Toronto, Canada Garbage Dump City

[Trinity11 Profile]

Check this out folks. Thought I would let everyone know whats going on in my city right now.

What should be a summer full of swimming pools, laughing children and summer camps is nothing more than a deserted garbage city as ALL city(government) workers go on Strike. Thats right EVERYONE, social workers, community centres, pools. Theres no summer for anyone here, no pools are open no community events are open . Just piles of garbage in parks, over flowing street dumpsters thats assumed to go on all summer and its only july 5. there is even rodent infestations and toxic in the childrens parks. They cant even play in the park ATLEAST to enjoy their summer.
its not expected to end anytime soon as they are only opening up more dump sites.

heres a picture of a park called christie pits in downtown toronto, I grew in this park swimming playing (even smoked my first spliff)

PLEASE READ THE LATEST NEWS BELOW ABOUT OUR GARBAGE STRIKE AND SEE WHAT THE CITY WORKERS AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE PLANNING TO DO WITH ALL THE MONEY SAVED.
notice the Toronto skyline in the background

The temporary dump located at Christie Pits Park will close on Sunday night at 7 p.m., one of two that is shutting down as the City of Toronto announces the opening of two new locations.

The York Mills Arena dumpsite is slated to close at the end of the day on Friday.

The new sites are located at Centennial Arena Community Centre on Ellesmere Road and Wilket Creek / Sunnybrook Park, near Leslie Street and Eglinton Avenue. They opened at 3 p.m. Friday.

Murky water is accumulating in the outdoor arena at Christie Pits Park, which was one of the busiest of the city's temporary dump sites during the ongoing strike by 24,000 inside and outside municipal workers. The strike is now in its 12th day.

Residents near Christie Pits had been protesting near the dumpsite for days, most recently announcing plans to take water samples to a lab for testing.

The group had block a pest control contractor from spraying the area.

Boris Steipe, a University of Toronto biochemistry professor who lives near the park, says he is going to get water from the arena tested for its contents and the health risks it could pose.

"I personally think it will show most of the toxins and the feces from diapers and the medical residues that are expected," he says.

Police were at the dump site early this morning when striking city employees blocked a pest control crew from spraying the dump with various pesticides to control pests and odours.

Some residents - and protesters - have been at the entrance to the dump around the clock. The dump is chained and locked overnight.

Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown told the Globe and Mail that the area needs to be sprayed to prevent the dump from becoming a health hazard.

Although the sites have been closed to new garbage, the trash currently contained in them will remain there until the end of the strike.

About 24,000 inside and outside municipal workers walked of the job June 22, bringing garbage pickup to a halt and closing city-run daycares, parks and recreation programs, swimming pools and ferry service.

A key issue for workers is pay for unused sick days, a benefit the city said it can no longer afford.

As the strike continues, constituents are asking their councilors for money back from the taxes they've paid, arguing that they're not getting their money's worth of services.

Toronto Don Valley East (Ward 34) councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong estimates the city has saved $28 million a week during the strike, based on an average worker's wage of $60,000 a year.

Minnan-Wong says that the city has had to spend money to keep some services running, but he thinks there could be cash left over.

"I can't for the life of me figure out how that much money could be spent," he says, referring to his estimate of nearly $30 million a week.

"There has to be some money left over."

But another councilor says it's unlikely the city will be saving money because it had to spend money on things like setting up temporary dump sites and paying water services managers to staff plants 24 hours a day, seven days a week - among other expenses.

"Right now, we're probably not saving anything because we're incurring costs that we otherwise would not have had to incur," says Eglinton-Lawrence Ward 16 councillor Karen Stinz.

She does say the city should certainly look at a reduction in the garbage levy, a fee charged for garbage collection.

Minnan-Wong says if money is left over in the city's coffers, residents may not even get any money back at all.

"We're going to have to see how much money is left after the strike, but we've got so many budget pressures...we're hundreds of millions behind, we may have to use some of (the money saved in the strike) for that."

The councilor also says he's asked city staff to provide a number of how much money is being spent during the week, but he has yet to receive an answer. The last strike that was 16 days actually ended up costing the city more money than it saved, he adds.

Meanwhile, the City of Windsor says it will be giving money back to taxpayers who are now into the 12th week of a strike by civic workers.

Helga Reidel, Windsor's general manager of Corporate Services, says taxpayers will have funds returned to them. It's not yet known how much will be paid back or how.

