Member
Posts: 149 
Location: Toronto
Location: Toronto
October 12th, 2005, 12:25 AM
Ontario Finance Minister Resigns
Last Updated Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:38:44 EDT
CBC News
Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara announced his resignation Tuesday evening following an RCMP raid of his family's real estate development company and the revelation that he has been named in a warrant.
"Earlier today I became aware of a search warrant alleging that I was the subject of an RCMP investigation relating to a land transaction somewhere between 1996 and 2002," Sorbara said Tuesday night.
"While I have no idea as to what the allegations are or the facts on which they are based, my responsibility as a Minister of the Crown is to step aside pending a determination of the matters alleged in the warrant.
Sorbara later said he was "dumfounded" to learn that he had been named in the warrant as part of the investigation.
"A devastating mistake has been made," Sorbara said at a late-night news conference. "I want to tell you that I intend to get to the bottom of that."
RCMP spokeswoman Michelle Paradis said the information leading to the warrant is sealed. Sorbara said the fact the warrant is sealed is "unfair" to him.
The RCMP raided the Toronto and Woodbridge, Ont., offices of Sorbara Group. It is also continuing its investigation into Royal Group Technologies, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company. Authorities began looking into the financial affairs of that company back in February 2004.
Sorbara is a former director of Royal Group. Since being appointed finance minister, he has placed his holdings in blind management and resigned as director of the Sorbara Group companies, a firm run by his family.
Hours before his resignation announcement, Sorbara had insisted he would not give up his post despite calls from the New Democrats and Conservatives demanding his resignation while the police continue to investigate.
"He's done the right thing under the circumstances," Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said. "If he's cleared, he will be returned to cabinet."
Ontario Finance Minister Resigns
Last Updated Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:38:44 EDT
CBC News
Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara announced his resignation Tuesday evening following an RCMP raid of his family's real estate development company and the revelation that he has been named in a warrant.
"Earlier today I became aware of a search warrant alleging that I was the subject of an RCMP investigation relating to a land transaction somewhere between 1996 and 2002," Sorbara said Tuesday night.
"While I have no idea as to what the allegations are or the facts on which they are based, my responsibility as a Minister of the Crown is to step aside pending a determination of the matters alleged in the warrant.
Sorbara later said he was "dumfounded" to learn that he had been named in the warrant as part of the investigation.
"A devastating mistake has been made," Sorbara said at a late-night news conference. "I want to tell you that I intend to get to the bottom of that."
RCMP spokeswoman Michelle Paradis said the information leading to the warrant is sealed. Sorbara said the fact the warrant is sealed is "unfair" to him.
The RCMP raided the Toronto and Woodbridge, Ont., offices of Sorbara Group. It is also continuing its investigation into Royal Group Technologies, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company. Authorities began looking into the financial affairs of that company back in February 2004.
Sorbara is a former director of Royal Group. Since being appointed finance minister, he has placed his holdings in blind management and resigned as director of the Sorbara Group companies, a firm run by his family.
Hours before his resignation announcement, Sorbara had insisted he would not give up his post despite calls from the New Democrats and Conservatives demanding his resignation while the police continue to investigate.
"He's done the right thing under the circumstances," Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said. "If he's cleared, he will be returned to cabinet."
Member
Posts: 96
Location: South Ontario, Toronto District
Location: South Ontario, Toronto District
October 19th, 2005, 12:47 AM
And the Harris government had no choice due to the $63.4 billion accumulated budget deficit (overspending) the Rae NDP Lunatics left Ontario with; a world record for any subnational government in only 5 years and over double the federal deficit.
So the confederates (as opposed to the less than worthless "Ontario" feds), after the Rae NDP Lunatics had bitched for 5 years about $2 billion/year being stolen from "Ontario" (south), nothing to do with revenues paid out but revenues not returned to Ontario, per capita and every other way the confederates claim to measure the handouts of tens of billions of our revenues every year handed out to other jurisdictions, revenues returned per capita were $2 billlion short while the Rae NDP Lunatics held the "Ontario" dictatorship.
The World Bank threatened to slap a Third World credit rating on the Ontario government if it didn't get its fiscal house in order (pay down that massive world record $63.4 billion deficit the Rae NDP Lunatics ran up) so the confederates proceeded to take over $10 billion more from Ontario (in taxes not returned; here) in fiscal 1996-97, paid what was left of the confederate deficit off with it, then from 1997-98 through 2003-04 they took $22 billion more per year on average from Ontario (there is no "taking"; confederate taxes are paid out and that's irrelevant other than that they ran up $77 billion in "surplus" from 1997-98 through 2003-04 on the backs of Ontario taxpayers without returning one cent of it; it's the amount of revenues never seen again, here, but seen all over the Canadas in every other jurisdiction, more revenues per capita in every province and territory, by $22 billion a year on average; with a $63.4 billion deficit to pay off and we're in this "confederation" for what?) and Ontario never gets any handouts.
Any other jurisdiction, the NDP ran up a $2+ billion deficit in B.C., and $2 billion is a lot more in B.C. than it is in Ontario because it doesn't even have the population of Toronto; $2 billion is only $161.39 per person in Ontario, with regard to public debts (government overspending also called deficits) or little things like expenditures on healthcare, education, social services, infrastructure and such.
$2 billion in B.C. is $476.60 per capita. Do you remember when the confederates (undignified by Martin but they're all worthless, the whole insults to the words systems and structures in this mess are far beyond worthless) handed out $2 billion "per province" as an emercency injection into healthcare in 2004? Well whatever the issue, this is how it worked out per province:
$2 billion amounts to this much divided by the total population of each province, also known as per person or per capita
(50+ people rounds up to next hundred, 49- does not. The decimal point can be turned into a comma by adding two zeroes: E.g. Ontario TOTAL = 12,392,700)
pp = Preliminary postcensal estimates based on
pr = Updated postcensal estimates base on
2001 census counts adjusted for net undercoverage
Population Source: Statistics Canada - http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo31a.htm
It's always interesting to see things in such perspectives, which the confederates do everything possible to hide; particularly around regions.
