Toronto's Fiscal Crisis

So we all know this story now. Our mayor tried to get some new taxes passed, failed, and threw a hissy fit threatening to shut down the Sheppard subway line and several TTC bus lines.

Let's review:

1 - Our city council gives themselves hefty pay raises a little while ago, even though we're facing this great budget crisis.

2 - The day after Miller tells us about the great budget crisis, the city "spends $1 million to hire bylaw officers to oversee dogs in off-leash parks."

3 - City councilors not only got a nice raise, but they also have huge expense accounts that they abuse regularly!

4 - And finally, today I read that the number of TTC employees making over $100,000 is now 277!

I know that even if the city corrected a lot of these mistakes, we'd still face a huge budget shortfall. But I think our mayor's approach of complaining + raising taxes is the wrong one. The steps should be taken in this order: A) Get spending under control and do a top to bottom full audit of the city's expenses, B) Pressure the province to upload the costs downloaded by the PCs, and then, only then, consider option C) Raising taxes if we're still short.

I believe that most Torontonians will not stand for a tax hike as long as we continue to see the taxes we already pay wasted so egregiously.

My Healthcare Story

Two weeks ago, I suddenly had shooting pain in both of my arms. Taking Tylenol didn't help, so I headed down to the Emergency Room. The doctor there diagnosed a Repetitive Stress Injury, and sent me home with Advil.

Two days after that, I had some severe swelling and pain in both arms and legs, which led to ER Trip #2. The doctor recommended I keep taking Advil, and see my family doctor during the week.

The next night, I had a new type of pain in both arms and legs, which led to ER Trip #3. After a five hour wait in excruciating pain, I finally saw a doctor, who suspected something viral. He sent me home with some really strong painkillers.

I finally saw my Family Doctor a few days later, and he immediately realized that it is a localized allergic reaction to something, and sent me to a Rheumatologist at Toronto General Hospital (TGH).

When I got to TGH, I was told to wait in line at the ER (this is trip #4), and when I finally saw a doctor, who wasn't a Rheumatologist (even though my Family Doctor specifically requested a Rheumatologist). I was sent home again.

The next day, I saw a Dermatologist, who also suspected an allergic reaction. After hearing my (ridiculous) story, she pulled a few strings and got a Rheumatologist to see me immediately. I finally got some proper medication prescribed, which improved my condition drastically right after the first dose. The doctors still don't know what happened, but at least the medication is working.

This is the first time I've been sick enough to need to go to a hospital, and the experience has utterly shaken my faith in our healthcare system. If you don't think medicare is broken, you're a moron.

I have several points:

1 - It's not that we don't have good doctors, we actually have some great ones. It just took too long for the system to get me to the right person.

2 - My brother and I were discussing that it would've been quite expensive if we'd paid for these ER visits out of pocket (I believe each visit costs over $300). On the other hand, I would have been willing to shell out up to a thousand dollars to see the right doctor right away and get treatment faster.

3 - I understand the Triage system in ERs, but the wait times are still ridiculous. This might have something to do with understaffing, because on Trip #3, the doctor who saw me was the only one working in the ER. To his credit, he stayed an extra hour to wait for my test results and prescribed something that actually relieved my pain.

4 - During ER Trips #2 and #3, I had blood tests done. My family doctor does not have automatic access to those results, he has to call the hospital and have them faxed to him. Even more ridiculous is the fact that I, the patient, will not be given those results! After seeing about 8 doctors within a week, it's painfully obvious how important electronic health records are. Any doctor I see now should be able to access my records, prescriptions, and test results from the past week, but they can't.

An Apology

So my buddy Crescent Canuck pointed out that the comment I attributed to Mayor Miller in the previous post was in fact, from Alfons Rubbens, the publisher of InsideSoccer Magazine.

I apoloize to the mayor (I doubt he either knows or cares, but still), and to the few readers that I do have. It was a misread of the Globe and Mail article on my part, and it was quite boneheaded in hindsight.

Here's the Mayor's actual quote: "The incident is obviously regrettable...The duty inspector who was there last night showed tremendous good sense and defused the incident and sent the players back in the care of their coach. Which was the appropriate conduct. He was a real credit to the (Toronto Police Service)."

Way to go Mr. Mayor. I can't remember the last time I was so pleased with something this guy did.

Miller's last straw

I'm sure everyone has heard of the FIFA soccer incident in Toronto. If not, check out the Globe, Post, and Star.

What really threw me was this quote in the Globe article from our dear Mayor Miller: ""First it was (private) security and then there were more and more police - there were way too many police there. If they would have disappeared there would have been no fracas at all."

