claringtontaxguardian

The People Speak. But No One Listens

2012-02-12T13:58:00.002-08:00

Let Others Speak.

These two letters to the editor of newsdurham pretty much says how residents of Clarington are feeling right now. The question really is do our politicians think they are serving the residents of Clarington by raising taxes, or do they just not care about the residents of the municipality. We think the latter.

Taxes go up and up

View more by Letter to the editor

To the editor:

So Clarington's finest approved a 3.75-per cent increase in property tax for 2012.

Wow, they must be proud to have achieved in just one day such a low increase.

Wow, my raise this year was a paltry 2.75 per cent. I wonder where council expects us to come up with the other 1 per cent? Wait a minute, the Region has another increase coming yet.

So where are we supposed to come up with their percentage increase? Wait a minute, didn't I hear that the feds were increasing income tax this taxation year coming? I also heard that the Canada Pension Plan deduction was going up as well as employment insurance.

Are we really in a recession or is our government trying to keep us in one by taxing us more and more to the point that nobody will have any money to spend on goods and services?

Wait a minute, I think I just answered my own questions ... By increasing taxes we don't have any money to spend so the Bank of Canada sees this as a continuation of the recession therefore keeping the interest rates low and the Canadian dollar at an all-time high.

In the 46 years on this planet I think I get it ... or do I? Well, back to the paper to find another other part-time job so I can afford to live, and pay even more tax.

Welcome to Clarington, where we're closed to new business.

Andrew Z. Cieslik

Courtice

Only two councillors are serious about serving the people

View more by Letter to the editor

To the editor:

Every time I watch Clarington Council meetings on TV, I feel bad for councillors Joe Neal and Corinna Traill. They are truly the only two who are serious about serving the people and they usually get shot down. It's like watching a group of children playing tug of war, but it's always two against five.

As I watched the council meeting on Jan. 30, both councillors Neal and Traill came up with a ton of money to remove from the budget to save the taxpayers' money, and were voted against each time.

Apparently, Clarington councillors will be getting a raise in their wages, when many people have lost jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. They will be hiring more staff, and adding more money to different departments that really isn't necessary at this time, as councillor Traill mentioned. I'm sure there are lots of people in Clarington who haven't had a pay increase in many years, and yet our mayor seems to think it's OK to give him and his councillors an increase.

Instead of taking a pay increase and adding money to areas that don't really need it, why doesn't Mayor Adrian Foster spend money where it's needed like fixing our roads, as Councillor Neal suggested a few times.

Mayor Foster advised council if they didn't want their pay increase, they can donate it to a charity.

Does the mayor not know that whether they take the pay increase or donate it to a charity, it will still cost the taxpayers?

It is obvious that in the next election, we need more people like councillors Neal and Traill who are there for the people who voted them in, and are fighting to save the taxpayers money, instead of spending all the time.

Chris Wirsching

Bowmanville

ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

ONLY!

Okay we were going to title this screwed, but we used that before many times. So we decided on shafted, but then again we have used it before. We believe that the municipality has shafted and screwed us many times. So if you feel shafted and screwed blame it on them. Therefore we decided to call it ONLY because they come out every year and declare “It will only cost the average taxpayer _______ (fill in the blank) more in taxes. Unfortunately they conveniently forget about the increase the year before and the year before that and so on. Now that adds up. If there was ever a time for our politicians to show some usage of fiscal restraint now would be a good time. But alas they fail at this as well. So it is only, and we decided to include ONLY the video on the sidebar as well, so you can listen along as you read.

http://www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1289901--clarington-could-get-smooth-ride-in-2012-budget

At 3.75 per cent, the increase works out to $37.40 for the average Clarington household (assessed at $270,000).

Only. Plus last year and the year before. Is anyone out there getting a pay raise to compensate for Clarington councillors insatiable appetite for money?

"Your challenge today is to maintain the services your residents truly value at an amount they can truly afford to pay," director of finance Nancy Taylor told councillors on Friday.

First it isn’t her job to determine what we value, that is the council’s job. Maybe they will realize that what we value most is having our money we earned in our pockets instead of theirs!

Maybe she is clueless, we don’t know, but we will spell it out for her. We cannot afford this increase. Please look around and realize what the hell is really going on out there.

Council spent hours carefully debating several new staffing positions, scrapping three new hires and cutting one position in half. However, council did approve nine new roles in departments across the municipality from a new IT technician to a fire services training officer.

How about no new hires, and get the people that you have to work productively.

There were challenges to council travel expense and council members' salary increase for 2012. Councillor Corinna Traill wanted to see council take on a voluntary wage freeze. There is a policy that ties council raises to staff raises. Regional Councillor Mary Novak said freezing council salaries can cost money in the long run when council wages need to be addressed in the future with consultant studies and large increases. Regional Councillor Willie Woo said this is a bargaining year for CUPE municipal staff and asked if the move to freeze council salaries was a prelude to asking staff for a wage freeze.

Thank-you Corinna for suggesting this. Everyone else wants a raise because they realize they need the money now for they will be unemployed after the next election.

As for CUPE they deserve nothing and need to get in touch with what is going on in the real world. See last week’s blog for our solution to CUPE.

"This is a question that has absolutely nothing to do with the motion on the floor and I decline to answer ... All I'm proposing today is that we don't give ourselves a salary increase," said Coun. Traill.

Listen to her Flip Flop you do not deserve a raise.

Clarington's first major bike lane will be installed on Courtice Road, as part of the Durham Region rehabilitation from George Reynolds Drive to 300 metres north of Pebblestone Road. The $111,800 cost for the paved cycling shoulder will be split between the municipality and the Region.

Like the park last year, is this something we really need right now?

Also getting funding this year is an employee assistance program for full-time employees, the hiring of up to four students, rural road tree removal, the banner program, GPS systems in some of the operations fleet and $8,000 for volunteer recognition. Council dedicated $9,000 for television advertising and reinstated $10,000 that was cut out of the mayor's office budget the year before.

Anyone else notice after the budget last year that there might just be a Courtice centric approach to things right now. Is this because Flip Flop is from there? (Think park last year, bike lane this year)

Other than the GPS system nothing here is needed. If they get a GPS system is someone really going to have the balls to get our works department workers from spending the last two hours of their shift each day parked strategically around the depot waiting for their shift to get done, and get them to work?

Is the $10,000 for more paperclips and some jumbo shrimp for Flip Flop? Or maybe it is a prelude to changing the letter head to a challengers name when he is voted out of office come next election.

Basically the council is giving you the finger with one hand well they reach into your pocket with the others. Then as you turn around they give you a kick in the ass as they laugh at you. Okay it kind of feels that way.

Clarington.net

By now everyone will probably have gotten their copy of Clarington.net. Yes this is the paper they talked about years ago getting rid of to save money. But instead they have decided to spend money on an entire issue about how they couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about the EFW. Now we wonder since it seems like early campaigning here as they try and justify their actions or lack thereof if it can be considered using town resources towards their next campaign and if it gets charged against their campaign expenses in the next election, assuming they run. Just thinking you know.

That’s why we originally titled this week’s blog screwed, then shafted because at this point you probably feeling screwed and shafted several times over. Now remember it will ONLY……………………………………

Till Next Time Clarington Tax Guardian

Clarington Works LLC

2012-01-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

Clarington Works LLC

If anyone has bothered to look at the books for Clarington on their website you will see that the biggest expense they incur each year is that of increasing wages. This is in an economy where most peoples wages were frozen, rolled back or lost their jobs altogether. But in the land of Clarington wages, benefits etc. were held steady or increased, and also hiring’s were being made at the same time. Again in an economy where people were losing their jobs right left and center.

Now that there alone should signal that there is a very big problem with our leadership. That this was allowed to happen and this is a major reason why your taxes have increased year over year with no real end in sight.

Therefore it was with this in mind that one of our members came up with a solution to this mess that has been created over the years.

The solution is actually a very simple matter really. That is to form a new corporation held by Clarington called Clarington Works LLC. This corporation will then lease all works department sites and equipment at a nominal fee from the municipality of Clarington. The existing unionized workers that work for Clarington will then be given an option of either transferring to the new corporation or being laid off by Clarington.

After most of the workers have transferred over to the new corporation the lease on the equipment and facilities will be tied to the end of the union’s contract. Clarington will then have the option of selling this corporation to private hands or, when the end of the unions contract comes up Clarington the municipality will be able to put up for bid all of the works department work to companies such as Miller and others that have the ability to take on the work. The winning bid will then be given an option to again lease the equipment and facilities of the municipality at a nominal price. This alone will bring down the cost of the works department. (A good example of contracting out the work would be the garbage contract that has recently switched hands to Miller.)

The only change to the bidding process will be instead of the usual sealed bidding process; all parties interested in bidding for the work, including the unionized workers will sit down at a table with Clarington representatives and will bid in an open process. So unlike an auction where the price goes up this will instead create lower and lower bids as these firms try and earn the work.

This would be a drastic savings in the Clarington budget and contracts would be signed for four years with provisions of getting out of the contract if deficiencies in work are found by the municipality.

The Clarington community would save because of the bidding process, the offloading of the workers benefit packages and any maintenance costs on the equipment would be performed by and at the cost of the company leasing the equipment.

Would there be some screaming, and yelling, finger pointing and some anger. Yes. But in order to get the costs of this municipality under control then it needs to get done and we need strong leadership to get it done.

Unfortunately strong leadership is the thing we are missing the most.

Just think with one department down this approach could then be used in other departments as well such as the fire department in order to lower costs there as well.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Culture Of Spend

2012-01-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Culture Of Spend

We think Mr. Ford summed it all up earlier this week when he said that it takes a while to reverse and change a culture, that being the culture of spend. In that is the only way they know how to do business. That is to raise wages, build more buildings, hire more people, and to top it off to tax you the constituent more to pay for it all.

So Mr. Ford took the first step this week to attempt to reverse and change this culture of spend that seems to inhabit politicians these days. Our municipality of Clarington has been straddled with this culture of spend for at least the last 15 years now. It seems to be the way to do things these days, and that is to build another arena for 21 million, refurbish a roof to another arena for 3.5 that should have been closed. Build an indoor soccer field; raise taxes to build a park in Courtice. Spend 2.3 million to build a pedestrian tunnel in Newcastle without enlarging the vehicle underpass at the same time. Spend another 4.5 million on a fire station without looking for ways to make do with the existing structure. Build a pool that has five cars parked at it on its busiest day. The list goes on, and on unfortunately, but the one thing you will never ever hear from a Clarington politician is them say they have saved you 10, 20, 50, or 100 dollars or more off of your tax bill because they looked at ways to save, and make cuts, and rationalize services and so on. They wouldn’t make good Walmart employees because they don’t know a thing about Roll Backs.

No this is Clarington, that with the exception of a few glimmers of hope over the years has been inhabited with a bunch of spending politicians over the years that have spent, spent and spent until the well(our pockets) have run dry.

And yet still, in this heavily indebted, poor economy, crisis ridden climate we are in today our enlightened politicians want to raise taxes again. And again the staff is dictating the increases, not the council. Exactly why do we vote these people in in the first place if they do not want to work for their pay.

Maybe it is time that we build in an incentive system to their pay levels. After all in the private sector if someone saves there employer some money by suggesting a way to save money they are often rewarded for it.

How about for every percentage point of increase, our council members take a $2000 dollar hit to their paycheques. Now that is the stick. For the carrot for every percentage they can decrease the budget, yes this would include work on their part, and yes it may even anger a few people that are taking the cuts. But for every point they can bring it down then they are rewarded with an extra thousand to their paycheques.

In the day and age of money talks, maybe this is what it will take to get are less than stellar politicians to wake up and start working for the people that voted them in, in the first place.

After all who this last year hasn’t reviewed all of their expenses from their phone, to internet, to choice of car, maybe even switching from brand names to generics to save even a little money. After all just about everything has gone up except peoples paycheques. Okay if you work in the public sector you probably made more money this year than last, but where talking the private sector, you know the ones paying the majority of the bills.

In the end this year needs for our politicians to have a transformation and change their culture of spend.

Okay wishful thinking but we can hope.

Clarington Tax Guardian

Failure To Comprehend

2012-01-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Failure To Comprehend

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1273693--we-all-should-pay-to-live-in-a-civil-society

http://www.durhamregion.com/clarington/article/1275207

Obviously it is clear that our council and the department heads are having a failure to comprehend what is going on outside the hallowed halls of the municipal hall. They are failing to see the poor economy, which threatens to get worse with an implosion of Europe over its debt crisis, key word being there the word debt.

Here we are for the umpteenth year in a row with another increase on the table. And again it is the staff dictating to council what is needed not the other way around. Have are council members not been watching Mr. Ford this year. He has cut jobs, bought out people, contracted work out and froze hiring and looked at selling off non-core assets.

Our council, hire more, spend more, build more, pay raises, getting the picture here. What is wrong with this picture? The basic problem is obviously they have a failure to comprehend what is going on outside their thick heads, and thick walls.

There is a large percentage of people out of work, and under employed. We have kid’s recent grads from college and universities struggling to find employment period, let alone within their chosen field. We have people struggling to pay their bills, for the basics and here comes council with their hands out and in your pocket again asking for more. Why because they have two main failures, one to comprehend, and the other to manage money. If this is are best and brightest then we are in trouble. It was Mr. Adams that pointed out in the last campaign that taxes were going up at a rate considerably higher than the inflation rate.

Yet no one seems to pay attention. If many peoples wages are static, or even declining, if they have a job; and council comes along every year and takes more and more. Then soon what, you just send your entire pay cheque to council and maybe after they have paid out for over inflated wages, and paid down the debt, and built a park in Courtice, and hired some more people. They might just then give you some money back so you can eat and put clothes on your kids and gas in the car and on and on.

Wait this is Clarington, they won’t stop until they have it all. The point being that it has to stop at some point and roll back some or the whole process is going to break down before long. The residents of Clarington and Durham do not have bottomless pockets. The economy is going in reverse and this leads us to the letter recently submitted to NewsDurham, hit the link above.

The letter was a rebuttal for another letter written to newsdurham about wanting to increase user fees at recreation and program facilities. We agree with the first letter wanting higher user fees. Nothing wrong with this, if you use it pay, and if you don’t then you don’t. But obviously she didn’t like this.

Obviously the letter writer has hit one thing on the head and that is during the boom period of the boomer generation they took a lot out of the economy, which we covered last year when we reviewed MacLean’s Magazines article titled “Generation Screwed” in which they had the quote saying “Ate through the abundance like a swarm of hungry locusts” which basically sums up in a sentence what happened.

The problem being which the letter writers fails to realize is that this spend attitude is what got us into trouble in the first place. This sense of entitlement that we have now that everyone has to pay for everything from sports to daycare and everything in between is what got us to this point in the first place.

If our boomer generation had been a little more careful when there was abundance and saved for a rainy day then maybe we wouldn’t be in as bad a situation today.

The point being that we need to get back to basics. And we are as far from where we are as we can get.

It’s to the point that the public sector stops working in a vacuum and mimic the private sector where high wages, and high benefits, and pension plans are a thing of the past. Otherwise the two classes of haves and have not’s grows further and further apart, helped along by an uncomprending council that fails to realize or have the ability to get their houses and their bills in order so everyone has a chance to struggle through.

So hopefully are council can open their minds, and realize, and comprehend, and do something positive and bring in no increase at all.

Wishful thinking we know.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Cutting The Fat

2012-01-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Cutting The Fat!

We may be a week late with this but every year millions of people around the world make New Year’s resolutions. Some to stop smoking, or save money, but one big one is to get out and exercise more and cut the fat.

This latter one is the one that we believe the town needs to do in the form of cold hard cash. It needs to spend the first month of this New Year and go through department by department, the budget line by line and have discussions with each department head about where the fat can be cut. If this involves lay-offs, and hiring freezes, as well as contracting out the work then so be it. But the end result is that the fat needs to be cut.

The council members need to all get together and realize that the economy is not getting and better, and there are good chances that it will get worse in the New Year. They need to come to this realization so they can finally wrap their collective minds around the fact that the old model of raising taxes every year is unsustainable and cannot go on. The budget needs to be frozen and then rolled back to a level that the average citizen of Clarington can afford.

If they cannot realize this and get the job done then they might as well hand their resignations in and get some people in that can get it done.

This is the pivotal year in Clarington, the make or break. Cutting the fat, and there is a lot of it in the budget will be the place to start.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

To Pay Or Not To Pay. That is The Question!

2011-12-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

Straight Forward & Simple

This link to the letter below basically sums up what we have been saying for years. In order to control costs and in effect taxes, two areas have to be heavily looked at within the town budget. One is compensation packages for our public servants, and how many we are employing, and the other is the thirty percent of the budget spent on things like recreation. Should you be paying for something you do not use? Or should the people that use them pay through users fees. We are in support of the user fees. What do you think?

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1265178--if-you-use-it-you-should-pay-for-it

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Twas The Night Before Xmas In Clarington

2011-12-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1262317--governments-must-show-restraint

http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_reuters/housing_prices_cool_though_sales_still_brisk/6b31c6cb

Twas the Night before Christmas Poem

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Clarington
Not a creature was stirring, not even a disenchanted voter
The tax receipts were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Flip Flop soon would be there.

The constituents were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of high property tax danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our debts for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the streets there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a private jet, and six councillors soon were there.

With a little old driver, so deceitful and deaf,
I knew in a moment it must be Flip Flop and theft.
Very slow and out of touch councillors they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called the police to tame!

"Now Mary! now, Joe! now, Catrinna and Silent Ron!
On, PR Woo! On, Disappearing Wendy!
To the third highest taxes! to near the top of the list!
Now tax away! tax away! tax away all!"

As pockets empty before the wild unsustainable budget fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, call the police and cry.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of by-laws and increased taxes, and Flip Flop too.

And then, in a thump, I heard on the roof
The prancing and clawing of each little hand.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Flip Flop came like a hound.

He was dressed all in a suit, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all covered with riches and efw soot.
A bundle of tax invoices he had flung on his back,
And he looked indecisive, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they burned! his dimples how the can bury!
His cheeks so uncaring, his motions will not carry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the towns peoples felt burned not missing a beat.
He had a long face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed at you, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was thin and fair, a right uncompredending old elf,
And I cried when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had lot’s to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And stole all our earnings, then turned with a jerk.
And giving me his middle finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He stumbled to his jet, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like thieves of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Get you wallets ready and I will call the police on all, and to all a sad-night!"

The 2012 Christmas List

From The Clarington Tax Guardian

10.) Have Anderson and Foster pay for their own lunch and pay us back for their grandiose ground breaking ceremony at the efw.

9.) Have Disappearing Wendy come to the realization that she will not be making it in next time if she decides to run and b she really needs to step up and apologize to her constituent from Orono that Flip Flop called the police on.

8.) Have flip flop come to the realization that he will not be making it in next time if he decides to run, and also to apologize to the Orono resident he called the police on.

7.) For PR Woo to do anything. One motion a year doesn’t make you worth what we are paying you for. At this point there are people out there who probably wished they hadn’t fallen for all you PR stunts and voted for Gord.

6.) For Silent Ron to just hang it up. For people to mistake silence as deep in thought really need to get a reality check here. Newsdurham anyone?

5.) For Novak to do anything. Anything here at all would be a great improvement over nothing at this point.

4.) For Neal, and Traill to work at getting two more votes to join their side of the opposition so something constructive can get done in this old town.

3.) For all of our council to finally figure out the value of a dollar and how little of it the average constituent actually has and to stop spending it on stupid things like it is going out of style.

2.) For our council to actually go through every department budget line by line instead of having them tell council what they need for a budget. Bring a little Rob Ford into all of them. Bring in a zero increase budget.