Anyway, the B.C. government (Super Gordo Liberal with no opposition; 2 NDP Lunatics) jumped up and down, screamed, yelled, stomped, the usual from spoiled brats and somehow got on the confederate "equalization" welfare handout transfer:
Total Equalization Entitlements (1993-94 to 2005-06)
$ Millions (1,000 million = 1 billion)
1 Figures reflect increases resulting from the new framework on Equalization announced by the Prime Minister following the October 2004 First Ministers' Meeting.
2 These figures incorporate the protection provided to provinces against declines in Equalization as announced. These figures do not include the additional $150 million in Equalization announced in Budget 2004.
Source: Not Long For This World Finance "Canada": http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/eqpe.html
B.C. paid its deficit off with "equalization" welfare handouts; never an option for Ontario. Everything is doing it.
The figures also do not include the insanity around allowing the governments of Newfoundland & Labrador and Nova Scotia to keep 100% of our offshore oil/natural gas royalties (federal jurisdiction and we paid for it all so we should be holding stocks to collect from those royalties directly; perhaps allowing the governments of NL and NS to keep 10% of our royalties but that was never in question even though it should be, they have always kept 100% of our offshore oil/gas royalties) and 70% of 100% of the revenues provincial governments receive from natural resources is supposed to be be counted as income to be deducted from the "equalization" welfare handout transfer.
Alberta screwed that one up as soon as the rules of "equalization" (nice word and it might even be a decent idea if it were true and had ever done anything but HARM the economies of recipent governments; but it's a load of crap that is neither equal nor does does it "equalize" anything because there is no measurment system, there are no standards; it's blind and the $125,107 million, $125.1 billion, might as well have been burned and almost all of it is paid for by Ontario taxpayers; Ontario is the one and only jurisdiction that has and never will receive the "equalization" welfare handout but it's going to be abolished anyway or Ontario is going to be a "have-not" province in 5 years, which would make it eligible to receive "equalization" but what would pay for it? Nothing can, nothing in the Canadas even has the economy of Toronto, could/never have paid one cent into it, let alone Ontario) were "made official" in 1957.
The Alberta government kept 100% of its royalties from oil/gas and not one cent of it was counted as provincial revenues (income for the Alberta Dept. of Finance), for seven years it collected 100% of "equalization" welfare handouts without a cent of the oil/gas royalties paid to the Alberta government by oil companies being ... counted as income against the welfare handouts and that is all "equalization" is and it's all it even states it is.
It's like someone being on welfare (workfare in Ontario), winning the cash for life lottery without even buying the ticket or knowing what a lottery is, then demanding that they keep their welfare income on top of it.
And Alberta is different than NL or NS; it's not federal jurisdiction and private investment paid for most of the development of its oil industry; not South Ontario taxpayers (and Alberta of late, it pays out a billion dollars less in taxes, the only ones that matter, never to be seen again, than the City of Toronto alone does, which doesn't match their "superior race" attitude problems or claims of being ripped off; but it's something: whether it's worth listening to their endless loops of complaint in gripe-fests is another story; they have nothing at all to warrant being the biggest crybabies in the "federation") while billions of dollars of our taxes were dumped into the research, development, construction and deployment of the offshore rigs, that operate in federal jurisdiction, the NL and NS governments get to keep 100% of the royalties from.
They, along with Saskatchewan, got 10 years of 0% of the 100% of the royalties their Depts. of Finance collected in oil/gas royalties deducted from the "equalization" welfare handout cheques.
In 2004 the "equalization" welfare handout agreement was up for renewal, "Canada's" feeding frenzy on South Ontario taxpayers (nothing in the Canadas pays any federal taxes but Ontario, Alberta and B.C.; they do but they get 100% of it back in transfers from the confederates and tens of billions of dollars more on top of that) and Saskatchewan had to (finally) abide by the alleged "rules" of the equalization welfare handout transfer (which goes to Ministries of Finance/politicians, not to people and they piss it away, it has accomplished far worse than nothing and the whole thing is a pile of mad cow dung, nothing but lies from ... the usual, lying, fraudulant, totally unaccountable politicians: it's a no strings attached grant. They could build a $2 billion money tree out of it to attract tourism, forget to hire security, get it all stolen and then they're out $2 billion the next quarter so get an extra $2 billion, no questions asked; but that woud be "smart" compared to what isn't done with it, they'd be trying to improve the economy with tourism but none of it has ever or ever will improve any economy).
Saskatchewan had to play by "the rules," 70% of the 100% of oil/gas royalties its Ministry/Dept. of Finance receives are counted as provincial revenues per capita to be deducted from the equalization welfare handouts. But not NL or NS governments.
They got another 10 years (and the last 10 accomplished worse than nothing as usual) of 0% of the 100% of royalties their Ministry/Depts. of Finance received in oil/gas revenues deducted from "equalization" welfare handouts, paid for by Ontario taxpayers; $11 billlion out of the City of Toronto last year alone, out of the $23 billion plundered from South Ontario last year alone.
And the NL government got $2 billion handed to it by the confederates on top of that, for no apparent reason. $2 billion in NL is how much per capita? $3,868 per person.
