Category: Toronto

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

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)

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

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…)

CORRIERE CANADESE / Taglio dei fondi alla polizia, cittadini contrari

TORONTO – Oltre alla crisi abitativa, al caro vita e al problema dei senzatetto i residenti di Toronto ritengono che criminalità e sicurezza pubblica siano anche questioni importanti. È quanto emerge da un sondaggio condotto da Abacus Data per la Toronto Police Association su un campione di 1.500 torontini, che evidenzia una crescente preoccupazione del pubblico per la sicurezza e la criminalità, con un forte consenso sulla necessità di una maggiore presenza di polizia e di forze dell’ordine adeguatamente finanziate per affrontare questi problemi. Un residente su tre considera la criminalità uno dei tre principali problemi della città… Read More in Corriere Canadese >>>