend, not simply as a means of keeping up with events in this tortured world, but also as a window into the lives of others.

One conclusion I have drawn from this habit is that we can never know the lives of others, especially the burdens they must bear on a daily basis. In this, I am not talking solely about the very public problem of the homeless, but they certainly count. I am also talking about windows into the often fraught lives of people caring for special-needs children,  elderly parents, waiting in the ER, or any number of other exigencies that comprise life. The common denominator is insufficient funding for the support they need.

In my more wistful moments I imagine a regime of fair and progressive taxation, where those who are more than comfortable pay a little more for programs directed toward the public good. At the very least, some of the aforementioned problems would be ameliorated. Yet we live in times where we have little control over how our money is spent, as, truth be told, we are not the ones calling the shots, political theatre notwithstanding.

This post was prompted by two letters in today's Star, which I reproduce below:

Dental program leads to inequity

Canada’s proposal for expanding health care coverage to dental and medical drugs is flawed. The law would have handsomely fed politicians arbitrarily sitting in judgment over who beneath them can afford dental care unassisted and who cannot. Further the plan cuts out any Canadian currently paying private insurance premiums, under the facile presumption that anyone — let’s say, a retiree struggling to support a live-in parent with dementia, and put food on the table under roof that is beginning to leak, heated by a furnace nearing the end of it’s projected life — who has private health insurance can comfortably afford it.

We live under the rule of governments that take their policy orders from corporate economists and boardrooms. We are told that fulsome public health care would be too costly, in the same breath that we are told the inflated prices corporations charge us for essentials must only be combatted by using interest rates to make those essentials too expensive, and that modest homes must be taxed yearly on speculated values.

Canada can afford universal dental, vision, medical care but taxing all wealth equitably. Level the field.

Darcy McLenaghen, Toronto

 

Health care crisis

The conclusion of the authors of this article is that we just need to invest $1.25 billion annually to solve the health-care crisis. Where will the money come from? I would gladly pay a reinstated licence plate renewal fee of $120 per year, as would most people I suspect, if the billion dollars saved by cancelling it would be put toward our health care system. If that will reduce wait times, improve worker incomes and boost staffing levels across the province, I don't see a downside. Politicians are the only thing standing in the way.

Ken Beckim, Oshawa, Ont.


Friday, October 13, 2023

Forgive And Forget? Never

 


There is a saying that, in many cases is a mere platitude: "Time heals all wounds." Often said to the bereaved, it is meant to impart that there are better days ahead; things will get better. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Take, for example the destruction wrought by a former premier of Ontario, Mike Harris. Lionized by some as a politician "who kept his promises," those without cognitive impairment will recall the reign of ugliness he unleashed in Ontario, the effects of which are still felt today. More about that momentarily.

The Star's Robert Benzie recently reported on a new book about the loathsome Harris, a collection of essays by the likes of David Frum, Terrance Corcoran and Jack Minz. When I read the article, I expressed to my wife the ardent hope that the tome finds its home in the remaindered bin very quickly.

Harris seems to have lived a charmed life, presently the chair of Chartwell's, the retirement and long-term care home chain that, amongst others, Premier Doug Ford indemnified against lawsuits related to Covid-19 deaths cause by negligence. Pays to have friends in high places, doesn't it?

In any event, as is frequently the case, Toronto Star readers have long memories and are happy to set the Harris record straight.

In Robert Benzie’s interesting account of a new book of writing about the Mike Harris regime by Mike Harris’s friends, there is no mention of what many feel to be his largest legacy. By persuading Ontarians that cutting taxes, firing nurses and teachers, and downloading provincial responsibilities onto municipalities would make life better for us, he created most of the problems that we face today — including the feeling by many that governments have let them down.

It is tragic that so many lives have been made worse by these policies. It is also tragic that progressive forces have still to find a way to respond to their aftermath.

Julie Beddoes, Toronto

Harris policies still plague Ontario

A long list of policies implemented by the Mike Harris Government are still adversely affecting the people of Ontario.

Let’s start with the more than 4,000 people who died during the pandemic mostly in Harris privatized long-term-care homes. Harris has also profited handsomely on the board of Chartwell, one of these private homes.

