Salary should not be a priority for Toronto's top job

A few weeks ago in class, we were discussing how and when to bring up the issue of salary in the job hunting process. Most people kind are of squeamish about this. Toronto city council, however, has been quite open about this in recent weeks and to much controversy.

A recent report by the consultants of the Hay group recommends the mayor of Toronto receive a pay raise of $16,000, an increase of 9.4 per cent. Currently, Toronto's mayor earns just under $168,000. With the increase, the mayor would earn just under $184,000.

In  2006, Toronto city council recommended that the salaries of councillors and the mayor be studied before each term in office.

One argument for Toronto's mayor to get a raise is that Toronto is Canada's largest city and the mayor's current salary is less than his counterparts in other large cities.  The mayors of York and Mississauga earn over $180,000, and the mayor of Montreal earns over $190,000. Toronto's mayor also earns less than the CEO/Director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the President of George Brown College and Toronto's Chief of Police.

As well, there is the issue of the job itself. It's been suggested that the democratic process comes at a price and that we have to offer good money to attract good candidates. While salary is important to any job, and being the mayor of Toronto is definitely an important job, I believe there is much more to it.  As an optimist, I think and hope that the candidates want to be mayor because they believe they can change the city for the better.

The issue of salaries, including councillors' salaries which the report recommends stay the same at about $100,000, was deferred at an August 16 meeting of the executive committee until after the election.

George Smitherman, a leading candidate, said he would freeze salaries for four years and suggested councillors pay back the money that the report cost. Other candidates have made similar statements.

Although optimistic, the cynical part of totally disagrees with the fact that the mayor and councillors have the power to give themselves raises. No matter how much we like or what we think of the candidates, there has to be more accountability than voting every four years. Maybe the provincial government should take over that responsibility?

There is only so much money for the city, and we are always hearing our councillors saying they wish they had more money to work with. Some councillors have given back their cost of living increases, which is commendable to say the least.  But money talks, and only time will tell what the new city council will have to say.

About Sarah Evans

When candidates come knocking ... ask for their environmental action plans.

The kids are back in school, the camping gear is back in the closet, the air is getting crisp at night (or should be if it weren’t for climate change) ... now it’s really time to turn our attention to what’s ahead for our City.

The upcoming municipal election is a particularly important one -- we will be electing a new mayor and many new councillors. And that’s why we need to take a close look at what candidates have to say about issues like climate change.

For anyone who thinks climate change is not a municipal election issue, think again: unchecked climate change could cost our city billions in infrastructure damage and health care costs. Inaction on opportunities to improve energy efficiency, harness renewable energy sources and develop new cutting edge technologies will cost us billions more in lost tax revenues and employment, not to mention spending money that supports fossil fuel industry in Alberta, the Middle East and the Gulf.

Dealing with climate change is a bottom-line city-building matter. Any candidate who deserves your support should have some answers.

Thanks to civic-minded folks at the Toronto Board of Trade, Toronto Community Foundation, United Way and others, some of those answers may get an airing at an upcoming series of mayoral debates. Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) was asked to provide some background for this important project – my paper outlining the multiple opportunities and benefits of continued city leadership on climate change can be found here.

And it’s not just an issue for mayoralty candidates. In municipal government, councillors are not toothless backbenchers, but real decision-makers. So when that hopeful knock comes on your door this fall, and hopefully you’ve read my short piece outlining ‘must have’ actions, press candidates for their environmental policies and how they are going to ensure the City reaches its ambitious emission reduction targets.

You and your city deserve serious answers.

Back to School Jitters Has No Age Barrier

Can it be? Fall is near, September 7th is just around the corner, and that means for many parents, including myself (djembe drum roll, please)...that it’s back to school time! It’s the proverbial calm before the storm (or the storm before the storm, if you are perpetually busy cranking out text, tweets and blog entries during these new media driven times).

Forget about the kids, this time of year brings out way more anxieties in us adults, who are supposed to be the more calm and reserved of the group. For my four year-old Solomon, it’ll be his first time going to school. That means out with the toddlerese and in-house gibberish, and in with the more scholarly pursuits, numbers, letter, colours and shapes. Dayum, it almost feels like I am going back to school!

It’s a reminder that our kids getting older, and thus more independent. There’s the sad yet obvious change in weather. You can kiss them sandals and summery dresses goodbye. It’s a time to embrace the progressive, forward-thinking views on education put forward by the TDSB’s Director of Education Dr. Chris Spence who seems to “get it”.

