Thank Goodness For Google

The last post is  obviously a copy of a news article.  I had started to add  bits and pieces of information to the  one previous post. Then I  realised the whole article is relevant to our current situation.

Toronto is providing a twenty-four hour operator service. High absenteeism is a problem and uneven performance.

Membership in  the public service union  means  absenteeism  affects service but not  the bottom line.

If  it's  like Aurora, employment  starts with three weeks vacation.

So for every seventeen operators, one extra is needed to cover for vacations

It's a  24/7  service. We just hired eighteen fire fighters to fill three shifts

How  complaints can there be about pot-holes and garbage collection in the wee hours of the morning? Who would the  calls be directed to in the nine to four operation?

How did  Toronto Council allow themselves to be persuaded this boondoggle would be a good thing?

Maybe the former Mayor's executive committee got it  through without the rest of council understanding what a crock it was.

If   Mayor Ford   decides to remove that baggage off the gravy train, what will  accusations will be hurled at him?

It would be acknowledgement of  eighty milllion  dollars down the drain.

It is currently described as a problem that needs fixing"


How much more would it cost to get rid of it?

Toronto has full-time aldermen. They each have an office and $75,000 office budgets. I think there are forty-five of them .They control their own budgets. Spend as they will.

Remember  the provincial E-Health scam that swallowed millions and produced nada.

There was  a director there earning  hundreds of thousands  a year, who expensed a coffee and a muffin at an airport restaurant.and contracted out work to consultants.

George Smitherman was  Minister in Charge.Then  candidate for Mayor. of Toronto.The scandal was remembered. He didn't win.

No-one will be sitting in an office at  city hall ,worried about losing his/her job over the useless and extravagant call service. Too many  were complicit in approving the plan, up to and including the elected body, the former and current Mayor.Not the same.

 Rob Ford with all his rough edges, ran a campaign in opposition to "the gravy train"

Will  this  mean city departments  go back to looking after their own complaints  and elected members  doing whet they are paid to do?

Will it mean smaller municipalities, tempted to jump on that  fast-moving  train because neighbours are doing it, might pause and take a second look at where that train is heading?

In these days of social media, issues tend to linger near the forefront.

They do not fade into the background as once they did. when private news media were in charge of all information.

We can only hope it makes a difference.