Council Votes To Scrap Car Tax, Declare TTC An Essential Service
Posted December 16, 2010 9:18 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Rob Ford has followed through on three of his key campaign promises.
After a lengthy debate, city council voted 39-6 in favour of repealing the unpopular personal vehicle tax Thursday afternoon.
Councillors voted to to trim their expense budgets from $50,445 to $30,000. That motion passed by a vote of 40-5 and will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011.
And around 8pm, as the meeting dragged into the night, 28 out of the 45 councillors voted in favour of declaring the TTC an essential service. They will now ask the province to formally make the designation and review the decision in five years.
On Wednesday, the TTC voted in favour of taking away transit workers’ right to strike. The decision, however, ultimately lay with council. Ford campaigned on a promise to make the Better Way an essential service, putting it in line with other services including police and fire.
The TTC strike in 2008 cost the city $50 million per day, according to a public report.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents TTC operators, is urging council to reject the essential service motion.
“Taking away a fundamental right to free collective bargaining will do nothing to improve the TTC,” ATU Local 113 President Bob Kinnear said in a statement Thursday. “It may make some people feel good but it will not put a single additional bus on the road or relieve the overcrowding and vehicle breakdowns that are the problems TTC riders most complain about.
“In fact, it will only make things worse by relieving politicians of their funding responsibilities by fostering the illusion that they have done something tangible by banning strikes.”
Coun. Maria Augimeri argued in council Wednesday that making the TTC essential would cause labour contract costs to increase $23 million over three years.
To read all of Thursday’s reports and motions, click here.
