Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2017
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Page: 16

CITY HALL CREATES ITS OWN PROBLEMS

After advocates for safe drug injection sites in Toronto set up an
unlicensed, "pop up" one in a tent in Moss Park on Saturday, police
announced they wouldn't close it down.

Their argument was that while such a facility can attract the drug
trade, the recent crisis in drug overdose deaths, as the city
scrambles to set up legal safe injection sites, is of more pressing
importance.

We understand their argument but, respectfully, we don't agree. One
tent in a park is symbolism, not an effective plan of action. Turning
a blind eye to an unlicensed injection site, in our view, undermines
the rule of law.

It's also interesting to compare the police response towards this safe
drug injection site to how city hall initially reacted to Adi Astl
building a $550 set of wooden steps to help people negotiate a steep
embankment in an Etobicoke park.

The city's parks and recreation department had absurdly said it would
cost up to $150,000 and threatened to charge Astl with a bylaw violation.

(Wisely, Mayor John Tory intervened, thanked Astl and had them built
for $10,000.)

To be clear, Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti, who opposes the three
city-regulated safe injection sites scheduled to open this fall,
jumped the shark when he accused the Toronto Board of Health of acting
like a drug cartel for supporting safe injection sites.

But the real issue in both these controversies is that they illustrate
how poorly the city responds even to issues, such as drug addiction,
it says are of vital importance. Similarly, a new report obtained by
the Sun's Shawn Jeffords, cites concerns of top municipal bureaucrats
in small and medium-sized Ontario cities that they're facing
monumental infrastructure bills because things like water and sewer
mains, installed 50 to 75 years ago are - surprise, surprise - all
blowing up at the same time.

The same applies to Toronto, with its $33 billion worth of unfunded
capital projects approved before Tory became mayor.

Who could have been so dumb as to install municipal infrastructure
decades ago, and not set aside sufficient funds over time to cover the
inevitable repair and replacement costs?

Who could have been so dumb as to authorize $33 billion in unfunded
capital projects?

Take one guess.
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MAP posted-by: Matt