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Toronto-Age |OT2|

E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Zombie James said:
Council just banned the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores.
Click to expand...

Council did something good. People that actually support the sales of dogs (and cats) in pet stores don't understand issues like puppy mills, over breeding and the homeless pet situation. Bravo, Council. Bravo.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
Yeah, shelters are too swamped with animals in need and you never know how pet store animals are being treated. It's a very good call. What was the vote breakdown?
 
Q

Quick

Banned
I'm looking for a good shoe store with a large selection of men's shoes. I'd much prefer it to be downtown, but I'm willing to make the trip further if it's definitely a good store.

Are there any nice vintage stores downtown, as well? Looking for a jacket or boots, or any kind of clothing for a good price.
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Stet said:
It's depressing that so many of our city councillors don't understand how taxes work. The handful of people who would contribute out of pocket aren't going to solve any problems, and it's a waste of money to try to contribute voluntarily because your money isn't going to help anything without the support of everyone else. The only way that raised taxes can actually raise substantial revenue is if hundreds of thousands of people are paying more.
Click to expand...

Seriously, what the fuck. Why not just make all taxes optional if you're trying to make -that- point.
 
F

Foxy Fox 39

Banned
I'm planning to visit Toronto maybe sometime this year or next year when the TIFF kicks off again. I have no idea what's what. I think it would be great if I had a gaf chaperone. What say you my NA brothers?
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
A

added_time

Member
C

criesofthepast

Member
added_time said:
I was reading up on the pet store issue and apparently a store could still sell dogs as long as they get them from the humane society or registered rescue centre:

Globe and Mail - Toronto Council bans pet shop sale of dogs, cats, unless they're from shelters
Click to expand...
So pet stores can adopt dogs for $50 a piece at Toronto Humane Society, then flip them for $800 each in their stores?

Why even make this exception in the bill? The dogs/cats go from a healthy environment like THS, to living in worse conditions behind the glass of a PetSmart.

Unless I'm not understanding this properly.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
added_time said:
Thanks for posting this. My wife is from the States and has been living here for 7 years with no plans to return there. We will have to do some research on this.
Click to expand...

I'm in a similar boat. I don't own any assets in the US, I haven't lived there for over half a decade, I don't work in the States, or for a US company, and I don't even travel with my US passport.

The law, itself, really seems to be made to go after large off shore tax evaders (just look at those fines), but has been redirected at US expats now. It might be a very empty threat, trying to force people that owe taxes to come forward, but the US is pretty desperate at the moment.

I might have to talk to an accountant this year, and discuss how I would go about filing my 'nothing to report' back reports to the IRS. And if I could avoid fines in doing so. Keep me up to date if you hear anything as well. I'd definitely be interested!
 
E

ElNino

Member
EvilMario said:
I'm in a similar boat. I don't own any assets in the US, I haven't lived there for over half a decade, I don't work in the States, or for a US company, and I don't even travel with my US passport.

The law, itself, really seems to be made to go over large off shore tax evaders (just look at those fines), but has be redirected at US expats now. It might be a very empty threat, trying to force people that owe taxes to come forward, but the US is pretty desperate at the moment.

I might have to talk to an accountant this year, and discuss how I would go about filing my 'nothing to report' back reports to the IRS. And if I could avoid fines in doing so. Keep me up to date if you hear anything as well. I'd definitely be interested!
Click to expand...
Wow, your previous post was the first I had heard of this. I will definitely need to look into this further to see what impact it has on me.

I am an American citizen and have been a Canadian resident for more than 30 years (my family moved to Canada when I was a few months old). I have been working in Canada for my entire life and have never reported my income to the US. I really hope I do not get hit with any significant fines.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Revive Transit City, Miller says

Mayor Rob Ford is wasting money through his insistence on burying large parts of the new Eglinton light rail transit line, says former mayor David Miller.

Miller criticized Ford, the Liberal provincial government for going along, and Liberals on city council for supporting the new mayor.

Ford’s decision — with the province’s blessing — to kill the Finch and Sheppard LRT lines was “extremely unwise,” he said in an appearance on Newstalk 1010 Wednesday morning.

Miller said the “genius” of his Transit City plan is that it’s much cheaper and can be built much faster than subways, which Ford supports as a way to separate transit from cars.

The former mayors said the entire Transit City network could have been delivered by 2020 with the first line ready by 2015.

But it’s not too late to turn back, he said.

“The plan is there, the environmental assessments are done. You could turn it on like a switch. If you wanted to, you could start construction on Finch in about two months and Sheppard probably next week.”