It’s a time to endure the snobbery of some parents who would like to think their kids feces don’t stink – the old private versus public school debates rears its ugly head, on TTC buses and sidewalks, with the old (and new) moneyed set oftentimes taking elitist pot shots at the ambitious working poor. For us Megacity dwellers this time of year also means scrolling through TIFF film line-ups (is it just me, or are there like a bajillion films to consider seeing?). And the other big question? To crash or not to crash Playboy’s Good Life Party (Hugh Hefner and Big Boi spottings might be worth the non-cost of admission).

If you have a child in grade three or grade six, like I do, this year will also mean doing the EQAO test to see if our kids are meeting provincial testing standards. From my own experience, whenever standardized tests and any long form multiple choice quizzes came into the equation, the testing style seemed to do little to improve my actual learning. As an old school student-athlete in particular, some of the standardized tests we were subjected to had little to no bearing on how successful one might become in life. But then again, I lean more towards a Malcolm Gladwellian view on achievement which posits that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total number of hours. So many Gladwellites might view the theories of learning that standardized testing is based on as being outdated, and to test students using a measure that isn't even applicable to their learning style, might also be counter-productive. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t it be the teachers themselves who might best be able to assess our children’s progress?

About Dalton Higgins

 

Issues that don't make the polls

While the heat alert continues, sapping energy and making sleep difficult, there is a silver lining.  Those cooling centres the city opens for people without air conditioning, for the elderly, for those on the edge of heat exhaustion from living on the streets, those centres are staffed by folks who, before the summer, had no work, few connections,and little hope for change.  This is an innovative and worthwhile initiative and may well help people on the margins find their way back into life. They go through weeks of training, first aid, leadership, problem solving, it takes them out of their own heads and gets them worrying about others, about doing a good job, about making it.

This is what a caring city can do, this is smart and helpful. I was privileged to spend time with them in June, talking about what they might encounter, how they can continue to move forward, into work, into decent housing, into relationships. Hope, which has been in short supply, takes root.  In such a big city, with so many competing pressures, this is a real jewel.

A troubled young man was shot to death by police last week.  His parents had, some might say naively, called them for help, hoping perhaps that the cops would escort him to hospital but, instead, a confrontation, bullets, and he dies. For those of us who've fought to ensure the safety of those struggling with mental illness, it's another blow. But this week, at police headquarters, the standing committee on mental health appointed by the police board met, it has agency people and survivors and cops and board members, and a mandate to examine the relationship between survivors and cops.  There was civil debate, there was a real effort to tackle issues, there was good will. This is what a city can do, bring people together, sometimes a bit late, but nonetheless it can bring change, solutions, provide resources and information to help understand, to help prevent.

People have stopped leaving flowers at the rooming house down the street, where a woman was murdered for daring to leave her lover, who then set fire to the basement in an effort to either cover up the crime or to kill himself.  In this city, too many women are held hostage by men who feel they have rights of ownership. This is what a city can do: prioritize a campaign, a zero tolerance campaign, to keep women safe. We are all assaulted daily by garish ads for products we don't need or want sprayed across streetcars and subway stairs, on the sides of buildings and reaching into the sky.  We need a campaign and a mayor who can credibly lead it.  How many women are cowering behind closed doors, fearful and lost? This is their city, too.

I know that the latest surveys don't touch on homelessness, or violence against women, or police training, we prefer the simplistic over the complex.  But a city can work miracles if it's led right, a city can save lives and protect the vulnerable. 

About Pat Capponi

Teachers Need Honest Feedback

With less than a week left before school starts, every student is wondering the same thing: how good will my teachers be? This is the time of year when many anxious students and parents flock to www.ratemyteachers.com, a website where students can post and read anonymous feedback on teachers. It is a place where teachers are praised for their kindness, dedication and teaching methods, or criticized for their inaccessibility and skewed grading system.

A caring teacher can go a long way. It can mean the difference between engagement and apathy, or graduating and dropping out. I still have fond memories of some of my own teachers: one would stay behind after school until every student understood a particular concept; another taught not just what was in the textbook, but also values like integrity and hard work. However, there were also those who were unbearably boring or unfair in their evaluations.

Teachers rarely, if ever, receive feedback on their performance. Meetings with school administrators might take place if serious issues arise, but rarely do they happen because of ineffective teaching styles or unfair grading practices. Some teachers have been using the same teaching methods for decades; others do nothing but read straight from the textbook.

It is time for honest feedback that really counts.

