CORNWALL Ontario – In election years many politicians pander to the public hoping to gain or retain support. It’s not rocket science. Some governments play with budgets even so as to have a war chest to spend. Some simply throw bones not caring that taxes will go up.
Last night our council reversed a decision they took on garbage collection in our city. The price tag may exceed $100,000 per year.
Essentially apartment buildings and residences that used large container bins had in the past been given a credit by the city to help offset their cost.
The theory was that they received these credits in lieu of the normal free garbage pick up that most residents have.
But these types of buildings require some consideration. The cost of large containers should be in strata fees or rents. The argument that large apartment buildings would forgo bulk containers and that all the residents would drag their bags to the curb….well that’s a pretty hollow threat in my opinion. People like the convenience of dropping their garbage down a shoot. If anything a challenge like this scenario might push people to use their recycle bins more.
Sadly this being an election year the Kilger government decided to reverse its decision and cost taxpayers money to curry favor with the Dick Aubry crowd and other groups living in buildings like the Cotton Mill lofts.
It’s kinda stinky and not what true leadership is about.
Do you want your taxes to go up or down, or simply stabilize? Remember we get the government we vote for…or don’t.
In 2014 let’s change Cornwall and cross the bridge to a better future!
Residents who live in apartment buildings or condos pay taxes as well. It’s built into their rent or condo fees. Part of their taxes go towards garbage collection. So, the apartment and condo building owners should receive the credit to help pay for what they pay to have their garbage picked up by private contractors. It never should have been removed when it was budget time.
It is so mighty easy for Bare Ass and company who have never lived in a high rise building to talk. It is bad enough for people who live in single homes and attached dwellings to see birds and other animals pecking at garbage bags and on garbage cans and garbage strewn all over the streets left over by the people who pick up garbage and throwing the cans around. The bins are the only way to pick up garbage in high rises. Some of those bins like what we have here in Ottawa are for recyclable materials and a lot of us do just that. Bare Ass just doesn’t know where to charge people. Taxes keep rising as well as utilities and gas at the pumps. There is no reprieve at all.
Jules, we have to stop doing this. Agreeing with each other. What’s next??
Hugger I think you have a point or else it will become very boring for the readers. We do have to have some squabbling sometimes since it keeps the readers in toe. LOL LOL. I have to laugh about Lauzon as a pigeon and yesterday they went on my roof and I just roared with laughter thinking about Jamie’s picture.
Can you imagine a huge high rise building of tenants using the green garbage bags putting that out to the curb? OMG I live in a big high rise and I can tell you all that it would be impossible and a real health hazard. There would be rats everywhere and bad enough we have the human rats around let alone the creatures. Stink to high heaven as well and bad enough with politics that stinks let alone garbage stewn all over. If Bare Ass thinks that this is an ideal solution I have news for him. It is bad enough in the homes to deal with but in these bird cages in the sky with hundreds of people in them it is impossible.
Jules there are many expenses that big buildings have that smaller ones don’t. It’s part of how the tax formula is created. Giving a special credit doesn’t make much sense. Neither does the threat of green garbage bags. Refuse is part of the cost of running a building and that cost should be part of the rent or strata fee if a condo. This is a weak council pandering for votes in an election year that is reversing its decision. Pretty lame all the way around.
Jaime, it happens at every election. The party (or people ) currently governing open up the election chequebook. Wynne has done it already, Harpo has started to. It will never change.
So much BS comes out of the mouths of politicians at election time pulling out their bags of “POLITRICks” and the more BS that they come out with the more people see them for what they really are. Everything is going up in price and people cannot keep up with the high cost of living. I refuse to vote because I see them all the same which is true. Neither of them are fit to rule.
Wait until you all hear this. Winnie in TO is going to tax people above $150K a year and is going to tax gas, alcohol and tobacco. It is all on yahoo news. Now do you see when I say that none of them are any good at all. I am right and wouldn’t vote for any of them. I am not a high income earner but anybody who makes very good money will not stay in Ontario and will leave for other places. Ontario is bankrupt and Winnie doesn’t know what to do next. Bare Ass is a dye lot Liberal/Fiberal and what is he going to do being rich. Willie must be around somewhere so as he can consult what to do with his loot.
I will say like one of my favorite comedians “Garbage in, garbage out” meaning about the politicians. They stink as bad as the refuse.
I sort of agree with what McGuinty Jr (Wynne) is doing. People who make in excess of $150k are usually very good at avoiding paying their fair share of taxes. As for taxing alcohol and tobacco they are called sin taxes for a reason. We can be thankful she didn’t raise gas taxes (AGAIN!!)
I’ve been reading about the taxes multi-unit buildings pay. They are required to pay a portion of their taxes for garbage collection. But yet, the city doesn’t pick up their garbage. So, the residents end up paying twice for garbage collection; 1) through part of their rent / condo fees to cover the taxes required for garbage collection even though the garbage is not collected by the city and 2) through part of their rent / condo fees to cover the costs required for the building owners / condo manager to hire a private garbage collector. I think the re-instated credit is one way for the city to pay the building owners / condo managers back for a service they pay for, but yet do not receive.
I too am for taxing the rich but my point is that some of these people are the ones who make businesses and would high tail out of Ontario out of fright since they cannot handle it like us little people do. The rich always look down on the rest of us and I am glad that they will get it back in that way. They always manage to find loop holes somewhere.
@ Jules. Sounds to me like you’d prefer to live in a dictatorship where you wouldn’t be inconvenienced by elections and such.
Jules, it’s short-formed to GIGO. It usually refers to computers. But in this case…..
Jules, I agree. But like you say they’ll find another loophole to avoid paying the tax or another way to avoid it.
Furtz I sure wouldn’t want to live in a dictatorship at all. OMG no absolutely not. We are already losing a lot of our democracy as we speak.
Hugger the rich always find a way of not paying taxes or very little and yes there are loopholes for them but not for us. We the little people are like “slaves” and yes I would call us all slaves. There are no jobs and all manufacturing has been sent overseas to countries where they are slaves and work for a small fraction. There is plenty that stinks in today’s world of ours. The rich get richer and the poor poorer.
Here in Ottawa it is a private garbage collection service and we pay through our rents and I see that even the single homes and townhouses and all have the same service as our apartment building among other buildings. It seems to be a contract between the city and the firm who picks up the garbage. We have different days of garbage pick up from one neighborhood in Ottawa to the other. People here in Ottawa do a lot of recycling but one thing that I agree is to convert garbage into electricity.
Most, if not all, cities contract their garbage and recycling out. It doesn’t make sense for cities to do garbage and recycling collection as private firms can do it cheaper. Different neighborhoods have different collection days. Cities could probably save some major $$ if they contracted out a lot of the services they do. But that would involve laying off city employees. And that usually costs major $$ due to the contracts city workers have.
Hugger it seems to be a no win situation when it comes to garbage collection. Yes city workers would be let go and don’t forget that there would be a savings in laying them off because they earn bigger salaries, have all the perks that others don’t get and are unionized. That would sure be a “real stink” for sure but when it comes to saving money something has to be done. Here in Ottawa we use the garbage shute for our garbage which is deposited in big bins. We recycle and take our garbage down to the garage where there are bins specific for each type of recycling in which we do.