1.) For a whole year to pass not hearing from the firefighters union about the three/four men a truck issue. And for every time they talk about it they lose five thousand off of their pay for each and every one.

Rumour of the Week

IT has been suggested that Flip Flop thought Santa was stalking him when Santa asked for his xmas list, so Flip Flop called the police to the North Pole to arrest Santa. Apparently the police only got a few Elves in the round up and Santa got away with all the reindeers. But since Santa is now on the run, don’t expect any gifts this year.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

An Interesting Read

2011-12-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

An Interesting Read

http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_reuters/insight_ten_years_on_american_business_rethinks_china_dreams/505618cb

Waste Of Money

We are sure that were not the only ones with speedometers on are cars and know how to use them. And we are sure that almost everyone speeds at one time or another. And we are sure that in tough times the best way to not spend money is to cut out on unnecessary purchases that we don’t need and have no effect. The recent purchase of digital speeding boards would once again point out how out of touch with controlling expenses our council has. But it coincides with their new serve and collect mentality they have had for quite some time.

Take a read and see what you think.

http://www.durhamregion.com/clarington/article/1260406

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Ford Failure?

2011-12-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

Ford Failure

As just about everyone probably has heard by now the Toronto council has increased property taxes by 2.5% next year.

What? As in what happened? This was a council led by Rob Ford who said he was going to cut the gravy train.

Well what happened so that he had to raise taxes by 2.5%. Well that is simple, the system that likes to spend failed! The system that likes to add costs, and add things, has a very difficult time working in reverse. Just ask the Greeks and you will see how hard it is to come to the realization that change is needed let alone actually do something about doing the change.

There is just too many people out there, and this includes Clarington as well that are out of touch and don’t realize just how rough it is out there. How every dollar counts now. How just putting a meal on the table for your family takes a major plan and sacrifices. The gravy train for these people left a long time ago.

What has happened is that these people that don’t realize how bad it is having either not been hit by the current circumstances or just plain ignoring them

There is too many people with their own little fiefdoms, and power bases and likes, that are unwilling to make sacrifices to get things headed in the direction that are needed. Take for example the High Park Zoo. Take the local example of raising taxes to build a park in Courtice. The list goes on.

So until we can get everyone out there to realize the facts out there the best we can hope for is a piece of a victory not the whole thing. And just think if a tough nut like Rob Ford can’t get a zero % increase then a weak politician like Flip Flop Foster and company have no chance what’s so ever, and that’s even if they realized the need to in the first place, and they don’t.

But Ford did achieve some good things that in areas both Durham and Clarington could very well follow.

Ford cut the civilian staff in the police department, this is something we need to do which we have a current ratio of one civilian to every 3 officers.

Ford cut the police force, and has brought their budget under control.

Ford has put unessential businesses like the Toronto Zoo on the block. Hopefully someone buys it soon.

Ford has raised the TTC fare. This is something that Durham needs to do with the bus service. If you use it pay and it should be self-supporting. It isn’t like the municipality is paying your car insurance or something.

Ford was also able to start contracting out work like garbage.

Ford also laid off and bought out workers at city hall. This is something that are municipality could also do and improve productivity at that same time.

So in the end Ford wasn’t able to get everything done in the first year, but he got the ball rolling and people thinking, not all the time in a good way but it’s what is needed.

The cold hard truth, come from realization needs to set in, into everyone’s mind that times have changed and times are harder and we need to fix things now, and for the future for are kids future.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Fired Up About Nothing

2011-11-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

Fired Up About Nothing

http://www.durhamregion.com/clarington/article/1249846

It’s back like a bad habit, or bad BO, the firefighters union is trying a new ploy to get more of their buddies off of the waiting list into one of the “retirement” jobs as one firefighter recently called it. There back to speaking about the four a truck thing that were so tired of hearing. It is time the council lay down the law and come up with some form of penalty if they go outside the council again to get their mandate through. They tried to interfere in the last election by backing candidates that supported hiring more firefighters. (remember we are looking at $75,000 a shot here for each one. That is almost approx. 2 dollars added to your tax rate per firefighter hired. This in a time when most people are trying to make ends meet just for the basics. Also remember with there back pay added last year that over 20 of them made the sunshine list for public employees earning over 100,000)

If a report was made by some agency in the US tomorrow that said that each truck required 100 firefighters per truck then we are sure that they would be pushing for this as well.

Our community has said that we support volunteer firefighters and current staffing levels. If are firefighters do not like this, then they always have the option to quit and apply elsewhere. If you at your workplace went and tried to campaign for more workers around the neighbourhood, it would be a pretty good bet that you would be unemployed before long. The firefighters union doesn’t and should not work to a different standard.

Regardless of what they say it is a ploy to get more hired regardless of the way Traill or other’s see it. This is one instance where we disagree with her.

Action should be taken against the union so this ad nauseam issue doesn’t keep returning over and over again.

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1250884

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1244126--mayor-foster-overreacted

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Acting

2011-11-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Acting:

Accountability:

As a politician you have to have some sort of accountability to your constituents that elected you into office. This means that at the end of the day you answer to the voters. This doesn’t mean that every four years you answer but each and every day you should answer. That means everything from how you spend the tax payers money to exactly what business you are doing on behalf of the taxpayers, be it a weekday or weekend. Accountability is one of the major cornerstones of and election platform as it was for flip flop in the last election. It would seem that as soon as he was elected he quickly forgot this very thing and has since even said that he is not accountable.

Credibility:

This would mean that you do what you say, and your word means something. This is another one of those cornerstones of an election and once your credibility is lost it is a very hard thing to get back. This is another one of those things that Flip Flop lost the moment he got elected.

Transparency:

This was one of those things that was mentioned by every mayoral candidate in the last election is that there would be a lot more transparency in doing the towns business and that the average folk would know what was going on. Flip Flop failed on this when he waited a full month before he was forced to tell about his whereabouts during the petit Le Mans weekend.

Integrity:

This is another cornerstone, or should be anyway of a politician. You do what you say, and you say what you do. You have a platform you conform to it and you do it. Another area flip flop has failed in with his failure/change of mind etc. on almost everything he has done since being elected.

Negative:

The effect he has had on the hearts and minds of his constituents since be elected. He has lost the faith of many of the people that voted for him and in the next election it will be a very difficult task for him to make it in again.

Gullible:

As in how stupid does he think we are to vote for him again and fall for any of what he says or does?

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!

2011-11-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

http://www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1239896--clarington-mayor-clears-up-mystery-surrounding-recent-trip

Last week was a very interesting week for the residents of Clarington and its politicians. On one hand there was the good, in that Flip Flop and Anderson are realizing the value of Mosport to tourism in Clarington and Durham. Something that we mentioned months ago in our blog titled “Opportunity Knocks, Who’s Answering the Door.”

Which you can find here by following the link.

http://claringtontaxguardian.blogspot.com/2011/07/opportunity-knocks.html

The big problem here now lies in the fact that by accepting free tickets and flight, and we presume here accommodation and food that he and Anderson will have to recuse themselves of any votes dealing with Mosport or its new owners because they now will be effectively bias for accepting the freebies.

It would have been better if they had turned down the freebies but still went(and paid themselves, after all former mayor Abernathy paid for quite a bit out of his own pocket when he was mayor) for it would be worth the taxpayers money here because of the huge value to tourism in Durham.

But now by not being transparent they have put themselves in a bad position and an even worse one when it came to their folly of calling the police on one of their constituents for simply asking a question, a very good one in fact.

The Bad:

To double that insult up was the fact that this was brought to light at the same time as the amount of money that was blown on the ground-breaking ceremony for the infamous incinerator that Flip Flop ran against; well that was what he said at the time of the election anyway!

The Ugly:

The Ugly is the point that Foster called the police on the poor Orono resident and then with the exception of Traill/Neal combo the rest refused to back a motion to apologize to her. Then to add insult to injury we have Councillor Wendy Partner

When Orono resident Jim Richards suggested to Coun. Partner during a council meeting that she should feel ashamed of herself and apologize for calling fellow Orono resident Heather Olynyk "small-minded", and suggesting she might be a"nut bar," Coun. Partner responded with laughter.

Needless to say the above quote says it all. The fact that the other councillors such as silent Ron, PR woo, disappearing Wendy and Novak voted against a motion proposed by Neal/Traill adds insult to injury and shows how out of touch they are with their constituents. And how much we need to make sure they get voted out next time.

And a note for Flip Flop, relax no one is stalking you, no one has any interest in you except at next election when they kick your %&*^&( out.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1238359--scugog-should-listen-to-taxpayers-pain

Sound Familiar?

Time For Foster and Anderson To Go!

2011-11-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

Time For Foster and Anderson To Go:

After reading these two articles from newsdurham it should be more apparent than ever that it is time for jet flying shrimp eating over spending, over taxing Flip Flop Foster and his jetting buddy Anderson to go. They have absolutely no sense of the value of a dollar, and how many of his taxpayers are having a hard time putting food on the table for their families and here he is eating jumbo shrimp and flying on private jets. Repeat after us “Out of touch” and their time to go is now.

Is it really going to take another three years to replace flip flop with a mayor that understands a dollar like Adams?

http://www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1239165--bill-s-in-for-clarington-trash-facility-s-pricey-private-party

http://www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1239131--clarington-resident-feels-bullied-by-council

On the other hand after reading about Flip Flop calling the police on the poor lady that had a simple question, maybe he picked up one trait from rob ford and called the police. But of all the traits we need him to pick up from rob this isn’t the one we need. Wonder how Flip flop is enjoying the gravy train(Jumbo shrimp, sushi and mini sliders for 175 people: $11,469.50. Luxury porta-potty for guests to freshen up in: $2,486. Miniature souvenir shovels: $5,136.82. Leaving a bad taste in taxpayers' mouths: priceless. ) before someone three years from now shuts it down once and for all.

It is a good thing to see Traill, and Neal are still out there (after a period of silence) and maybe they can use these latest insults to the taxpayers as a way to wake up Wendy and get silent Ron to speak, and for Woo to do anything would be nice. Wow how can one community have so many bad politicians representing the people when at times like this we need the best of the best?

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Hands Out, again

2011-11-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hands Out (again)

Regional Tax Increases:

http://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/1235075--the-region-needs-to-cut-instead-of-spend

Greedy Public Servents:

It’s that time again where the various Ontario Public sector unions such as Opseu have their hand out asking for more and more cash.

The weak Dalton government made even weaker with their last election results have said there will be no increase, none, zero, nada. But they have said that before and there were increases. The NDP even though they say they are for the people really are big supporters of the union and always have been. So how much do they really care about the beaten down private sector when they will have to pry even more dollars out of their collective pockets to pay for wage increases for these unions. This is a government that continues to run deficits and is basically bankrupt just like the Greeks.

Now is the time for the government to simply come up with alternatives instead of binding arbitration. Set a cap and if these various unions want more then they will have to go elsewhere. Now is the time to look at contracting jobs out and developing alternatives instead of the every four years pay more scheme that is currently in place.

The public sector can no longer work in a vacuum that they have been where they are getting raises pensions and med plans where the private sector is taking pay cuts, no pensions and co-pay med or even no med plans.

There currently is a huge disconnect between private and public and the unions representing them are supposed to be a highly educated lot and they should know how it is like for the majority of people in Ontario right now. It’s downright greedy and very discouraging for the average folk right now when we have these public sector unions with their hands out asking for more to pad there already overly large paycheques.

Strong government that stands up for the average person right now is what is needed, and in this time of need it is what we have the least of.

"The public sector is too big relative to the private sector in the developed countries of the world. The public sector has a much better deal in terms of wages, benefits, job security, and working conditions, and it's creating a two-tier society of haves and have-nots."

The private sector creates wealth while the public sector distributes it, and the result of the imbalance is there are too many people who are working to distribute the wealth and too few people who are working to create it, according to Hlinka.

Waste Of Money

We got a few emails about this one and it makes us shake our heads together collectively. Apparently are local police force has decided that it is a good idea to travel through parking lots and check if your doors are locked and if you have valuables in your car. If your car is unlocked then they leave you a note like a beacon in the night.

Two problems with this is that the notes act like a come rob my car beacon to the real thieves out there and two don’t the police have anything better to do then travel through parking lots checking locks. After all this is the same force that says they need more officers to adequately do their jobs. And here they are wasting their time doing this. We have always assumed that are police force had been reduced to serve and collect to collect revenues for the region, but here we have more of a waste of time. It is mean time that someone step up and direct the police force to utilize their means at stopping big crime and protecting citizens of the region.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Slow Week

2011-10-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

Maybe it is a good thing but it has been a slow week without much going on. The good news is that the 4.3 million dollar hole in Newcastle is part way done. Lambs Road got paved halfway up with asphalt and the other half with a gravel oil mix. The there is the new CTC opening.

The only other thing of note is that we can see are by-law officers are as active as usual and ticketing vehicles parked on the road overnight. OKay if they actually did enforce this policy then they could pay the town debt off in less then two weeks. But that would involve work.

Anyways see you next week.

Clarington Tax Guardian

Core Business

2011-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Core Business

Unless you have had your head in the sand of late, you will know that the Toronto Zoo is on the block. Plans have come out of late to make it a park, to be taken over by the feds. But this doesn’t really make sense from a tax payer’s point of view because it just transfers the costs from one level of government to another but it is still coming out of the taxpayer’s wallet. The plans to try and sell it to a private firm make the most sense and we firmly believe if they can balance the admission price at the right level it can be a viable business, and we hope it will be around for years and years to come.

But the main point to come out of the Toronto Zoo business is that it was determined that it was not a business that the city should be involved in. That would seem pretty obvious, but what else is out there that municipalities shouldn’t be involved in. We have been asking that for years now about recreation business and such.

For example is it up to the municipality to provide dance lesson, guitar lessons, art classes, hockey, soccer, baseball, pools, and other aquatic sports and the lists go on and on. Some municipalities even operate golf courses.

The question is it the responsibility for the municipality to operate these things or is this something that can be handed off to the private sector. After all a minority of people in the municipalities use them.

Could you imagine the uproar from the taxpayers if they decided to operate a ski hill, or a go-kart track or something of the like? There would be a stampede on town hall. Yet these are sports too!

So the real story to come out about the Zoo in Toronto is not really about the zoo but what other business really are something that the municipalities should not be operating and paying for.

Going forward as dollars get tighter and even people such as flip-flop come to realize they can’t raise taxes forever these are questions that will have to start be asked. And we owe Toronto and Rob Ford for getting the ball rolling.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

2011-10-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

This Article Speaks Volumes

Why Canada's income gap will continue to grow

The destabilizing divide between rich and poor in Canada is a self-perpetuating phenomenon.

The gap between rich and poor is certainly nothing new. But the evidence that it's rapidly growing wider in Canada — especially given our traditional conviction that we're a kinder, gentler place than most — is worth a serious ponder.
The Conference Board of Canada, which is known for thorough and dispassionate economic analysis, has just issued a report that shows income inequality has grown faster in Canada since the mid-1990s than it has in the U.S.

This isn't new either: based on 2006 census results, Statistics Canada has already established that earnings among the richest fifth of Canadians grew 16.4 per cent between 1980 and 2005, while the poorest one-fifth of the population saw earnings fall by 20.6 per cent in that period. Meanwhile, earnings among people in the middle stagnated.

* Where the income gap is rising the most

That middle ground erosion has become entrenched to the point where Wal-Mart Canada recently confirmed that it is adapting its retail strategy to reflect pronounced polarization between affluent shoppers (who have drifted there during the recession) and the lowest economic strata. The middle class is no longer the market it once was.
The overall impact of globalization gets much of the rap, but there's no question that the economic recession — and the way government stimulus was spent — hasn't helped buck the trend.

The Conference Board data shows that the largest income gap is still in the U.S. and it has also risen in 10 of 17 countries in the past 15 years. So Canada is hardly alone in facing this issue. But what we do have to figure out on our own is what the numbers actually mean to us and our society — and what to do about it.
One of the first things to consider is what this portends for our relationship with Big Government.
Historically, Canadians have been much more comfortable with a significant state presence in their lives than American. Arguably, however, the recent rise of the Conservative party and its more laissez faire credo, signals a change in attitude and expectations.
In the U.S., the income gap has certainly been exacerbated by the economic downturn and by a deep-rooted mistrust of Big Government, something which has only increased with the rise of the Tea Party movement.

· What is the ideal salary?

There, the political aversion to raising taxes for even the wealthiest, along with the tax cuts that occurred for those high-income earners during the years of Republican government, has made it an insolvable problem in the short term.
The growth of the income gap in countries like Canada, however, means that as public spending is cut, only the rich can afford things like private security services, gated estates and privately run airports. The result? The infrastructure that provides a meeting point between various income classes becomes even more frayed — with all that implies.
Economic data has already shown the income inequity between rural and urban populations, but it's worth looking at the gap specifically in the urban context (where a growing number of Canadians live).

As the middle class is squeezed out of a city (in part because of discomfort caused by the extremes of poverty and wealth), economic polarization is exaggerated. Essentially, rich and poor increasingly live in separate pockets and meet — when they do at all — almost by accident.

The rich tend to live closer to public transit, even though they use it less; they shop at high-end stores; use separate, privately run exercise and recreation facilities.

* Where the income gap is rising the most

And so, the gap grows socially and meeting points (physical and emotional) between different economic classes decrease further. The two solitudes are living very different lives with very little common ground.(Currently in Toronto, this trend is demonstrated by things like the debate over shuttering the Riverdale Zoo, public libraries and other community venues.)

What about the filling — the middle class?

It has been the traditional point of intersection in our socio-economic structure: if you were poor, you strove to join its ranks; if you were already there, you strove to join the next level up.

But given the growing gap, for most people the leap from poor to rich is simply too much to make — at least in one generation. That not only leads to inevitable bitterness but to a more than ever sharply divided political class of decision-makers.

In effect, as the middle class erodes, so does the need for middle-of-the-road political parties that serve their needs, and we see more extremism on both sides. That hasn't happened yet in good old, moderate Canada (although arguably the evisceration of the traditional middle-ground Liberal Party of Canada is a step in that direction, as the Conservatives have taken over that centre ground).

That said, it is certainly apparent in the U.S. — and in this regard, it may be a harbinger of things to come with social and economic policies tailored specifically for either rich or poor, with little effort or need to try to find middle ground.

It may not be news, but it's certainly something that will continue to make news.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Failure Not An Option!

2011-10-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

Failure Not an Option

There are some people/politicians out there who are watching what is happening in Toronto with a close eye. There are those that want him(ROB FORD) to fail either through their own short sightedness or naivety. Why? Simple if he fails then it takes the pressure off them to make changes in their own community. If Ford fails then they can see it as a sign that they don’t have to clean up the mess in their own backyard. They see it as a sign they can continue on with the same business model ad nausea. That business model is the one that you have seen for years. It was the business model that worked when the economy was purring along and almost everyone had not only a job but a good job. They could afford the ever present incremental rise in property taxes because they were getting an incremental raise to their pay at work. So the whole business model worked. You got more money so you could afford to pay more money for various things including property taxes. No one really cared when property taxes went up, and no one really wondered why. They never questioned why another arena, or bridge or tunnel, or road, or museum, or library, or park was built because we could afford it.

But come economic meltdown and one recession, and possibly two right in a row with people out of work, and the ones finding work at a significantly lower rate of compensation then they were getting and the whole municipal business model grinds to a halt. There are those like Flip Flop and gang that have come out during the campaign and continue to speak out that nothing is wrong. The economy is purring along and the people of Clarington are making good money and the world is good. This is flip flop and gang with their collective heads buried in the sand or elsewhere depending on your point of view not really wanting to look outside the window and see what is going on. They don’t want to see the people that are laid off. The recent grads from college/universities finding part time jobs if they get a job at all at the magical rate of $10.25 an hour.

