Toronto Property Taxes

Further proof that Toronto ratepayers, relatively speaking, have been living in property tax heaven for a decade and a half, dating back to amalgamation:

Since 1998, city councillors have increased the property tax rate an average of 1.7 per cent a year — less than half the increases that were levied in neighbouring Mississauga and other GTA cities.

In the past decade, the average annual hike in Pickering came in at 4 per cent. It’s been 3.8 per cent in Mississauga, 3.4 per cent in Oakville and 3.2 per cent in Richmond Hill and Ottawa. Toronto? Just 1.8 per cent.

The tax impact has been higher on homeowners than business, but even here, in comparison with other GTA municipalities, Toronto is below, on average — a full percentage point below Mississauga.

The numbers portray a counter-narrative to claims by some politicians and ratepayers that Torontonians are overburdened by their property tax bill.

“Despite what they might say on talk radio, Toronto has a good, responsible fiscal record,” the city’s CFO, Rob Rossini, said in an interview.

Rossini has worked in Halton Region, Hamilton, Mississauga and in provincial ministries, so he’s seen the landscape. His staff compiled the numbers from a number of municipal sources.

They show that since 1998, Toronto council has frozen the annual property tax rate four times; in eight of those 15 years, the increase came in under 2 per cent. Most times, the hike has been under the rate of inflation.

The 15 years of budget tightening and tax pressure has left the city with little room to manoeuvre even as the need for service improvements or repairs continues to build.

City manager Joe Pennachetti warned council last month that the day of reckoning is near. It was an unusual moment of candor from a man who’s presided over much of the belt-tightening — as chief financial officer under mayors Mel Lastman and David Miller and top bureaucrat under Miller and Rob Ford.

Rossini says Pennachetti is spot-on.

“What keeps me awake at nights is: How are we going to fund the $5 billion (in infrastructure shortfall) that’s not in the budget?” he says. The city’s housing stock is $2.6 billion in arrears; the TTC needs about $2.5 billion that’s not yet found.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but inflationary increases just will not do it,” Rossini said.

Penanchetti says history shows Toronto will find partners to address capital needs; it’s the ongoing operating budget that has him worried. “We’ve had hundreds of millions of dollars of efficiencies and budget savings over a decade. We’re capped out,” Pennachetti said.

Ever since amalgamation, the city’s budget-making has been a torturous adventure of nip-and-tuck spending.

Municipalities depend greatly on property taxes to fund the many services they provide. Property taxes are stable, but inelastic. While provincial and federal revenues skyrocket in good economic times, they fall during recessions. Cities, meanwhile, trundle along all the time because property assessments don’t see-saw.

Toronto, unlike most Ontario cities, has big-ticket items — 90 per cent of the GTA’s social housing and 75 per cent of the province’s; plus Ontario’s only subway system; and highways like the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway (only Hamilton also has a highway). The property tax base is stretched to cover them. That might suggest the need for huge hikes. But the city also has a huge commercial base, and this has insulated homeowners from huge increases over the years.

In fact, Toronto’s commercial properties used to be taxed at more than four times the rate of residential properties — a fool’s paradise that turned sour when commercial business started leaving Toronto for the ‘905’ region.

In 2006 the city started shifting the tax burden disproportionately onto residential properties, to fix the imbalance. For every 1 per cent hike levied against homeowners, commercial properties experience a hike of only one-third of 1 per cent.

This has made Toronto attractive again for commercial investment, but it has implications for how much money the city gets. City councillors know they must tax residents three times as heavily as businesses, but it is residents who vote, so the councillors measure the rate hike by how it affects the homeowner.

In keeping residential taxes below inflation, the net effect is often an overall tax increase of less than 2 per cent — not nearly enough for a big, complex city with unique services.

There is another piece that affects the property tax bill: education taxes, levied by the province. That’s fodder for another day.
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25% jump in Toronto city staff complaints: Ombud

TORONTO - Members of Toronto’s civil service need to brush up on their people skills based on the complaints the city’s ombudsman received last year.

