Well yesterday Ford got his wish, TTC will become essentiial service, cutting office budgets from $54000 down to $30000 and the car tax of $60.00 per car. What effect will this have on the city it all sounds good but it'll come with a cost. One I think they'll lose money on the TTC more then ever when work to rule comes in the drivers won't care if money is deposited into the bin $$ lost. The TTC has only lost 13 days of being on strike in the last 30 years I'd say no to bad at all, now all things not agreed upon will to to arbitration. Office budgets who cares!!!. Now the car tax the city will have to find 65 million in revenues to replace this tax. Out of this the thing I love to hear FORD say is I'm just an ordionary guy a blue collar worker - I sat bullshit!!! he ownsa multi million dollar company in Toronto, New Jersey, abd Chicago. He owns real estae in Florida, a cottage in Muskoka ya just your ordinarry guy - I'd say a BIG white collar worker.
Mayor FORD gets his wish
- Thread starter buckwheat1
- Start date
REmember you get what you pay for. I think the TTC should build the subway right up Yonge street to Richmond. This would relieve people using the 404 to come downtown via car.
so what are you going to say when there are cuts to city services and TTC goes before an arbitrator and they get higher rewards then bargining would of given them.
Does not the premier have to agree ??
If essential then does not increase the governments obligation ?? as it is now essential to the publics good
Premier has to agree he will because it's an election year and he holds a lot of seats in toronto it'll be interesting to see how the city handles it, their contract is up
March 2011, they'll strat in the new year to bargain and they will get a salary increase.
March 2011, they'll strat in the new year to bargain and they will get a salary increase.
Subways are great and sadly their construction has been frozen in Toronto for too long. We are paying the price now with clogged streets and highways. But the Yonge line is already operating at capacity. Extending it to Richmond Hill will not increase capacity.
That's a good point about only 13 strike days in 30 years. But the way Ford will try to make cuts to salaries and benefits (see waste above), not just to TTC, but to all city employees, we are looking at a lot of strikes in the future.
Hehehehe, quite true. Sometimes the anti-Ford and/or leftist crowd gets a little confused when a politician follows up on election promises.
The lost "Car Tax" revenue will be re-couped through cost-cutting measures per other municipal programs. I am not saying that he will cut services, there is no doubt cost saving opportunities via other means such as attrition, elimination of consultants, out-sourcing, etc.
He comes across as a regular schmoe, but he is certainly a rich schmoe. More power to him. His family has a successful business and he has surrounded himself with business oriented people - Good move. The city needs to be run more business like than it has been in the past.
Watching CP24 this am regarding the roads - A lot of issues related to street-cars or buses being delayed or diverted due to weather/road conditions...but all reports stated that the subways were running on time.
What value does the right to strike have to the TTC union members if the Province just orders them back to work two days later? Putting the essential service tag on their work is the 1st step towards bringing sanity back to municipal collective agreements. The TTC is the most mismanaged, inefficient, bureaucratic boondoggle of an organization I have ever witnessed.
Good on Ford and team. 3-0 to start.
Good on Ford and team. 3-0 to start.
That would be a real surprise. The city has been excessively generous in its negotiations.
If anything went to arbitration I am sure that the arbiter will look at the general economic conditions instead of giving, lets say 3% per year over the next 4 years.
One thing about Ford is that he sticks to his principles. No BS:" I'll say what the people wanna hear" so I can get elected. He has been saying the same thing for years: "We must be made accountable to taxpayers". His head is not buried in the municipal money trough, he is not looking for Caesar-like immortality (like Miller) Whatever happens I believe he wants a great city, but not at any cost to the people that live here. So far, so good, now I want to see him address the 5 cent a bag scam. Fuck I hate that, make the stores offer paper bags!
TTC union really didn't want to be classed as an essential service, so making them and essential service is likely a very good move.