With files from The Canadian Press

[Drextin Profile]

You know I'm all for the strikers getting their just pay. But when you try and stop them from spraying for insects that is getting close to being a bio terrorist. You can't endanger the city in your efforts to make the local government give in. You need the citizens to back you up and if they keep those sort of tactics going they may just end up fired with the citizens blessing.

[Trinity11 Profile]

You know I'm all for the strikers getting their just pay. But when you try and stop them from spraying for insects that is getting close to being a bio terrorist. You can't endanger the city in your efforts to make the local government give in. You need the citizens to back you up and if they keep those sort of tactics going they may just end up fired with the citizens blessing.

See but the situation here is that the city wants to let the strikers strike, until they basically save enough money to pay for whatever it is they are demanding and than when they have that money ready they are going to "give in to the strikers" but really nothing gets resolved. because they are in geniously raising the money to shut them updurring the strike anyway. Their planning to make this go on all summer to save the money. At least thats the word around town.

[Drextin Profile]

You know I'm all for the strikers getting their just pay. But when you try and stop them from spraying for insects that is getting close to being a bio terrorist. You can't endanger the city in your efforts to make the local government give in. You need the citizens to back you up and if they keep those sort of tactics going they may just end up fired with the citizens blessing.

See but the situation here is that the city wants to let the strikers strike, until they basically save enough money to pay for whatever it is they are demanding and than when they have that money ready they are going to "give in to the strikers" but really nothing gets resolved. because they are in geniously raising the money to shut them updurring the strike anyway. Their planning to make this go on all summer to save the money. At least thats the word around town.

ahhhh I get ya now. So the city is trying to spray for bugs and whatnot to prolong being able to leave the garbage where its at instead of just trying to be sanitary. All of this at the cost of the city's image and safety. Sounds like something we americans would pull.

[Trinity11 Profile]

You know I'm all for the strikers getting their just pay. But when you try and stop them from spraying for insects that is getting close to being a bio terrorist. You can't endanger the city in your efforts to make the local government give in. You need the citizens to back you up and if they keep those sort of tactics going they may just end up fired with the citizens blessing.

See but the situation here is that the city wants to let the strikers strike, until they basically save enough money to pay for whatever it is they are demanding and than when they have that money ready they are going to "give in to the strikers" but really nothing gets resolved. because they are in geniously raising the money to shut them updurring the strike anyway. Their planning to make this go on all summer to save the money. At least thats the word around town.

ahhhh I get ya now. So the city is trying to spray for bugs and whatnot to prolong being able to leave the garbage where its at instead of just trying to be sanitary. All of this at the cost of the city's image and safety. Sounds like something we americans would pull.

LOL "looks like something we americans would pull". ahaha so true, but what do you expect we've been suckling on your teet for years now anyways

[Drextin Profile]

LOL "looks like something we americans would pull". ahaha so true, but what do you expect we've been suckling on your teet for years now anyways

Yeah but you guys always seem to know where to draw the line when it comes to any american influence.........let's hope that common sense has not been forgotten...........though this garbage situation is testing that.

What do the common folk of toronto think about all of this? Are there protests? outrage? You guy are pretty eco friendly so I would think this would cause some major shit.

[TheDuck Profile]

lol and savage

[Trinity11 Profile]

yeah theres protesters chillin by all the dump sites, but really they dont care much about the protestors. Simply because its not just a garbage strike its a city strike, so to them garbage is just a small portion of the whole problem. Its on the news everyday but people just keep dumping. I live in a building all our trash is all over our front entrance.

Green city? i dont really know about that one. We do have a new policy that ALL business must charge atleast 5 cents for bags to "help reduce the non bio degradable bags going to the dumps" and in the "future" they wanna make mandatory all ecofriendly bags. I dont really know of anything else that we are doing to save the planet but even thats soft. Thats like the littlest thing we could do.

See the thing I noticed is on the news, we always put how we are doing greener things and they hype it up, but because they hype it up ppl dont realize their insignificant "green" changes like new tires that are made with more "natural rubbers" so it burns less rubber into the ecosystem but they dont tell yu whats so natural about it. :S

[Slith Profile]

Check this out folks. Thought I would let everyone know whats going on in my city right now.