And Mayor Rob Ford warned if they don’t, they’ll be getting “pink slips.”

Ombudsman Fiona Crean revealed Wednesday that she saw an increase in complaints about municipal services last year and a jump in cases of “poor communication” by city staff.

In her annual report, Crean said her office dealt with 1,827 complaints last year — a 28% increase from 2012. Around 70% of those complaints involved “poor communication” by city workers — up from 55% in 2012 and 40% in 2011.

“It’s a whole range — it is not returning phone calls, it’s rudeness, it is problems that need fixing in a timely fashion such as basement flooding where no responses are occurring or little to no explanation is provided,” Crean said in a press conference at City Hall. “It is the notion that somehow it is the resident’s problem and not the public servant.”

The ombudsman’s office spent $12,000 on the annual report.

Ford — who campaigned on bringing “customer service excellence” to City Hall — said he supports the civil service but they are still far from perfect.

“They have to be responsive to the taxpayers,” he said. “I believe that they don’t understand who the boss is, the boss are the taxpayers.

“I think people are going to get pink slips if they don’t start responding to the taxpayers when they call,” he added.

Crean stressed she’s not talking about the whole public service but called the increase in complaints involving poor communications unacceptable.

“I think (management) has to enforce performance standards,” she said.

“Remember that the areas I look at are where things fail as opposed to where public servants are being successful.”

She stopped short of saying customer service was getting worse at the city.

“It has gotten worse from my perspective but that is a defined number of complainants,” Crean said.

“I think that the conclusion you can draw is that on the whole, the public service is under a great deal of stress, is delivering service well and there are exceptions and one area of real concern is the rise of poor and inadequate communications.”

Councillor David Shiner — the chairman of the city’s government management committee — said “customer service is waning” due to the high number of staff vacancies.

“We still have over 2,500 vacant positions that are funded,” Shiner said. “Now there is an effort back on by the city manager to hire up those vacant positions to provide better customer service.”

The Ombudsman’s annual report goes to city council next week.
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Toronto City Council getting 1.2% pay hike this year

TORONTO - City council will get a 1.2% pay raise this year.

The Toronto Sun confirmed Wednesday that councillors will get a $1,250 bump in 2014, raising their annual salary to $105,397 each.

Councillors approved the increase with no debate as part of the 2014 budget that included a 2.23% tax hike.

Because the increase is based on the 2013 consumer price index average, a final number wasn’t set until recently but the budget included a plan for a 1.5% increase.

Councillors received a 1.5% increase in 2013, a 3% increase in 2012 and agreed to a pay freeze in 2011.

Mayor Rob Ford also gets an automatic raise although he is refusing to accept it.

The mayor’s salary is getting a $2,104 bump up to a total of $177,499.

Ford promised back in December to donate his pay hike back to the city.

“I think we get paid enough. You shouldn’t be doing the job for the money, you should be doing the job to help people,” he said at the time.

A copy of Ford’s donor declaration form signed this week confirmed he returned his 2014 pay hike.
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Rob Ford wants Toronto mayoral rivals to declare themselves now

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford insisted he doesn’t care who works for John Tory’s possible mayoral campaign, he just wants all his rivals in “the ring.”

Ford shrugged off news Wednesday that Nick Kouvalis, his 2010 campaign mastermind, was ready to work for Tory if the radio host jumps into the 2014 election.

A fired-up Ford encouraged everyone to throw their hat in the ring now.

While Ford has already registered to run in the October election, he’s still waiting for heavy hitters like Tory, NDP MP Olivia Chow and TTC chair Karen Stintz to get into the race. Both Tory and Chow have yet to confirm they will run for mayor.

Former city councillor David Soknacki has joined the mayoral battle.

“Bring him on,” Ford said Wednesday when asked if he’s afraid of Tory.

“Let’s stop talking about it, let’s get into the ring. I want Chow, I want Tory, I want whoever,” he added.

Despite being dogged for months by a crack cocaine scandal and an ongoing Toronto Police investigation into him and his office, Ford argued his record speaks for itself.