They do not want to accept this reality because it means that the business model of yesteryear that they grew up with is broken and gone forever. If they keep they heads in the sand then they can continue to operate the municipality along the old lines of your taxes increase this year will affect the average citizen just thirty dollars. Add that to the thirty from the year before and the forty before that and the twenty before that and so on and they have lifted a wad of cash right out from under you to feed their inability to face the new reality and face the need that the business model of the municipality is broken and that they need to work harder to find savings and yes make cuts to programs/wages to realize these savings. For the average folk out there cannot afford another increase in taxes at any level.

That is why Rob Ford and his recent setbacks are so important to us because he represents the tip of the spear and if he fails then all the other politicians throughout Ontario, even Canada can breathe a sigh of relief because if a tough nut like Rob can’t get the job done then they can read it as they don’t have to. Can you imagine a weak politicians like Flip Flop trying to get reform pushed through council even if he realized it had to be done(and he doesn’t) without a boatload of pressure from the general public?

Yeah we all know it wouldn’t get done. It would be too hard for flip flop to face a few people angry at you even though it is the necessary thing to get done. It is too easy to just continue on as is, then to do something perceived as unpopular by a small group of loud vocal people.

That is why those people cheering on the recent setbacks of Rob Fords first year are really just setting themselves up and us for years and years of higher taxes and no accountability towards the general public. So for those enamoured with the old business model beware it is over. Wishing Ford fails doesn’t change a thing the problems are still there and change and cuts need to be made so burying your head in the sand doesn’t make it disappear, for once you come up to breathe the reality of the new economy will set in.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/10/03/you-cant-fight-city-hall/#more-217467

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Won't Get Fooled Again!

2011-09-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Flip Flop unloads another load of BS at recent Newcastle meeting. In this meeting Flip Flop claims that current council brought the Darlington New Build, wrong that will be determined by the province plain and simple.

He also claims that we are in the best position of the lakefront Durham municipalities. But isn’t this like taking a row of rotten apples and saying that you’re the least rotten of all of them. You’re still rotten. How about comparing yourself to not just these municipalities but to others throughout Ontario and even Canada?

Then once again he compares property tax rates and says gee we have the lowest across these same municipalities. But again his apples to oranges argument he conveniently continues to overlook is that it is relevant to property value. The facts are we have the third highest percentage in the GTA. So let facts be facts Flip Flop and own up to it. We are one of the least efficient when it comes to are rates, and that is why they are so high compared to others. Let’s not let the property value equation enter the game. Let’s look at the percentage.

Then he says that are residents earn high rates of income. True if you are of boomer age. But if he bothered to actual look at what is going on he will have noticed all those people below boomer age struggling to keep and get jobs, let alone all of our kids recent graduates from various colleges and universities throughout Ontario struggling to find any job, often times taking on more than one part time job to make ends meet at minimum wage or slightly above. Time to get your head out of the sand Flip Flop and see what is really going on in Durham.

Then he claims that we have a lower debt and are debt service is better than are neighbours but again this is claiming that you’re less rotten then your neighbours. But you’re still rotten Flip Flop.

Then he claims that he paid off 2 million more on the great rec. debt then they had to. But he fails to mention that he increased that debt by borrowing 4.3 million from the region to bore a hole under a railway embankment in Newcastle. So using basic math taught to us in grade one, that would in fact mean that you increased the debt by 2.3 million dollars not reduced it. Maybe Flip Flop should use a calculator.

Stables reserves and dropping debt levels he says. Okay why once again did you increase debt by 4.3 million dollars?

Kept laughing? Was that with you or at you as people see through you and your statements?

582 million dollars invested in Clarington through public works projects out of the taxpayer’s wallet. Not a private factory or anything to brag about here. Then you applaud the investment in the Courtice incinerator. We know are memory can be dim, but isn’t this the thing you ran against last election, like everyone else on council save Novak, and here you are applauding the investment does this not call into question your credibility. And you wonder why you are called Flip Flop and have no credibility left whatsoever!

Then there is that 22 billion in public works spending like 407 etc. How about some private investment so we can get some of our kid’s decent sustainable jobs?

"It's competitive. We need to show the world what a great place this is if we're going to attract jobs and investments, if we're going to continue to succeed."

It is competitive and that’s why none of your efforts have produced private dollars coming to Clarington to build factories and such probably because we have too much red tape, too much bureaucracy and lastly way too much property tax!

"We tend to forget that agriculture, which has been here forever, is the largest contributor to our local economy," he said. "Agriculture is huge, and all levels of agriculture we need to take a look at, and we're doing that now, to see how we expand that side of the business."

If this is so important and it is, how come you keep building houses on good farm land? Oh yeah you need the development fees to pay off that debt you just increased, that somehow you think you have decreased. With math skills like this no wonder he thinks are property taxes are so low!

As for the Crown Royal people thinking that we are friendly people, that’s true. But since there selling Crown Royal they probably say that about everyone.

So in the end we have a mayor that we will not be fooled again by. It’s to the point where almost nothing that comes from him is believable now. Almost like Dalton in last week’s debate. Wouldn’t it be refreshing for the people of Clarington if instead of have sunshine shoved up are collective wazzo that we were told the truth?

Like are debt is high and we have increased it to build a project that we could have put off. We have a high level of property taxes because we have no ability to manage a dollar. We cannot attract private money to Clarington because are taxes are too high and we have way to much red tape and so we rely on public money from other levels of government and that’s is why your kids have no sustainable job.

No the truth hurts and that why you’re not told.

Till Next time the Clarington tax guardian.

And next time when your paying your visa bill let’s use some flip flop math and then it might seem smaller.

The Past, The Present, The Future. Lesson Learned?

2011-09-22T12:39:00.001-07:00

The Past, The Present, The Future. Lesson Learned?

Recently former candidate for ward one in courtice Mark Stanisz wrote a letter to the editors of newsdurham. In it he makes a good summary of where the leaders of Clarington need to go in the future as well as the citizens. The only thing we thought he missed was the fact that although there will always be those people of Clarington disappointed in the results of the incinerator there is a large majority of the populous that voted for their respective candidates such as flip flop foster, silent Ron, PR Woo and disappearing Wendy because they ran against the incinerator and when push came to shove they fell right over with hardly a sound. No surprise to us.

In fact there are those out there who believe that some of the candidates used the anti-incinerator platform as there only real issue to gain them office. As do we. Once in they had little to no intention of really doing anything about it. After-all there were really only two councillors that actually vehemently spoke out about the incinerator and continue to rally against it, that of Neal, and Traill.

When one looks back at the last election and all the campaigning, it was really only Stainisz himself, McCullough and Adams who had a broader platform then just the incinerator and the usual fair. Only Adams of the mayoral candidates even mentioned something had to be done about the taxes and the way the community runs its business. Of the regional candidates the only one who had anything more than the for or against incinerator was McCullough.

So when people voted usually based on two things, one being their stance on the incinerator and the other being name recognition they got what they got. A bunch of weak politicians with no platform who caved under pressure and once that issue was done they have nothing to bring to the table to fix the many other issues Clarington has, some of which Stainisz listed in his letter to the editor.

The moral of the last election is to delve deeper into a candidates platform and not to let just one deciding issue to decide the whole election. The other is to not vote just on name recognition. Cause what we have now is just a waste of another three more years until we can get better more active people in that have actual ideas, and ears that listen, and brains that understand, and mouths that speak. And yes people that understand the value of a dollar and what is really going on out there with our kids and economy.

Instead of the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil candidates we have got.

To the editor:

Re: 'Fool me once' letter to the editor, durhamregion.com, Sept. 7, 2011.

The letter writer makes several good points -- I'll add a few of my own.

There were many, many candidates in 2010 -- myself included -- who presented various strategies on how to stop the incinerator and had voters supported different choices events may have worked out differently.

In the end, Clarington got precisely the combination of representatives it voted for.

Those elected to office played the cards they were dealt and if you talk to them, each made decisions they thought were best.

But for all intents and purposes, except for monitoring and a positive result from a pending court challenge, the incinerator issue has concluded.

Clarington now needs to unite and pursue future opportunities to enhance our communities, including lower taxation, GO expansion, Darlington new build and the construction of Hwy. 407.

Mark Stanisz

Courtice

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Past, The Present, The Futre. Lesson Learned?

2011-09-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

The Past, The Present, The Future. Lesson Learned?

Instead of the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil candidates we have got.

To the editor:

Re: 'Fool me once' letter to the editor, durhamregion.com, Sept. 7, 2011.

The letter writer makes several good points -- I'll add a few of my own.

In the end, Clarington got precisely the combination of representatives it voted for.

Those elected to office played the cards they were dealt and if you talk to them, each made decisions they thought were best.

But for all intents and purposes, except for monitoring and a positive result from a pending court challenge, the incinerator issue has concluded.

Clarington now needs to unite and pursue future opportunities to enhance our communities, including lower taxation, GO expansion, Darlington new build and the construction of Hwy. 407.

Mark Stanisz

Courtice

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Time For Some Real Reporting

2011-09-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Local Fluff Does Community Disservice

Is it time that Clarington steps back into the past and gets a new newspaper something like the old Bowmanville Statesman’s or the current Orono Times.

The current NewDurham run group of papers have largely become forgettable with a plethora of fluff pieces and lots of filler in between and hard reporting almost completely gone. If an average resident of Clarington was to learn something about what was going on in Clarington from the current paper it would be a large waste of time.

It would appear almost everything was great and the paper would hit the recycling bid with hardly a read.

What we need is someone, maybe even the owners of Orono Times to step up and run a Clarington wide paper with some grit an actual reporting, rather than the feeble paper we have.

Hopeful something like this happens in the future, either that or NewsDurham gets back to some serious reporting. But as it stands now we have got next to nothing to learn what is going on in Clarington, other than word of mouth and we know how reliable that is.

Toronto Watch

It appears that Mayor Ford is under pressure and the cuts that have to be made may be unpopular such as the closing of High Park Zoo. If it happens and regardless of support for it, it may happen it makes us wonder how Flip Flop would be able to handle this as he will in the near future when he comes to the realization that future tax increases in an economy that looks like it is sliding back into recession will be very unpopular.

We here at the Clarington Tax Guardian feel that he will not be able to make the hard choices when it comes to looking for cuts and actually getting the cuts done. It will probably be another three years before we get someone in that has got the ability to get something done. Are current council across the board right now seems to be stuck in neutral with nothing getting done short of spending more money.

Here’s hoping someone wakes up out of their slumber and starts trying to get something done some time.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Warning Signs On The Road Ahead

2011-09-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Warning Signs On The Road Ahead!

In light of all the bad economic news it would seem like the best thing for are various levels of government to do would be to start to consolidate their trivial spending and focus on priorities. With higher expenses and Canadian’s living pay cheque to paycheque it would seem time is now to start listening to the people and not their own egos.

http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_reuters/canadians_living_paycheque_to_paycheque/014b4dfd

http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/analysis_the_bank_of_canadas_changing_language/80a0d029

Canadians living paycheque to paycheque

08/09/2011 12:02:47 PM

CBC News

Most Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque and would be in financial difficulty if their pay was even one week late, a new survey suggests.

A poll commissioned by the Canadian Payroll Association released Thursday found that 57 per cent of respondents couldn't deal with a one-week delay in their pay. The figure jumped to 63 per cent among workers between 18 and 34 years old. For single parents, it jumped to 74 per cent.

Financial planners recommend having an emergency fund with enough money to fund three months' worth of expenses, should the need arise.

Almost three quarters of respondents said they have saved less than a quarter of their retirement savings goal.

"This is particularly troubling when you realize that 71 per cent of the respondents are over the age of 35, with the bulk in their main saving years between 35 and 54," CPA chair Dianne Winsor said.

As a result, 40 per cent of respondents said they will likely now retire later than they had originally planned. In 40 per cent of those cases, the main reason cited was not saving enough for retirement.

While 60 per cent of respondents said they were trying to be better savers, a full 40 per cent said they were not trying to save any more.

Facing a sick patient

On July 19, the bank's language noted slower-than-expected U.S. economic growth, Japan recovering at a lower-than-expected pace from its nuclear disaster, and said "widespread concerns over sovereign debt have increased risk aversion and volatility in financial markets." In other words, investors were getting jumpy about how Europe might pull itself together without major defaults and weakened currency."

And on Wednesday, laying out all the factors that are besetting global growth and the Canadian economy, the bank finally sounded a doctor facing a sick patient.

It didn't explicitly suggest returning to more stimulus (lowering interest rates), as some economists had forecast it might, but the bank no longer expected to withdraw economic stimulus:

"In light of slowing global economic momentum and heightened financial uncertainty, the need to withdraw monetary policy stimulus has diminished. The Bank will continue to monitor carefully economic and financial developments in the Canadian and global economies, together with the evolution of risks, and set monetary policy consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target over the medium term."

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Only Half The Truth

2011-09-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Dalton, Half The Story

We are sure by now that you will have seen the Liberal commercials where Dalton stands before the camera and says that he realizes that he is not the most popular person in Canada at this moment. He then goes on to list all the things he has achieved during his term as premier.

Unfortunately for Dalton this is only half the story. Every leader always has a few good points, even some of the most infamous of them. But it is all the stuff not mentioned that loses the election. How about the HST for starters and how about the smart meter, how about soaring insurance rates, and gas prices partly created by Daltons environmental push to get refineries out of Ontario. How about the huge ongoing debt that he has added to every year. How about the lack of jobs and the items just go on and on.

It comes to a balance sheet approach where the negatives outstrip the positives and that is what your vote should be based on.

There is no doubt that Dalton cares and has tried, but it’s going to take some hard-core politics to get this province straightened out and Dalton just doesn’t have it in him to get the job done. Who can, who knows, but the one sure thing is that it isn’t Dalton, that’s for sure.

The Toronto Watch

The one sure thing that is happening right now is that every municipal politician in the province is watching Toronto right now. They hopefully have their notebooks out and are making notations for what is happening there right now, for it will be rolling out to a small town near you next election. Getting the unwieldy costs structures of our regions and municipalities under control will be number one on the agenda and the people like Flip Flop and gang that don’t see this will be watching from the sidelines as someone else that can does.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

2011-08-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Democracy Can Still Work

What we saw this last week in BC proves that sometimes democracy still can work. With the signature campaign initiated by ex-premier of BC to force a referendum on the issue of the HST show`s that a democracy can still get things done. The problem is that it should not have got that far in the first place. The unthinking government should have known in the first place that the people of BC, just as the people in Ontario that we didn’t want the HST.

Now we can only hope that we in Ontario can get the HST overturned here as well. But the main point of all this is that if we work together a democracy can still work. With a united voice we can get things done, right from the local level all the way up to the federal level.

Now let’s get out there and get something positive done, and wake up our sleeping, unthinking, uncomprehending politicians at all levels, and tell them we just won’t take their crap anymore.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Online Voting, One Step Closer To The Future!

2011-08-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Online Voting, One Step Closer To The Future

http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/canada/elections_canada_lobbies_for_test_of_online_voting/3392bab2

Recently it has been announced by elections Canada that they will test online voting during the next election. This is something we have been pushing for, for a while now.

We firmly believe that this is the first step into the future where we will have a true democracy where everyone has a vote on all major issues. Politicians will be reduced to figuring out the nuts and bolts of the issues but the final vote instead of in the past being made by your representative will be made by you.

This new move by elections Canada is the first step in this direction.

Now let’s apply this possible image of the future to local politics and imagine what would have happened if everyone had a vote on certain things like the efw, or hiring’s of more firemen, or raising taxes for a park. The list goes on, but just imagine you going home and opening your email and there are the issues of the week, we all the relevant information for you to read and then you decide how you want to vote with say a week deadline to get it done.

So the first step is here, and it is up to us to push it along to the point where it is one person one vote, in a true democracy without the failures of the past where you vote for a politician and once they get in they either don’t follow through on their platform or just flat out lie to you.

Just like the last municipal election.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Hole In The Sky!

2011-08-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hole In The Sky

Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching is the recent sound you have been hearing from the municipality of late. As in the sound of money that they have been taking from you and spending uncontrollably of late. How about the new museum hire, and then the five new firemen that they are preparing to hire soon then finally the 4.1 million hole in the wall in Newcastle. (we firmly believe that an actual tunnel can be built for a lot less.)

IT shows that our council and the staff that run our municipality haven’t got the message yet. Have they not read the papers or watched the news. Have they not learned that debt is a bad thing and here they want to borrow money from the region, one hand to the other. Pay five percent interest on it and pay it back over 15 years through development fess by building houses over more farmland. All in a slowing house market. It seems like a path to success by our big thinkers on council and staff.

In times like this we need to pay down our rec debt at approx. 31 million and then put money in the bank. Then just maybe down the road when money is in the bank we can punch a rather expensive hole through a railway embankment in order to get pedestrians down to the beach.

A more affordable alternative and a bigger thinking approach, something obviously our council has shown it cannot do would be to simply block the road off at the tunnel and use the whole tunnel as the pedestrian tunnel costing probably less than 50 grand to complete. Then the traffic would be directed down the recently repaved and nice smooth Toronto Street road to the communities below the CN railline. Sure this would add a couple minutes commute to the communities below but just think it would save the taxpayer a whopping 4.1 million dollars.

And just think there is precedent to this when council closed down Cedar Crest beach access from highway 57 years ago and directed traffic down through West Beach Road.

This is the kind of thinking we need council and staff to start thinking about. Like how to get the same effect without throwing millions at it. IT is time both council and staff start thinking about the tax payer first.

But instead we have a council that our preparing to hire 5 new firefighters at approx... $75,000 a crack and then hire a new museum worker and then to round it off go in debt even more to build a 4.1 million hole in the wall.

IT should be even more evident now than ever that we need bigger thinking politicians in that question staff like Neal did earlier this year. We need to question where every dollar goes and we need people to think beyond the box. With Flip Flop and gang we got nothing. If we have learned anything over the last few days is that financing through debt is a bad things and we need to start living within our current means not mortgaging our future of our kids and community to finance large projects and extra hiring’s when exactly the opposite is needed right now.

Car Insurance is up

House Insurance is up

Gas is Up

Utilities are Up

Price of Food Up

Property Taxes Up

Debt Up

Income is the same(assuming you have a job)

Can anyone spell broken at this point and point it out to Flip Flop and gang.

Excerpts From Article On Debt/Interest Rates:

But Hlinka warns there is a risk in cutting interest rates.

"I feel like the wild-eyed Cassandra inside the gates of Troy who said 'Don't bring in that statue. It can lead to no good.'"

Rather than addressing fundamental economic problems, public policy makers are playing on the margins with factors that have nothing to do with what the real issues are, such as structural imbalances in the economy, says Hlinka.

"By the way, these are very unpopular things to say and I'm the first to admit it."

It's an easier fix to fiddle with interest rates, rather than tackle politically sensitive issues, says Hlinka.

"To raise interest rates would drive up the Canadian dollar, making our exports that much less competitive. Now it seems almost inevitable that the next move for our benchmark interest rates will be down."

But that could push the country into a deep and prolonged recession with record levels of private debt, according to Hlinka.

Cutting interest rates could further overheat the housing market and encourage people to spend beyond their limits, creating a bubble that will soon burst, predicts Hlinka.

He points to Vancouver, a city whose housing market has cooled considerably this summer, as a harbinger of things to come for Toronto and other Canadian cities.

Now let’s all repeat this together, “debt is a bad thing!”

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Have We Learned?

2011-08-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Have We Learned?