Translate that to Ontario and it's $47,934,963,600, $47.9 billion. The exact same amount, $3,868 per person but with just a few more people (government expenses per capita, for healthcare, education, social services, affordable housing, homeless shelters and all other public infrastructure; including the SRT, which should be a subway line, no getting on/off at Kennedy stations and going up/down three stories of stairs and with rubber wheel mounts on standard steel subway wheels, like they have in Montreal, the ride is quite smooth and quiet; almost pleasant and there's no snow or ice to deal with, no transferring, you just stay on the subway reading the paper, a book, listening to tunes, whatever and with $11 billion, just the City of Toronto's fair share of its own revenues back, other infrastructure and tax cuts/fare cuts would have to take place for years to get "up to" Canadian standards but some of the money would certainly go towards public transit, like a billion a year would suffice to get the TTC back to where it was and with much better buses like York County ... have you seen those things? And where the hell did they get the money from? From our provincial taxes and the pittances of tax returns, not "transfers" or "funding" both come from elsewhere not our own pockets, that the confederates throw at the Ontario Ministry/Dept. of Finance, and they're the ones plundering $11 billion, always going up, every year but the only way for them to fix it is for us to get as nasty as the rest of this mess is around OUR revenues, but to do it around our own revenues to get our fair share out of the confederates -- or we dump the less than worthless toads sitting right on our land in our buildings, which means getting behind all three parties, well the NDP isn't an official party anymore but we either get behind the Ontario feds and Ontario Chamber of Commerce and just about every institution that matters in the Canadas that have all documented this mess; and they get our fair share of our own revenues back, this year, or we're going to have to dump the "Ontario" feds and the confederate feds).
We're not asking for handouts and we're not even asking for our fair share yet. After Martin handed what amounts to $47.9 billion in Ontario terms to the NL government, for nothing, just an extra bonus because its "premier" pulled our flags down and all 9 MPs from NL threw temper tantrums over the law; 70% of the 100% of the revenues they make from offshore oil/gas royalties, the governments not the people, as with Saskatchewan and Alberta before it, are counted as income/revenues to be deducted from equalization welfare handouts.
That's it, that's all Danny Williams the spoiled little brat NL "premer" pulled our flags down over. And all of 9 MPs from NL threw temper tantrums in "the Commons" -- because they know that no one knows how any of this garbage works, made it sound like some rip-off when getting only 70% of the 100% of the revenues they're collecting in oil/gas royalties is quite a good deal.
Should someone on welfare or workfare in Ontario be able to go to the welfare office with their net income and only get 70% of it deducted from their welfare cheques because they happen to be working around natural resources? Income is income, 100% of it should be deducted and if they make less the next quarter (it's adjusted and paid out every 3 months), they get more in equalization welfare handouts and there is also a "floor" built into it to protect against any major drops in provincial revenues (the territories have an even more insane formula, but there is no formula anymore, the rules that used to make it at least sound reasonable have been thrown in the garbage); every jurisdiction on "equalization" which is everything but Ontario and Alberta, are guaranteed to get 3.5% increases over the next 10 years: assuming the confederates exist in another six months let alone ten years.
But Ontario's economy is not guaranteed any 3.5% growth or even 2.5% growth this year let alone over the next ten years. Ontario is guaranteed to become a "have not" province in 5 years according to Statistics Canada in this:
--
You'll need the free Adobe Reader to read any PDF and most documents worth reading are published in Portable Document Format. If you don't already have it, download it for free, truly free forever (the reader, with free upgrades: they sell other products to create PDF files), here: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
Ontario Chamber of Commerce (http://www.occ.on.ca/)
Fairness In Confederation
Fiscal Imbalance: Driving Ontario to ‘Have-Not’ Status.
David MacKinnon, August, 2005
PDF http://www.occ.on.ca/2publications/r...ort_082005.pdf
NOTE: The Ontario Chamber of Commerce report starts on page 5. If you look to the bottom center of the Abode Reader you'll see "1 of 39" (current/total number of pages and there are lots of pictures, and two pages of sources that point to other interesting documents, websites then organizations, etc., that were involved in the creation of the report; it's about a 20-minute investment in time to understand what is going on) and to the right a single arrow. Click on that arrow to get to "5 of 39" to start reading the rather shocking report. Chambers of Commerce are non-profit private organizations. They are not government organizations.
--
We're going to have to get our fair share of taxes back for that, $11 billion stolen last year alone, mostly by the confederates but a billion and change by the "Ontario" feds and out out of our municipal taxes around them -- to get anything done.
The answer to every question about every problem in the Ontarios that has to do with any government is getting our fair share of taxes back and knowing the facts around it. But we also need major restructuring and not reforms, there is nothing to reform. The fungus and lichon that used to exist is dead.
But that's another book. South Ontario has to be separated from North Ontario, politically, in structure. We have no business interfering in their affairs (northwest Ontario has hydroelectric power, is not connected to our grids and it costs $10 per megawatt but because they're stuck in one jurisdiction they're paying $90 per megawatt, what Toronto pays, for no reason at all -- other than to kill jobs in the region and they need their own government/jurisdiction that's tied to whatever in the Canadas as much as it wants to be: but looking after its own affairs in its own way).
The "GTA thing" is a dysfunctional disaster due to politics. South Ontario has to re-define itself on its own via proper local governments (another book), properly trained and skilled arbitrators (what would be called MPPs or House Reps/Senators in U.S. state governments) to tie them together/unite them, not divide them, Districts and Subdistrics within the whatever of South Ontario.