“I’m out serving constituents, I’m saving taxpayers’ money, I’ll put my record up against anyone,” he said.

A source told the Toronto Sun that Kouvalis will be working for Tory as part of a “big tent of Liberals and Tories.” The source said Kouvalis now believes Ford won’t be able to get anything done at council “because he has no plan, no goodwill and therefore no votes to actually get things done.”

Reached for comment on Wednesday, Kouvalis would only confirm that he believes Tory — who lost the 2003 mayor’s race to David Miller — can win the 2014 election.

“John Tory can win this election because he is fiscally conservative, can get support for his plans and get the votes through council,” Kouvalis said.

The mayor, meanwhile, wouldn’t say who is working on his campaign but added, “We have a great campaign.”

The Ford brothers filmed the next segment of Ford Nation on Wednesday. It is expected to be released on YouTube on Monday.
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Madonna opens her fitness club Hard Candy in Toronto

TORONTO - Madonna REALLY got into the groove in Toronto on Tuesday night.

The 55-year-old pop star turned up in high heels, fishnet stockings — with a bandaged left ankle visible, a black corsetted suit and a push-up bra to attend the grand opening of the downtown outlet of her fitness club chain, Hard Candy, which opened for workouts last October.

She was sexily dressed to impress but the fitness-inclined singer was also scheduled to help lead a master class with about 50 or so members from the club, named after her 2008 album of the same name, both locally and from around the world who had to “audition” to be part of the event.

The Material Girl was joined by the Hard Candy Fitness performance team including her personal trainer Nicole Winhoffer, 29, of New York City, who developed her signature Addicted to Sweat routine that she does with Madonna.

“It is intimidating, it is easy peasy, it is everything, so if you could think of every descriptive word it is all that in a bubble,” Winhoffer said of working out with Madge six times a week in two-hour sessions for the last five years.

“I have to inspire her, keep her mind engaged. She’s done every single workout ever known to man so I’m constantly creating new things. ...Her body’s amazing, and she still has the most even body tone, her shape is amazing, her waist, her arms, it’s incredible. She’s made it part of her life. She’s just so consistent that it never changes.”

Winhoffer, a trained professional dancer, met Madonna when she was on the Sticky and Sweet Tour in 2008-09, and performed with her again on the 2012 MDNA trek.

There was a red carpet at the Toronto fitness club at 382 Yonge St. — the only Hard Candy in North America and the biggest in the three-year-old chain at 42,000 square feet — with reporters and camera people huddled around the reception area awaiting Madonna’s arrival, which was about 85 minutes after the scheduled time.

“I asked her (why open in Toronto first in North America), and she said, ‘I love Toronto. It’s so culturally diverse,’ ” said Winhoffer. “Everytime she tours here the audience is just amazing. She loves how involved they are with the arts, writing, music and dance.”

Hard Candy Fitness has also recently opened clubs in Berlin and Rome, joining existing locations in Sydney, Santiago, Mexico City, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Material Girl has been in the news lately for her role at the Grammys in late January where she took part in the live mass wedding of same-sex, mixed-race couples, wearing a grill on her teeth, carrying a cane (after hurting her ankle over the holidays in Switzerland) and singing her 1986 hit Open Your Heart alongside Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with Mary Lambert singing Same Love.

She also appeared on Miley Cyrus MTV Unplugged in late January singing a clunky mashup of Don’t Tell Me/We Can’t Stop alongside the 21-year-old, whose North American Bangerz tour launches Friday in Vancouver.
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Mayor Rob Ford requests Pride flag taken down at Toronto city hall

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford’s office demanded Tuesday that the city take down the Pride flag flying at City Hall.

Ford confirmed that he still objects to the rainbow flag that was raised last week to show solidarity with Russian gay rights advocates during the Olympics.

“The bottom line is, again, this is about the Olympics, this is about supporting our athletes,” Ford said Tuesday. “The number of calls I’m getting is overwhelming - they want the Canadian flag there.”

A heckler called Ford a “homophobe” during the press conference and he threatened to walk away before answering one more question.

