municipal

Friday July 22, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 22, 2022

Ontario planning to bring in ‘strong mayor’ system for Toronto and Ottawa

Toronto Mayor John Tory welcomed the prospect of gaining more authority as the province considers introducing a strong-mayor system, while critics warned that the city has recent evidence of the risk of empowering its top politician.

July 28, 2018

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday the policy shift was being planned for Toronto and Ottawa and it could eventually be expanded to other large cities.

Although specifics about the new powers were still being sorted out, Mr. Ford said the mayors would have veto authority on certain issues that come before council. This could then be overruled by a two-thirds majority of council members.

Under the current system, Toronto’s mayor has only one vote on council but has considerable power to manage issues and lean on councillors for support. Mr. Tory has been able to enact his agenda through two terms without losing any substantive council votes.

Thursday May 23, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 23, 2019

Ford offers school boards and municipalities money to hunt for savings

After hitting municipalities with cutbacks in provincial funding, Premier Doug Ford says his government will now spend $7.35 million to help them find savings.

Toronto Mayor John Tory immediately panned the move, calling it a “$7 million public relations exercise by the government of Ontario.”

“It does us no good getting money for a line-by-line audit that we’re already doing without consideration from the province of the fact that these retroactive, mid-year cuts will seriously hurt residents and families,” Tory said in a statement of the estimated $178 million in funding clawbacks the city faces to public health, daycare and transit.

The mayor said he is “committed to finding more and great efficiencies” — but is urging the Ford government to halt the current cuts.

On Tuesday, Ford — repeating the “four cents on the dollar” mantra he used on the election campaign trail a year ago — said in a lunchtime speech in Ajax that the province will provide the money for cities and school boards to conduct in-depth financial audits to identify where they can trim budgets by 4 per cent.

Later, speaking to reporters, Ford said it’s not unfair for the province to impose clawbacks on the city well into its fiscal year.

“We’re asking to work with him as a partner,” Ford said. “We are working collaboratively with any municipality that wants to take us up on the offer.”

The premier noted that more than 90 per cent of provincial funding “goes to municipal partners and hospitals and universities. They’re our partners. We don’t have like Fort Knox sitting down at Queen’s Park, a whole bunch of gold sitting there. Ninety two per cent of our money goes to municipalities and other partners, so we’re asking them to work with us. And we’ll work with them and support them.”

Ford made the $7.35 million announcement speaking to members of the chambers of commerce in Whitby and Greater Oshawa, as well as the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade.

Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, said boards “already operate very efficiently, because we’ve had to.”

She said it will be up to individual boards to take the province up on its offer, “but they’ll be hard-pressed to find 4 per cent in efficiencies” given about 80 per cent of funding is in staffing and contracts, and other pockets of money are “sweatered,” meaning they can only be spent on the programs they are intended for, said Abraham, of the Kawartha Pine Ridge public board.

But Ford said cities and school boards must do their part as the province tightens its fiscal belt.

“Our government was elected to fix 15 years of Liberal mismanagement, put the province on a path to balance and protect services like health care and education,” Ford said. (Toronto Star) 

 

Thursday January 17, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 17, 2019

Ontario reviewing regional governments, raising prospect of future amalgamations

Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives have announced a plan Tuesday to comprehensively review the province’s regional governments.

Hamilton Amalgamation Octopus, 1999

The review includes all eight regional municipalities — Halton, York, Durham, Waterloo, Niagara, Peel, Muskoka District, Oxford County, and the County of Simcoe — and their lower-tier municipalities, according to a government news release.

A total of 82 municipalities will be examined, and the province hasn’t ruled out the possibility that some could be amalgamated in the future.

The PCs say the review will focus on three areas: governance, decision-making and service delivery.

“Our government is committed to improving the way regional government works and we will be looking at ways to make better use of taxpayers’ dollars and make it easier for residents and businesses to access important municipal services,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark in a news release.

Common Sense Revolution, 1995

Under former PC premier Mike Harris, Ontario amalgamated a series of local governments ranging from Kawartha Lakes to Toronto in a similar bid to improve efficiency, though the effectiveness of that strategy has been questioned in the years since.

“There’s always opportunity for two municipalities to come together to talk about that aspect, but we’re not talking about that in this regional government review,” he said during an interview at Queen’s Park.