There's no need to use the word south for the West Division, nothing carved in stone, it's what the abribtrators are for, but for now, everything west of St. Catherines-Niagara up to the Hamilton municipal area, however they define it, not us, the west end of the "Golden" [quite rusty due to revenue raping and plundering] Horseshoe region but as defined by proper local governments and very expensive and very skilled arbitrators they have to pay for to create a Subdistrict that runs to Oshawa, Central District but the Toronto District (re-defined totally dysfunctional "GTA thing"; Peel, York and Durham go too far north up to cottage country/Lake Simcoe, which can/will change, though why we have to destroy everything instead of rebuilding on brownland, old and unused former industrial whatever crap in the City of Toronto, eyesores, re-use the land instead of paving over elsewheres and destroying the Mixedwoods Plains; I don't want to have to drive 10 hours to get to nice environments, get out of the city and have no clue why anyone else wants their ecozones to be destroyed; economic growth but at what price and if you want to live in a concrete jungle and breathe the lovely smog, then move to one. Why create them all over the place when we have lots of unused brownlands that are nothing but eyesores that can be developed on? Because it costs more to buy out the brownlands and develop on them as opposed to moving out and strip foresting/paving over everything further away from cities where property taxes are lower but only for the short-term. CP24 was looking at ads from realtors claiming that there were properties with buildings on them around Lake Simcoe but that was 20 years ago and the puny lots with shacks on them that they did find for $30,000 or less were jokes and on wetlands, in swamps and such that had been partially drained. Leave them alone, we have lots of crapland in the City of Toronto to develop on and the "GTA thing" is insanely large, even without Halton, which doesn't run anywhere near as far north as Peel, York and Durham do, it's still too big).
We have to be free to re-draw the political lines on maps at will according to what actually makes sense. If there is some "Greater Toronto Area" then it should be set up as such. Missisauga wants out of Peel now that it's developed but the rest of Peel, namely Brampton, doesn't think that's very fair. Even in Peel two cities are at war with one another, "diplomatic war," of course, Toronto City Hall is a zoo, where the hell York, which the City of Toronto used to be in but it just means everything north of Steeles now, got the money for the Belgian buses (offices, rather comfortable rides with GPS tied into traffic signals to give them green lights if they run behind schedule, with "Next Bus Arrives In: X minutes and Y seconds at every station/stop, TVs/infotainment systems for everyone if they're not in the offices at the back with Internet access and tables to put their laptops on and plug into or hold a conference on the way to work -- until they hit the TTC and get dislocated joints/jaws/spines from riding on our lump of crap public transit system, and Peel, York, Durham all have police helicopters but the City of Toronto "can't afford one" so has to rent off one of them when it does need a police helicopter and have you been to Peel, York, Durham lately? Aside from Mississauga, where in the hell are they getting their money from? How can they afford things that the City of Toronto can't? Tax plundering, they have more and better of everything than the City of Toronto does due to the "Ontario" government that can't pay any bills without robbing the City of Toronto blind).
The confederates do it to the "Ontario" government but that's their problem and there is no time for any more worthless talk. We have to restructure, now, and get proper governments, now and get our fair share of our own revenues back, now. It's not going to happen without threats and we're holding every card in the deck in South Ontario.
Order our flags to be pulled down, play politics with us with idle threats (what are they going to do, save us tens of billions of dollars and go bankrupt in the process? Yep) and you get a fine not a reward.
You get a smack upside the head, but there is no reason for South Ontario's Districts and Subdistricts to be involved directly in any politics outside South Ontario, unless it suits us. That's what the arbitrators are for, with separate Executive branches (another book; several actually but just details that have to be taken care of, it's nothing difficult to market) and we keep former federal departments/agencies that are totally essential to maintain the Republic State/Union of Canada, "put your money where your mouth is" around setting union budgets. If the jurisdiction is paying zero in union taxes then its Executive branch gets zero say around union budgets. If it's paying for 10% of union expenses, its say/vote is worth 10%.
As in "Want the union military budget expanded? Who doesn't so belly up to the bar. How much are you going to put into the expenses? You don't have any extra revenues? Then toddle off, you have no say."
But nothing personal, there's no need to state it, it's in the new union constitition. It actually provides incentives to be successful instead of the opposite, the mess of the Canadas as is: penalizing economic success to the point of negligent homocide to reward failures with zero accountability and no intent to ever improve their economies.
If/when that's fixed then it might be possible to think about the SRT. Another political bonehead as "Minister" of Finance for the singular lie of "Ontario" will accomplish nothing: maybe more lies, stories, endless talk while being raped and murdered by the "Ontario" dictatorships of revolving doors. And it's the same with everything else in this mess called "Canada." As is, not its actual potential.
Quoting
Actually, the SRT is a mess, it needs to knocked over when the Bloor-Danforth line is extended up to the East Toronto District City Center and a proper Sheppard line with Eglinton and Lawrence lines in between. And the Rae NDP Lunatics started the York University extension:
thank god! now that useless Yorku subway extension can be cancellled and priority shifted to much more needed projects such as maintenance and renovating scarborough RT.
Quote:
Source: Transit Toronto: http://transit.toronto.on.ca/subway/5115.shtml Planning Run Amok
Of course, the extension did not go according to schedule. In the entire history of transit projects in and around Toronto, few (if any) have suffered the politics surrounding the RT line itself. Growing from a relatively simple proposal to run ALRVs on a right-of-way, the plan grew and grew and grew.
In the end, the 3.2-km extension would have cost over $400 million, double the price of the original line and almost five times the original cost of the ALRV proposal. Moreover, the extension's route would have missed some important stops. To the north of McCowan station is a set of offices and an enormous condominium development that would be better served by a station built at Bellamy Road.
Worse, the extension would not have entered the Centennial College campus, but just flanked it leaving hundreds of students with a long walk, crossing busy Progress Avenue every day.
Finally, the travel time downtown would have been long if you were to start at Sheppard East station: Probably 20 minutes to ride the RT, 5 to 10 minutes to interchange at Kennedy, 25 minutes to Yonge Street, 10 to 15 minutes to a downtown station. In total 60 to 70 minutes, assuming that there were no delays. Compare this to, say, the Agincourt GO station with an approximately 25 to 30 minute run to downtown.