IN the last several weeks we have seen some scary things come close. We have seen the US come so very close to defaulting on their debt.

Why is this important because we all need to learn from their folly, right from us as individuals through the various levels of government that represent us?

WE need to stop paying for things by going into debt to do it. We need first to have the money in the bank before we decide to spend it. Then when we do spend it we have to make sure that we are spending it wisely and getting our dollars’ worth. We need to spend on necessities and live in a frugal fashion. Play time and squandering is over. We need to pay off our debts and leave our children a future. No more me first me to type of thinking.

How the next ten years goes will define a whole generation. In Clarington we need to stop thinking of development fees as lottery winnings, but a rainy day fund. We need to get rid of our recreation debt and not do it again. We need to start thinking that what we have is good enough and that we do not always need new. For example do we need to build a new fire hall in Newcastle, or can the existing structure be retained? Do we need to hire someone at the museum? Do we need a new library in Courtice? Do we need a new park in Courtice? And the list goes on and on.

We need to start thinking about every dollar spent and putting the taxpayer first and foremost.

Durham 20 Money Pit

Anyone that lives in Clarington and happens to drive in the Northern limits of our municipality has probably driven more then once on Regional Road Durham 20 should know that it has been repaved umpteen times in the last several years. It is a money pit. They repave it and the gravel trucks systematically destroy it. They repave it and it happens again. It is time to stop this vicious cycle and stop making Durham taxpayers pay over and over for it again and again.

IT is time to start charging tolls for every gravel truck that makes its way down the road. It can be a set fee for each pit per year or a fee per truck leaving the lot. But either way the gravel pits need to start paying for the complete costs of the ongoing road work on Durham 20.

It is time for our regional councillors to get this done. Charging the taxpayers of Durham to repair this ongoing destruction of this road and the roads adjoining it is a crime when 90% of the destruction can be traced back to these gravel trucks.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

56 MPG Good For You?

2011-07-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

56 MPG Good For You?

With the recent announcement that the US had passed new fuel economy standards to approx. 56 mpg you probably think that you’re going to save a lot of money right.

Think again. What this means that in order to achieve this very large fuel economy standard by 2025 is that the cost of your car will be going way up to pay for all these improvements. In the US there were survey’s done that asked if they supported the new standards. No surprise 71% answered yes. After all who doesn’t want to get more miles out of a tank of gas hence saving you money right? Well what wasn’t asked is how many would support it when the cost of a car would go up $5000 minimum to achieve it and shrink in size to get there. Needless to say that when you add this in not many people supported it.

But none the less it is the new standard. The real kicker is that it will be cheaper for the manufacturers to just pay the fines for not achieving it and hence cheaper for you then actually building very expensive cars to get there. This is something BMW, Mercedes and others have been doing for years.

This is a perfect example of why we all need to look beyond the headlines and read the details and see the exact costs of these policies to yours and ours pocket books really is.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Opportunity Knocks

2011-07-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

Opportunity Knocks

The municipality of Clarington and Durham Region has been handed a unique opportunity. Council recently declared that they wanted to increase tourism to Clarington, and that was one of their major goals. Well now they have an opportunity. With news back in June that Mosport International Raceway had been purchased from billionaire Dr. Don Panoz by CMV consisting of Alan Boughton, billionaire Carlo Fidani, and Canadian racing legend Ron Fellows.

It`s no secret that Mosport is the biggest tourist draw to the Durham region and Clarington. IT`s also no secret that business loves when Mosport has big events because it fills up hotel rooms and restaurants and creates business big and small throughout the municipality.

CMV has announced that they have big intentions when it comes to Mosport from attracting more events and making many improvements throughout the various facilities that now number four tracks at the raceway.

If are small thinking politicians can get beyond there yester year thinking they have been presented with a unique once in a life time opportunity to put Clarington on the map and increase tourism so much that every business can benefit throughout Clarington and Durham.

When CMV comes knocking we hope that Foster and gang will be listening intently because Mosport can do more in one weekend then the rest of their weak attempts at attracting tourists do all year.

Opportunity knocks, who answering the door.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Canary In the Mine Shaft

2011-07-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

The Canary in the Mine Shaft

IT may be called the canary in the mineshaft, or the tip of the spear, maybe even the realization, the awakening. The number of description could go on and on. But what is happening right now in the US with their deficit/budget meltdown and in Toronto is a glimpse into the future at what every municipality and every level of government is going to have to face coming over the next few years.

We saw NewsDurham/Clarington This Week award our yesteryear thinking politicians with big grades well we did exactly the opposite. Yester year thinking Newsdurham thinks that old time’s politics is the way to go. That by awarding old thinking you will get different results. But let’s look at how this old politics and the old way of thinking is getting us in Clarington.

We have over built on indoor recreation going into debt to do so. We have recklessly built more and more houses to pay for it ruining the character of the communities themselves. We have ran up taxes to pay for it and then paid reckless rates of compensation to our municipal workers to the point that something somewhere has to break before too long. We have lived beyond our means.

The old answer was to borrow more against are development fees in the past and yes tax more to pay for stuff we don’t need and cannot afford.

Now like Toronto and the US and many other communities and levels of government across Canada and the US we are at a crossroads. The proverbial fork in the road.

We can take the left path and ignore the debt and high taxes and see how far we get before the gases kill the canary in the mineshaft. Or we can go right and head towards the realization that we have to do something right now. WE have to get the taxes down, and we have to get the debt paid off and we have to bring back a sense of community that endless building is killing one house at a time.

That is why yester year thinking politicians such as Flip Flop Foster, Novak, Invisible Ron, PR Woo, and Disappearing Wendy are not the way to go. That is why they get d and f on our reports cards. We need more councillors like the Neal’s and the Traill that will speak out and realize that there is a problem. Oh yes we also need people like McCullough and Adams as well. Forward thinkers with forward ideas.

That’s why every politician across Canada is watching Toronto Mayor Ford right now and what is going on there. Toronto has realized that the old routine of spend and tax cannot go on. Inflated union wages and high exec’s salaries downtown cannot stand. Win or lose in Toronto the tidal wave is coming to a small community near year in the near future. If you don’t want to get washed up in it get out of the way.

So the forks are here in the road ahead for Toronto, the US and Clarington. Do we take the road of high taxes, high debt? Or do we take the road of paying of debt and make some cuts.

This is your decision that you the voter will have to make three years from now. Why three years because no matter how loud you speak out to our local politicians they just refuse to listen and learn, and realize. The law of mathematics tells your two cannot beat five!

Let’s see over the ensuing weeks what happens to the canary.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/11/opportunity-knocks-city-eyes-spending-cuts

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

Party Time!

2011-07-10T10:56:00.001-07:00

Party Time In Clarington

For those that believe the housing bubble will burst hit the link:

http://finance.sympatico.ca/home/contentposting_reuters/canadas_housing_bubble_deemed_close_to_bursting/79ad4633

Parks

For those that wonder why your taxes were raised to pay for a park in Courtice when parks like Darlington Waterfront and Bondhead are not even remotely finished please enjoy sitting on the half of a picnic table at Darlington, yes we mean half and ponder why. Then you will notice all the trash around and that is answered a moment later when you look around and finally find the one very lonely garbage can to the side. Nice park! But why finish when you can start another. Clarington has many problems but one problem is that they like to build but not finish. Consolidate and finish, and when money is around build another and maintain what you have.

Was This In The Budget?

Anyone notice the museum is hiring someone to help set up display for 27 hours a week. How did this sneak into the picture? I guess are taxes will go up again. We guess this is a big priority for the municipality to have another person working at the little utilized museums.

Jim Bob`s BBQ

If you ever take the time to go through some of the minutes from council meetings you have to wonder if we voted our councillors in to attend peoples BBQ`s and other gathering`s to continue their campaigning like it never stopped. Or should they spend their time to create good policies and governance to make Clarington a better place to live and hopefully work.

Instead we have a council comparing the social events they went to. The challenge we have for our council is to come to every council meetings with an idea of how to save the municipality money. It can be something simple like a central purchasing unit to purchase supplies such as gloves instead of paying retail value at places like Home Depot. It can be ideas on cuts or ideas to improve productivity throughout Clarington’s vast network of departments and employees. Therefore if we have each of our council members comes up with one idea each per meeting we will have seven ideas to follow through on. This would be a good thing for the taxpayers of Clarington to have.

Follow this up every council meeting and we have lots of ideas and lots of savings. But our council members seem to have their mind’s on attending BBQ’s and luncheon and other gatherings. We would like to see them spending an equal amount of time and lots of focus on making living in Clarington sustainable over the long term by controlling property taxes.

Instead we have are highly paid council members going to social events and spending money. IT is time that we get our monies worth and have them actually work for their money and save a bit for us. And there is no time like the present to get this started.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Report Cards Are In!

2011-07-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Back By Request

Although it has only been six months we have had some requests for our yearly report cards on our councillor’s actions, or in many cases lack of action. Normally they are done yearly but what the heck six months is enough to determine how well, or in many cases just how bad our choices have been from the last election.

We readily do not have the information on how much are councillors have expensed to date, but we are prepared to make two predictions and that is Willie will probably have spent the most next to Foster and a lot more than anyone else and that Ron will be at the lowest. Makes you wonder why he cannot bring this frugal attitude to the town. Those are our predictions when it comes to expense accounts.

Well here we go.

Flip Flop Foster – right from the get go he collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane when it came to the efw issue. It makes you wonder how truthful he was when he ran against it and primarily won on his stance on this issue. Since then he has largely disappeared from the scene and at times largely lost control of council when people with passion and more in touch with people like Neal and Traill spoke out hard against him and his policy.

It is obvious that he didn’t even attempt to listen to the vast majority of people about high taxes when he was already defending his stance during the election with the move to Clarington issue from a higher mpac value clouding the truth. Since then he has raised taxes, decided that the standard four year plan was the way out and ignored the plight of everyday Clarington citizens. He doesn’t listen and doesn’t care. Therefore he gets a big “F” as in fail.

Ward 1,2 Mary - Unlike last time were she was more visible especially on her support for the efw issue; she has largely disappeared from the scene. Maybe she is taking cues from Ron here, we don’t know. The one thing that can be said is that she ran on her support for the efw and won. Yeah it was cloudy at some points but she won. Since then nothing notta. How about some ideas of reducing costs in the municipality?

Ward 3,4 PR Woo – One plus note is that we haven’t actually seen him in the papers lately. Maybe he was listening to us. Maybe not. Willie the man of the people we are made to believe actually listened once to the people when it came to the firehall issue letter writing campaign that put off construction on it. We are happy because it put off spending 4.5 million dollars for at least a year. Now if he would just propose that they leave it where it is saving us even more money we would be happy. Other then that he has largely been silent and either doesn’t realize or care that taxes are an issue and something needs to be done now to control costs. Willie is in a unique position to use his popularity to get something positive done. But he collapsed on the efw issue and just hasn’t been relevant since. He gets an “F” for not even attempting to follow through on his platform.

Ward One – Neal, Passion, fire and some good ideas. His early attempts to take it to Foster and gang are well respected here. Even getting kicked out brings respect here for him. The only question we have is that he didn’t support the taxes increase except for the hiring of firefighters. We feel he needs to drop his support of this as well. His support of a park in Courtice and raising taxes to pay for it when this is the last thing we can afford is a bad idea we do not support. Especially when so many of the other parks like Darlington Waterfront and Bondhead haven’t been completed yet. Maybe if he suggested dropping some other form of recreation to pay for it then we might be able to get behind it. The problem with Courtice and no offense intended here is that previous councils let it be a dumping ground for strip malls “village centres” and endless housing developments in order to collect the development fees. Unlike Orono, Bowmanville, Newcastle and Hampton to a degree that had a downtown and a village centre Courtice lacks this to a large degree. Maybe if previous councils had insisted that the strip malls be built to more of a classical style then some downtown could have been formed. But spending $50,000 for a park in times like this and raising taxes to do so doesn’t make much sense here. Therefore despite his fighting attitude we can only give him a “B” here. We hope he continues the fight and is able to get some of the other silent councillors to side with him and form a voting block against Foster.

Ward Two – Invisible Ron – What can we say here? Should know better but doesn’t. Should be in touch with the people but isn’t. Conflict of interest when it comes to downtown and not even remotely in touch with the outer areas. Collapsed on the efw issue and supports raising taxes and should know better. Just plain poor performance and it is time that he step down and let someone in that can be more active and more in touch with what the community needs. We give him an “D”. We could make suggestions to him to improve his performance but we don’t expect change nor will we get any. Only his expected frugal tendencies when it comes to expenses get him his “D” instead of a “F”.

Ward Three – Traill – We will give her the highest mark because she like Neal is full of fire and passion for the community. She gets a higher mark then Neal though for declaring that they should have done better on the budget and brought it in at zero. At least she realizes that there is a problem and that high taxes are a major concern. IT has been quiet of late and we hope that she keeps up her vocal opposition to Foster and we also hope that she can convince at least two other councillors to join her and Neal and form a voting block against Foster, and his staid old policies of yester year. We give her a “B plus” for her first six months. What we would like to see over the next six is for her to continue to speak out, and also come up with ways for the municipality to cut expenses using her legal knowledge to get us out of contracts and let the municipality contract work out in a bidding process.

Ward Four – Disappearing Wendy – We believe that when Ward four voters voted in Wendy they expected a whole lot more then they got. Especially when they could have had more outspoken candidates like Mackesey represent them. An initial flurry of action throwing in with the Neal/Traill camp quickly became a retreat and now she pretty much rubber stamps whatever Foster comes up with. She gets a “F” for just not doing anything at all. If she isn’t going to do anything at all and propose anything to get the costs down then maybe she should just quit so we can get someone in more active and with the times and what is going on out there in the present with costs and the economy.

All in all we have a poor pack of performers and things can only get better right? Well maybe? Okay let’s be realistic now. This group for the most part with waste the next three and half years and the situation will be so bad come 2014 that maybe some of the people that could fix it will walk away and wipe their hands of the mess called Clarington.

In order to fix some of the problems they need to look at selling off indoor recreation. Finish the parks with the money. Keep the fire departments with are volunteers, expand the existing Newcastle fire hall, not build a new one. Not build the Courtice Park until the others are done. Not build another Courtice library. Cut back on personal at the town hall. Cut back wages by 20% and contract out all work’s department work and bylaw officers. Reduce the amount of houses built until infrastructure and economy (jobs locally) can catch up. Pay down the debt, and reduce taxes by 8 to 10% over three years.

This can be achieved by first make sure that council members know just how pissed off you are, and also by voting next time on platform not name recognition. We know who lied, and who continues to lie. Now vote for someone that does what they say. Yes we know that is rare.

Finally in order to solve a problem, you first need to realize and accept that there is one.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

Apples Vs Oranges

2011-06-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Apples & Oranges

Recently you may have read that guess what you are in the third lowest tax bracket in the GTA for property taxes. If you take that at face value you may believe it and be intent with it and when election time not really care.

But that is the apple versus oranges argument you will hear time after time. The argument goes that if you move from Toronto or another high market value area, your taxes come down even though they have a smaller, in the case of Toronto a lot smaller percentage tax levy rate. This is true. If you moved to Clarington from Toronto and let’s say traded in your three bedroom bungalow on a forty foot lot for the close as identical thing in Clarington you will in fact be saving tax dollars. Why, because the MPAC value of property in Toronto is so much higher than ours.

In fact the further you move from GTA for the most part your taxes will go down because property values are less. This is with the exception of Oshawa where the average selling price is less than Clarington, we don’t need to explain why, you probably already know.

Toronto 0.009 * 600,000 = 5400

Clarington .014 * 250,000 = 3500

So when we have our politicians, past and present preaching to you that your property taxes are lower than elsewhere to get your votes, like Foster explained during the last election that people moving from the highest percentage of Oshawa to Clarington were pleased that their taxes were less. Oshawa’s tax percentage is set significantly higher to compensate for lower property values. So Foster was correct here these people are paying less.

Then we have former politicians who like to point out that people from Toronto love are taxes because they are lower. Well of course they will because their MPAC values are three to four times higher than ours, so even at higher percentage in Clarington they are less than Toronto. Now we do have the other effect where we have people coming from elsewhere in Ontario outside the GTA in both western and eastern Ontario to Clarington and wonder what the hell we are smoking cause out taxes are so high. But we don’t hear about these people from our politicians, past or present.

What they fail to mention is that we have the third highest percentage tax levy behind Oshawa and Brock Township. Another way to look at it is that we are the third least efficient with our taxes. Toronto with the lowest tax levy is trying and working hard and acknowledging that their taxes need to be brought down (and they have the lowest levy percentage) and controlled well are politicians sit on their hands and have raised theirs every year for untold years now. Markham even managed to bring in a zero increase at one point. They must be working harder than our council.

Why does this matter to us. Us being the lifelong resident of Clarington, or even Clark, or Darlington before that. Is that us are the ones; The majority that are complaining, and rightly so about high property taxes because they built their lives, and jobs, and lifestyles on living on lower incomes then Toronto residents. Now some have moved into their senior years and are living on fixed incomes and they just plain cannot afford the taxes increases that Foster and crew and all the past councils have brought in. The others even though still in their wage earning years again have decided that instead of spending untold thousands in gas and higher insurance rates to drive into to Toronto to make a living decided to make less in this area at local jobs in Durham, making less but spending less. But something broke and council started to live beyond their means and money was spent on stuff we really didn’t need and are taxes started to creep up higher than inflation, a lot higher at times until people started to speak out about them more and more. The people of Clarington became aware, and voted sometimes naively so in people that they thought gave a damn to get them under control. But Clarington got fat and lazy, and decided that it was easier to sit back and vote for increases to cover unnecessary expenditures. It became a trend, even policy until we have come to the point where we are today. More aware but still unable to do anything because are politicians are catering to those people that have come from Toronto and think that are taxes are lower (making are politicians almost zombie like in believing it), all the time forgetting about those that have lived here their whole lives and know that taxes are too high and know that they are in fact paying the third highest tax levy in the GTA!

Their houses have gone up in value, and their costs have gone up, and taxes have gone up. They the lifelong residents are the ones complaining and the ones ignored by Foster and crew. That’s why some our moving out of Clarington into other lands to pay lower taxes. Just like those people from Toronto and elsewhere are moving to Clarington and think they are getting lower taxes.

The point is that it’s an apple versus oranges issue. But the cold hard truth is that we have the third highest percentage of tax levy on our property and this is because our council isn’t working hard enough to keep them down. With the influx of these new residents some of the costs of the municipality should be spread over a greater populous and therefore taxes should be able to stay the same maybe even lowered. But with the influx of new residents the council has decide that the best way is to squander this extra income on more unneeded things.

That’s if they are listening in the first place to those lifelong residents of Clarington that put them there in the first place.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

Double Shot Of Bad News

2011-06-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Another week and more bad news.

This week most of us will probably get the double shot of bad news. First you probably will have got your yearly tax statement from the municipality showing you how much money they will pry out of your pocket to give to the charity case called Clarington.

Then to top it off we our sure that many of you had a chance to read through the recent mailing from the region with the lay-out of exactly where your tax increase went to. Then if you take a chance to read through it before you get pissed off and throw it in the garbage. You will then start to wonder and ask some questions. Questions without to many answers. Or at least good ones.

First off you notice the line that says the tax budget excludes water and sewage services which are funded through user rates. This is good. The more you use the more you pay. This is how it should be, and we knew that. But then you wonder why you the taxpayer are paying for Durham transit whether you use it or not. It isn’t like the taxpayer is paying for your car, your insurance or your gas. But guess what you are paying for someone else to take the bus. Or in Clarington’s case paying for air to travel around in the empty bus since there are so few people actually using it. We’ve blogged on this before “Empty bus goes round and round”.

http://claringtontaxguardian.blogspot.com/2010/07/empty-bus-goes-round-and-round.html

The point is shouldn’t the transit business be based on ridership and if it can’t make ends meet shut down or routes altered? Not how much you can subsidize it?