“I have done everything I can to get the Canadian flag back up where it should be to represent all Canadians whether they are gay or straight - to me it is irrelevant,” he said.

The Pride flag replaced a City of Toronto flag that normally flies on the city’s courtesy flag pole when a specific flag, requested by non-profit or charitable organizations, is not up on the flagpole.

City officials provided an e-mail sent by the mayor’s chief of staff, Dan Jacobs, moments after Ford spoke with reporters asking city manager Joe Pennachetti to remove the flag.

“This note is on behalf of the Mayor. He is requesting that the Rainbow flag be removed from the protocol flagpole, and be replaced with the Canadian Flag, in order to show support for all Canadian athletes,” Jacobs wrote.

Pennachetti responded that the request to raise the Pride flag complied with the city’s rules around the use of the courtesy flag pole and will stay up.

“As you are aware, our large Canadian flag already flies on the main flagpole on Nathan Phillips Square, and at all civic centres,” Pennachetti added.

On Friday, Ford raged against the city putting up the Pride flag during the Olympics and placed a Canadian flag in his office window.

Irene Miller, of Toronto Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), called Ford’s flag flap “a waste of time and energy.”

“It’s a flag, it is a symbol of hope to a lot of people,” Miller said. “He had no problem with it going up on (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia Day) in the past, I’m not sure why he would object to it going up now.

“We’re showing solidarity with families like ours, like mine, in Russia.”

Miller - who met with Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly on Tuesday - wouldn’t speculate on whether Ford was homophobic but pointed to reports that in his infamous crack-smoking video he uses a homophobic slur.

“To my knowledge we are still waiting for an apology for that,” she said.

Kelly said he supports keeping the Pride flag up.

“I think that the flag should stay and I would suggest to you that that is the will of council as well,” he said.
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Man shot dead in vehicle in Etobicoke

TORONTO - After “Samantha” heard gunshots, she poked her head outside her Etobicoke home to see a car idling with someone slouched over in the driver’s seat and another vehicle speeding away.

Samantha, who did not use her real name out of fear for her family’s safety, was one of a handful of residents in the Brown’s Line-Evans Ave. area who were on edge Monday after a 27-year-old man was shot and killed around 10:20 Sunday night.

Police arrived on Hargrove Lane to find the victim behind the wheel of a car.

“I saw the driver’s side window was broken and the person was hunched over,” Samantha, 36, said, adding that when she stepped outside for a closer look, she could hear the victim’s car running.

“It’s scary, especially if you have family,” said Samantha, who insisted her neighbourhood is safe.

Toronto Police Const. Wendy Drummond said that upon arrival, investigators found a man “suffering from obvious gunshot wounds.” She said police were withholding the victim’s identity until his family was notified.

A longtime area resident who lives steps from where the killing took place said he heard as many as six shots.

He also wasn’t surprised by what happened considering the lack of lighting at the location.

“I’ve lived here for 13 years, and I’ll tell you, if I wanted to commit a crime this is where I’d do it,” said the resident, who wouldn’t give his name. “There needs to be a street lamp here.”

He said that while working the late shift, he would sometimes come home to find unfamiliar vehicles parked in the darkness. Sometimes, he said, the smell of marijuana would be in the air.

Resident Annie Menecola, 42, said the car the man was found in looked unfamiliar.

“I don’t like this at all,” Menecola said, adding that she saw the victim’s car on the west side of Hargrove Lane, facing south.

Police suspect the killer fled in a silver, two-door car.
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Toronto's Union Station name historic in its own right

TORONTO - Every so often a Sunday Sun reader will ask if I ever run out of ideas for a column.

The answer is a simple “no, never” and that’s because this city has such a fascinating past. And I don’t necessarily mean the “distant” past.

Take for instance what has taken place over the last few weeks. First there was the idea of modifying the name of our historic Union Station.

Then an idea that would change the rules for the use of our “historic” TTC transfers.

And finally, a quick trip into my childhood past thanks to a gift I received from my wife this past Christmas. Run out of ideas? Never. Read on.