In the end, it was the cost of the project, taken alongside the four projects the NDP government was pushing (Sheppard Subway, Eglinton West Subway and the York University extension) that caused the Metro government to hesitate on approving this proposal [Malvern Extenstion of the SRT]. Metro councillors weren't willing to raise taxes in order to provide the funds necessary, and so the Province and Metro proceeded with the Eglinton West and Sheppard Subways, leaving the Spadina Subway and Scarborough RT extensions on the back burner. Then, in June 1995, the Conservatives under Mike Harris were elected to office. One of their first acts was to cancel the construction of the Eglinton West subway. Six months later, they pulled out of capital spending for public transit altogether.
Of course, the extension did not go according to schedule. In the entire history of transit projects in and around Toronto, few (if any) have suffered the politics surrounding the RT line itself. Growing from a relatively simple proposal to run ALRVs on a right-of-way, the plan grew and grew and grew.
In the end, the 3.2-km extension would have cost over $400 million, double the price of the original line and almost five times the original cost of the ALRV proposal. Moreover, the extension's route would have missed some important stops. To the north of McCowan station is a set of offices and an enormous condominium development that would be better served by a station built at Bellamy Road.
Worse, the extension would not have entered the Centennial College campus, but just flanked it leaving hundreds of students with a long walk, crossing busy Progress Avenue every day.
Finally, the travel time downtown would have been long if you were to start at Sheppard East station: Probably 20 minutes to ride the RT, 5 to 10 minutes to interchange at Kennedy, 25 minutes to Yonge Street, 10 to 15 minutes to a downtown station. In total 60 to 70 minutes, assuming that there were no delays. Compare this to, say, the Agincourt GO station with an approximately 25 to 30 minute run to downtown.
In the end, it was the cost of the project, taken alongside the four projects the NDP government was pushing (Sheppard Subway, Eglinton West Subway and the York University extension) that caused the Metro government to hesitate on approving this proposal [Malvern Extenstion of the SRT]. Metro councillors weren't willing to raise taxes in order to provide the funds necessary, and so the Province and Metro proceeded with the Eglinton West and Sheppard Subways, leaving the Spadina Subway and Scarborough RT extensions on the back burner. Then, in June 1995, the Conservatives under Mike Harris were elected to office. One of their first acts was to cancel the construction of the Eglinton West subway. Six months later, they pulled out of capital spending for public transit altogether.
And the Harris government had no choice due to the $63.4 billion accumulated budget deficit (overspending) the Rae NDP Lunatics left Ontario with; a world record for any subnational government in only 5 years and over double the federal deficit.
So the confederates (as opposed to the less than worthless "Ontario" feds), after the Rae NDP Lunatics had bitched for 5 years about $2 billion/year being stolen from "Ontario" (south), nothing to do with revenues paid out but revenues not returned to Ontario, per capita and every other way the confederates claim to measure the handouts of tens of billions of our revenues every year handed out to other jurisdictions, revenues returned per capita were $2 billlion short while the Rae NDP Lunatics held the "Ontario" dictatorship.
The World Bank threatened to slap a Third World credit rating on the Ontario government if it didn't get its fiscal house in order (pay down that massive world record $63.4 billion deficit the Rae NDP Lunatics ran up) so the confederates proceeded to take over $10 billion more from Ontario (in taxes not returned; here) in fiscal 1996-97, paid what was left of the confederate deficit off with it, then from 1997-98 through 2003-04 they took $22 billion more per year on average from Ontario (there is no "taking"; confederate taxes are paid out and that's irrelevant other than that they ran up $77 billion in "surplus" from 1997-98 through 2003-04 on the backs of Ontario taxpayers without returning one cent of it; it's the amount of revenues never seen again, here, but seen all over the Canadas in every other jurisdiction, more revenues per capita in every province and territory, by $22 billion a year on average; with a $63.4 billion deficit to pay off and we're in this "confederation" for what?) and Ontario never gets any handouts.
Any other jurisdiction, the NDP ran up a $2+ billion deficit in B.C., and $2 billion is a lot more in B.C. than it is in Ontario because it doesn't even have the population of Toronto; $2 billion is only $161.39 per person in Ontario, with regard to public debts (government overspending also called deficits) or little things like expenditures on healthcare, education, social services, infrastructure and such.
$2 billion in B.C. is $476.60 per capita. Do you remember when the confederates (undignified by Martin but they're all worthless, the whole insults to the words systems and structures in this mess are far beyond worthless) handed out $2 billion "per province" as an emercency injection into healthcare in 2004? Well whatever the issue, this is how it worked out per province:
$2 billion amounts to this much divided by the total population of each province, also known as per person or per capita
(50+ people rounds up to next hundred, 49- does not. The decimal point can be turned into a comma by adding two zeroes: E.g. Ontario TOTAL = 12,392,700)
Code:
JURISDICTION TOTAL POP% $2B per capita Ontario ................ 12,392.7 62.40 161 Québec ................. 7,542.8 23.61 265 British Columbia ....... 4,196.4 13.14 477 Alberta ................ 3,201.9 10.02 625 Manitoba ............... 1,170.3 3.66 1,709 Saskatchewan ........... 995.4 3.12 2,009 Nova Scotia ............ 937.0 2.93 2,134 New Brunswick .......... 751.4 2.35 2,662 Newfoundland & Labrador 517.0 1.62 3,868 Prince Edward Island ... 137.9 0.43 14,503 Northwest Territories .. 42.8 0.13 46,729 Yukon Territory ........ 31.2 0.10 64,103 Nunavat Territory ...... 29.6 0.09 67,568 TOTAL ................. 31,946.4 100.00 206,813 REGIONS TOTAL POP% (ON+QC) Total .......... 19,935.5 62.40 427 (ON+QC+BC) Total ....... 24,131.9 75.54 903 Rest - (ON+QC) Total ... 12,010.9 37.60 206,386 Rest - (ON+QC+BC) Total 7,814.5 24.46 205,910 Prairie (AB+SK+MB) Total 5,367.6 16.80 4,343 Atlantic Canadas Total . 2,343.3 7.34 23,168
pr = Updated postcensal estimates base on
2001 census counts adjusted for net undercoverage
Population Source: Statistics Canada - http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo31a.htm
It's always interesting to see things in such perspectives, which the confederates do everything possible to hide; particularly around regions.