In Ontario, upper-tier municipalities or regions typically oversee services such as policing and garbage pickup, while lower-tier muncipalities handle local bylaws. The current system was introduced in the 1970s.

Mayors from around the GTHA were meeting with Toronto Mayor John Tory on Tuesday afternoon as details about the review first emerged.

Toronto Megacity, 1996

During a news conference following the meeting, several mayors said they would support the review as long as their communities are made part of the process.

“Consult with us before unilaterally making changes, consult with our community before making changes and allow us to educate you a little bit on what we think needs to be done,” said Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie acknowledged that the decades-old system has room for improvement. She noted that the three municipalities that form Peel Region — Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon —are each at different growth stages, with different priorities.

“I think this is a great opportunity to re-evaluate our relationship; this is a relationship that is 44 years old now. It perhaps doesn’t make sense as the way it used to,” she told reporters.

Megacity, 1997

Results of the review are expected in early summer, the PCs said. However, political observers are already questioning if such a sweeping and quick review will be effective, especially given the short timeline.

“There’s a lot of things to cover. Trying to get them all within a single review strikes me as a fairly large task,” said Robert Williams, a professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo who studies municipal governance.

Williams drew comparisons to the amalgamations carried out by the Harris government, and the current government’s decision to slash the size of Toronto city council nearly in half last year. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Saturday July 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 28, 2018

Doug Ford defends unilateral moves to slash Toronto council, axe regional chair elections

There’s a new sheriff in town.

November 20, 2013

Brandishing his political clout, recently elected Premier Doug Ford is unilaterally slashing the number of councillors at Toronto city hall and cancelling democratic elections for regional chairs in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka.

Ford’s disruption of civic elections on Friday triggered an eruption in municipal politics across the GTHA. In one surprise development, Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto’s outspoken former chief planner, entered the city’s mayoral race and will take on John Tory.

Tory, for his part, is calling for a referendum on the size of Toronto’s city council.

from 47 members to 25 and is dealing a body blow to a political enemy, Patrick Brown, his predecessor as Progressive Conservative leader, who was a front-runner for the Peel post.

Those hopes dashed, Brown immediately registered to run for mayor of Brampton against Linda Jeffrey.

But Ford, who never discussed his plans during the June 7 election campaign, signalled that he is more powerful than any municipal leader and suggested civic governments could effectively be run from Queen’s Park.

June 22, 2018

“We’re going to get things done. We’re going to run city hall a lot more efficiently than before,” the premier told reporters 12 hours after the Star revealed his sweeping changes.

“No one has ever said to me: ‘Doug, we need more politicians,’ ” said Ford.

“In fact, it’s the opposite. People tell me that we have too many politicians making it harder to get things done, making it harder to get things built, making it harder to deal with the real problems we face,” he said.

Ford, a one-term Toronto councillor while his late brother, Rob Ford, was mayor from 2010 to 2014, said he was fed up with the “hours and hours of endless debate . . . all of it taking place on the taxpayer’s dime.”

“It’s clear that the size of government is just too large.”

City wards will mirror provincial and federal riding boundaries if the legislation, which will be tabled Monday, is passed. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Wednesday July 13, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday July 13, 2016 Hamilton property values spike in latest MPAC assessment Average residential property values in Hamilton have spiked 27 per cent since 2012, leaving homeowners to wonder if tax hikes will follow. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation reassesses the value of all properties in Ontario every four years. Cities use that data to figure out how much you pay in taxes. While Hamilton's assessed property values have jumped, the city didn't even make the Top 5 list for biggest municipal increases. The poster-child for overinflated home prices, Toronto, saw an average increase of 30 per cent, as did Oakville and Burlington. Richmond Hill and Markham topped the greater GTA with average increases of 47 and 45 per cent, respectively. A hot housing market is largely responsible for the dramatic boost, said Greg Baxter, director of valuation and customer relations for the non-profit assessment corporation. "There are always pockets in every community where the market behaves differently," he said. "But in the GTA, and extending all the way to Hamilton, in general real estate values are increasing substantially." It's the kind of news that worries local taxpayers waiting for MPAC notices that started going out July 4 in Hamilton. It makes city officials nervous, too Ñ mostly because they're braced for phone calls from residents asking if their taxes will go up 27 per cent. The answer is no Ñ and in fact, a property value increase doesn't even guarantee your taxes will go up, either. The city has a dedicated page on hamilton.ca to answer resident questions on property reassessment. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)Êhttp://www.thespec.com/news-story/6762889-hamilton-property-values-spike-in-latest-mpac-assessment/ Ontario, housing, home, ownership, tax, taxation, MPAC, property, assessment, municipal

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 13, 2016

Hamilton property values spike in latest MPAC assessment

Average residential property values in Hamilton have spiked 27 per cent since 2012, leaving homeowners to wonder if tax hikes will follow.

