‘City Services’ Archives
Toronto Parking and Black List Numbers
Image via Wikipedia The City of Toronto’s collection rate is one of the highest in Canada, approximately 15% of all parking tickets are not collected for a variety of reasons. Over 60 percent of all parking tickets issued in the City of Toronto are issued to vehicles registered in the “905” area. Each day, it is estimated that more [...]
HST – What is taxable now that wasn’t before?
Just a reminder that HST deadline is fast approaching. It is definitely not a joyful occasion since we would all have to pay more taxes. At least you have an opportunity to make some savings before the deadline, which is July 1, 2010. For that, you will need to examine the table to come up with your shopping list. The extra taxes should help pay [...]
Toronto’s Future
Over the next decade we will likely see some major changes in our city and that is evident by the available stats. The graph below shows the age characteristic of the population of Toronto. You notice there is a major spike in the number of people who are between 45-50. These are the baby boomer's who are fast approaching retirement. The [...]
Eco-Friendly Taxes on Packaging
Toronto council has approved a program to permit closure of garbage chutes in the selected Toronto residential buildings starting May 1 with the goal of improving the recycling rates. The success of the program will be evaluated a year from now. Some parents may have also hear about eco-school program by Toronto District School Board where [...]
Toronto City Capital Plan for IT
City of Toronto Recommended 10 YR Capital Budget for Information Technology According to the plan, "The 2010 Recommended Capital Budget is funded from debt in the amount of $13.698 million..." 81% of the budget or $38M will go towards replacement of equipment and majority of this equipment likely has a life-span of 3 years, this usually [...]
Canada Taxes Up Fraser Institute
Image via Wikipedia The Fraser Institute Canadian Consumer Tax Index indicates 41.7% of average family's income is now going towards taxes. In 1981, the figure was 40.8% and 1961 it was 33.5%, the latter was the first compiled figure by Fraser Institute. Has anyone noticed an improvement in services that are offered in return? Related [...]
Toronto Transit Budget Gap
Image by Allan Rostron via Flickr The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates 3rd busiest transit system in North America. Ridership 280M per year Annual Operating budget 1.4B Employees 11,861 This would make the cost per ride about $5. If you compared this against New York Public Transportation [...]
311
Toronto city has invested $35M in state of the art call center to handle approx. 7,000 calls per day or 2,500,000 calls per year. Majority of these calls are expected to be about pot holes, business hours, graffiti cleanup or garbage removal requests. It is a step in the right direction. Lets hope the city will keep the costs low and [...]
Are we spending our tax dollars wisely?
"...Brentwood Library Renovation/Expansion project required an increase of $1.739 million ($1.739 million debt) to reflect rising construction costs estimates." "TORONTO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Ontario's government said on Thursday it will run a record budget deficit of C$24.7 billion ..." What do you think, are we spending our tax dollars [...]