Since 2008, the University of Toronto has mandated that all students complete an evaluation upon completion of a course. Many other universities have similar systems. Harvard University, for example, asks students to rate their overall course, course materials, assignments, workload and difficulty. It also asks students to evaluate their professors based on their teaching abilities, accessibility outside of class, enthusiasm and alacrity in grading assignments. The evaluation even compares the course to others within the same department based on the mentioned benchmarks. Students can also submit comments. The process is completely anonymous and provides candid assessment every semester. Everyone wins: students are empowered and school officials have the data they need to make informed adjustments to courses.

Critics of a formalized evaluation process will argue that it is confrontational. But the fact is that students are not there to fire professors –- they are simply there to ensure that classes continue to undergo continuous improvement. It allows the school system to quantitatively measure its effectiveness to determine how to best meet students’ needs.

Almost every candidate during this municipal election is campaigning for transparency and accountability. Let’s bring that same level of openness to our classrooms.

About Gorick Ng

Toronto needs term limits for politicians

People don’t trust politicians. It’s easy to see why. They have a tendency to say one thing and do another. 

Some spend our tax money as if there’s an endless supply. All of them are quick to take political discourse to a personal level and never go above playing petty politics.

And then there’s always a handful of them that have managed to be in politics for decades and we wonder how that’s possible. 

We all know politicians past and present like this. They don’t really contribute anything and just seem to go through the motions. Their passion for the job long gone.

I think it’s time to permanently retire some of these “dinosaurs” on city council and introduce term limits and new blood into the political process. 

A few years back the province decided, wrongly in my opinion, to extend the time in office for municipal politicians to four years from three as it was previously. 

Instead of being able to hold our politicians accountable more frequently, this extension further entrenches these types of councillors in city politics. They are holding the city back. They treat their wards as personal fiefdoms. 

They sit on important committees and have influence over things like the police service, the TTC and the city budget, but most never bring the needed experience to do these jobs.

They are no longer senior or wise. They set a bad example when making comments such as: “If Mayor Ford is elected, city council will have a caucus meeting and (will) choose their own mayor.” 

Whether you agree with the statement or not, it’s in bad taste and completely unprofessional and inappropriate to say. 

If I was a constituent of this outgoing councillor, I’d be very upset that my elected representative would choose to circumvent the political process and not attempt to work with someone different.

This is exactly why we need term limits in the city. Politicians like this, who have been around for decades, feel entitled to make these comments as though they speak for an entire city. At some point, the longer they sit on council, politicians go from serving us to dictating to us.

More importantly, they impede others from running for political office. As we all know incumbents have a greater chance to win re-election strictly because of name recognition and an office budget that allows them to shamelessly self-promote. Instead of letting their work do the talking, it’s all about being seen and heard.

Public office should be a noble office to attain. Serving one’s community should be one of the most important things someone can do in their lives.  

Here’s how I would implement term limits in Toronto: 

• I would bring back three-year terms. Residents can hold their elected officials accountable with greater frequency.
• Councillors and the Mayor would have a limit of running for three terms. This would total nine years which is long enough to implement an agenda but not become too stale.
• It wouldn’t matter if this was done consecutively or over a number of years with breaks. It also wouldn’t matter if a candidate, for example, ran for council one term and then decided to run for Mayor for the last two.
• Once a politician has served three terms their commitment and time in office comes to an end.

In this scenario Rob Ford and Joe Pantalone couldn’t run for office any more and David Miller couldn’t run again as mayor for a third term. Many current city councillors wouldn’t be eligible to run for office either under this scenario. 

Perhaps if we had term limits this would encourage better candidates to run for office. Maybe more work would get done because of the limited amount of time to enact an agenda.

Politicians cannot further entrench themselves in the political process. To do so would be a disservice to everyone in their ward and the city. More people need to be given the opportunity to run for office and represent their constituents. 

This can only help strengthen our political process by including people who are passionate about the job and want to make Toronto a better place to live.

At some point, I'm sure, these politicians were passionate about the city and making it a great place to live. However, time has caught up to them, the job has worn them down, and they need to recognize the need to step aside and let others take this city to a different place. 

If these senior politicians cannot recognize the need to step aside, term limits would serve as a notice for them to step aside and leave public life.

About Robert Kirsic

Wish List for the Mayor

In my work with ArtReach Toronto, we provide free monthly workshops on different topics of interest to young people. Recently, we held a workshop on civic engagement. Various youth and adult facilitators (as well as one city councillor) brought different perspectives on this broad concept.

Throughout the workshop, voting was addressed by all of our speakers as one basic form of civic engagement. One set of presenters (Salon Camden Centre for Urban Dialogue, www.urbandialogue.ca) showed a short film interviewing people on the streets of Toronto about their wish list for the mayor, asking what were the issues that most needed to be addressed. Check out the film at http://vimeo.com/14284578.

