MAYORAL ISSUES

[Taller, Better]

Sticks in my craw.

[MattToronto]

I've since bought re-usable bags as I was tired of having to ask for bags after I purchased groceries. Worked on me I guess.

[AndrewJM3D]

What's a craw?

[vid]

Originally Posted by AndrewJM3D

What's a craw?

A pouch above the stomach where food is stored for later digestion. TB is an older model of Homo Sapien which still has this organ.

[AndrewJM3D]

LOL, Vid.

[Taller, Better]

vid, you take the cake with that one!

[Marbur66]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

That Sun article sounds like it was written by a angree hi skool stewdant.

What's new. The Sun is good for nothing other than extensive sports coverage. I know newspapers usually have political leanings, but if the Sun leans any more to the right it will fall over like me on a Saturday night.

[allurban]

Originally Posted by Tuscani01

100% Agree!

A portion of that 5 cent fee should be used to cover the actual cost of the bag to the retailer (anywhere from 1-3 cents per bag) and everything else should be spent on environmental initiatives within the city. An environmental fund should be established, where all of the money collected is dumped into, that way the public can see where the money is going, and how it is being spent.

As it stands now, retailers are simply profiting off of this bag tax.

I personally purchase a bag everytime I go to a grocery store, simply because I use them throughout the home as garbage bags. I don't mind paying the 5 cents/bag as it is really nothing on top of my total, but I would feel better knowing that my 5 cents is being used to somewhat mitigate the effect that the bags I purchase will have on the environment.

The way I saw it, some members of council wanted to simply ban plastic bags but realized that this would be impossible to enforce, so they went with the "feel good" alternative.

When I lived in Malaysia I was overwhelmed with plastic bags - whether in my house or on the streets. They would give plastic bags to wrap up the bottles of coke/cold drinks from the convenience store (to keep the condensation from making you wet) and these bags would be all over the floor.

So I just made a conscious decision - no more plastic bags except to line the garbage bin. Today I have no plastic bags in the house except what people bring in - which can occasionally make it hard to actually find a bag for the garbage.

Now my problem is dealing with too many reusable bags - I have only ever bought 5 - 1 from from IKEA, Metro, and Cold Storage (a grocery store in Malaysia & Singapore), and 2 from President's Choice. Everything else was given for "free" at conferences, in "mailers" and as advertising from banks, shops, local government etc.

Vid has the right idea tho - If you are going to purchase things with bags/liners made from plastic film, try to reuse as much of the plastic around you as possible - because it cannot be recycled.

Cheers, m

ps. the best grocery stores in the world for reduce & reuse are No Frills & the old Knob Hill Farms. They had the right idea long before it became "cool" to avoid plastic bags.

[Nouvellecosse]

As a few others have alluded to, the fee isn't about getting people to pay $0.05/bag and use the proceeds for anything, whether it be beefing corporate profits OR environ-initiatives. The fee is to get people to stop using disposable plastic bags and switch to reusable bags, with the belief that so few people will be willing to pay, that the proceeds from the fee will be irrelevant. This is better than baning disposables outright, since it allows them to still be there in limited numbers for a tiny fee in case people forget their reusables.

New headline: "Nouvellecosse Hopes to Dump Ford and Keep Plastic Bag Fee"

The fact is, getting rid of both Ford and disposable bags is great for the environment. Ford for obvious reasons, but eliminating disposable bag use not only keeps them from becoming litter, but also reduces energy consumption and pollution which is higher in disposable products than in reusable products whether the product is discarded or recycled since pollution is generated by both plastic creation and plastic recycling.

[Gerrad]

Truthfully plastic bags always had their reuse functions. Which is more than we can say for diapers which make up a huge percentage of landfill. I think at this point most people have converted to reuseables but in the end, people will always resent politicians or anyone telling them what's good for them etc.

[Looking/Up]

Indigo Books & Music donates the money it receives from people purchasing bags to the World Wildlife Federation.

[Taller, Better]

That is excellent and worthy.

[Professor X]

Originally Posted by Marbur66

What's new. The Sun is good for nothing other than extensive sports coverage. I know newspapers usually have political leanings, but if the Sun leans any more to the right it will fall over like me on a Saturday night.

The Sun is also only good for consumer electronics ads, and that's it. My hope is that the number of people who read it fall down enough for the Sun to be gone one day.

[Taller, Better]

The Stun is just the right size for lining bird cages.

[AndrewJM3D]

Mayor Ford fights audit of campaign finances

CBC News Posted: May 31, 2011 7:12 AM ET

Supporting Story ContentStory Sharing ToolsShare with Add ThisPrint this storyE-mail this story.End of Supporting Story ContentBack to accessibility links Beginning of Story ContentMayor Rob Ford is fighting an audit of his election campaign finances, despite saying recently he had no problem with such an examination.

Ford's lawyer filed an appeal Monday to the Ontario Court of Justice at the last possible moment. The move comes just over two weeks after the city's compliance and audit committee voted unanimously in favour of the audit after hearing a complaint from two citizens.

Ford's lawyer Tom Barlow now says the city's compliance audit committee made a mistake in their interpretation of Municipal Elections Act and the audit should be stopped.

The mayor said last month he wouldn't stand in the way of the audit.

"People have asked for a compliance audit, and everyone, they can go and look at it, no problem at all," he said before the audit was ordered.

The committee was acting on complaints filed by Max Reed, who worked on Coun. Mary Fragedakis's campaign and Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, who is a longtime community activist.

Specifically, they complained that more than $77,000 in expenses paid by Doug Ford Holdings Inc., a family company that bears the name of Ford's brother and fellow councillor, was not in line with election spending rules outlined under the Municipal Elections Act.

The money was repaid but without any interest or surcharges.

The complainants argued that the money appears to be either a corporate donation or a loan from a private company — neither of which is permitted by law.

They also allege Rob Ford miscategorized expenses related to direct mailing and telephone campaigning.

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

The Stun is just the right size for lining bird cages.

I saw the front of the Sun this morning and it looked to be an anti Doug Ford headline. I just had a look at their website and is the Sun starting to shun the Fords?

- Mayor's transit plans lambasted 71
By Don Peat ,City Hall Bureau
And the picture they are using.



The front of the Sun today says "Dough Ford Party Pooper" --Something about insulting the CFL in favour of the NFL.

[Taller, Better]

what now....

[Taller, Better]

Let's have one thread to discuss mayoral initiatives and news.

[monkeyronin]

I think we'll need a whole subforum for Rob & Doug's antics...

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

Let's have one thread to discuss mayoral initiatives and news.

Just don't go locking it this time when it gets ugly. Though there seem to be far less people backing Ford on here these days, so other then pictures of our mayor it may not get ugly at all. Can we not just unlock the original Mayor Rob Ford thread?