Heard the unions were afraid Ford would be elected and supplied full time paid workers to the candidate(s) running against Ford. Classing the TTC as an essential service is just one step. Will be interesting when Ford removes the payment rules that council must follow when contracting out work. There are going to be many upset people who have become accustomed to living large at the public trough
Heard the unions were afraid Ford would be elected and supplied full time paid workers to the candidate(s) running against Ford. Classing the TTC as an essential service is just one step. Will be interesting when Ford removes the payment rules that council must follow when contracting out work. There are going to be many upset people who have become accustomed to living large at the public trough
Well, Doug Holyday was opposed to making the TTC an essential service because he figures that it will cost the city hundreds of millions in the next 10 years.
I tend to agree.
All that will happen now is that the union will refuse to negotiate. They will simply say that they want this and that and that they are not willing to compromise. The whole thing will then go to arbitration by default and in arbitration, they city ALWAYS loses. Even David Miller in the last strike wanted to avoid arbitration because he correctly knew that any settelment would heavily favour the unions.
I don't know if Ford is that dumb that he doesn't get that, or he has some plan up his sleeve.
I believe Emergency Services (Cops, FD, Ambulance) are also an "Essential Service" and they got much more generous raises than the City Workers did last go round. Not only did they keep their sick bank, but even new members are still a part of it - thanks to the Arbitrator.
I guess we'll see how this pans out, but I tend to have more faith in Holyday than Ford.
I tend to agree.
All that will happen now is that the union will refuse to negotiate. They will simply say that they want this and that and that they are not willing to compromise. The whole thing will then go to arbitration by default and in arbitration, they city ALWAYS loses. Even David Miller in the last strike wanted to avoid arbitration because he correctly knew that any settelment would heavily favour the unions.
I don't know if Ford is that dumb that he doesn't get that, or he has some plan up his sleeve.
I believe Emergency Services (Cops, FD, Ambulance) are also an "Essential Service" and they got much more generous raises than the City Workers did last go round. Not only did they keep their sick bank, but even new members are still a part of it - thanks to the Arbitrator.
I guess we'll see how this pans out, but I tend to have more faith in Holyday than Ford.
Cities don't run like businesses. They just don't. And that's not always a bad thing.
I remember about 15 years ago, the City of Etobicoke hired this guy to be their Commissioner of Works (which at the time was one of the most powerful postions in the city). The City of Etobicoke hired this Engineer with an MBA from Dofasco who said "I'm going to run this group like a business" (Seriously.)
His bright idea was that there was to be no overtime for City Employees. Ever.
So when watermains started breaking at night, or better yet on a weekend, his directive was that the reapairs would wait till first thing Monday morning, or the next morning, NO OVERTIME. We're going to run this like a business.
Well, it was all well and good till Etobicoke could not rationalize its water bill with then Metro Works. Seems Mr. Business Man forgot that broken watermains would waste a lot of water (that Metro would send Etobicoke a big bill for) and wreck the road structures. It was far cheaper to pay the city guys to come in in the night and stop the flow as quickly as possible.
Then there was the recent mayor of the City of Ottawa Larry Obrien who figured that he would run Ottawa "like a business" Well, that didn't work out so well either. I think he was charged with corruption and ended up being a 1 term Mayor after it became apparent that he had no freaking idea of what he was doing.
I should have clarified that I would prefer that certain business practices should be adopted in city affairs such as spending controls, accountability, signage/approvals - Basic business controls that protect the assets and minimize risk. Very often auditors will uncover instances where practices/controls were either abused or not even in place, and they represent millions of dollars (all levels of government, not just municipal).
As for OT, well the majority of private firms I have audited/consulted/worked in, OT was a common practice. As a matter of fact one would prefer to have manufacturing personnel at less than 100% capacity and the fluctuations of product demand covered by OT or temp/contract workers. The small amount you pay in OT more than covers the additional payroll, recruitment, re-training costs of additional staff. Your Etobicoke guy lacked the basic premise of seeing the big picture...
However you do have a point in running organizations that have different business strategies, reporting, not-for-profit climates and cultures - But they all have risks and risk management is what will bring the best return for the dollars being used/invested. To me, our current governments do not focus on risk management as well as they should.
In neither case, did they run their cities like a business. At least not a successful one. Corruption and refusing to ever pay overtime are not typical business practices.