All the young people in attendance at the workshop were asked to identify the issues they felt most passionate about, and record their own wish lists for the mayor. Taking into consideration that youth are not a homogenous population – every young person comes from a different social location and has had different experiences -- this is just an attempt to share what 50 young people shared with us.

Their wish lists included: increasing funding for the arts and community events; improving public transit; preventing cuts to community program funding; improving education; increasing support for harm reduction; adding more bike lanes; having cleaner streets; reducing police violence; and increasing accountability for politicians spending public dollars (i.e. - G20, a steadily rising police budget).

Some of the most common answers included increased resources and core funding for grassroots youth organizations/initiatives, as well as supports for young people to become more civically engaged. 

What I found to be truly profound from our audience was how much they wanted our future mayor to focus on dealing with systemic issues, like poverty and adequately supporting the most vulnerable, not just creating measures that make it easier to get re-elected, like budget cuts.

It made me ask myself, how do we get our civic leadership to not just focus on voters' needs for the next four years but the needs of Torontonians on a whole? The Torontonians who are too young, the ones who contribute to our economy but don’t yet have official citizenship, and the ones so marginalized that they aren’t truly aware of the power they hold as voters. They often face the toughest time adjusting to the economic changes we’re all affected by, yet their issues are often bypassed for those deemed more politically expedient and appealing as “voters.”

In order to truly make change in our communities and in Toronto as a whole, we need to ensure that all levels of society can benefit in the longer term, instead of pitting ourselves against each other in the short term without addressing the root causes of these issues.

After the workshop, I sat down to make my wish list for the mayor and then compared it with the platforms of the leading mayoral candidates. I’m disappointed to say that there isn’t a good fit with any of them. I am frustrated with increasing taxes and public transportation issues, but I also care about poverty, systemic racism, homelessness, community and youth programs, education, the arts and culture, police brutality and so much more… issues that don’t seem to be priorities for any of the high-profile mayoral candidates.

When Mayor Miller ran for office, I was among many “swept” up by his clean up Toronto campaign. This time around, I don’t have an affinity for any of the leading candidates. Rob Ford’s recent comments and continued lead in the polls have really reinforced this for me. I’m a bit lost. I don’t find my priorities fitting into any of their platforms, nor do I trust that they have an overarching vision that has the welfare of Toronto’s vulnerable people and communities in the forefront. Without including all of us in a vision of a beautiful, world class city, how does real change happen? I think I’ll add two more wishes to my wish list: courage and humanity.

About Shahina Sayani

Can the TTC create a culture of customer service?

The long awaited report from the TTC Customer Service Advisory Panel was recently released and as could have been predicted, the general public sentiment appears to be that the report doesn’t go far enough in addressing the serious nature of the problem -- "poor customer service."

The report, available on line http://ttcpanel.ca/report/, is organized in eight sections with a series of 78 observations and corresponding recommendations. The volunteer Advisory Panel, TTC staff and others that supported the effort to research and prepare the report should be commended, and their work is an excellent beginning to what could be a long journey for the TTC in their quest to deliver superior customer service.

The first and presumably most important section entitled, "A renewed focus on customer service" seems misleading given it implies that at some point in the not too distant past the TTC did focus on customer service. The challenge is that public transit operators like the TTC don’t view and treat customers in the same way that a service industry such as a hotel or retail enterprise does since public transit operators face little or no competition.

Transit administrators refer to the people that use their services as passengers or riders, and given that the majority of their clients don’t have a choice in how they commute to work or travel around their communities these so-called customers are essentially held captive by an industry that in most cases isn’t compelled to practise superior customer service because of the monopoly they hold.

Nonetheless the report does highlight some important changes that once implemented should improve the overall experience for TTC employees and their passengers. Section six of the report "Fare media and payment systems" once resolved with ubiquitous smart card technology will overnight relieve TTC operators from the least desirable aspect of their jobs – policing the fare box.

My uncle drove a TTC bus for close to 30 years and in my youth I remember how he would lament about the people who refused to pay the fare and how this caused him and his fellow drivers’ considerable angst and aggravation. Most large-city transit systems solved this problem a while ago and as a consequence their operators can better concentrate on the most important aspect of their work – operating vehicles safely.

Other benefits of an automated fare payment system include faster board times since drivers don’t have to scrutinize transit passes and the fare box, transfers would no longer be required and who knows once this annoying duty is eliminated by the introduction of smart cards or a similar system, TTC operators might even have time to give customers directions or a smile.