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday November 20, 2012 Property Assessment vs. Air strike Crises The average assessed value of a Hamilton home will rise more than 12 per cent over the next four years. Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) notices are beginning to arrive in Hamilton homeownersÕ mailboxes with the latestÊupdate on assessed property values since 2008. Increases will be phased in over four years so locally, residential property values will increase by an average of 3.1 per cent in 2013, saidÊLou Castellani, an area MPAC representative. Decreases will not be phased, however, and should be immediately reflected in updatedÊproperty values. Just because your home is assessed at a higher value doesnÕt mean your taxes will spike, Castellani emphasized. It depends on how yourÊincrease stacks up against the city average. ÒIf you look at your notice and see your home has gone up (in value) 9 per cent, you can probably expect a tax cut,Ó he said. ÒIf you liveÊin a hot market and your property increased in value by 14 per cent, you may see a slight increase in taxes.Ó More than 161,000 homeowners in the Hamilton area will soon receive updated notices, he said. Meanwhile, more Palestinian civilians were caught in the line of fire Monday as Israel expanded the scope of its campaign in the GazaÊStrip, hitting densely packed areas of the territory with airstrikes. Israel began targeting the Gaza homes of Hamas activists and suspected military commanders over the weekend, bolstering its efforts toÊstop Hamas rocket fire on the state. The new approach, however, has led to an increased number of civilian casualties as airstrikesÊdevastate more crowded areas of Gaza. (Source: CTV News) http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/civilian-death-toll-climbs-in-israel-gaza-crisis-as-world-leaders-urge-ceasefire-1.1044011 News, Canada, Ontario, property, assessment, news, rockets, Israel, Palestine, attacks

November 20, 2012

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation reassesses the value of all properties in Ontario every four years. Cities use that data to figure out how much you pay in taxes.

While Hamilton’s assessed property values have jumped, the city didn’t even make the Top 5 list for biggest municipal increases. The poster-child for overinflated home prices, Toronto, saw an average increase of 30 per cent, as did Oakville and Burlington. Richmond Hill and Markham topped the greater GTA with average increases of 47 and 45 per cent, respectively.

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday October 21, 2005 Ontario ombudsman to probe MPAC Ontario's ombudsman is investigating the corporation that assigns values to private property for the purposes of municipal taxation. Andre Marin says there is a lack of transparency in how the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, or MPAC, arrives at its decisions. Marin says the complaints meter in his office has moved into the red-zone over MPAC's ways and there is deep-rooted dissatisfaction over property assessments. He calls the corporation aloof and mysterious and says citizens are dazed and confused over their inability to get the corporation to reveal basic criteria on how values are set. Marin says he knows something is wrong when the mayor of Sarnia refers to MPAC's methods as Monty Python-like. The ombudsman says he'll investigate a number of areas, including MPAC's refusal to adhere to a successful appeal of a property's valuation in subsequent assessments. The investigation is expected to last four to six months. (Source: Ottawa Citizen) Ontario, MPAC, property, assessment, tax, iceberg, hudson bay, tax, housing

October 21, 2005

A hot housing market is largely responsible for the dramatic boost, said Greg Baxter, director of valuation and customer relations for the non-profit assessment corporation.

“There are always pockets in every community where the market behaves differently,” he said. “But in the GTA, and extending all the way to Hamilton, in general real estate values are increasing substantially.”

It’s the kind of news that worries local taxpayers waiting for MPAC notices that started going out July 4 in Hamilton. It makes city officials nervous, too — mostly because they’re braced for phone calls from residents asking if their taxes will go up 27 per cent.

The answer is no — and in fact, a property value increase doesn’t even guarantee your taxes will go up, either. The city has a dedicated page on hamilton.ca to answer resident questions on property reassessment. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)