Next is the privatization of hwy. 407 now the world’s most expensive toll way. That same year he privatized the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in a long-term lease. In a deal far worse than the 407 where the profit was privatized but the debt, risks and pollution remained public.

After going fishing with Kenneth Lay of Enron, Harris had Enron and a who’s who of private investors design Ontario’s electricity market. It is this electricity market that is still to this day causing rate spikes subsidized to the tune of $7 billion a year.

Hardly a success story as claimed by editor Alister Campbell.

Much of the health-care crisis we have today came from Harris slashing of funding, which caused the loss of more than 10,000 nurses.

The Harris education funding formula is still causing underfunding and a crisis in our public education system.

The Harris legacy is nothing to celebrate and most of his policies and legislation need reversing or the people of Ontario will continue to pay the cost of his many failures.

Paul Kahnert, Markham 

Like the above citizens and many others, I shall never forgive nor forget what Harris did to Ontario, I wish him nothing but ill in his remaining years.



Friday, October 6, 2023

No Friend To The Environment

 


Readers will know that Ontario premier Ford cares little for environmental matters. One remembers his rash act upon assuming power of enthusiastically tearing up 750 green energy contracts, costing Ontario taxpayers over $230 million.

“I’m so proud of that,” Ford said of his decision. “I’m proud that we actually saved the taxpayers $790 million when we cancelled those terrible, terrible, terrible wind turbines that really for the last 15 years have destroyed our energy file.”

Now that the carbon is coming home to roost, one would hope Ford has gained insight into his monumentally stupid act. One would, of course, be wrong in that hope. Indeed, Ontario's reliance on fossil fuels has grown, seeking to meet energy demands that those torn-up contracts could have easily met, and at a much better price.

Take, for example, the gas power plants that are proliferating, originally touted for occasional use during peak-demand periods.

An investigation by the Toronto Star has found, however, that many of the province’s gas plants are operating far more often than their proponents say, effectively transforming them from rarely used peaker plants into baseload power plants that run almost all the time.

As a result, Ontario’s clean electricity is getting far dirtier, producing millions of tonnes of climate-destabilizing carbon emissions and spewing toxic pollutants into the air in some of the most densely populated urban areas in the province.

 “This will make air pollution worse, make climate pollution worse, and negatively affect Ontario’s competitive advantage in having a clean grid,” said Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.

“And on top of that, because fossil gas is so much more expensive than solar, wind and water power, it’s going to increase our electricity bills.”

Like almost everything else this tone-deaf, environmentally-inimical cabal does, the destruction of green-energy projects fits the profile of an administration still stuck in a 1950s mindset, refusing to acknowledge the peril we collectively face.

Here is the view of two Star letter-writers:

A sweet deal for gas companies, not the Earth

Toronto’s Portlands gas plant ran 21 hours a day this summer, Oct. 1 

Have I got this right? As the rest of us are trying desperately to cut back fossil fuel use, the Doug Ford government chooses to run gas plants almost full time in the GTA when cheaper and greener sources of electricity are available. And now the plan is to ramp up pollution and carbon emissions.

Who’s been having massages together to cook up this sweet deal for the gas companies?

Robin Wardlaw, Toronto

Solar power can meet the peak demand

Toronto’s Portlands gas plant ran 21 hours a day this summer, Oct. 1

The Doug Ford government’s policy expanding gas-fired power generation is a far more egregious and expensive missstep than the much criticized move of a planned “peaker plant” by the former Liberal Dalton McGuinty government.

The article reveals that Ford’s current plans for expansion will cost at least an unnecessary three quarters of a billion taxpayer dollars.

Gas-fired power generation is a technology we need to minimize soon if we want to fight climate change, reduce deaths from polluted air, and save the taxpayer’s money that the government is now planning to spend on building power plants that must soon be phased out.

Gas-fired plants were originally introduced to meet themajor peaks from air conditioning demand. This peak coincides with maximum solar power generation, and experts tell us such solar generation can meet the peak demand. It is cheaper, non polluting, aids in tackling climate change, and can be placed close to demand (saving transmission costs and transmission power losses).

The Green Energy Act (scrapped by Ford) encouraged both the business and residential investments needed for growth in electrical demand, and did it without needing massive government spending, no depleting of finite natural gas resources, not polluting the air we breath, or worsening climate change.

I also wonder if the planned builders of the proposed gas generating stations are friends of Doug Ford.