The other and we have commented on this before is the fact that we employ 871 police officers and 367 civilian staff. That’s a ratio of 2.3 officers per civilian employ. That’s a lot of civilian’s employed. Talk about a middle management problem here. Something is wrong here. Why so many civilians here. All administration, something else? If you have a breakdown of what these people do and why we need so many please drop us a line in the comments section. But regardless it seems like a lot of civilians especially when compared to the amount of officers.

You can read through and learn new things like you’re paying for dental care for youth, you’re paying for child care and nursery schools, child care programs, retirement homes, social housing and the list goes on. It is an interesting read and you should defiantly go through the details. It is an eye opener as to why are taxes are so high, and the surprising things infrastructure spending is so small in comparison to everything else.

Before you trash it read it, and then the next time there is election you can vote based on more than just one issue or name recognition. There are many things driving taxes up and if controls are not put in place to control them it will drive us all to the poor house.

And if you’re inclined to go downtown and buy one of their new “transparent” audio cds to hear what goes on in the council meetings go early we are sure there will be a big line up. No not really. Wonder what the mark up is on these cd’s and will the proceeds go to pay the debt down or pay for Foster’s morning coffee?

An a high five if the rumours are true that some councillors are looking at the benefit package the town employees are getting and how much it is getting out of control.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

Village By The Water

2011-06-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

RIP

Small Town Bowmanville

1852 – 2011

If you’re a music fan or a fan of Bowmanville you may recall a rock band from the 80’s called Chalk Circle, that turned out some pretty impressive tunes during their day. If you scratch a little deeper you may recall one of their songs called “Village”.

The lyrics are as follows:

The lights of Darlington Station appear, a sign that home is getting near, this droning machine, pushing me closer, a sort of irony as the cities disappear.

Village by the water keep my life in order, village by the railway; keep my life the best way.

Nothing is sacred in this old town, it’s not that far from the rest of the world, but I scratched the surface of my skin and I found my roots, come and hold me on a cold night, this is,,,

You have to wonder as you look back what happened to this village by the water. Was it endless immigration displacing people from Toronto into the suburbs, was it the province not controlling growth, was it the indifference of local politicians, was it a combination of all these factors coupled with greed through growth, and money.

Regardless of what it was the village of Bowmanville has ceased to exist. It has been replaced by and endless string of faceless houses, called Napa Valley, Rose Valley, Clarington Heights and an ongoing list of names that mean nothing to a lifelong resident of Clarington. Classic roads cut up and renamed Scugog South, North, West, East, Old, Lane, and Avenue etc. Names that no one’s knows or recognizes unless you happen to live nearby. It’s the same for the new residents not knowing the name of the old streets throughout Bowmanville unless they have the unfortunate slow daily commute through them like Church, Queen, and Concession etc. just to get to the 401 and head west.

Regardless of if you are a new resident of Bowmanville, or old and by extension Newcastle, and Courtice the fact is that the small town that we grew up in and hoped to live forever in, is gone forever and ever. It has been systematically demolished by the bulldozer, and backhoe and dump truck as farmers’ fields, and grassy meadows met their fates to be replaced by and endless stream of large houses on overly small lots, with cars spilling out onto the roadway from their impossible small driveways.

Built to feed the machine of growth, the race to the burbs, greed through development fees and just plain bad planning on the part of the municipality. The end result is groups of houses that have no historical reference to Bowmanville and its small town image. Besieged by “Village Centres” the fancy name the municipality calls strip malls. You know the ones with the ubiquitous dental clinic, the neighbourhood pub, a Chinese food restaurant, a pizza joint, and a corner store. Yeah you know the ones.

It isn’t that growth is bad. After all we all need to shop and there are certain things that we all desire to see in Clarington. Housing developments aren’t bad but when they go uncontrolled and spurt up faster than mushrooms overnight or the growth of algae in a pond then there is a problem. When they have no character or match the look of Bowmanville they almost look like an eyesore.

Our fine municipality has painted themselves into the corner now and like a mouse cannot find themselves out of the maze to save their lives. The growth they spurred on has left us with too much traffic for our existing infrastructure, not enough sewage capacity locally and the list goes on. It has also left us with a hole in the pocket book, through debt and high taxes. As the municipality grew it built recklessly they spent money irresponsibly on big rec., and forgetting infrastructure and forgetting the essence of the community. In theory as more people move into the municipality it should spread the costs over a greater base stabilizing or even reducing taxes. But instead through lack of quality leadership, lack of direction and missteps and misreads we have ended up with higher and higher taxes, and our development fees squandered.

Local job growth hasn’t even come close to matching the growth of the community.

In order to balance the book’s, and the debt they have created they have only two options to make more money quick and easy and that is to raise taxes and guess what build more and more houses irresponsibly without direction or forethought killing off small town Bowmanville a house at a time. The snowball effect of greed and money. If they had balanced the budget before spending money or spent only when it was in the bank maybe, just maybe we could slow down the growth, and have developments that actually complemented small town Bowmanville instead of detracting from it.

But with current leadership they still have not learned and shaken there old political roots, and thought process. They seem to think the best way out is a four year plan. To spend more, and build more. Ignore the balance sheets, ignore the economy, ignore the people, and most of all ignore small town Bowmanville. Money must be raised, and development fees collected and squandered. Or the big ugly machine grinds to a halt. The process goes on and on. All the time they forget about small town Bowmanville and their heritage and character.

Your kids will be blessed 20 years from now with an Oshawa like landscape of house all the way up to Taunton, maybe beyond. Houses that attach Bowmanville, to Courtice, and Newcastle and Orono. Until there is no differentiation between each place. It will just be houses and strip malls. People just coming and going and Small Town Bowmanville a distant memory that no one remembers anymore.

The end for small town Bowmanville has come may it rest in peace. Maybe just maybe we will get a leader with insight, and knowledge and a sense of community, and financial k knowledge in with a sense of history that can save this municipality before it reaches an “Oshawa” state of being.

Village by the water keep my life in order, village by the railway, keep my life the best way.

Rest in Peace Small Town Bowmanville

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

And The Beat Goes On

2011-06-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

And The Beat Goes On

Clarington council sets strategic plan for term

May 30, 2011 -

NEWCASTLE -- Clarington is going to grow over the next four years, if council has its way.

After two marathon meetings, council has hammered out the focus of the municipality's strategic plan until 2014.

The priorities will be promoting economic development and tourism, maintaining financial stability, connecting Clarington, promoting green initiatives, showcasing the community and investing in infrastructure -- including developing the waterfront and trails.

Council set and reviewed the goals, measures and strategies for each priority at the Wednesday, May 25 special meeting. The council input will be used by the consultant to create a final draft of the strategic plan.

The updated strategic plan will be brought back to council for final approval. When it is, a roll-out strategy for the plan will be included.

The above was from News Durham, now let’s break it down. All our councillors got together for two marathon meetings and the only thing they can come up with is the same old same old. There is not a single word here about how they will become more frugal and balance the budget within current means without raising taxes. You would think that anybody that reports back to the people in this day and age that this would be and should be always the number one item on the agenda at any one time. But instead they have decided to do the same thing all of the previous councils have decided to do.

What’s that, that is to ignore the issues and decide to spend more money? It has only taken five months and it should be apparent more than ever that are current council just isn’t up to the task and four years is a long time to wait to get someone in to fix the problems. We can only imagine how bad things will be four years from now.

This is an economy of what can we do without. We have to make decisions every day to save money. We have to come up with new innovative ways to cut our home budget to make ends meet. To be able to feed our families and pay the mortgage and the utility bills. To gas up the car to get to work in order to pay for all of this. But when it comes to our municipality and the majority of our council it would appear that they haven’t and will not ever grasp this. Good politics today isn’t about how much you build, and how much you spend. But how much you save your constituents when it comes to their pocket book. But instead we have a gang of spenders that do not and will never understand the value of a dollar. The gang of Foster/Woo/Hooper/Novak/Partner do not seem to get this.

Who will have to pay for these next four years of strategic vision? You!

In order to promote this economic development business looks for low taxes and friendly red tape free bureaucracy. Clarington gets one big strike here. Actually two since they have high taxes and lots of red tape.

Promoting tourism, well let’s realistically look at what we have. Number one would be the recently bought by Ron Fellows Mosport International Speedway by far and wide the biggest tourist draw, the next would be the Bowmanville Zoo, and third would probably be the Orono Cat World. Do you notice a trend here that they are all privately owned. Other good tourist attractions are the two local marinas Newcastle, and Bowmanville, but Foster doesn’t want to help with dredging, so how much is he concerned with the tourist.

Local public attractions such as the museum and the visual arts centre probably don’t even measure on the scale, yet we pour money into them every year. The answer that should have been brought up in these two exhaustive meetings would be to work something in conjunction with these three private businesses, Mosport and the two zoos. But instead we tax them up the whazzo, we build houses around the zoo so it can’t expand and so on. To say our council is out of touch with what brings tourists into Clarington is all the more apparent now than ever.

Now maintaining financial stability. What does this mean? Well it means that our council cannot and will not try to balance the books within current means and instead will pass on the costs of their vision to you through ever higher and higher property taxes. They will continue to finance things we do not need through debt, and spend are development fees unwisely.

Connecting Clarington, were assuming internet here, and we have been suggesting for years that are libraries be refocused to more internet access, lot less books, to make them smaller and hence cheaper to operate. But is this going to happen? We do not have a lot of confidence in this.

Green initiatives! Isn’t this the community that is fighting the wind mills. You can’t get more green then this. And then there is the solar panels down on Simpson and Baseline. Can’t have those either. So much for green.

Showcasing the community. What are we going to have another festival downtown? How about promoting the ones we have like the Orono Fair and such instead of looking for newfangled ways to promote the community.

Enhance the infrastructure. Isn’t this the community that ran up a debt of 41 million dollars to pay for arenas, and indoor soccer instead of putting the much needed money into roads and potholes, and bridges, and reducing the tax bill. Instead they ran up a debt and the taxes.

Waterfront and Trails. This is one we really like. The land was bought years ago at Bond Head, and Darlington and for the most part has sat for years and years largely underdeveloped. These are places that anyone in Clarington can use and enjoy; you don’t need to spend large sums of money like other sports to enjoy. But instead are council decided to run up millions supporting increasingly niche sports like hockey and neglected these parks. So now with 31 million still to pay on these centres they want to spend money on the parks and trails. Wouldn’t it make sense to hold off until the debt is paid before they commit money elsewhere, or even to sell of the arenas to private enterprise and use the recovered monies for the trails etc.

The plain facts is that if you spend two exhaustive meetings you should be able to do better than this. Where was the public say in this new “transparent” environment that they are supposedly creating. There is none that’s what.

We firmly believe that if the people of Clarington had thought a little more about the people they voted for, instead of name recognition, that they would have voted for some people like Adams and McCullough who actually could of come up with something a lot better than this. And we firmly believe that number one on their agenda would be the poor financial health of the community and how to get out of it. Instead we have a bunch of listless dreamers for the most part who will spend more tax more and take the clothes off your back to pay for it. That’s off course if they haven’t already.

We encourage you to read the previous blog with the letter from Port Perry, the same has happened here and it needs to stop. Another four years of uncontrolled Foster and you’ll be living in a shack with all of your income going out to the various levels of government with nothing for yourself.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Were Not The Only Ones

2011-05-30T16:36:00.001-07:00

This was forwarded to us by one of our readers. Sounds like Clarington as well dosen't it. So true but it will fall on Fosters deaf ears and uncomprehending mind.

Annual Scugog tax hikes add up over time

May 30, 2011 - 11:00 AM

To the editor:

I read with dismay the article in the Port Perry Star, 'Scugog has little to say about 2011 budget', on April 7. It said that Ward 5 Councillor Howard Danson assumed the silence means the public sees this as a "legitimate increase..."

Silence does not necessarily mean agreement, acceptance or approval. It can also mean that people feel that there is no point to 'fight' government or even attempt to voice their disapproval because as it is said, "The only two things a person can be sure of is death and taxes."

From 2006 to the end of 2011, our taxes have risen by 18.52 per cent. That includes the 5.3 per cent increase for this year, coupled with the increases over the last five years. A 5.3 per cent increase this year may not seem 'as bad' until one looks at it over a span of time.

The Township clearly lets us know that they only receive approximately 26 per cent of the money collected, while the Region receives around 56 per cent and education 17 per cent. I agree with Scugog Mayor Chuck Mercier that there are pressures, such as infrastructure repairs, that are important. However, wages have certainly not gone up 18 per cent since 2006; most have stayed the same and many have lost their employment. With the 38 per cent increase in gas since last year it costs people more to get to work, food prices have therefore increased and it trickles down the line.

Most individuals look at their budget and are making tough decisions on where to cut back. The first argument that comes from our officials is that they will get complaints if they cut or trim back certain items from the budget; we understand things will be affected.

We as citizens are making those tough choices every day because we cannot just increase our wage the way governments can increase taxes. The question should be asked before the budget is decided: How can local and regional government learn to live within a budget that does not increase taxes? It would be novel to hear staff making suggestions on items to reduce or cut back in order to maintain the current level of spending.

If you have a budget meeting for the public before the budget is decided on this would be the kind of dialogue people would come out to hear. Not everyone would feel that spending money on the library expansion, waterfront development (though not all funds come from our taxes) or new vehicles for the Township are something they want to do in these difficult financial times.

Cheryl Helm

Port Perry

till next time clarington tax guardian

Impala Gone, What's Next For GM Oshawa

2011-05-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Recent GM News Does Not Bode Well For Durham

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/25/gm-adding-2-500-jobs-at-detroit-hamtramck-plant-for-malibu-and-i/

For those that may have missed the news earlier in the week from GM that they are indeed moving production of the next generation Impala from Oshawa to Detroit-Hamtramck plant. This leaves Oshawa with just the Camaro a niche car with low to mid volume sales as well as the Buick Regal that is a slow seller and overpriced. To top this off they are doing final assembly on the now hot selling Equinox/Terrain twins from Ingersoll. But once that market slows and it will it will leave the giant Oshawa motorplex down to one plant. From three to one in just a matter of years. There was talk at one time of bringing the replacement for the STS/DTS to Oshawa known as the XTS but there has been no news of late. So needless to say just as are economy is gaining a little traction, we do not need this bad news on the horizon. Hopefully the rumours of the XTS are true, although it will not be a volume car like the Impala.

No matter how people like to look at it Durham has two economic movers and shakers and they are Darlington and Pickering Hydro and the shrinking GM plant. If we cannot get another volume car line in Oshawa soon that is going to cause economic strife throughout Durham that everyone will feel.

It makes us wonder why our governments, both levels are not pushing harder to get another line brought to Oshawa soon. After all they bailed them out to the tune of billions and they seem to have announcements every week in the US about investments in various plants and the hiring back of workers or in many cases new tier two workers at lesser wages.

The end result even though we knew that the Impala was moving we all hoped that there would be a replacement announced or the plans changed. Maybe the new Caprice that is built on the same platform as the Camaro.

What we need is our government to take an active role in getting GM to cough up another volume product to assemble in Oshawa and keep our guys employed.

Hopefully good news will follow soon. Or is just another case of good manufacturing jobs leaving the country to cheaper or more friendly lands.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Burning Issues

2011-05-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

The Debate Goes On and On

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/177149

Apparently once again the issue that pops up every month and never seems to go away is back again. Surprised? No not really. It is a symptom of are council that cannot make a decision one way or another. Nothing beats putting off an issue as in let’s make a study of the issue and wait for it to come in . Then we will wait and see what the results are. Then we will not like the results and we will put it off again and again. This burning issue, no pun really intended is one we are sure you have guessed by now. But just in case it is the four men versus three men a truck issue that has been burning through council for several years and been implemented in elections by endorsing people. It seems that this burning issue just will not go away. Not surprised when the issue involves a union that wants to get several more people/friends off the waiting list to fulltime status and a council that cannot make a decision to save their lives.

The one issue that is interesting and has become more clear, although we knew as many others involved in this issue knew as well(and misconstrued and fear mongered it during the election) is that there was much confusion between four men being a provincial recommendation and requirement. It really is a report generated in the states that says it is 25% more efficient to have four people per truck. But last month it was brought up that 98% of the time there was four people a truck with the part-time/volunteer fire personal making the scene. So when it comes down to it 2% of the time our crews are 25% less efficient.

Council heard the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office does not mandate the size of crews in municipalities.

There were only 12 times last year when there weren't enough volunteers to respond and the full-time firefighters had to cover, according to the Chief.

Why is this important? Well as in everything in politics it comes down to money, which relates to higher property taxes for everyone. Well we have blogged on this so many ties we are literally burned out on the issue. We support are volunteer firefighters and the part-timers and think they have been doing an excellent job and should be allowed to continue on with the job. The only way we would support nine ish extra hires is only if every firefighter takes a $25,000 cut in pay and then we can use the savings to hire the extras. But since that isn’t going to happen we are happy with the three we have and our volunteers.

Why has this issue come up again? Because the latest report generated says that by having four people a truck regularly it will require guess what? More money to pay for their overtime! Got that, we hire nine ish more firefighters at $70,000 grand a crack and then we have to pay more overtime to support them. Got that? Pay more for more and pay even more. Make’s sense right? Only a bureaucracy like Clarington could come up with this.

Chief Weir said he expects costs would rise by going to four people on a truck. The move would increase the minimum platoon staffing from six to eight firefighters. In 2010, $53,000 in overtime wages was paid to maintain a minimum staffing of six firefighters. A report from the chief estimated it would cost $176,000 in overtime to move to eight firefighters and four-person crews.

Now if only Foster allows Neal to actually be able to speak on an issue we may be able to get this issue resolved in a timely and cost effective manner, thinking of the tax payer all the time!

Wait what our we thinking, a council that actually thinks of the taxpayers for a change. Notgoingtohappen.com

The real surprise here is that silent Ron, who likes to raise taxes and has every year since he has been elected spoke. Okay it wasn’t good but he spoke on an issue. Now that is a tiny step in the right direction right?

"I think we all realize we are a growing community and have a large area to cover with our existing fire services department," said Councillor Ron Hooper. "The department provides, in my estimation, exceptional fire protection to our residents and taxpayers."

Interpretation on Ron speak is that he now is going to vote to hire nine firefighters and pay the overtime and charge you up the wazoo in extra property taxes that you cannot afford to pay for it.

Or maybe they will just put off making a decision again and hope that no one notices.

Till next time the Clarington tax guardian

Fascist Clarington

2011-05-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Citizens of Clarington Looking For A New Mayor

Good Wages And Benefits

Apply Within

After this past week’s events it should be even more clear to all those that checked off that Foster box election time have made a big mistake, as in Hollywood lettering sized big mistake. We have a mayor that refuses to believe in a democracy and refuses to work within the lines of a democracy.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/176886

http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/176947

"I don't think I'm being dealt with fairly on these procedural rulings," said Coun. Neal. "I'll just keep doing the job I was elected to do. I don't think any councillor who thinks a report isn't painting a full picture should just sit back."

Was it right that he kicked out Joe Neal from a council meeting? The simply answer is no and there is no other. The fact that only Traill left in protest shows how the rest of our council members don’t believe in democracy either. That Hyundai commercial comes back to mind once again.

Our council for too long has taken into account whatever is delivered to them by staff is 100% fact and should be acted on immediately. But mistakes can be made and it is the job of council to look into every situation a little deeper.

