Thursday, February 09, 2006

TTC spells tax credit as Fare Increase Mandate - Update

Stephen Harper became Prime Minister and before the transit user’s pass tax credit has even come into effect the Toronto Star reports that the Toronto Transit Commission will make good on their threat to raise fares:
The TTC is raising fares across the board as it tries to balance threats to quality of service with rising levels of ridership. As of April 1, transit riders will pay 10 cents more for tickets and tokens, and the cost of a cash fare will increase 25 cents to $2.75. And seniors, students and children will also all pay more. The cost of a Metropass will rise by $1, a weekly pass will remain the same.

For those whose memories are short, let me quote from the Toronto Star on January 21, 2006:
Toronto transit riders may see no benefit from Stephen Harper's promise to provide a tax credit designed to save Metropass holders $189.60 a year, says the vice-chair of the Toronto Transit Commission. That's because the TTC may raise the Metropass by the same amount, Councillor Joe Mihevc said yesterday.

The TTC will be looking more closely at the situation if Harper's Conservatives win office on Monday. "If we at the TTC — who are in a big budget squeeze — suddenly find out a few days from now that passengers are going to be getting a discount on their income tax, there will actually be upward pressure on increasing fares," he said
.

No word yet on whether the price of beer and popcorn will also be rising to offset any tax credits to Canadian families with small children.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

CITY COUNCILLOR JOE MIHEVC IS IN A BIG CONFLICT OF INTEREST WHEN HE DEMANDS MORE FEDERAL SCPI GRANTS!

Toronto City Councillor Joe Mihevc is demanding better funding for Supporting Community Partnership Initiative grants (SCPI,) today, September 12 at the Holy Trinity Church, saying that they have been a big help to Toronto's poor and homeless.

What he isn't saying is that his family is a direct beneficiary of these grants.

SCPI is a federally funded program through CMHC that is administered locally, in this case by the City of Toronto's Shelter HOusing and Support division (SHS).

A few years ago when Councillor Mihevc's wife had just graduated from social work school and was out of work, Mihevc pressured the city SHS's Trish Keachie to award a SCPI grant to East York East Toronto Resources, who created their RENT project www.housingworkers.ca for housing workers to be headed up by Rosalee Bender, Joe Mihevc's longtime commonlaw wife! Mihevc's wife gets a fulltime salary for what is about 2 day's work a month and used to be done in the spare time of one city employee!

In the meantime many social advocacy groups have had no response from Mihevc Chair of the city's Community Services Committee on why the city purposely creates so many delays for those trying to get benefits from Ontario Works.

Mihevc also had som affordable housing in his own ward bulldozed for parking saying that the property was owned by the Parking Authority and tha tlocal businesses needed more parking far more that the tenants needed the housing!

Councillor Mihevc is only using the issue of homelessness and poverty to benefit himself financially and his ward 21 reelection campaign.