The Fiberals may have caught a case of common sense...
TheStar.com - Province gives Toronto another $45M
McGuinty and crew will no doubt be skewered by tomorrow's Toronto Star editorial for "short changing" the city. However, it's actually good news for the city. The sooner the spendthrifts at City Hall are forced to take the smallest step towards fiscal sanity the better. Past overindulgences from higher levels of government only have resulted in the city padding its already bloated cost structure - which just means more pain when the day of reckoning arrives.
Of course, for appearances sake, Municipal Affairs Minister John Gerretsen repeated the zombie-like refrain about Toronto being the economic driver of Ontario. The fact is that Toronto has been hemmoraging jobs to the 905 belt for decades. The 905 belt IS the economic engine of the province - whereas the City has become a rather ungainly caboose. The Liberals are to be commended for rejecting the City's request to raise business taxes - a move that would have accelerated business flight to the 'burbs.
The Star's censors must have missed cutting out part of the story:
Earlier today, before the funding announcement was made public, the province released figures showing Toronto's administrative costs for welfare had increased 42 per cent since 2001, even though the city's welfare case load decreased slightly during that same time.
"These increased costs seem disproportionately high, and inconsistent with what is happening in other communities across Ontario," wrote Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello in an open letter to Miller.
which shows that the McGuinty cabinet has begun to form the same common-sense conclusions about the way Toronto is run as its predecessors.
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