Anyway, the B.C. government (Super Gordo Liberal with no opposition; 2 NDP Lunatics) jumped up and down, screamed, yelled, stomped, the usual from spoiled brats and somehow got on the confederate "equalization" welfare handout transfer:
Total Equalization Entitlements (1993-94 to 2005-06)
$ Millions (1,000 million = 1 billion)
Code:
YEAR NL PEI NB NS MB QC SK BC TOTAL 1993-94 .... 900 175 835 889 901 3,878 486 0 8,063 1994-95 .... 958 192 927 1,065 1,085 3,965 413 0 8,607 1995-96 .... 932 192 876 1,137 1,051 4,307 264 0 8,759 1996-97 .... 1,030 208 1,019 1,182 1,126 4,169 224 0 8,959 1997-98 .... 1,093 238 1,112 1,302 1,053 4,745 196 0 9,738 1998-99 .... 1,068 238 1,112 1,221 1,092 4,394 477 0 9,602 1999-00 .... 1,169 255 1,183 1,290 1,219 5,280 379 125 10,900 2000-01 .... 1,112 269 1,260 1,404 1,314 5,380 208 0 10,948 2001-02 .... 1,055 256 1,202 1,315 1,362 4,679 200 240 10,310 2002-03 .... 875 235 1,143 1,122 1,303 4,004 106 71 8,859 2003-04 .... 766 232 1,142 1,130 1,336 3,764 0 320 8,690 2004-05[1,2] 762 277 1,326 1,313 1,607 4,155 652 682 10,774 2005-06[1] . 861 277 1,348 1,344 1,601 4,798 82 590 10,900 TOTAL ...... 12,581 3,044 14,485 15,714 16,050 57,518 3,687 2,028 OVERALL TOTAL 125,107
2 These figures incorporate the protection provided to provinces against declines in Equalization as announced. These figures do not include the additional $150 million in Equalization announced in Budget 2004.
Source: Not Long For This World Finance "Canada": http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/eqpe.html
B.C. paid its deficit off with "equalization" welfare handouts; never an option for Ontario. Everything is doing it.
The figures also do not include the insanity around allowing the governments of Newfoundland & Labrador and Nova Scotia to keep 100% of our offshore oil/natural gas royalties (federal jurisdiction and we paid for it all so we should be holding stocks to collect from those royalties directly; perhaps allowing the governments of NL and NS to keep 10% of our royalties but that was never in question even though it should be, they have always kept 100% of our offshore oil/gas royalties) and 70% of 100% of the revenues provincial governments receive from natural resources is supposed to be be counted as income to be deducted from the "equalization" welfare handout transfer.
Alberta screwed that one up as soon as the rules of "equalization" (nice word and it might even be a decent idea if it were true and had ever done anything but HARM the economies of recipent governments; but it's a load of crap that is neither equal nor does does it "equalize" anything because there is no measurment system, there are no standards; it's blind and the $125,107 million, $125.1 billion, might as well have been burned and almost all of it is paid for by Ontario taxpayers; Ontario is the one and only jurisdiction that has and never will receive the "equalization" welfare handout but it's going to be abolished anyway or Ontario is going to be a "have-not" province in 5 years, which would make it eligible to receive "equalization" but what would pay for it? Nothing can, nothing in the Canadas even has the economy of Toronto, could/never have paid one cent into it, let alone Ontario) were "made official" in 1957.
The Alberta government kept 100% of its royalties from oil/gas and not one cent of it was counted as provincial revenues (income for the Alberta Dept. of Finance), for seven years it collected 100% of "equalization" welfare handouts without a cent of the oil/gas royalties paid to the Alberta government by oil companies being ... counted as income against the welfare handouts and that is all "equalization" is and it's all it even states it is.
It's like someone being on welfare (workfare in Ontario), winning the cash for life lottery without even buying the ticket or knowing what a lottery is, then demanding that they keep their welfare income on top of it.
And Alberta is different than NL or NS; it's not federal jurisdiction and private investment paid for most of the development of its oil industry; not South Ontario taxpayers (and Alberta of late, it pays out a billion dollars less in taxes, the only ones that matter, never to be seen again, than the City of Toronto alone does, which doesn't match their "superior race" attitude problems or claims of being ripped off; but it's something: whether it's worth listening to their endless loops of complaint in gripe-fests is another story; they have nothing at all to warrant being the biggest crybabies in the "federation") while billions of dollars of our taxes were dumped into the research, development, construction and deployment of the offshore rigs, that operate in federal jurisdiction, the NL and NS governments get to keep 100% of the royalties from.
They, along with Saskatchewan, got 10 years of 0% of the 100% of the royalties their Depts. of Finance collected in oil/gas royalties deducted from the "equalization" welfare handout cheques.
