Mayor Ford awarded a ‘B’.

The marks are in!

Having poured over the past twelve months, the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition has issued report cards for the mayor and each councillor.

“We want to give taxpayers a tool to help them judge how their councillor has been voting as Toronto deals with the current financial crisis,” said coalition president Matthew McGuire. “In the same way reports cards at school give guidance to students, this is a chance for councillors to gauge how they are doing on these issues.”

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition is pleased with the news that Toronto City Council voted to enter into a contract for household waste collection in the area west of Yonge St. The winning bid will save the city $100 million over the course of the contract.

However, the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition is reminding city councillors that their job is far from over.

“This is a great first step. The monopoly on garbage collection has been dragged to the curb.” said Coalition president Matthew McGuire. “But council would be wrong to think that they’ve cleaned up all of their ‘fiscal waste’.”

Read more →

And the winners are…

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition announced the winners of their essay contest earlier today. The contest encouraged residents to submit a short article or video explaining why lower taxes are good for Toronto.

Just over 250 people rose to challenge by submitting their works online. The entries were judged by a panel made up of the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition advisory board.

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition today announced a new contest in a bid to raise awareness of the benefits of lower taxes. The contest is called “Fill in the blanks”. Contestants are asked to write an essay that starts with the phrase “Lower taxes are good for Toronto because ___ ___ ____ ___.” Contestants can also submit 2 minute video essays to qualify for the competition.

“We are excited about the opportunity to hear from the silent majority of Torontonians who know that lower taxes are better for Toronto’s economy”, said Matt McGuire Toronto Taxpayer Coalition’s President.

Contest winners get the chance to have lunch with Councillor Doug Ford. Taxpayers can submit their entries at www.torontotaxpayer.ca.

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition is warning Toronto City Council is on track to increase property taxes by 34% next year if no changes are made to current city services.

Last week a record number of Toronto residents spoke out against reducing or changing service delivery at the executive committee meeting. None of the speakers talked about the consequences of that advice.

“It’s a ticking tax time bomb”, warned Coalition President Matthew McGuire in front of City Hall on Sunday morning. “Homeowners will see their tax bill go up by more than one third, and renters would get monster size rent increases close to 10%.”

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition will be making a deputation to Toronto’s Executive Committee urging council to scrap Toronto’s fair wage policy in effort to overcome a $774M budget shortfall for next year. Under this policy, the City of Toronto is limited in only awarding contracts to companies that can pay an artificially high minimum wage for specific jobs.

“The fair wage policy is the most unfair policy for taxpayers that Toronto has,” stated Coalition President Matthew McGuire.

Over the past two weeks, Council has received a series of reports detailing cost-savings measures and efficiencies to help climb out of the financial hole we’re in. The Coalition wants to make sure that Council doesn’t overlook some of the biggest opportunities for savings.

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition cheered at the news that City Council took no action with Economic Development Committee’s recommendation to pursue a second NHL team.

“The final buzzer just sounded on this idea,” said Coalition President Matthew McGuire.

The Coalition had proposed to Council an amendment earlier this week that would have protected taxpayers from footing the bill should the city be successful in courting a new team.

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition is calling for a ban on subsidies to sports teams. Matthew McGuire, president of the Coalition, says his group has submitted an amendment to the Economic Development Committee’s recommendation.

“When politicians start talking about professional sports teams, taxpayers need to put on their protective cups,” McGuire said.

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition reacted this morning to news that council’s Economic Development Committee voted 3-1 in favour of working with the NHL to bring a second professional hockey team to the city.

“Not a single dime of taxpayers’ money,” said Coalition President Matthew McGuire. “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing billionaires who employ millionaires.”

The proposal is being pushed by Councillor Josh Colle (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence).

Read more →

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition welcomes the news that council has voted in favour of privatizing garbage pickup west of Yonge St.

Earlier today, the Coalition triumphantly capped off their four-month campaign pushing for privatized garbage pickup by submitting a petition signed by two thousand people to the mayor and each councillor.

“The amount of signatures our petition received shows the desire that Torontonians have for conducting city business in a cost-effective manner,” stated President Matthew McGuire. “We need to continue taking expensive past practices to the dump.”

Read more →