Really? So the fans that were attacking the refs would have shown restraint if there were NO police? Is this guy off his rocker? A foreign team stirs up trouble in our city, and his response is to slam our cops?

After the last couple of months, I just can't believe I voted for him, I seriously should've abstained. First the ridiculous taxes, now this. I really need to find a centrist candidate to support for the next mayoral run.

I seriously hope Harper doesn't p***y out under pressure and apologize. Then again, if he did, it would be so Canadian, wouldn't it?

Edited to add strikethrough.

Back at it

So it's been a while and I have several things on my mind...


Religion
I was at a wedding this past weekend and a friend of the groom's family was asked to say a short prayer to bless the wedding. He did that, then went into a diatribe against gay marriage and how countries like the Netherlands and Canada are ruining the world, or something like that. I could easily demolish someone like him in a real debate, but this (not very well educated) man (with really bad grammar) chose my friend's wedding to spout his political views, which made him the world's biggest assshole. And if open minded countries like Canada are really that bad, take a hike buddy.


Environment
I am a bit of an environmentalist myself, and I've noticed two trends recently. The first is disconcerting, the second is annoying.

With all of the focus currently on global warming, are we in danger of ignoring good old fashioned pollution? Whatever happened to all the worry about smog days, clean water, landfills, etc? I'm not knocking the attention that global warming is getting, but let's not forget that there are other environmental issues out there.

With global warming having become the cause du jour, the usual bandwagon jumpers have begun doing things that annoy people like me. You have the retail store customer who'll refuse to take a bag while saying "It'll save a tree." No, you well intentioned moron, it won't. Plastic bags are not made from trees, they're made from oil, natural gas, and coal. Plastic bags are not evil, they are reusable, and recyclable. It's our own city's fault for letting them end up in landfills instead of having found a way to recycle them like other Canadian cities already have.


City Council
Speaking of our city, our gutsy councilors recently decided to put off a vote to burden Torontonians with new taxes. Toronto faces a cash crunch, everyone knows that. Yet the councilors gave themselves and the mayor a raise a few months ago, refused to give up their perks, and are now looking at cutting back on services (wait for it...) that involve non-union jobs! Thus our fun cycle of using taxpayer dollars to give underperforming politicians raises and unionized workers inflated salaries while hitting the taxpayer up for more cash continues.

Reasons why the TTC sucks

As much as I usually love the TTC, there are often those inevitable moments where you'll think "I hate the TTC." I had two of those today. I think I'll make this a regular feature.

Reason #1

I was on the way to work in the morning when the train stops mid-station. Turns out there was a "personal injury" at Spadina station. I really hope it wasn't a subway jumper.

So they announce that there will be shuttle buses between Keele and St. George, without explaining why any station other than spadina wouldn't continue to operate. The train I was on let its passengers off at Ossington, and we waited two hours for a shuttle bus.

The TTC's excellent management skills led to the following problem: The shuttle bus started picking up passengers at Keele, and were always full by the time they got to Ossington, which severely irked the people waiting (including myself). After two hours of waiting, we get news that the subway is running again, and I finally made it to the office.

I realize that the initial "personal injury" situation wasn't the TTC's fault, but the response could have been much better. Explaining why you can't do something goes a long way in satisfying your customers. The TTC didn't explain why every station betweek Keele and St. George had no service even though the incident occurred at Spadina. They cobbled together shuttle buses which were slow, late, and always over capacity. If a passenger has to wait 2 hours when trying to get to work in the morning, your response has failed.

Reason #2

Rude/idiotic drivers. The majority of bus drivers are nice and polite people. But when you run into the idiots, it really irks you to no end. Most TTC users are familiar with the situation where a driver makes a quick stop to hand the wheel to his replacement. This is usually done without a hitch, but my driver and his replacement decide to have a chat today, and we were literally sitting there for about 4 minutes. That's a long time when the bus runs every 10 minutes.

Now that I'm ranting already, let's add a few more reasons. The TTC recently advertised that it can now help people in over 100 languages. Did nobody bother to tell them that it's not their job? And fine, it could be a useful service, especially for new Canadians. But how about buses that run on time, expanded service, clean premises, and courteous employees? Take care of the damned basics before deciding to spend time and money on language services.

Also, the TTC website sucks. It is the ugliest, most useless piece of garbage ever.

Finally, does anyone know why it is that Islington station smells like barf EVERY morning?

The Market at Work

A neat NYT article on the Dabbawalas of India.