In a democracy questions are asked and different point of views offered and discussed. A democracy is not a fascist regime where only one person thoughts and action count. To let this continued situation with Foster stifling democracy in Clarington is just plain wrong and needs to be stopped. It is up to the citizens of Clarington to get this done and soon.

Could Neal have been wrong in his assumptions? Possibly but in a democracy questions are allowed to be asked and answered. Sometimes a thicker skin is needed. If Adrian cannot act in the best interests of the citizens of Clarington and look a little deeper and ask questions himself about things then it is time to step down and let someone that can do the job in.

It should be no surprise that the town finances are not as rosy as some of are elected representative would like you to think. Money over the years has been squandered, mismanaged and spent on some inadvisable projects the last decade or so. As a result your taxes have went up up and up year after year. This is a result of mismanagement of the fiscal picture in Clarington. That is a fact. If are finances where actually as rosy as some would like us to believe then are taxes would not be going up.

These magic development charges would actually be used to offset infrastructure costs such as roads off the general tax bill. Instead they were spent on indoor recreation, think soccer, and hockey. Huge grandiose libraries were constructed in Bowmanville, and Newcastle in a day and age were the way that we get our information from has changed so very drastically to make the traditional library almost obsolete. We have squandered development fees on underused pools and the list goes on and on. We have decided to spend millions on a new fire hall when a retrofit is what is needed on the existing structure.

Now Joe wants to make sure he is getting a piece of the pie to pay for a new library in Courtice. What is that about? In a day and age where the rows of books just sit and collect dust for the most part it should be apparent to anyone that is with the times that the structure of the library has fundamentally changed forever. How so you may ask? Well we have blogged on this topic before with regards to the Newcastle library. In a time when more books are being sold digitally then in a paper format, and students do their projects not from cracking open a book but by looking it up on the internet. The point is libraries need to be smaller, but have more internet access then before. They do not have to be large archives of dusty tomes in hope that someone someday will crack one open. The point in the end is that libraries moving forward should be cheaper to build and operate than ever before.

Now back to the main topic that of democracy. What has happened here in this last week cannot happen again. It is time that the citizens of Clarington make Foster aware that what he has done not once but twice now cannot happen again.

It is also important that the rest of our councillors start asking questions about are finances and the books and the reports that are generated. Staff is staff, council is council. Council has been voted in the ask questions. Good questions create good answers. Good answers create lower taxes.

And that is the end result we are all looking for.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Time For A Recall

2011-05-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Time For A Recall

Our we the only ones thinking that Clarington should have a recall rule put in place for our underperforming politicians.

It should be painfully aware by now that several of our politicians had campaigned on one thing and did the opposite such as the EFW. Then to top that off we have their inability to control taxes. Then we had Foster’s ploy to stifle democracy at our council meetings and it should be apparent that what we got for the most part is what we didn’t vote for and definitely not what we need.

We got bamboozled by our politicians and we have only two that seem to be active and trying to get anything done. We have Ron silent as usual and it seems Wendy has joined suit.

There has been no attempt at cost control instituted or even thought up. In the land of rising food and fuel prices and just costs overall there has been no word that our municipality has even attempted to control theirs in order to give the residents an assist. Instead we have seen new hires and a large sunshine list.

Since our council isn’t getting much done then it seems should we the constituents have a recall tool in place in order to send our less then satisfactory politicians out on their collective behinds.

So maybe it is time to start thinking about putting one in place. How about 1000 signatures for local to get them kicked out, 2,000 for regional, and 3,000 for the mayoral position for example.

In this way we will have a more responsive council that will need to understand the constituents needs and wants and we will have a tool to hold their feet to the fire.

Otherwise we are stuck with the same old cycle of vote and bust. It is time that we stop banging our collective heads against the large boulder expecting different results. Because it ain’t going happen.

Financial Committee:

The other thing we want to see is the council put together an outside financial committee, just like all the other committees the municipality has for things from the museum to Wilmot trail. But this committee will not exist of whoever happens to drop their name in but actually have the municipality go out and contact residents of Clarington that have a record in big finance and planning. These people will meet once a month all year long and will be charged with ideas on how to bring the overall costs of operating Clarington down. With a group of ten people being the optimum number based on their resume they bring and reporting to the CAO not Foster with all their recommendations made public at the same time the results are given to CAO so that our less than satisfactory politicians cannot hide the result to serve their own agenda.

In this way we can get the best and brightest serving Clarington in the best possible way.

We believe that in this way we can get the costs in Clarington down and the taxes along with it. The more we engage people that have a record in big finance and planning that do not have the time or desire to try and make a run for office the better it will be for the municipality.

Clarington has the good fortune to have a talented group of people that reside here that would gladly assist the municipality in what should be a united goal. We just need to reach out and help them get started.

Now we just need one of our better council members that are not afraid to speak out get the ball rolling on this. Traill/Neal are you listening?

And we just happen to have a name for one of these ten people that should be on this committee.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

All Quiet On The Eastern Front, and The Happy Dance

2011-04-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

All Quiet on the Eastern Front and The Happy Dance

The former Ward 4 council member was love or hate him very active to say the least. Yes he may not have voted the way some people might have voted. But he wasn’t afraid of being heard and getting things done. We often heard more than once that people outside ward four would approach him to get things done because their own councillor wouldn’t listen or get anything done.

Since his ill-fated run up against Willie ward four no longer has that voice. Wendy seemed to step up on a couple of occasion’s early on but seems to have joined the Foster crowd of late and seems to be acting like ward two’s Ron. As in I am here and I occupy a seat, and I collect a paycheque, but then nothing notta. As is silence is golden and all is quiet on the Eastern Front. Wendy needs to get a little more active and get out and be heard. She’s had an opportunity to get her feet wet but unlike Traill and Neal hasn’t been able to open up and get something done. Or at least attempt to.

Now that she has had an opportunity to get her feet wet we would like to see a lot more out of her. She has a large expanse of real estate to represent and a diverse group of constituents from villages to farmers. It isn’t an easy job but one she signed on to do. We keep hearing about taxes being too high that would be a good place to start. The fire hall another, and the new wetlands designation that should be a major concern for the farmers of the area another.

Many of the people she ran against such as Mackessy are not afraid to be heard and maybe she can learn from them.

The point being that she needs to be heard a little more and get some things in play. After all the municipality cannot afford to have another inactive ward just like ward two.

Fed’s Imitate Province and Enable Municipal Bad Habits

At the recent fed debate it was brought up the need for additional federal funds for infrastructure improvements. Great idea really, the problem here is that we have the fed’s imitating the provinces bad habits by enabling our municipalities bad financial management. If this year’s elections are all about enabling bad habits of the municipality then it’s a good year. But if they’re about reducing deficits and putting people back to work and paying for necessary infrastructure improvements then not so much.

Why you may ask do we think this? Well during that last economic meltdown the fed’s economic stimulus package gave money to the municipalities to use on infrastructure projects as a way of getting people back to work and the economy moving along.

Problem is that our wise council members decided that the way to spend this money was not on necessity infrastructure projects like a sewage plant, or bridges, or roads(some roads were done). They decided to spend millions on redoing the roofs of are various arenas, like underutilized Darlington, Orono and Newcastle. Damn those roads we don’t need them. Damn the bridges we don’t need those either. Sewage plant, who cares we don’t need to treat sewage. The list goes on.

The point is that if the bankrupt feds are going to give money to the in debt municipality then they need to specify what these infrastructure projects our and what the money should be spent on. After all we have yet to see anyone explain how indoor recreation became a necessity, and infrastructure.

There have been too many times in the past where the feds and province have enabled the municipalities’ bad habits. It is time that instead of throwing money around and enabling they need to place some discipline on the municipalities. Otherwise our councillors will act like a 649 commercial and being doing the “happy dance” as they squander good money after bad over and over again.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

A Road To Nowhere

2011-04-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Road To Nowhere!

Has Foster Got Something Right?

An interesting question was brought up this past week with that being, are the spending limits for public office set to high? We have blogged on this before and think that it is. In order to get more people involved in running for public office and hopefully get better candidates then we have or have had in the past this might be the way to go.

We firmly believe that if the municipality set a limit on how many signs each candidates could have depending on the position they are running for would be a great step. Then the next thing the municipality should have is mandatory debates set up in each village and hamlet of Clarington. They should start as early as mid-August and go through right to mid-October. Each debate should have the respective candidates running for that position involved.

Also in order to get the youth of our town involved a debate should be held at each high school with the respective age students at the debate. For it is very apparent in the last election with the abysmal turnout that there are a lot of people with a general apathy for local politics. We need to make them aware how much money they are getting screwed out of and the only way to stop it is to get out and vote.

Maybe as we have discussed here before the vote should be mandatory and that way we can get everyone out and active.

But for sure we would like to see mandatory municipal run debates at municipal centres with questions from the public, although not the same questions asked adnauseam over and over again.

We need to make the next election less about how much you spend, and how well your name is recognised, and how many babies you kissed, and hands shaked and lies told. We need to make the election about the issues and how when you say what you’re going to do you stick to it. Accountability should be a major issue.

The last election is done and we lost out on many potential good people only to have the same tried but not true name recognition candidates in who have shown that they just cannot get anything meaningful done, like Hooper, Woo, Foster, and Novak.

So Foster is right about one thing, yes it surprises us to, and that is the maximum for each position should be lowered and to go along with it should be mandatory debates and lots of them and a general effort to get more people out to vote including our youth.

The real irony to the whole thing is that Foster and Abernethy spent a large amount of money and had name recognition going for them and they just barely beat Adams to the position. It makes you wonder if they had spent along the lines of Adams if they would have won at all. It just goes to show that Adams worked harder for his vote and earned it. It makes you wonder what he could do working that hard on behalf of the people of Clarington. Alas we will have to wait a few more years.

If we do not get this done, we will continue down the same old worn path that is the road to nowhere.

Till Next Time the Clarington Tax Guardian

Ontario Government Late To The Show

2011-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ontario Government Late To The Show

For most of us we would have are taxes done by the end of March, a lot of people even earlier. Then it makes us wonder why the Ontario government that is bankrupt would send out a nicely designed brochure titled "You could get money back. File your taxes and find out." At the end of March when most people will have filed their taxes. Gotta wonder if they have calendars at the provincial level.

The brochure goes on to list various scenarios of how you could get money back from the Government.

The Ontario Sales Tax Transition Benefit

Ontario Sales Tax credit

Children’s Activity Tax Credit

Ontario Child Benefit

Ontario’s Senior Homeowners Property Tax Grant

Guaranteed Annual Income System

Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credits

The real sad thing is why our bankrupt province is giving money back in property tax grants. If property tax is to high, and it is. Shouldn’t it be the responsibility of the municipalities to realise that they are charging to much for property tax and to do something about it like making cuts and the like. Why is our bankrupt province enabling the municipalities’ bad habits by giving people tax credits. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the province to legislate better habits for the municipalities so they are not over taxing in the first place. Wouldn’t it make more sense? Then we also have the issue of the seniors not being the only ones overtaxed and in need of credits. Just think of all those people out they’re that our trying to feed their families with costs of everything going up and to top it off they raised property taxes and they have to pay for it to. Who’s doing anything for them?

At some point someone with some common sense has got to get things moving in the proper direction. Unfortunately common sense is in such short supply.

Just In.

Just forwarded to us by a reader is the campaign expense of the last mayoral campaign. Obviously if Mr. Adams can make a run for the top position and almost win with so little money spent it makes us wonder what he can do with our budget and property taxes when he gets in to office in four years. It is obvious that he understands the value of a dollar. Something most of our current council dosen’t seem to have a clue about.

Abernethy Expenses = $44,233.59

Foster Expenses = $37,253.12

Adams Expenses = $14,539.22

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

A Bankrupt Province And A Muzzle On Democracy Foster Style

2011-04-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

Bankrupt Province Run Deficit and Mortgages The Future of Our Kids

After the Dalton boys brought down the latest budget it becomes even more obvious that they do not have a clue at what to do with the looming crisis ahead. What’s the crisis you ask? Well how about the fact that the deficit has increased every year and Dalton doesn’t seem to have a clue at how to get it down and start paying it off. They have continued to put off the moment of reality for now and think that by continuing to borrow money they can hide the fact that they are running up a huge deficit that our kids will have to pay off. We have already established that our kids are going to have less means to pay there bills, how the hell are they to pay off this debt? The fact that education and health is taking up 68% of every tax dollar should tell the province that they have a problem. Paying over 10 billion a year to finance the debt is another. It is apparent now that cuts are going to have to be made and that we are going to have to tighten are belts up along with these cuts. They are going to have to look at cutting the unnecessary programs and bring spending in line. They are going to have to look everywhere for savings and wages are one of the key areas. Guess what came out of the budget talks. They have finally realised that they are overpaying for public servant positions as compared to the equal positions in the private sector. This is something we have been saying for quite sometime.

We just hope that Foster/Woo and company are listening as well and realise that they need to do the same on the municipal level and cut wages, and reduce there debt. The likely hood of this happening though with the weak leadership we have is slim.

The unfortunate point to all of this is that we collectively have lived well beyond our means for to long, and asked for way to much thinking we can just put everything off for the future to pay. But reality has struck and we shouldn’t have to have our kids pay off this mess and something needs to be started now to get this done. To let Dalton and his boys/girls another chance at messing it up even further would really be criminal, almost to the point of insane.

Mortgaging our kid’s future is not something we support.

If You Can’t Beat Them, Muzzle Them!

Now we have on the municipal level Foster trying to put the collar and muzzle on two of our must out spoken and active, and sometimes it seems the only one’s who care councillors by instituting a new decree.

Follow the link.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/174608

Councilor Joe Neal, who opposed the move, reminded council members that all the incumbents from last term used notices of motion to bring up issues. He said he has used the process twice and although both failed, one brought about some positive movement on the host community agreement for the energy-from-waste facility. "Getting rid of this procedure is really short-sighted. We're limiting the ability of council to bring forward issues," said Coun. Neal. "To do away with that process is not serving residents' transparency."

Coun. Traill added that Clarington would be the only municipality in Durham Region to confine notices of motion that way.

Supporters said the change would actually bring more transparency, with the added information from staff and time to debate the issue twice. The change passed without the support of Councilors Traill or Neal.

It is apparent that these two Neal/Traill have made Fosters term as mayor very difficult and we hope continue to do so. We feel that his need to control things here make even his predecessors moves look good. And many people thought he was strict.

How our council has let this pass really seems a shame but with the councillors we have such as disappearing Ron we shouldn’t expect too much really.

By trying to put a leash on his fellow elected officials it shows that demorcarcy is a risk in Clarington. We hope that are two hardest working councillers keep the presuure up until we can toss the old guard out on their collective behinds and replace them with people such as Adams who actually give’s a damn.

Foster needs to realize again that we elected seven people into run Clarington and none of these where the staff that he keeps letting make the decisions. It is time that our council step up and start governing the town and make the hard decisions to get it done. We know Toronto is now we need to follow this example.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian.

On The Run?

2011-03-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

On The Run?

For anyone that gets the Toronto public servants union calls in the evenings, usually one a week, lately two, and now reaching three it is apparent that Rob Ford has the union on the run and fearful. They are scared of cuts and contracting out and the list goes on. It is a bad thing if you are a union member. But for the boarder base of the taxpayers it should be making them happy, as there will be less chance that their taxes will go up.

Now that is Toronto, and if you are there it is a good thing. Now what about Clarington? In municipality where they have let wages and benefits get out of control and where them seem to have there fingers in every pie the unions seem relaxed and the only thing we have here are additional hiring’s downtown. What is going on? When are politicians should be working hard to look for where they can cut and reduce, and reuse there is only silence. Why?

After all, the budget isn’t a one time once a year thing. It is a 365-day, 24/7 job. Our politicians should always be looking at areas they can cut and reduce, and reuse as we have mentioned above. But our guy’s and girls seem to think it is a one day thing and you rubber stamp and forget it until next year when you hear the phrase once again it will only be an additional $38 for the average homeowner in Clarington. The same old song and it does remain the same.

Instead are politicians should already be working on next year and look for whatever savings there is. They need to instill some inner Rob Ford in themselves and get to work. They need to instill a little fear in out union members instead of them instilling the fear in our politicians, such as the three or four firefighters a truck debate. When the health benefit costs went up a co-pay arrangement should have been put in place instead of yanking more money out of the taxpayers pocket. After all there is more people out there that do not have health coverage then do, and the ones that do many of these are in a co-pay arrangement. These are areas of the savings that our council need to look at, as well as so many more.

So let’s see some action, and hear some results. Ask some people there thoughts, but do not just wait until next year to stick us with another $38 or so dollars. Earn your inflated paycheck and get those sunshine list employees earning there’s to.

Time for some Ford thinking and a little fear. It can be a good thing.

Till Net Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

What's Going On? A Council That Listens?

2011-03-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

What’s Going On? A Council That Listens?

Clarington has been set on its ear this last week or so it seems. We never thought it would happen. Especially with Willie involved. After all the people of Clarington for years have been asking for less taxes, they asked and voted against the incinerator and even the candidates that campaigned against it turned a deaf ear when they got elected.

But when it comes to the 4.5 million dollar golden brick road Newcastle firehall, and we are sure that the building will come in over budget. It has been held up by a simple old-fashioned letter writing campaign! What you’re saying the council listened to people’s concerns and are going to hold the project up well they study it. Will this hold up the hiring of four new firefighters and save us money there to? There is something really wrong when our politicians actually listen. Something very wrong indeed.

Was Willie afraid of losing votes since he turned his back on the anti EFW vote that carried him into office? Was Willie afraid of losing votes after he raised taxes once again for the umpteenth time in a row? Has he realized that his job is to listen to the peoples needs, and vote according to the majority? Well something sure happened.

Of course we all know in the back of our minds that one-year from now the firehall will be built, probably then costing 5.5 million dollars. The firefighter’s will be hired and guess what it will probably be built exactly where it was originally planned in the first place and the people of Newcastle will be just as pissed, if not more so then before.

But it is a minor victory for the people, and probably one of the few that we will get over the next four years. So we should all grasp it and cherish it for what it is worth. Then we have to look right back up and face the cold hard reality that after all our representatives don’t care about us after all, when your quarterly property tax payment arrives in the mail.

Oh well that moment felt good.

Now of course we have blogged before that the town should keep the firehall where it is and just build a simple steel span building to house the new truck and that would save a boatload of money. But that would be too easy. As for putting less miles on the trucks and hence less traffic the simple thing would be to put the "heart paddles" on a smaller truck like there fleet of HHR’s or even let the Ambulance service handle it and then the firefighters wouldn’t have to respond to every medical emergency etc throughout Clarington. But again this would be too easy. It is easier to tax and spend, tax and spend. Common sense died so long ago.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Rob Ford Effect! Coming To A Small Town Near You.

2011-03-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

The Rob Ford Effect. Coming To A Town Near You.

An excellent article recently in the National Post talked about the Rob Ford effect and how it is spreading throughout communities throughout Ontario and even across Canada.

It stated that since Rob Ford has taken office more and more people have become aware just how much they are overpaying in taxes and how much waste bureaucracy has created. It has opened people’s eyes and starting to piss them off when they see their tax bill.

Now we only hope that he can keep this up for we need people’s eyes opened especially all those that did not vote in the last election. You know the ones that sit back and say it doesn’t matter if I vote it will not make a difference. It doesn’t matter if I vote because they don’t listen and will tax us up the wazoo anyway.

Or even better is the ones that vote but do not know the issues and where their candidates stand on them. They only vote because they know the person and they smiled and waved or gave them a handshake. The old infamous name recognition vote. Yeah the same votes that enabled Foster/Woo and Hooper to make it in again.

