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Olivia Chow: “We don’t cut services, we strengthen them”

by Marzio Pelù

TORONTO – After last week’s town hall telephone calls and the meetings organized by the city administration, it is time to take stock for the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, as she deals with the 2024 Budget.

Today, in a press conference together with the fire chief Matthew Pegg in the Riverdale fire station, the first citizen – answering journalists’ questions on the 2024 Budget – began by recalling that she had “inherited a financial disaster, having to face a deficit of 1.8 billion dollars. I could repeat what the Mayors of the past have done: cut services or cut emergency funds; or, I could protect them and improve them”, she said, then going on to list some numbers: Budget 2024 includes money for 52 more firefighters, more fire inspectors and 911 dispatchers, as well as 63 additional frontline and support staff for Toronto Paramedic Services, as well as money for the new Toronto Community Crisis Service to deal with people in crisis.

The first citizen added that there is also more money in the Toronto police budget, but it is $12.6 million less than what the Toronto Police Services Board approved in the budget request voted on last December. A decision, as is known, already contested by Chief Myron Demkiw who last week spoke to the City Council, pointing out how the proposed cuts will undermine the efficiency of the police force which will not be able – due to a lack of policemen – to keep up with the ever-increasing crime rate. “Let me set the record straight” Chow replied today, “the Toronto police are receiving millions of dollars more in their budget, there are no cuts” she said, referring to the overall increase compared to 2023.

But the 2024 Budget has not only generated discontent among the police: the entire citizenry is worried about the proposed increase in property taxes to 10.5 percent to address the budget hole: an increase that could become 16.5 percent if the federal government does not allocate $250 million for refugees. And precisely on this last point, the first citizen announced that on Wednesday she will meet the federal Minister of Public Security, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic Leblanc, to talk about the type of support Toronto needs. “Good things take time. We still have time” Chow said. “My budget won’t come out until February 1st.” And then she concluded: “I spoke to both the federal and provincial governments to say ‘look, look at all the problems and challenges that we face that other cities don’t have’. And I said this to everyone, in so that they support us even more.”

Now the first citizen will have to complete the process, bringing the 2024 Budget to the City Council for final approval.

In the pic above: Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow (from Twitter X – @MayorOliviaChow)

Canada: the poor get poorer, the rich get richer

by Marzio Pelù

TORONTO – High interest rates have had a negative impact on low-income Canadian families more than on wealthy ones, as a new report from Statistics Canada highlights. A rather obvious thing, given that low-income families have less ability to “defend themselves” from the increase in the cost of living: but the Statistics Canada report, beyond the obvious conclusion, analyzed savings and wealth in the third quarter of 2023 and what emerges is that the low-income group was also penalized by a laughable increase – of 3% – in average salaries, which is was abundantly absorbed by a 43% drop in net income from possible investments and, above all, by higher rates for consumer credit. The richest, however, enjoyed a greater increase in average wages (almost 6%) and net investment income (almost 10%). This group therefore experienced the fastest pace of average disposable income and was the only group to increase net investment income.  (more…)

Conservatives and Liberals chasing Italian votes: a big crowd at the meeting with Pierre Poilievre organized by Anna Roberts

by worldwide journalists

TORONTO – Election campaign has actually already begun and both the Liberals and the Conservatives are working hard to win the crucial vote of the Italian community. But the participation of the two parties in the respective events is visibly different, as can be understood from the photos we publish above (left, Conservatives meeting; right, Liberals meeting). (more…)

International students in Canada, here the “squeeze”

by Marzio Pelù

TORONTO – Canada will reduce the number of international student permits by 35 per cent as part of “a temporary two-year cap on foreign enrollments,” Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced this morning. The cap will reduce the number of approved study permits in 2024 to 364,000, while the 2025 limit will be re-evaluated at the end of this year. Students enrolling in master’s and research doctorates will be exempt from the cap. “These are the bright people we need to retain instead,” Miller said, adding that doing so will allow them to decisively confront the institutions and “bad actors” who have to pay exorbitant tuition fees to international students. (more…)

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