Preville on Politics

The magic number for city labour negotiations: $240 million

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Philip Preville

The last time I ran into Bob Kinnear, head of the Amalgamated Transit Union, was last October at city hall, on the occasion of the council meeting to ratify the mayor’s new land-transfer tax. There were lots of union folks in the bleachers that day, including Brian Cochrane of the outside workers’ union and John Cartwright of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. Now that the city has completed its bargaining with Kinnear and his TTC employees, it can look forward to negotiations with Cochrane and its other unions in the months ahead. One wonders if, after all is said and done, there will be any money left over from the new taxes for anything other than salaries.

The land-transfer tax is estimated to bring in about $155 million this year and $240 million in future years—the magic number, if you will. Today’s Toronto Star is reporting that the transit deal alone will cost $160 million annually. If that number is correct, there goes this year’s windfall, and it’s fair to think that all the new tax money will disappear quickly. This doesn’t mean the money isn’t being well spent; presumably the TTC deal includes salaries for the scores of new employees the TTC will need to keep up with its own expansion plans. Nevertheless, the deal is a handy benchmark of the city’s financial situation, and I will be tracking the total cost of the city’s labour agreements here over the course of the year to come. The land-transfer tax will raise about $1 billion over four years—assuming the real estate market doesn’t implode. We’ll see how far it gets us.

Comments

Neither the author nor Toronto Life necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Editors will not correct spelling or grammar. Toronto Life reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. Read our full policy


Post a comment

Your name:

Comment:

Author Bio Pic

Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


Preville on Politics RSS Feed