Bill Chadwick, Newmarket

Still not convinced? Well, there is also the matter of the secret 95-year Therme Spa lease at Ontario Place that Mr. Ford has engineered, a contract that will cost taxpayers over $600,000 to build an underground parking lot for its customers. However, the real cost goes beyond the monetary. Building this thing will require the destruction of 1500 trees, but in the minds of the vandals, this is a small price to pay for a "world-class spa." The environment? What environment, they dismissively ask.

It is enough to almost wish that Ford's original vision of a giant ferris wheel, mall and monorail on the waterfront had come to pass.



Saturday, September 30, 2023

Never Letting Go


The uproar over the Greenbelt theft has died down to a seething anger, despite Doug Ford's promise to restore it. There is ongoing anger over the fact that he lied to us, anger over his apology for having made "a mistake," anger that he was willing to overlook the environmental depredation that his theft would have enabled, anger over his clumsy attempt to reward wealthy developers, and anger over the still extant Bill 23, which, among other things, saddles municipalities with the development charges formerly paid by those rich developers.

People know that Ford will do anything he can get away with. He has lost their trust. And, as the following letters attest, they intend on never letting go of the lessons learned about the nature of this government.

Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap: ‘It was a mistake,’ Sept. 21

Now that Premier Doug Ford is on the road to redemption, he should seriously consider completing the journey and resign his position, not only for himself, but for the benefit of his party and also the people of Ontario.

Patricia Steward, East York

Ford made a number of mistakes that require correction

Mistakes are made by honest, well-intentioned people. Ignorant, selfish Premier Doug Ford hasn’t an honest bone in his body.

This government wastes everyone’s energy trying to undo his destructive decisions. Next task: stop the sell-off of Ontario Place and the destruction of our Science Centre.

Douglas Buck, Toronto

Do you believe Ford?

Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap: ‘It was a mistake,’ Sept. 21

Now that Premier Doug Ford is on the road to redemption, he should seriously consider completing the journey and resign his position, not only for himself, but for the benefit of his party and also the people of Ontario.

Patricia Steward, East York

Ford made a number of mistakes that require correction

Mistakes are made by honest, well-intentioned people. Ignorant, selfish Premier Doug Ford hasn’t an honest bone in his body.

This government wastes everyone’s energy trying to undo his destructive decisions. Next task: stop the sell-off of Ontario Place and the destruction of our Science Centre.

Douglas Buck, Toronto

Do you believe Ford?

It was NOT a mistake. It was a gambit.

Premier Doug Ford tried to get the land out for development, hoping to get away with it, thus opening the door for more removals and other donor-developer-friendly activity.

He backed down, as he has done before, because — and only because — there was press coverage, resistance, criticism, and negative polling results.

Ford has had to promise — again — to leave the Greenbelt alone. Kind of like the kid who promises this time, for sure, to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.

Do you believe him?

Keep an eye on Ford. Look around to see what else has been done in the background while this was going on in front of our eyes.

Graeme Elliott, Toronto

Are health-care privatization and highway schemes mistakes too?


There is no mistake about it, Premier Doug Ford’s scheme on the Greenbelt was deliberate not an inadvertent mistake. Just like his scheme to privatize health care and his scheme to still greatly benefit his developer friends by building highways 413 and the Bradford bypass both going through Greenbelt lands and waterways.

Ford would be well advised to reverse himself again and cancel both of these schemes.

Paul Kahnert, Markham

Bill 23 is just a new taxpayer subsidy to development companies

As Doug Ford’s Greenbelt reversal is celebrated, other ‘misguided’ planning policies remain concerns, Sept. 22

The Star rightly lists development charges supported by municipalities as “misguided.”

Development charges for roads, sewers, schools, libraries etc. were paid by developers for growth related infrastructure. Now under Bill 23 there is a $1 billion hole in municipalities’ cash flow according to the Association of Municipalities Ontario.

If municipalities and boards of education cannot pay this extra cost, development is compromised.

Bill 23 is a barrier to orderly land use planning.

Clearly this is a new subsidy paid by taxpayers to development companies.

This shows where Premier Doug Ford’s interest is allowing “folks” to pay for future growth. The development sector has the means to pay for growth related infrastructure.

David Godley, retired land use planner, Mississauga