No, this isn’t a photo of the construction presently underway at the site of the city’s historic railway station on Front St. but, rather it’s a photograph taken in the spring of 1917 to record the progress in building the city’s new Union Station.

Upset that work on building the new railway station on Front St. was taking too long and that costs were spiraling out of control, the CPR went ahead and built its own station on Yonge St. It opened in June, 1916 and went on to serve the railways for a mere 14 years before it was turned into a beer store.

A few years ago it was beautifully repurposed as a LCBO store. With Sir John A. Macdonald’s well-known fondness for a drink (or two or three) combined with his eagerness in ensuring Canada had a transcontinental railway built and operated by his friends behind the CPR (aka the “Pacific Scandal”), perhaps this station should be christened with his name.

Seriously, no need to name our present Union Station after the nation’s first prime minister. The name Union Station is historic in itself having been used to identify two previous Union Stations. The first opened near the southwest corner of Front and Bay in 1858 and the second 26 years later south of Front and opposite the foot of today’s University Ave.

Railway historian Derek Boles reminds me that today’s Union Station is truly “union” (defined as “the act of uniting two or more things”) with GO Transit, VIA RAIL, Amtrak and soon Union Pearson Express using its historic facilities.

Transfer Talk. The common, everyday TTC transfer has a lengthy and interesting history. Will the Commission change the long-standing terms of its use or introduce for the first time a system-wide stopover grace period of 90 or 120 minutes? Note on this transfer issued by the Toronto Railway Company, the TTC’s predecessor, back in 1893 that no grace period was provided.

When I was a kid, every Canadian child had a favourite hockey player.

The puck in this photo was a Christmas gift from my wife Yarmila. It’s signed by my “hero” Toronto Maple Leaf player Tod Sloan who scored the two goals prior to Bill Barilko’s famous overtime goal against Montreal that resulted in Leafs winning the 1951 Stanley Cup.

Tod now lives in Jackson’s Point. On the subject of hockey, it was on this very day exactly 87 years ago that Connie Smythe, J.P. Bickell and other prominent Toronto businessmen concluded an agreement to purchase the city’s St. Pats professional hockey team, founding members of the 10-year-old National Hockey League.

The main reason Smythe was able to convince the local business people in assisting him with the $200,000 deal was that if they didn’t, the franchise would probably end up in either Montreal or Philadelphia. If that happened, their home town would no longer be represented in the lucrative NHL. As soon as the deal was concluded, Smythe renamed the team the Toronto Maple Leafs and in doing so honoured the emblem that he wore on his uniform during the Great War.

Then on February 17, 1927, the team played its first game under its new title. The Leafs won defeating the New York Americans 4-1. Unfortunately, Smythe’s boys finished that first season out of the playoffs. Nevertheless, it was the start of a wonderful tradition — not finishing out of the playoffs mind you, but offering diehard fans years of often spectacular hockey.
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wants Pride flag taken down

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford went into the weekend demanding the Pride flag be taken down at Toronto City Hall.

Ford ignited the flag flap less than an hour after the city — like many other cities across Canada — raised the rainbow flag to show solidarity with gay rights advocates in Russia during the Olympics.

Despite outrage from councillors and rights advocates, Ford vowed to keep fighting to have the Pride flag taken down.

“It’s not up to council,” Ford said as he left his office Friday night.

Just moments after the Pride flag was raised as the Winter Olympics began, Ford burst out in front of reporters to show off the Canadian flag he’d placed in the mayor’s office window.

He also promised to have the Pride flag removed from the city’s ceremonial flag pole that is used to fly different flags for different causes at the request of community groups.

“This is not about someone’s sexual preference,” Ford said. “No, I do not agree with putting up the rainbow flag. We should put our Canadian flag up. I put my Canadian flag up in the window.”

Ford said he’s called city manager Joe Pennachetti and asked him to remove the flag. City officials said they have yet to receive that request.

“It’s the Olympics — this is about being patriotic to your country,” Ford said.

He dismissed a question about whether he supported the gay community or not as “irrelevant to the point.”

