May 2011
38 posts
Mark Mahoney is not happy with the potholes that damaged his car. If he can’t break them with his hand, he’ll wrangle the money from the city council to fix them.
A Toronto police officer stands over an open manhole. A school crossing guard walks a group of children across a busy road. Which job is more important? If the hourly wage were the measure, it would be the officer: $65 an hour to guard the hole versus $10.68 an hour to guard the children.
Off-duty paid policing in Toronto has become a lucrative business, one that a free-market observer might even call a racket. Rates are set by the Toronto Police Association, as it has done largely unopposed since 1957. Provincial statutes and city bylaws protect that monopoly.
These off-duty officers – who are paid about double their regular-duty rate – stand over holes in streets, and at construction sites; they escort funeral processions, oversee film shoots and mind sporting and entertainment events. It costs $29-million a year, including the city government’s share of about $5.2-million, to have officers mind municipal work on roads and other infrastructure. No other Canadian city spends as much on paid duty as Toronto; it’s a tidy little business.
In Cape Breton, private companies and municipalities have a choice over whether to hire police or private security. When it comes to road work, they’ve got that covered, too; specially trained workers preside over it. In Vancouver, a traffic authority has a unit of special constables who only do paid-duty work.
But in Toronto, the bored police officers presiding over street holes, directing traffic, have become symbols of the waste of taxpayers’ money.
This time James Martin brought his measuring stick to highlight how little this pothole is.
Hemingway’s unfinished novelas? This senior is not pleased with the potholes in his
This may be the loneliest photo we’ve featured.
This politician will make sure the potholes get filled, even if he has to stand guard over them.