In 2004 the "equalization" welfare handout agreement was up for renewal, "Canada's" feeding frenzy on South Ontario taxpayers (nothing in the Canadas pays any federal taxes but Ontario, Alberta and B.C.; they do but they get 100% of it back in transfers from the confederates and tens of billions of dollars more on top of that) and Saskatchewan had to (finally) abide by the alleged "rules" of the equalization welfare handout transfer (which goes to Ministries of Finance/politicians, not to people and they piss it away, it has accomplished far worse than nothing and the whole thing is a pile of mad cow dung, nothing but lies from ... the usual, lying, fraudulant, totally unaccountable politicians: it's a no strings attached grant. They could build a $2 billion money tree out of it to attract tourism, forget to hire security, get it all stolen and then they're out $2 billion the next quarter so get an extra $2 billion, no questions asked; but that woud be "smart" compared to what isn't done with it, they'd be trying to improve the economy with tourism but none of it has ever or ever will improve any economy).
Saskatchewan had to play by "the rules," 70% of the 100% of oil/gas royalties its Ministry/Dept. of Finance receives are counted as provincial revenues per capita to be deducted from the equalization welfare handouts. But not NL or NS governments.
They got another 10 years (and the last 10 accomplished worse than nothing as usual) of 0% of the 100% of royalties their Ministry/Depts. of Finance received in oil/gas revenues deducted from "equalization" welfare handouts, paid for by Ontario taxpayers; $11 billlion out of the City of Toronto last year alone, out of the $23 billion plundered from South Ontario last year alone.
And the NL government got $2 billion handed to it by the confederates on top of that, for no apparent reason. $2 billion in NL is how much per capita? $3,868 per person.
Translate that to Ontario and it's $47,934,963,600, $47.9 billion. The exact same amount, $3,868 per person but with just a few more people (government expenses per capita, for healthcare, education, social services, affordable housing, homeless shelters and all other public infrastructure; including the SRT, which should be a subway line, no getting on/off at Kennedy stations and going up/down three stories of stairs and with rubber wheel mounts on standard steel subway wheels, like they have in Montreal, the ride is quite smooth and quiet; almost pleasant and there's no snow or ice to deal with, no transferring, you just stay on the subway reading the paper, a book, listening to tunes, whatever and with $11 billion, just the City of Toronto's fair share of its own revenues back, other infrastructure and tax cuts/fare cuts would have to take place for years to get "up to" Canadian standards but some of the money would certainly go towards public transit, like a billion a year would suffice to get the TTC back to where it was and with much better buses like York County ... have you seen those things? And where the hell did they get the money from? From our provincial taxes and the pittances of tax returns, not "transfers" or "funding" both come from elsewhere not our own pockets, that the confederates throw at the Ontario Ministry/Dept. of Finance, and they're the ones plundering $11 billion, always going up, every year but the only way for them to fix it is for us to get as nasty as the rest of this mess is around OUR revenues, but to do it around our own revenues to get our fair share out of the confederates -- or we dump the less than worthless toads sitting right on our land in our buildings, which means getting behind all three parties, well the NDP isn't an official party anymore but we either get behind the Ontario feds and Ontario Chamber of Commerce and just about every institution that matters in the Canadas that have all documented this mess; and they get our fair share of our own revenues back, this year, or we're going to have to dump the "Ontario" feds and the confederate feds).
We're not asking for handouts and we're not even asking for our fair share yet. After Martin handed what amounts to $47.9 billion in Ontario terms to the NL government, for nothing, just an extra bonus because its "premier" pulled our flags down and all 9 MPs from NL threw temper tantrums over the law; 70% of the 100% of the revenues they make from offshore oil/gas royalties, the governments not the people, as with Saskatchewan and Alberta before it, are counted as income/revenues to be deducted from equalization welfare handouts.
That's it, that's all Danny Williams the spoiled little brat NL "premer" pulled our flags down over. And all of 9 MPs from NL threw temper tantrums in "the Commons" -- because they know that no one knows how any of this garbage works, made it sound like some rip-off when getting only 70% of the 100% of the revenues they're collecting in oil/gas royalties is quite a good deal.
Should someone on welfare or workfare in Ontario be able to go to the welfare office with their net income and only get 70% of it deducted from their welfare cheques because they happen to be working around natural resources? Income is income, 100% of it should be deducted and if they make less the next quarter (it's adjusted and paid out every 3 months), they get more in equalization welfare handouts and there is also a "floor" built into it to protect against any major drops in provincial revenues (the territories have an even more insane formula, but there is no formula anymore, the rules that used to make it at least sound reasonable have been thrown in the garbage); every jurisdiction on "equalization" which is everything but Ontario and Alberta, are guaranteed to get 3.5% increases over the next 10 years: assuming the confederates exist in another six months let alone ten years.
But Ontario's economy is not guaranteed any 3.5% growth or even 2.5% growth this year let alone over the next ten years. Ontario is guaranteed to become a "have not" province in 5 years according to Statistics Canada in this:
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You'll need the free Adobe Reader to read any PDF and most documents worth reading are published in Portable Document Format. If you don't already have it, download it for free, truly free forever (the reader, with free upgrades: they sell other products to create PDF files), here: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
Ontario Chamber of Commerce (http://www.occ.on.ca/)
Fairness In Confederation
Fiscal Imbalance: Driving Ontario to ‘Have-Not’ Status.
David MacKinnon, August, 2005
PDF http://www.occ.on.ca/2publications/r...ort_082005.pdf
NOTE: The Ontario Chamber of Commerce report starts on page 5. If you look to the bottom center of the Abode Reader you'll see "1 of 39" (current/total number of pages and there are lots of pictures, and two pages of sources that point to other interesting documents, websites then organizations, etc., that were involved in the creation of the report; it's about a 20-minute investment in time to understand what is going on) and to the right a single arrow. Click on that arrow to get to "5 of 39" to start reading the rather shocking report. Chambers of Commerce are non-profit private organizations. They are not government organizations.
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We're going to have to get our fair share of taxes back for that, $11 billion stolen last year alone, mostly by the confederates but a billion and change by the "Ontario" feds and out out of our municipal taxes around them -- to get anything done.