What should be a summer full of swimming pools, laughing children and summer camps is nothing more than a deserted garbage city as ALL city(government) workers go on Strike. Thats right EVERYONE, social workers, community centres, pools. Theres no summer for anyone here, no pools are open no community events are open . Just piles of garbage in parks, over flowing street dumpsters thats assumed to go on all summer and its only july 5. there is even rodent infestations and toxic in the childrens parks. They cant even play in the park ATLEAST to enjoy their summer.
its not expected to end anytime soon as they are only opening up more dump sites.
That looks like a picture of the Maple Leafs from the 70's
heres a picture of a park called christie pits in downtown toronto, I grew in this park swimming playing (even smoked my first spliff)

PLEASE READ THE LATEST NEWS BELOW ABOUT OUR GARBAGE STRIKE AND SEE WHAT THE CITY WORKERS AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE PLANNING TO DO WITH ALL THE MONEY SAVED.
notice the Toronto skyline in the background

The temporary dump located at Christie Pits Park will close on Sunday night at 7 p.m., one of two that is shutting down as the City of Toronto announces the opening of two new locations.

The York Mills Arena dumpsite is slated to close at the end of the day on Friday.

The new sites are located at Centennial Arena Community Centre on Ellesmere Road and Wilket Creek / Sunnybrook Park, near Leslie Street and Eglinton Avenue. They opened at 3 p.m. Friday.

Murky water is accumulating in the outdoor arena at Christie Pits Park, which was one of the busiest of the city's temporary dump sites during the ongoing strike by 24,000 inside and outside municipal workers. The strike is now in its 12th day.

Residents near Christie Pits had been protesting near the dumpsite for days, most recently announcing plans to take water samples to a lab for testing.

The group had block a pest control contractor from spraying the area.

Boris Steipe, a University of Toronto biochemistry professor who lives near the park, says he is going to get water from the arena tested for its contents and the health risks it could pose.

"I personally think it will show most of the toxins and the feces from diapers and the medical residues that are expected," he says.

Police were at the dump site early this morning when striking city employees blocked a pest control crew from spraying the dump with various pesticides to control pests and odours.

Some residents - and protesters - have been at the entrance to the dump around the clock. The dump is chained and locked overnight.

Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown told the Globe and Mail that the area needs to be sprayed to prevent the dump from becoming a health hazard.

Although the sites have been closed to new garbage, the trash currently contained in them will remain there until the end of the strike.

About 24,000 inside and outside municipal workers walked of the job June 22, bringing garbage pickup to a halt and closing city-run daycares, parks and recreation programs, swimming pools and ferry service.

A key issue for workers is pay for unused sick days, a benefit the city said it can no longer afford.

As the strike continues, constituents are asking their councilors for money back from the taxes they've paid, arguing that they're not getting their money's worth of services.

Toronto Don Valley East (Ward 34) councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong estimates the city has saved $28 million a week during the strike, based on an average worker's wage of $60,000 a year.

Minnan-Wong says that the city has had to spend money to keep some services running, but he thinks there could be cash left over.

"I can't for the life of me figure out how that much money could be spent," he says, referring to his estimate of nearly $30 million a week.

"There has to be some money left over."

But another councilor says it's unlikely the city will be saving money because it had to spend money on things like setting up temporary dump sites and paying water services managers to staff plants 24 hours a day, seven days a week - among other expenses.

"Right now, we're probably not saving anything because we're incurring costs that we otherwise would not have had to incur," says Eglinton-Lawrence Ward 16 councillor Karen Stinz.

She does say the city should certainly look at a reduction in the garbage levy, a fee charged for garbage collection.

Minnan-Wong says if money is left over in the city's coffers, residents may not even get any money back at all.

"We're going to have to see how much money is left after the strike, but we've got so many budget pressures...we're hundreds of millions behind, we may have to use some of (the money saved in the strike) for that."

The councilor also says he's asked city staff to provide a number of how much money is being spent during the week, but he has yet to receive an answer. The last strike that was 16 days actually ended up costing the city more money than it saved, he adds.

Meanwhile, the City of Windsor says it will be giving money back to taxpayers who are now into the 12th week of a strike by civic workers.

Helga Reidel, Windsor's general manager of Corporate Services, says taxpayers will have funds returned to them. It's not yet known how much will be paid back or how.

With files from The Canadian Press

[Slith Profile]

Sorry f'ked up. It looks like a picture of the Maple Leafs from the 70's