Where the Ron Ford effect will really take effect is that constituents of the community will wake up and will see that yes a boat load of money is being taken out of their pockets and squandered on over paid employee’s and non-necessities projects and yes even a $50,000 park in Courtice.

In the next election we firmly believe will be a lot of candidates running with very degrees of the Ron Ford Mantra to stop the Gravy Train, reduce spending, contract out more and just generally stop screwing over the taxpayer.

Even in the last election the worst municipality for taxes, Oshawa got the point and the major issue on the table was taxes and how $%&^(* high they were getting. And guess what they got a new council and they did a much better job. Now we cannot allow these people to sit back on their laurels but they need to work even harder to get them down. Can it happen? Sure it can.

For Clarington we need to start applying pressure now. Call on our overspending, out of touch politicians that we the taxpayer are not going to take it any more. Don’t take the handshake and the hello and the smile from someone in a Hawaiian shirt but tell them enough is enough and you are not going to take it any more. Applying consistent unrelenting pressure on our council members will get the message through that they need to work harder and start thinking clearer and come up with a plan to reduce spending, contract out work, and get out of the business of indoor recreation, right size, and redirect library resources and the list goes on. This even applies to the municipal mangers as well that are preparing the budgets.

The Rob Ford effect cannot be wasted and must be followed through relentlessly, because we firmly believe that in the next election that almost all of the candidates running will be stealing a play sheet or maybe even the entire book from Mr. Ford in order to even have a chance to get elected. It could be the very end, gratefully for the last of the name recognition council members as they are voted out at last and replaced by people that realize taxes, costs and almost everything else have gotten out of control and something needs to be done about it.

This is an important time right now to spread the Rob Ford effect out to the few that don’t hear or understand and get them working as a team to apply an unrelenting steady pressure on our council that we just won’t take it anymore.

For along with are higher taxes, we got a higher gas bill, higher electrical bill, TV, internet, water, gasoline for the car, food and almost everything else has went up, except one thing and that is the paycheck, and that’s assuming you are one of the fortunate ones to have a job.

So onward and upward let the Rob Ford effect roll on.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Triall /Neal Impress, Others Give Us The Shaft

2011-03-02T18:33:00.000-08:00

The Tag team Of Traill and Neal Continue To Impress And The 3.8% Shaft

It’s great to see someone on council actually standing up for the citizens of Clarington and trying to stand in the way of the EFW and now the tax increase. It is unfortunate that the rest seem like the driver in the new Hyundai commercial and continue to roll over and screw the average down and out citizen of Clarington with another tax increase. Increasing fines for late taxes? Who thought of this? There is a reason they are late and that is they cannot afford to pay them because A they’re too high, B they probably are struggling to make ends meet in this economy. So what’s next we take their house a way from them and kick them out on the streets. Does this make sense at all?

Savings were also found from the mayor's office and by increasing the penalty and interest on late property taxes.

Maybe our councilors should actually listen to their constituents feel a little of their pain and bring a budget in at zero or how about looking at cuts and bringing it in with cuts at below zero and return some of Clarington citizen’s money to their own pockets and let them decide where they actually want to spend it for a change.

After all this is the economy where the average person hasn’t gotten a pay raise in years in order to pay for this increase(assuming they have a job) and we are raising taxes. Does this make sense?

Just think it will only cost the average citizen of Clarington an extra $38 dollars a year. Only! That’s 38 dollars added to the increase from last year and the year before that and so on and on and on. Lack of fiscal responsibility and know how not only from our council but also of our managers of this municipality have created this situation. Now we need vision and wisdom and skill to get us out of this situation, and with the exception of Traill and Neal we don’t see any. We need Adams now not three years and 10 months from now but now. God only knows how much our taxes will have increased by the time the next election comes around. Then there are chances something will muddy the waters between here and now and then and take the citizens of Clarington’s eyes off the ball once again when they need to be shouting loud and clear enough is enough is enough.

If you want change; it is up to you the reader to get out there and let your council member know just how pissed off you are. Get your neighbor and your friends to do the same and soon our council members will be cowering in the corner and will listen. This is what happened in Oshawa after years of huge increases, now they are starting to come around and listen.

Now as for the municipal by-law officers that do not work weekends or nights so we have to hire another one to get the job done doesn’t make sense at all. End their respective contract and hire a bunch of new ones or contract it out and get a team that will work outside their 8-4 border Monday to Friday.

Courtice could get a downtown attraction, after councillors decided to dedicate $50,000 of the 2011 budget to a community improvement project on the Courtice main street.

We have people living on their last dime and they want to spend $50,000 on a park!

By the end of the all-day budget meeting, politicians had wrestled the 2011 levee increase down from 6.6 per cent to 3.8 per cent. That would mean a municipal tax increase of $38 for the average Clarington household.

Oshawa did better why can’t you?

"I think we should have sent it back to staff for a zero-per cent increase," said Councillor Corrinna Traill. "We should have done better."

Way to go Corrinna, that’s the way we like to see our councilors thinking! Two thumbs up.

Councillor Joe Neal suggested eliminating all staffing increases, except for four new fire-fighters.

Let’s eliminate these four as well Joe.

"I haven't been convinced we need these people ... We've got to find some bigger money to get this down to an acceptable increase," said Coun. Neal.

Now this Joe is what we like to hear.

The committee decided on an engineering position upgrade that would save the municipality money by moving expertise in-house. Also added to the budget was one new corporate services employee, one operations staff and one new bylaw officer -- as long as the union agrees the new position would be available for evening and weekend work.

Again why are we hiring in an economy when people can barely meet basics costs when this will increase costs to the taxpayer in the municipality?

Third Verse Same As The First

Now once again we have the four people a truck debate that seems to pop up ever more. We guess that the birth of a litter of Dalmatian pups on the weekend spurred this week’s event. But either way we have discussed it here. Too expensive. Bring it in cheaper and then we would be okay with it. Even the chief acknowledges the volunteers make it on time 98% of the time. It’s like car insurance, how much do you want to pay to cover of the unforeseen 2%? That is the question and we expect that everyone will have a different answer. We are for 4 but only at $50,000 a pop, and that’s for everyone that is on the force right now.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Oshawa Councillors Working Harder Then Ours!

2011-02-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Oshawa Councillors Working Harder Then Ours!

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/172259

Cuts, new fees balance $2.7 million in cost increases

Yeah it is Oshawa and they have the highest taxes in the GTA and for that matter possibly the entire Province of Ontario, but we are third and it seems to us after reading this article from the Oshawa Times submitted to us by one of are readers that there council seems to be working harder then ours and listening more to their constituents then ours to work out a significant problem in Durham and that is of high property taxes.

We have councillors from Oshawa actually saying they are going to try harder next year and get it down

"I hope the public appreciates that we've only been on the job for about three months, I think this is a great start," said Councillor Roger Bouma. "We're going to look at doing even better next year."

In Clarington we have our mayor publicly saying that he believes we are not taxed enough and would like to pay more. He says were lucky that we don’t live in Oshawa because there higher then us and refuses to work hard so we don’t match them. We have his defeatist attitude saying that property taxes are high in Ontario and he can’t do anything about it, and what are you go to do move when they’re high everywhere. He has the attitude that since he has a relatively captive audience he will screw you out of every cent of pocket change he can find, and just for good measure he will search the crack in your back car seat for more.

In Oshawa we have councillors saying they went through the budget line by line. Something we have been asking our councillors to do for years and years. But they just refer it to staff and get what they get. I guess it is too much work to earn your pay!

In Oshawa they actually increased fees for recreation and the like so everyone doesn’t get the shaft for stuff they don’t use. A novel idea that again we have tried to get through the thick heads of our politicians for years.

But are we really to blame for this? In Oshawa the last election the key issue was the high taxes they were paying and many people campaigned on just that issue. In Clarington we have high taxes that just get higher and higher and we had only two candidates that even talked about this issue that of Paul Adams and McCullough. The rest rallied behind the EFW issue and forgot about everything else. Now we have a bunch of one issue candidates in; that have flip flopped for the most part like fish out of water. Now that this issue is over (it appears) with a loss it appears that we have a bunch of councillors that have no idea that thery’re and have been other issue’s out there all this time and they just chose to ignore it.

We have councillor’s that got voted in on name recognition alone like Foster, Hooper, and Woo that said nothing about high taxes and refuse to do anything about it. And we voted them in blinded by one issue. Now we are paying the price. If we had just elected Adams and McCullough in then at least we would have had a better chance of some improvement in the EFW situation and we would also have some people that actually acknowledged that taxes were an issue and who actually had the skill and talent and know how to actually do something about it.

But no the large populous of Clarington got blinded by one issue and name recognition, voted accordingly and now will be getting the shaft not just once for the EFW but twice for the high tax increase we see a coming like a high speed freight train down the local track, and this time there isn’t a horn a sounding to warn you to get out of the way it is just going to mow us right over and we will be left picking up the pieces one at a time.

In Oshawa the councillors took a cut to there expense accounts. At this level only Hooper would be able to come close to it. Willie probably expenses this amount each month with his past returns being evidence of this fact.

Politicians also took a small hit themselves, approving a motion from Councillor John Aker to cut councillors' annual expense accounts from $2,300 to $1,500.

So what we need to do now is to get out and make our councillors aware that we are plenty pissed off about the high taxes and that we want something done about it, and if they are not going to do it then we will be giving them a firm kick in the ass next election and replacing them with the likes of Paul Adams who actually gives a damn.

Second Verse, Same As The First

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/171801

It seems like every three months or so we hear from our Fire-fighters Union and Chief about how three men on a truck are not enough they need to increase the union and hire more people. They totally discount the part-time and volunteer fire fighters that have kept this municipality going for over a hundred years now.

They used the latest announcement about the Newcastle golden 4.5 million firehall to voice their complaints again. It seems now they will use everything from the birth of a Dalmatian pup to and election and everything in-between to voice the same story. Yes we have heard it and we know. We do not need to hear it again. It’s almost like they have learned a few tips from PR Woo to get it in the paper every three months or so.

It is a major issue we know, and sure we would like to have more fire fighters but at $75,000 a pop, no way. Or if you include back pay 23 of them made over $100,000 last year.

Now if you want to take a pay cut to a nice round figure of $50,000 then we can use the savings to hire more.

But it is a major cost issue and we are aware we do not need to hear it every time something vaguely fire related comes up, and we do not need you coming out and supporting candidates in the election because they have pledged to tax more to pay more to increase the union size. We need you to put out fires and keep us safe.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Savings Shortfall? And Our Hawaiian Shirts Still In?

2011-02-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

Savings Shortfall? And Our Hawaiian Shirts Still In?

The recent Star business section had the bold headline about household debt climbs past six figures. No surprise today with everyone from various levels of government right down to our municipality of Clarington and it’s citizens doing the same thing. The article is interesting but the accompanying editorial from the always-interesting David Olive had the really interesting stuff and quotes.

"The average Canadian household is saddled with about $100,000 in debt – a record level, up 78 percent since 1990’s $56,800"

"The average households debt to income ratio has shot up to 150%, up from 93% in 1990. That means for every $1,000 we generate in income, we’re burdened with $1,500 in debt."

"Cheap money has induced us to overspend on housing and other essentials, and to splurge more then usual on non-essentials’"

"Today’s savings rate of 4. Percent of disposable income is abysmal compared with the 13 percent rate of 20 years ago." The Chinese have a savings rate of 20%.

"Canadian housings costs are among the highest in the world."

"Economists despair at low savings rates, because they are a worrisome predictor of a nation future wealth. For the economy to be healthy over the long term – so that our retirement nest eggs will be sufficient in size, and there will be jobs with adequate pay for our children when they enter the workforce – individuals, business, and governments need to accumulate savings."

"We do, however face soaring costs for shelter, energy, tuition, and other necessities in Canada. And for some 30 years, middle incomes have been flat, failing to keep pace with inflation. And so we’ve had to resort to credit."

The message to our municipal leaders who seem to think past present and future that financing through debt is a good thing need to realize that it is not. When we have Fosters and our director of Finance saying that financing through debt is a good thing then we need to wonder if these our the people that should be running things here. We financed non-essentials during the "Recreation Wave" that we didn’t need and now the municipality is on the line for the debt. There were a grand total of two people during the last election that saw this as a problem and neither got voted in when it was they that we needed the most.

You have to wonder why if middle incomes have been flat during the last 30 years that the municipality has continued to pay above inflation rates for their workers, where we now have the absurd notion of cashiers at our facilities making 14, 15, 17, 19 dollars an hour when this job in the private sector is covered by 10.25 to 12 dollars.

If we fail to have our council look out for the citizens that voted them in then we will continue to see our tax rate exceed inflation for the foreseeable future. Until we can get some people in that are not just name recognition like the Woo, flip-flop, and the Hooper; to people that are actually qualified to make financial decisions that are good for the municipality and to be able to have a set to do it with, we will be lost out in the wilderness. The refer it to staff or the staff said is not something we want to hear here.

Probably the biggest letdown since the election other then flip-flop has been Woo. We had blogged in the past here about Mr. Woo.

http://claringtontaxguardian.blogspot.com/2010/06/is-willie-really-for-you.html

Now we are hearing from several groups of people that voted for Woo that they wished they hadn’t. It appears that his awe shocks handshaking, Hawaiian shirt appearing PR appearances are starting to wear thin on a lot of people. They want some action from Woo in the form of some policy that is going to save them some money. They want a clear answer that it appears after one term on council Woo has learned the political double speak quite well and gives just a non-answer.

We need accountability and ability and it appears we have none. The future isn’t to bright with lower incomes, higher debt and higher taxes and something is going to break before to long and then it may just be to late to save.

The scariest thing is that Clarington is hoping to finance their future through the development fee/tax, but as January returns have pointed out housing starts are down and the money coming in just a trickle. Guess who has to bail out this poor decision making from the past? Yes you and your tax dollars as in more, and more. All just to pay for recreation that the minority use. Isn’t it great to be the bottomless pit to finance poor decision making on council?

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian.

Liar Liar Pants On Fire

2011-02-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Liar Liar Pants On Fire

It would appear that people out there are coming to the same conclusion that we did long ago and that is that politicians by their very nature cannot be trusted to deliver what they say they will. And with recent reverses Adrian has to the lead the list of people to flip flop followed by Willie, Ron, and Wendy seem to have followed Adrian’s lead. We can’t blame Mary because she stuck to her platform and won and continues to stick to it with some creative "truths" here and there. The only ones that seem to have stuck to what they said they were going to do was Traill and Neal. But led by Flip Flop the rest have laid down their arms and will let Durham drive right over us leaving tire tracks on their collective backs as they go.

Then on the other hand we have citizens that are finally starting to speak out about the high taxes, again something that we have been saying for years now. What we need now is for enough people to get together led by a strong leader. We can think of one out there that would be perfect to go out and get these people together and apply some not so subtle pressure on these elected officials that seem to use the excuse that the only way they can reduce cost’s is to cut services. Wrong there is other ways and these people like Willie need to work a little harder to earn their pay cheque. He has plenty of time now that he has reversed his stance on the EFW. If they can’t get it done then we can connect them to the new 1-800-ROB-FORD number for some ideas.

We just hope the people out there that elected and helped the Willie’s, and the Ron’s and Flip Flop Adrian that come next election they vote for people like Adams that actually want to make a difference not just earn a pay cheque and go home.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/article/171421

http://newsdurhamregion.com/opinion/letters/article/171372

On another note we have attached a quote from an ad in a magazine we like to read. It summarises what we need to do as a country. Just substitute Canada for wherever it says America and you can see again it has been something we have been saying for quite some time as well.

Weather Tech

Today, America needs fresh leadership to lead us as a nation our of this economic crisis. Leadership must come not only from out political leaders but also from the average citizen. The exporting of American jobs is a trend that must be stopped and reversed. When I walk into my local hardware store, I typically find 85% of the goods for sale are manufactured 7,000 miles away. Recognisable American brands have been forced by short-sighted management and buyers at large national chains to build factories overseas just to save a lousy 50 cents on a tape measure. Rarely are product quality, the political system, human rights, animal rights and environmental costs to the planet considered, not to mention the cost to our society of exporting not only jobs, but an entire factory!

At MacNeil Automotive, we are doing our part for the American economy and for our 300 million fellow citizens and neighbours. My philosophy is that if my neighbour doesn’t have a job, sooner or later I won’t have a job either.

Food for thought.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The Hand That Feeds

2011-02-05T15:51:00.001-08:00

Intimidation, and Coercion Rule As Durham Rolls Out The Howitzers

We have seen Woo, Partner, Hooper (No Surprise) back down from the brink as the region pulled out the big guns and threatened the municipality with a 46 million dollar lawsuit if they attempted to hold up the EFW. Only Neal and Traill held firm and continue to be a pain in Foster’s backside, good for them. They said they would take the good fight and they tried there best. Now it appears over. With Foster it was over before it even began. You did run against the EFW as your platform right? After three months we may have forgot, not!

Now we just want one more thing. We need these two (Neal, Traill) to take there energy, and zeal that they applied to the anti EFW actions to the upcoming budget. They need to start asking why? What for? And can we do without this? To every item in the budget. There is no option now. Cuts need to be made and made now.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/170949

After reviewing the Sunshine list that was buried in a 147-page document, it seems like Clarington is doing there best to hide their excessive spending. The fact that other municipalities such as Port Hope have their Sunshine list up front and quickly accessible seems to point towards this as well.

http://www.porthope.ca/en/municipaldepartments/SalaryDisclosure.asp

Just think we have a CAO that is making $215,557.39 which works out to approximately $107 dollars an hour. That is a lot of money. To try and wrap your mind around this figure that the average person in Clarington is lucky to have a job making $10.25 an hour and here we have some one making more money in one hour then they are making in one day. There is something wrong with this picture. We have General managers in the various sectors of industry and retail running businesses that make between 25 to 50 million dollars in sales and they make on the high side $75,000 a year. A good wage to be sure but this pales in comparison to the CAO wage.

How much work (and skill) can this person possibly do in a forty hour week with nights and weekends off that makes this position worth $215,557.39 a year. It’s gotta to be one hell of a lot in our eyes to be worth this.

Clarington would probably be better off hiring two people for this position at $75,000 a year and still save $65,000 a year out of this and probably get more work done. That is almost a dollar savings to every tax-paying citizen in Clarington.

Now add this to the other position’s in the municipality on this list like Corporate Services, Finance, Engineering, Community Services, Library Director, Clerk and the list goes on and on and you have significant savings using this method. How these wages got so out of control year after year makes us wonder who was at the helm all these years letting this happen. A fair wage for any of these Civil Servant position should not exceed $75,000 in our eyes. If this isn’t enough for them then go elsewhere.

The real irony with this is that by getting paid so high the tax bracket the CAO would find himself in, would give almost 45% of his wage to the fed’s , the province, and all their surtaxes, and medical fees. From property taxes to wages just to end up as income taxes for the feds. The stupidity called the Canadian tax system goes on.

It’s to late now to fix these figures for the buy out would be horrendously high but when they retire the cap of $75,000 should be set in stone, and that includes they pay a co-pay into their health benefits as well.

May the madness called Clarington end.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Yikes, (Double Click Twice On Image To Read)

2011-02-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

The Future Is So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades, If Your On The Sunshine List That Is!

2011-01-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

The Future Is So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades

If Your On The Sunshine List That Is.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/170519

On the 2010 report, 47 Clarington employees were listed as earning $100,000 or more. Most were municipal department heads, but 26 -- more than half -- of those on the list were fire department employees after a contract settlement this year granted them four years of back pay.

