The latest target in Giorgio Mammoliti’s sights? The city’s immigrant-settlement services
We didn’t see this come up in any of the KPMG reviews of what the city can and cannot cut, but maybe we missed it: Councillor (and ally to Mayor Rob Ford) Giorgio Mammoliti wants the city to seriously look at cutting the services it provides to help new immigrants settle in the city.
Some Toronto councillors said about 60 per cent of the more than 250,000 immigrants arriving in Canada yearly resettle in the Toronto area and its time Ottawa and the province dish out more funds to help the cash-strapped city cope with the influx.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti estimates “tens of millions of dollars” are spent by the city to help resettle newcomers, who include refugees and immigrants…
Mammoliti said he is being stonewalled by city bureaucrats as he tries to obtain documents to determine the full costs of immigration services to taxpayers.
Mammoliti added that “we don’t want to be subcontractors any more to the provincial and federal governments,” which is understandable, but unlikely to change anytime soon: the province calls the shots and seems to enjoy making cities its subcontractors quite a bit, thank you very much. (Back to those KPMG reports: notice how much of what the city does is required by provincial law? It’s not an accident.)
More importantly, it’s not as though cutting the settlement funding is going to stop the immigrants from coming to Toronto, despite what Ford said he’d prefer during the election. Those newcomers are coming whether we pay to do things like teach them English or not. The settlement funding just tries to smooth out the bumpy process of coming to a new country. But, hey, if council can’t work up the nerve to slaughter the sacred cows on council and won’t raise taxes, then they’ve got to find the money somewhere.
• Immigrant settlement costly for city: Mammoliti [Toronto Sun]
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We didn’t see this come up in any of the KPMG reviews of what the city can and cannot cut, but maybe we missed it: Councillor (and ally to Mayor Rob Ford) Giorgio Mammoliti wants the city to seriously look at cutting the services it provides to help new immigrants settle in the city.
According to the Toronto Sun:
Some Toronto councillors said about 60 per cent of the more than 250,000 immigrants arriving in Canada yearly resettle in the Toronto area and its time Ottawa and the province dish out more funds to help the cash-strapped city cope with the influx.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti estimates “tens of millions of dollars” are spent by the city to help resettle newcomers, who include refugees and immigrants...
Mammoliti said he is being stonewalled by city bureaucrats as he tries to obtain documents to determine the full costs of immigration services to taxpayers.
Mammoliti added that “we don’t want to be subcontractors any more to the provincial and federal governments,” which is understandable, but unlikely to change anytime soon: the province calls the shots and seems to enjoy making cities its subcontractors quite a bit, thank you very much. (Back to those KPMG reports: notice how much of what the city does is required by provincial law? It’s not an accident.)
More importantly, it’s not as though cutting the settlement funding is going to stop the immigrants from coming to Toronto, despite what Ford said he’d prefer during the election. Those newcomers are coming whether we pay to do things like teach them English or not. The settlement funding just tries to smooth out the bumpy process of coming to a new country. But, hey, if council can’t work up the nerve to slaughter the sacred cows on council and won’t raise taxes, then they’ve got to find the money somewhere.
• Immigrant settlement costly for city: Mammoliti [Toronto Sun]
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I find it disturbing that anyone feels that they cannot stop the number of immigrants from coming here and yet somehow the British, Americans and Australians have. I dread the worsening of the over-population problem in this City, traffic congestion issues worsening and the difficulties with over-crowding on the TTC worsening and an unemployment rate of 7.4 % not being enough to convince the Gov’t,etc of just how badly we do need to drastically reduce immigration!!
I’m not so worried about immigration contributing to congestion than suburban yokels moving to downtown condos thinking this suddenly made them part of the sophisticated crowd. I also think there should be a toll for cars driven into downtown core on weekday rush hours for people who don’t live downtown. I’ve witnessed the increasing glut in population in Toronto Proper from bridge and tunnel migrating south in the past 15-20 yrs than from immigrants moving to Canada.
As a patrioic Canadian, I fully support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which, in part, allows for free movement throughout the country (except Quebec which is allowed to set its own quotas).
Also, coming from a small town in Ontario, I revel in the multiplicity of cultures, languages, foods, music styles, and arts that are some of the wonderful benefits of being a city in which so many want to settle.
I proudly and willingly pay taxes in order to support settlement services, INCLUDING Social Assistance, Settlement Services, and Employment Services for newcomers while they settle.
Mammoliti is a small minded man who oversteps his powers regularly. He does not have the authority to set eligibility criteria for assistance to Immigrants. Neither he nor the portly Ford brothers have the authority to prevent ANYONE from settling in Toronto.
However, what they can do, and ARE doing, is systematically deconstructing our world-wide reputation as a City that welcomes all, celebrates all, and accepts all.
Shame on them. Eternal shame on them.
I agree with the issue of suburbanites moving into the City! What I also dislike is the # of Condos! OMG, they will create their problems, this is a City, not a suburb and I truly wish that the focus would be on bldg businesses not Condos and then the occupants want to insist that the clubs be moved to accomodate because of the noise, unthinkable in a major, world-class city!! There needs to be more attractions and businesses in the T-dot and fewer Condos!!
New immigrants need appropriate services… BUT these costs should be bourne by the Feds NOT the City. It’s the feds that set the immigration rate not the City. Maybe if the Feds had to pay the costs of immigrant services (rather than get away with downloading the costs to Cities), they’d be more careful about the number of immigrants allowed into the country. I am not anti-immigration. But it is lunacy that in the midst of a recession, when unemployment is as high as it is, Harper and co. allowed a record number of immigrants into Canada in 2010. While this benefits developers, the real estate business and cheap labor employers (since it drives wages down), it also adds to unemployment and strains social services (including demands on social housing).
Really Ah? Suburbanites moving downtown and thinking that makes them sophisticated has you worried? Sheesh, would be great to have YOUR life. :)
In all seriousness, I have met PLENTY of downtowners who can’t be bothered to look people in the eye, open a door for a stranger or smile when someone does something nice. I’ve seen others piss in the street after they’ve been out boozing, still others puking their guts out on King Street. If that’s sophistication, I think I’ll pass.
That said, there are some very nice people downtown too….but guess what? They’re everywhere. People are people, regardless of where they live. Some were brought up to have class, integrity and tolerance, others were brought up to demean other people based on stupid, superficial things.
Also, I don’t think tolls are a good idea, but I was on board with the $60/year vehicle tax.
P.S. I live in the city.