Watch Out Mayor Miller And Councillor Janet Davis

Come the next municipal election, I'm going on the warpath so to speak, in our neighbourhood to remind everyone of the new garbage tax that was sneaked in without a whole lot of public discourse. I'm also going to rerun this post frequently but especially closer to the next municipal election just to remind everyone in T-Dot what Mayor Miller has done with the explicit consent of just about every member of his council including my very own councillor, Janet Davis.

The garbage tax isn't the only new tax this money grabbing bunch at city hall are now collecting. Land transfer tax in the City of Toronto is double that of the rest of the province, right double... It has done a great job of killing our very buoyant real estate market. Why buy a house in T-Dot and pay 8000 bucks tax when you can go one block past the boundary either direction and pay 4000 bucks. My friends in real estate have told me the market in T-dot is on life support. Or how about an extra 60 bucks a year registration fee for my auto on top of the provincial fee. Drivers from other municipalities that make up the Greater Toronto Area do not have to pay it but still drive in the city.

The garbage tax of course is being hidden, called a user fee for those of us garbage pigs who insist on generating more garbage than anyone else. So the more garbage you generate the more you pay. I of course ordered the smallest bin going by the exterior measurements. Foolish me...

I am in my view one hell of a recycler and composter(we have two) but even I will be hard pressed to get by with this little baby for TWO weeks.

Now at first blush it looks pretty good and I actually thought it would be big enough for us. Closer inspection showed something quite different.

A false bottom...

The total height of this thing is 26 inches, 12 inches for the false bottom and 16 inches of room for two weeks worth of garbage, way cool... Below is the upside down view.

It would cost us about $39.00 to get the next size up bin but you know what, I'm a stubborn German and I'll be darned if I give the city one more dime. These bins, by the way, where manufactured in the U.S. and cost around 50 bucks each. I'm too lazy to do the match but figure out about a million and a half households in the city and you get the idea. That boys and girls is a waste of money.

Last year when this was being discussed I emailed our local councillor an suggested that instead of spending that kind of coin why wouldn't they just simply consider a tag and bag method? Wouldn't that have the same effect, said I...sell the tags instead of these new expensive bins? I received a very condescending email back basically treating me like an idiot. I guess the various municipal leaders in other municipalities are idiots then and only good old T-dot leaders are brilliant.

Today I figured it out, really...this city council is heavily socialist and was elected with heavy union support. Garbage collectors are unionized and with these bins they no longer have to lift them. They have nice little hooks on the back and the mechanized trucks can just lift and tip. Could that be it?