Even exempting the fire-fighters "backpay" just think over $100,000 for 47 people amounts to 4.7million plus dollars. Or 26 for 2.6 million and another 21 firefighter at around 75 thousand for 1,575,000 if you like not to include their backpay. Just think of that for a minute, 47 people 4.7 million dollars. At an average budget of around 65 million plus dollars a year 47 people are taking 4.7 million dollars. Again just think 4.7 million dollars and you begin to understand why are taxes have gone out of control and have exceeded inflation for the last 10 plus years. Add in the other municipal employees and you can see where all your money is going. This is in an economy where Revenue Canada has stated that we are at our highest debt to income ratio ever because people out in the real world are earning less dollars and we are giving raises in the public sector and have 47 people making over $100,000 dollars. Just think about it and you want to give your head a shake to wrap your mind around it.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/169805

It will take an almost 8.2-per cent property tax increase to fund the current levels of service, according to a recent staff report. That would mean a tax increase of $82 for the average Clarington household.

(We have heard this so many times over the last ten years that it is no wonder your property taxes have increased at a rate much higher then inflation. IT is obvious that someone or all maybe cannot manage our money very well. If you factor that increased amount every year, over ten years then you have an increase of $820 dollars and this doesn’t even include the region portion that will increase as well and it is no wonder people want out of Durham.)

Mayor Foster said the $702,000 cost is based on a full-year salary for all the new staff and the hiring could be staggered over the year to lower the impact on the 2011 budget.

Property taxes in Clarington were compared to other municipalities. Compared to communities outside the Greater Toronto Area, Clarington's tax rate was average. However inside the GTA, Clarington tax rates are "dramatically lower", according to the director of finance.

(Who are you trying to fool here we have the third highest in the GTA, that is not dramatically lower. Municipalities outside of Durham have better tax rates especially compared to property costs that make them a value.)

"You will hear from some residents that 'taxes are so high, I'm going to have to move'. The question is 'Where are you going to move?' The property taxes are high across Ontario," said Mayor Foster.

(Again Mr. Foster what are you thinking. Just because you have a relatively captive audience does that mean that you have an unlimited right to screw them over and over with higher taxes. Or should you learn from Rob Ford and try and do something about these costs. Yes it involves work but that it what we are paying you for.)

Last year, there were significant cash flow shortages for the library and indoor recreation facilities. The municipality pulled cash from reserve funds to buoy up those departments.

(Again, why are we raising taxes for non-necessities? IT is one thing if the price of asphalt goes up then a road costs more. But we are talking about something that is largely irrelevant and you are raising taxes over it. What are you thinking? The Ontario Municipality Act that allows taxes to be raised so you cannot run a deficit should be reviewed and amended here to specify not to be raised to support unessential items like indoor recreation.)

She added she has concerns about the looming cost of maintaining aging municipal buildings and making those buildings accessible.

(Yet we are building more that will age and need repairs in the future. I guess we will just pass these costs along to the next generation and they will have to pay even more to keep these structures going. Time for a rationalisation program here to see what we need and what can be closed down. We have heard that Darlington arena in Hampton could be closed but was propped up with fed money for a new roof. What about the under utilised pools, and the list goes on.)

When it comes right down to it we need someone, anyone to step up and realise that the people out there that are just hanging barely on in this fragile economy cannot absorb these costs and someone needs to start looking at the entire picture of the municipality and even the Durham region and lead a program to rationalise these expenses and find out what we can do to lower the costs overall and keep them low.

Just think once again 4.7 million dollars for 47 employees. That’s a lot of money, approx. 67 dollars per Clarington resident for just 47 employees!

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2011-01-21T14:47:00.000-08:00

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

As in just a little bit, and he ain’t getting any. Mayors are to lead the agenda and create policy. But Foster is done before he even started. We urgently await his resignation now instead of waiting four long years for Mr. Adams take’s his spot.

Foster now has shown a complete flip-flop, (again as we warned everyone before the election, unfortunately not enough listened), on the EFW issue and on so many others as well. The rest of the council kept there words, a rarity in politics today and has tried to raise barriers against the EFW coming to town. But Foster seems to be greasing the ways to speed it up and is losing out in vote after vote now to his new energetic and taking no shit peers on council. Even Ron joined in on the last one. What’s all that about.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/169788

We should have known better after watching one of Fosters "interviews" on the Clarington Herald in which he stated that once on the inside things are different and you have to moderate what one wants to do. This doesn’t seem to be stopping his peers and they do not seem to be rolling over dead like roadkill. They’re taking the good fight and we respect that. If all your going to do is play dead we don’t want you.

The only thing we would like to see is these same council members is to put as much action and energy into the budget as in keeping it down as they seem to be applying against the EFW. At this point we think only Paul Adams realized that there was more then one ball in the air and needed to be tackled.

We would like to see the likes of Traill using her legal background in reviewing the various labor contracts the municipality have and figure ways out of them and into a bidding contract basis. We need energy applied in all directions to tackle the many problems the town has and this is really were Foster is a complete let down. Whatever FranklinWu and Nancy Taylor says is good enough for me we can hear him saying 8.2% increase no problem, why not 15% well were at! They won’t mind. No one will vote for anything I want so why not just keep the chair warm for four years and do whatever they say. After all I wasn’t voted in to lead was I?

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/169805

The point is that to sit back in this economy and expect people on no raise, no job, underemployed, and fixed incomes to suck up another tax increase because of poor management and poor costs controls and poor leaderships is just dreaming. The other point is that if you let staff make all the decisions then the result will always be, hire more, pay more, less work please. You were voted in to not make friends but to make the hard decisions. Maybe Rob Ford can come down and show you a thing or two. At this point if there was a revote Foster would be at 0 and Adams would have all his votes.

Na, Na Na, Hey Hey Goodbye,

Can you hear it Adrian?

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Transparency?

2011-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Transparency?

Next to the word EFW probably the next most spoken word during the 2010 campaign from almost all of our candidates was the word transparency. In that they were going to be more transparent so the constituents would be able to see what was going on. How decisions were be made and so on. Therefore it seems a big surprise, or actually if your as cynical as us not a big surprise but does the latest action only a few council meetings in really represent transparency?

During the recent council meeting the council decided to go behind closed doors for several hours to discuss the EFW. This issue often the deciding factor in how so many voted in this new "transparent" environment was being discussed behind closed doors.

Didn’t take long!

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/169325

Can Foster Be a Rob Ford and Make the Hard Choices?

We don’t think so but read the article below and you decide.

Cut your budgets, or risk losing your jobs.

That is Rob Ford’s warning to the top brass at the library, public health, Toronto police and the TTC, the agencies that defied his demand for cuts in the debut budget he unveiled on Monday – a $10.6-billion plan that includes a tax freeze and a surprise transit fare increase.

"If they are unable to manage effectively in the best interest of the taxpayers, then we will have to find new managers that can," Mr. Ford said.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Danger, Danger, Danger

2011-01-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Danger, Danger, Danger

This excellent article appeared in NewsDurham written by Jennifer O’Meara, we have added are comments in bold italics.

Mayor's New Year's resolutions for Clarington

Clarington council to get busy championing provincial projects and adding more public consultation
Jan 04, 2011 - 02:31 PM

CLARINGTON -- Mayor Adrian Foster has a list of big resolutions for the municipality for the new year and council will be getting straight to work to champion major provincial projects and include residents in plans for Clarington's future.
"A real genuine effort (is being made) to change the way we do things," said Mayor Foster. (Really?)In January, Mayor Foster wants to tackle the major issues of the Hwy. 407 extension being phased in and the energy-from-waste facility approved to be built in Courtice.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation original plan to extend Hwy. 407 east from its current end at Brock Road in Pickering all the way to Hwy. 35/115 was altered last year, so the project will be built in stages -- ending the first phase of the extension at Simcoe Street in Oshawa.
The costs of that extra traffic on the regional road network would fall on the municipalities, Region and taxpayers to bear, according to Mayor Foster. Municipal staff working on the challenge has early numbers that suggest ending the highway on a regional road will cost taxpayers more than $25 million in road improvements and repairs.
The City of Oshawa is hosting a public meeting on the provincial plans to halt Hwy. 407 at Simcoe Street on Wednesday, Jan. 12. Mayor Foster will be making a presentation at the meeting.
The local politicians are also hoping to arrange a meeting with the Province on the issue. Mayor Foster said if Hwy. 407 is going to be built in phases, it would be considerate for the Province to let land owners, developers and the municipality know when the second phase will be built.
"Is it coming today, is it another 25 years?" said Mayor Foster. "They're not going to give up the lands because they are at some point going to build that highway, but how long?"
In January, Clarington council could also be acting on the incinerator planned for Courtice. An upcoming report from the solicitor will examine the host community agreement and let council know exactly what options it has regarding the plans. Several Clarington council members campaigned with promises to stop the incinerator, which had already been approved by the previous Clarington and Durham Region councils. (Foster was one of these, of which he seems to forget.)
"We still need to take a look at that," said Mayor Foster. (Why have you already given up?)
As for the rest of 2011, Mayor Foster said council also needs to set a strategic plan to guide the four-year term. He said he'd like to see those priorities set in part by the public. He expects council will support adding a public consultation component for the plan.
"We all sang from the same song sheet in terms of getting more public consultation," said Mayor Foster.
He said he'd like to see the town hall open to visitors during the big downtown Bowmanville festivals.
Clarington will be facing some challenges in 2011. (Interpretation: Taxes go up, your wallet and bank account get smaller.)
The municipality will be working with the Province to bring the Darlington Nuclear power plant refurbishment and new reactors into existence.
Mayor Foster said he also expects it to be a tough budget year, with a number of fixed costs that could limit council's options. (Interpretation: Your screwed, He doesn’t want to do his job and tackle costs so the easiest thing to do is yank more money out of you instead of earning his wage.)
"We don't have as much wiggle room as we have in past years," said Mayor Foster. (Interpretation: Your really screwed and he doesn’t care and doesn’t want to make the tough decisions and cut programs and tackle unionised costs structure, and forget about having a savings account because it now belongs to the town. Also at this point your wishing that you had voted for Paul Adams for mayor.)

Were Screwed,

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Time For More Choice

2011-01-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Time For More Options:

It seems that almost everybody in the service business field is offering various levels of cost structure from your Internet service all the way to car insurance, to your cable TV in between. With car insurance the latest to join the field in order to try and keep costs under control. We wonder why the municipality and region haven’t joined the fold. It seems that since they are completely unable to control costs through getting out of non-essential businesses like indoor recreation, and seem completely unwilling, known as scared shitless to try and tackle the unionized costs structure and start contracting out that we at the end of the line are stuck paying, paying, and paying more and more every year. At some point the madness has to stop and we wonder if it will be to late before are elected ones will even try and make a difference.
So we figure the best way for the municipality to control costs for the homeowner quickly would be to arrange services at various price points and let the home owner every year buy in at the price they can or are willing to pay. This would also work as great feedback for the municipality for they would be quickly able to tell what people actually want to pay for and what they could actually get rid of. So here we go. We won’t get into unnecessary detail but just hit the essentials.

The Bronze Package: Designed for People without kids.

-25% of the education tax
- Access to parks, trails and green areas
- Fire protection
- Police protection
- Garbage collection
- Access to roads and infrastructure
- No access to social services

The Silver Package: Designed for people with one kid.
- All of the bronze package
- 50% of the education tax
- Access to outdoor recreation like soccer and ball fields, skate boarding etc.

The Gold Package: Designed for people with two kids.

- All of the silver package
- 75% of the education tax
- access to libraries, and limited use of indoor recreation, such as arenas, indoor soccer, and pool
- access to social services such as community care and older adults association

The Platinum Package: Designed for people with three or more kids or for those that just want it all.

- All of the gold package
- 100% of the education rate
- Unlimited use of all recreation
- Access to Visual arts, and museum, and community halls

So there you have it. In order to bring affordability back to the tax system and to see what people actually want because they will have choice instead of having it rammed down are collective you know what’s.

The municipality and the region would then be able to use this as feedback for what people really want to pay for and maybe what they should close down or sell off.
Also they could include a pick and pay option which would allow you to buy one off's not included in your package of thing’s that really interest you but are not in your group at a set value.

Local News:

For those of you who have read the recent article about the council voting for the EFW report to go directly to council instead of through the hands of the CAO Franklin Wu should be very intrigued by how the vote went down. It is good to see, and we will even give Willie thumbs up for this. They said they ran against the EFW and it’s just makes sense that even though it looks unlikely they will be able to change that course they are trying to slow it down and put some speed bumps in the way. But of course the man that ran for the top position with being against the EFW as really his only platform item voted against this motion and it makes us and many more besides us wonder once again if he had any intention whatsoever of doing something about the EFW. To date he is bating 0 for 2 and with another strike we wish he were out.

It also makes us say once again that we voted the politicians in to run things not have the staff run them and make all the decisions.

Copy and paste the link to your browser to read the article.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/clarington/article/168616

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Death Of The Christmas Spirit

2010-12-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

Death Of The Christmas Spirit
Year Zero- 2010 RIP

It comes every year as sure as winter. But over the years with commercial over exposure the Christmas Spirit has been slowly eroded. Sure there are exemptions and displays of generosity but these are becoming fewer and far between. As more and more of the population are finding their main employment in the retail sector the images of the holidays is really just an illusion. The one day most of them are getting off hardly qualify as a holiday.
Christmas now seems to have switched to an endless smorgasbord of shopping, greed, and short patience levels. It is no longer about family, friends and spending time with them and giving them a well thought out gift. It has become about greed, and how much, and how cheap and spending right to the last minute, as well as shopping for no better reason then boredom levels and a compulsive need to shop when it strikes one.

Some examples of the death of the Christmas sprit are below,

You’re standing outside thirty deep waiting for Zellers to open Christmas Eve’s day.

You found yourself with your newborn at Wal-Mart Christmas Eves day buying washer fluid instead of taking your newborn to visit his/hers grandparents.

You found yourself at Canadian Tire buying motor oil because it was on sale Christmas Eve’s day instead of getting together with friends and sharing a moment.

It’s six o’clock Christmas Eves day and your still out shopping for an appliance for your wife.

Instead of getting on the road and meeting with your in-laws you have decided to go into CTC and grab a three pack of washer fluid because it saved you fifty cents.

Instead of getting together with your family Christmas Eve you stop by Home Depot and buy some wood and start working on this project that night.

It’s Christmas Day and you find yourself going through the Boxing Day flyers instead of talking to your family members.

You spend Christmas day planning your shopping route to make sure you get to all the Boxing Day deals in the most efficient manner.

You wake up at 6:00am Boxing Day to get out shopping.

Unfortunately Christmas has become not about family, friends, and the giving spirit, but about how much one can buy, how cheap you are going to get it and how fast you can get it. It has become about instant gratification and a one day off for most of the population. It has slowly eroded away to the point that we officially declare it dead this year. It rests now beside Common Sense that died a few years back as well. What is next we do not know but we are sure it will be something.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

Our Christmas Wish List

2010-12-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas Wish List

10.) Our new councilors turn out to be better then are old.

9.) For all of our councilors to come to the conclusion that indoor recreation is best left to the private sector and sell it off.

8.) Our councilors wake up smell the coffee and realize that there is a problem out there and we are in a recession, no one has jobs and we cannot afford any more taxes.

7.) Ron actually comes up with some policy or idea and carries it through, any thing, we just want to see you do anything at all.

6.) We don’t have councilors like last year acting like children and not voting or walking out of meetings. You know who you are, no room for children in politics.

5.) Willie to challenge himself to not appearing in the paper/radio/tv or any form of media for one year for any of his PR stunts.

4.) That come budget time they roll taxes back 5% would be a good start.

3.) For our councilors to tackle the 31 million-dollar debt and get it paid off as soon as possible and not run up another for unnecessary things.

2.) For our councilors to watch the TVO agenda show and realize that it is time to start to contract out all services to decrease costs/taxes.

1.) Turns out there is a miss count and Paul Adams is our mayor after all

Debt To Income Ratio Increases To Highest Ever In Canada

Don’t know if anyone noticed last week that Revenue Canada stated that the debt to income ratio increased to an all time high. Now everyone immediately will think that people just borrowed more, but in fact most of the increase last year was due to peoples incomes falling.

Why because real world incomes have decreased quite a bit, assuming one has a job. The only place this trend is not taking place is in public service jobs, particularly union ones. Now with a lot of our middle income jobs, think factories shipped over seas, think China the middle class has been systematically eliminated to a large extent. How does this effect us other then the obvious, house prices for one fall, economy remains weak, and with less income coming in people have less to spend creating a viscous downhill cycle. For the municipality if house prices fall in order to make up the downfall the tax percentage you pay will have to be increased to maintain what you are paying today. The kicker is that the large debt that was run up in the good times, think the $41 million recreation wave debt stays the same but with less income coming in through housing starts (development fees) and taxes then this large problem becomes even larger and becomes a major problem with revenues falling. In order to make up the shortfall they are going to have to tax us even more. Sounds like a bad situation to us and gives us all the more reason to hope that Adrian realizes that taxes, and debt need to be tackled as soon as possible.

We can hope after all it is Christmas time.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian

The EFW Election Ploy?

2010-12-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

The EFW Election Ploy?

Throughout the entire election we heard people and groups speaking out about the EFW. But there were two both Foster and Woo who spoke out the loudest. They rode the anti EFW wave right into the chambers downtown without looking back. People cheered, okay 11.4% of them in the case of Foster and everything was great; right? But then what happened. The EFW got approved and we haven’t heard hardly a whimper from either one. After all Woo is the man who gets up in the morning and sneezes and it probably will make the paper. Now it’s quiet out there when he said he was taking the fight to the EFW. Then we have Adrian who used the anti-EFW wave to win the election and he has wrote a letter to the Ontario minister and spoke to the globe. Here’s the link below. (copy and paste to your browser)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/clarington-mayor-has-burning-questions-over-incinerator/article1797825/

When one reads the article in the globe it sounds like he had given up already. Yes it has been signed and approved but that shouldn’t stop anyone from at least speaking out about it. Maybe staging a rally. But nothing, nada. So we are left wondering was the anti-efw stance used as a tool to win the election, and the results of the EFW be damned since in the article he states he supports other types of incinerators then the one we are getting. Did he realise that his only chance to get in was to be the opposite of our former mayor and ride the anti-efw wave? The only thing is that he didn’t see the wrench almost successfully thrown in his path from the well executed campaigning of Paul Adams who had an actual platform other then the one thing Foster had. Adams wanted to tackle taxes, and the debt, and transparency and the EFW. Foster had just the anti-efw, his record of tax and spend during the recreation wave years in which the EFW was first investigated, and he was involved in it which many people conveniently forgot about. If it wasn’t for his name recognition in Courtice and the fact that he yelled the loudest about the EFW would he have won? After all he almost lost to not just one person but two.

So here we are at present. The EFW approved and nothing. Complete silence from not just one but two of our regional representatives. We don’t expect anything from Mary because she ran on here record and she won, and here record was the EFW approval.
So we are left wondering, and there are many out there who wonder if the anti-efw stance was just a ploy to get elected, and once in the results didn’t matter because the next four years were tied up with no recall process in place and in four years with residents short memories who knows.

But one thing is for sure there will be people out there who will keep Adrian’s feet to the fire over the next few years and especially next spring when your taxes go up again. We bet that there are many people right now who wished they voted Adams now so that more then just that one lost issue was tackled now.

http://www.durham.ca/departments/clerk/minutesPDF.asp?id=13702

Hit the link above(copy and paste to your browser) to view the minutes for the recent elected chair and see how your councilors voted. We will have to see how safe our wallet will be with the results.

Till Next Time The Clarington Tax Guardian