My Jack Russells help connect me to our community

I walk my Jack Russell Terriers three times a day in the streets and parks around my home. Like most pet owners, I take no pleasure in walking the dogs in the rain or on a cold February day, but it is just one of those things that one must do as a dog owner. Of course, walking the dogs is a great way to get to know your neighbours. Naturally, we chat about our 4-legged kids. But we also talk about things that happen in the neighbourhood: burnt-out street lights, furniture in the alleyways, and so forth. I know my sanitary engineers by name and I now have 311 on speed dial.

Indeed, local government affects our day-to-day lives in more ways than we often realize. And so, I watched the city’s recent 2013 budget process very carefully. What services will city councillors reduce or cut this time? Year after year, we have been conditioned to believe that we must operate with less. We grumble to ourselves and to each other. We may even believe that we can maintain the same level of service and pay less tax.

To serve the people adequately, municipal governments must deliver vital local services—some of which are life-sustaining. Water, garbage, roads, transit, snow removal, seniors, affordable housing, shelters, nutrition programs for kids, paramedics, fire, police, parks, recreation, arts: all of these services have enormous costs associated with them given the vast number of citizens who require these services on an ongoing basis.

Your local city councillor has a duty to advocate for your community. The best time to do so would be during the budget process. A councillor who walks around the community regularly knows its pulse and the community’s immediate and long-term needs. We already know that inflation and deteriorated infrastructure increase annual operating costs.
We need level-minded councillors who can work with their colleagues to meet the needs of Toronto’s many diverse communities.

For 2013, Toronto has an operating budget of $9.4 billion, including a 2% increase to homeowners’ property taxes and a 0.67% increase to the business tax.

Yes, it is an enormous budget, but we must bear in mind that Toronto’s population continues to grow at a rapid pace. Toronto is Canada’s largest city, has Canada’s sixth-largest government, and is home to a population of 2.7 million people—more than 7.5% of Canada’s entire population. Unfortunately, the 2013 budget does not reflect Toronto’s growth and the increased services needed to sustain that growth. The politicians at city hall should continue to put pressure on the various levels of government to ensure sustainable and reliable funding.

Mayor Rob Ford meets with his friends in Ottawa on a regular basis to go fishing. He should, therefore, take the opportunity to encourage the Prime Minister to provide more funding for cities like Toronto given that they are vastly underfunded.

In the meantime, we must use the City of Toronto Act to find innovative ways to raise funds for city services.

For example, putting tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway is a no-brainer. The revenue from that source alone could cover the cost of badly needed repairs to those two expressways and leave enough to repair roads on local streets. If some commuters subsequently choose not to use one of those two routes, then the TTC would most likely see an increase in ridership which, in turn, would increase revenue to that service. Toronto is a great city, let us all strive to keep it that way.