Ford’s flag outrage comes just a few days after he admitted he will continue to skip Toronto’s Pride parade despite the fact the city is hosting World Pride this year.

City officials granted a request from the 519 Community Centre to fly the flag for the next two weeks. An e-mail from Pennachetti to councillors confirmed the city’s policy requirements were met to replace the Toronto flag with the rainbow flag as requested until Feb. 23 — the final day of the Sochi Games.

Most councillors were outraged at Ford’s deman and vowed to fight for the Pride flag to go back up if the mayor got his way and had it removed.

Councillor John Parker supported the fact that the Pride flag was flying at this time,

“I’m sorry that Rob Ford has decided to align himself with Vladimir Putin,” Parker said.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam — who was in Nathan Phillips Square to watch the flag being raised earlier in the day — said Ford was “by himself in a room” on the issue.

“There are mayors across the (country) who have proudly raised the rainbow flag from coast to coast ... to demonstrate support for a community that is being persecuted,” Wong-Tam said. “It doesn’t take anything away from Canada, in many ways it dovetails into the Canadian values that we already know which is standing up for human rights.”

It was clear Ford was “letting it all hang loose” and is demonstrating that he is “homophobic” and “bigoted,” she said.

Deputy mayor Norm Kelly said displaying the Pride flag on the city’s courtesy flag pole doesn’t take away from the Canadian flag — which flies on its own flag pole in Nathan Phillips Square.

“There is nothing un-Canadian about that,” Kelly said about the Pride flag.

But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said the city has made a mess of the whole issue and argued they should be focused on cheering on Canadian athletes.

“The Olympics are about sport and they shouldn’t be about politics,” Minnan-Wong said. “This is just ... another fine mess that we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
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Airdate set for Ford brothers' YouTube show

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford’s YouTube show isn’t online until next week but one of his mayoral rivals is already giving it the thumbs down.

The mayor’s office released a trailer for “Ford Nation” on Thursday with a promise that the first episode of the Internet show will be posted Monday.

It is the first time the Ford brothers have had a talk show in any format since their Newstalk 1010 radio show was cancelled in the wake of the mayor’s crack cocaine scandal and after a one-episode run of their “Ford Nation” TV show on Sun News Network.

In the trailer posted Thursday afternoon, Mayor Ford and Councillor Doug Ford can be seen teasing each other and singing their praises with a Ford Nation backdrop.

Mayor Ford is shown asking viewers to judge him by the job he’s done at City Hall.

“Please judge me on my record not my personal life,” he said.


The YouTube series is meant to “connect with a broader audience,” the mayor’s office said in a press release.

“The Ford Nation Series, produced by volunteers, will cover a wide range of topics, from politics to sports and community,” the mayor’s office stated. “Mayor Ford and Councillor Ford encourage everyone to subscribe to their new (YouTube) channel and hear from them, directly and unfiltered.”

Other Ford Nation videos were visible online Thursday with titles like “Rob Ford comes clean” and “Another hard ball question” but those videos were not able to be viewed by the general public.

Supriya Dwivedi, David Soknacki’s campaign spokesman, took a dim view of the coming show.

“It’s clear that the mayor thinks he’s going to be able to win this election by being Rob Ford: The celebrity,” Dwivedi said Thursday. “It’s rather unfortunate for him, however, that the people of Toronto are looking for a leader to deal with the actual issues this city is facing, such as transit and jobs, and not just for someone who will make the rounds on the late night TV talk shows.”

Asked about the mayor’s office issuing a press release about the YouTube show, Dwivedi said it wasn’t surprising Ford was “using taxpayer resources to put out what is blatantly campaign material.

“The mayor has played fast and loose with the rules in the past, and this is no different,” she said. “For someone who constantly claims to respect the taxpayer, the mayor has an awfully odd way of showing it.”

His own YouTube series isn’t the only air time the mayor is getting this week.

A new music video from the band Korn for the song, “Spike in My Veins,” features lots of news footage of Ford along with clips of U.S. politicians like U.S. President Barack Obama and celebrities including Miley Cyrus and Kanye West.
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