The other recommendation worth mentioning is a need to focus on the youth market, and it’s important that the TTC does recognize how vital students are to their business, since on some routes they comprise most of the riders, and as these youth become adults it’s important to keep them as transit customers. The panel recommends the formation of a student advisory committee and an excellent example worth exploring is the Youth Onboard or YO program for short that York Region Transit (YRT) started a few years ago. In York Region each high school has a number of transit ambassadors that are recruited to help communicate to their classmates’ route changes or simply promote the use of transit to get to school. The YRT program seems to be working well and could be a model for the TTC to follow.

What remains to be seen is how the recommendations are received by the mayoral candidates and in what manner they might weave the panel’s findings into their own campaign platforms concerning transit. The quick hit ideas like improved communication through signs and display boards are tempting but a deep culture transformation is required if the TTC is to become truly customer service oriented.

As a start it might be useful if all elected officials and TTC brass were required to travel by transit at peak hours at least once a week, then they might begin to cultivate the empathy needed to understand their patrons concerns and in response create the "Culture of Customer Service" the panel recommends.

About Lorenzo Mele

Summer round-up

Back in the city and getting into my city groove after spending some weeks in the dead quiet of the Kalahari, contemplating the African sky, the role of the dung beetle, the strange habits of the aardvark. Ah, back to the hustle and bustle of Toronto and the excitement of the race for leader of our fair city.

Now, it’s true that I didn’t have a lot of internet access deep in the Kalahari (well, maybe I wasn’t trying very hard), so here I find myself wading through weeks of news trying to make sense of things.

I was looking forward to the building excitement, the new ideas, the race of champions…

Here’s my understanding of what I missed, for those of you who are also emerging from the haze of summer whether spent in the city or somewhere else:

• Renowned election-spoiler (ahem) John Tory said he would consider running again, given his disappointment in the current line-up.
• Rob Ford said something offensive. Some people thought that made him a better candidate for the job.
• John Tory changed his mind.
• Rob Ford made serious allegations of corruption, with nothing to back it up. Some people thought that made him a better candidate for the job.
• George Smitherman was furious.
• Joe Pantalone talked about the Arts.
• John Tory thought maybe he’d run again.
• Rob Ford said something offensive and/or “deliberately misleading”. Again. Even more people thought that made him a better candidate for the job.
• George released a chicken.
• Joe talked about seniors.
• Sarah talked about taxis.
• Joe talked about food.
• No one cared what Rocco said.
• John Tory changed his mind.
• Rob …well, here we go again.

But seriously, folks... There’s clearly a vein of popular anger that Rob Ford is carefully cultivating.

With Labour Day creeping up and more focus on the upcoming municipal election, I guess we can only hope that voters will start considering the actual choices facing Toronto and the proactive proposals the mayoral candidates are willing to support.

About Marit Stiles

Revisiting debate on licensing cyclists

My most recent article about licensing cyclists created a ton of debate and reaction. I can’t believe something I wrote generated such healthy debate among Torontonians. 

Because of space and time there really is only so much I can put into an article. So I wanted to take this opportunity to address a few things related to my article and the reaction it generated.

My premise is still very sound: have a licensing system for cyclists with the intent of creating a cohesive city-wide bike network, educating everyone on bike safety (motorists included) and eventually create a better transportation network in the city. 

People were too fixated on the price of a licence and the re-testing period. I can appreciate and understand why. The reason I picked the numbers I picked were two-fold:

1. This is not a cash-grab as some have portrayed. Money collected would be used to help expand bike infrastructure by making more lanes, paths, lockers, and other bike-friendly initiatives, including education, and spread the network out into the furthest reaches of the city. 
2. The time in between re-testing was unreasonable on my part but this isn’t set in stone and was just an idea. If it was spread out to every five or 10 years I’d be okay with this too.

Critics will claim that if this idea was worth implementing the city would have done this years ago. 

I think this is the best time to rethink the idea of licensing because of the growth in understanding that transit needs to be expanded and new options to get around need to be found. 

The downtown core cannot handle any more cars and new ways to get around must be found. But the city must also not implement changes unilaterally without consultation from all groups.

Having said all of this, people go looking for conspiracies where there isn’t one. People in this city are quick to shoot first and ask questions second.

In my opinion, debate is a good thing and makes for better conversation. This is what the Your City, My City section is all about. I offer an opinion on the issues I think are important to the city. I stand by what I’ve written. 

I enjoy writing for the Toronto Star and will continue to do so until my commitment ends. 

We’re never going to agree on everything and that’s a good thing.

About Robert Kirsic