The answer to every question about every problem in the Ontarios that has to do with any government is getting our fair share of taxes back and knowing the facts around it. But we also need major restructuring and not reforms, there is nothing to reform. The fungus and lichon that used to exist is dead.
But that's another book. South Ontario has to be separated from North Ontario, politically, in structure. We have no business interfering in their affairs (northwest Ontario has hydroelectric power, is not connected to our grids and it costs $10 per megawatt but because they're stuck in one jurisdiction they're paying $90 per megawatt, what Toronto pays, for no reason at all -- other than to kill jobs in the region and they need their own government/jurisdiction that's tied to whatever in the Canadas as much as it wants to be: but looking after its own affairs in its own way).
The "GTA thing" is a dysfunctional disaster due to politics. South Ontario has to re-define itself on its own via proper local governments (another book), properly trained and skilled arbitrators (what would be called MPPs or House Reps/Senators in U.S. state governments) to tie them together/unite them, not divide them, Districts and Subdistrics within the whatever of South Ontario.
There's no need to use the word south for the West Division, nothing carved in stone, it's what the abribtrators are for, but for now, everything west of St. Catherines-Niagara up to the Hamilton municipal area, however they define it, not us, the west end of the "Golden" [quite rusty due to revenue raping and plundering] Horseshoe region but as defined by proper local governments and very expensive and very skilled arbitrators they have to pay for to create a Subdistrict that runs to Oshawa, Central District but the Toronto District (re-defined totally dysfunctional "GTA thing"; Peel, York and Durham go too far north up to cottage country/Lake Simcoe, which can/will change, though why we have to destroy everything instead of rebuilding on brownland, old and unused former industrial whatever crap in the City of Toronto, eyesores, re-use the land instead of paving over elsewheres and destroying the Mixedwoods Plains; I don't want to have to drive 10 hours to get to nice environments, get out of the city and have no clue why anyone else wants their ecozones to be destroyed; economic growth but at what price and if you want to live in a concrete jungle and breathe the lovely smog, then move to one. Why create them all over the place when we have lots of unused brownlands that are nothing but eyesores that can be developed on? Because it costs more to buy out the brownlands and develop on them as opposed to moving out and strip foresting/paving over everything further away from cities where property taxes are lower but only for the short-term. CP24 was looking at ads from realtors claiming that there were properties with buildings on them around Lake Simcoe but that was 20 years ago and the puny lots with shacks on them that they did find for $30,000 or less were jokes and on wetlands, in swamps and such that had been partially drained. Leave them alone, we have lots of crapland in the City of Toronto to develop on and the "GTA thing" is insanely large, even without Halton, which doesn't run anywhere near as far north as Peel, York and Durham do, it's still too big).
We have to be free to re-draw the political lines on maps at will according to what actually makes sense. If there is some "Greater Toronto Area" then it should be set up as such. Missisauga wants out of Peel now that it's developed but the rest of Peel, namely Brampton, doesn't think that's very fair. Even in Peel two cities are at war with one another, "diplomatic war," of course, Toronto City Hall is a zoo, where the hell York, which the City of Toronto used to be in but it just means everything north of Steeles now, got the money for the Belgian buses (offices, rather comfortable rides with GPS tied into traffic signals to give them green lights if they run behind schedule, with "Next Bus Arrives In: X minutes and Y seconds at every station/stop, TVs/infotainment systems for everyone if they're not in the offices at the back with Internet access and tables to put their laptops on and plug into or hold a conference on the way to work -- until they hit the TTC and get dislocated joints/jaws/spines from riding on our lump of crap public transit system, and Peel, York, Durham all have police helicopters but the City of Toronto "can't afford one" so has to rent off one of them when it does need a police helicopter and have you been to Peel, York, Durham lately? Aside from Mississauga, where in the hell are they getting their money from? How can they afford things that the City of Toronto can't? Tax plundering, they have more and better of everything than the City of Toronto does due to the "Ontario" government that can't pay any bills without robbing the City of Toronto blind).
The confederates do it to the "Ontario" government but that's their problem and there is no time for any more worthless talk. We have to restructure, now, and get proper governments, now and get our fair share of our own revenues back, now. It's not going to happen without threats and we're holding every card in the deck in South Ontario.
Order our flags to be pulled down, play politics with us with idle threats (what are they going to do, save us tens of billions of dollars and go bankrupt in the process? Yep) and you get a fine not a reward.
You get a smack upside the head, but there is no reason for South Ontario's Districts and Subdistricts to be involved directly in any politics outside South Ontario, unless it suits us. That's what the arbitrators are for, with separate Executive branches (another book; several actually but just details that have to be taken care of, it's nothing difficult to market) and we keep former federal departments/agencies that are totally essential to maintain the Republic State/Union of Canada, "put your money where your mouth is" around setting union budgets. If the jurisdiction is paying zero in union taxes then its Executive branch gets zero say around union budgets. If it's paying for 10% of union expenses, its say/vote is worth 10%.
As in "Want the union military budget expanded? Who doesn't so belly up to the bar. How much are you going to put into the expenses? You don't have any extra revenues? Then toddle off, you have no say."
But nothing personal, there's no need to state it, it's in the new union constitition. It actually provides incentives to be successful instead of the opposite, the mess of the Canadas as is: penalizing economic success to the point of negligent homocide to reward failures with zero accountability and no intent to ever improve their economies.
If/when that's fixed then it might be possible to think about the SRT. Another political bonehead as "Minister" of Finance for the singular lie of "Ontario" will accomplish nothing: maybe more lies, stories, endless talk while being raped and murdered by the "Ontario" dictatorships of revolving doors. And it's the same with everything else in this mess called "Canada." As is, not its actual potential.