Subways don’t work in many neighbourhoods because there aren’t enough riders, he said.

“We’d love to have a subway in every neighbourhood but (a); you can’t afford it and (b); very few neighbourhoods in this city have the (population) density that justifies it.”

“That was the genius of the light rail plan, we could build a generation’s worth of infrastructure in a few years.”

Miller praised the provincial New Democrats for promising to restore a funding formula which had the province paying half of the TTC’s operating subsidy every year.

A return to that formula would see more than $200 million a year flowing to the city to help pay transit operating expenses.

Miller chided Liberals on city council for supporting priorities of Ford that provincial Liberals don’t support.

“I think it’s time for them to stand up,” he said.

“They should be voting for the kind of Toronto that they purport to believe in, which is one where everybody has a real chance, where we support people that need a hand up and where we help grow the economy through things like significant investments in public transit.”

Shortly after winning office in October, 2010, Ford pronounced Transit City dead and in April, he and Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a new plan to devote $8.2 billion to Eglinton.

Any provincial money left over — up to $650 million — could go to Ford’s Sheppard subway plan but the mayor has to find $4 billion in private funding to extend the line east from Don Mills Rd. to the Scarborough Town Centre and west from Yonge-Sheppard to Downsview station.
Click to expand...

Of course, Miller wants his 'legacy' project restored, although I'm inclined to agree with a few of his points. Transit city, a slightly revised version even, would be great for the city. It would serve so many neighborhoods that depend on infrequent and crowded (and sometimes ancient) buses. Roncesvalles and St Clair might both complain about the length of construction, as they should, but the end results on both look great. The city does need to rethink how they hand out contracts, and HARSH penalties for companies not finishing their work on time.

I also agree that McGuinty didn't fight Ford enough when he came into power. He clearly just shrugged his shoulders, not giving a shit, or he was equally afraid of fighting the 'highly popular' Ford in an upcoming election year.

It'll never been reborn, but I hope there is some progress on transit in the next three years that isn't a small subway extension.
 
C

cbox

Member
^ that's not what people with businesses on st.clair are saying... It's a nightmare trying to get around there.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
ConvenientBox said:
^ that's not what people with businesses on st.clair are saying... It's a nightmare trying to get around there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm less familiar with the issue on St Clair than Roncesvalles, so maybe I shouldn't speak to it. But visually, St Clair from Dufferin to Bathurst is a much cleaner looking neighborhood now. What they did screw up apparently was the right of way. There are way too many, confusing, signals for motorist to look at. I agree those are a mess. But the section of the city itself should see a revitalization. I lived at Oakwood and Vaughan for a couple of years, and walking down to the No Frills it was much more run down than it is now.

Roncesvalles, which I was actually disappointed in at first, is amazing now. The raised platforms, now that they're clearly painted, are great. It allows for a platform to the streetcar, a bicycle lane providing a 'bit more protection' from drivers, and the development of the sidewalks from planters to trees, looks great.

I suppose because the streetcar doesn't have a right of way on Roncesvalles, they didn't suffer many of the signal changes seen on St Clair. They might want to go back and look at changing a few signals, less left turns, or clear signs being posted. I'm not that sympathetic to people that only complain because they want to use St Clair as an expressway though. Really, none of the city streets should be viewed as thruways, and transit SHOULD take priority.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
On a gaming side note; StreetPass has been wildly successful the last few weeks. I even pick up three walking down Roncesvalles today. And I've had between five and seven when I'm walking between Bloor and Queen on Yonge for a couple of weeks now.

That's up quite a bit from a month ago when I would hardly see anyone outside of Yonge St, and only a few around Yonge at that. Looking forward to the holidays when Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land will be putting many more 3DS' out there.
 
A

added_time

Member
EvilMario said:
I might have to talk to an accountant this year, and discuss how I would go about filing my 'nothing to report' back reports to the IRS. And if I could avoid fines in doing so. Keep me up to date if you hear anything as well. I'd definitely be interested!
Click to expand...

Ok. So I just talked to an accountant and to a friend of mine from the States who just heard about this last month and corrected it.

Basically, what you have to do is file back taxes to the IRS for every year that you have been in Canada. You have to state all earnings (even though it is Canadian income) plus there is a section where you claim foreign accounts and investment. That is where you report about your Canadian bank account info and amounts.

Since my wife has been here for 5 years, she is going to do tax return forms for all those years and send them as soon as it is done. I was told you should also include a note explaining why you didn't think you had to file. She is going to say that she thought she only had to file if she lived in the United States and/or had earned US income.

The accountant said to do this right away. Canadian banks are being forced by law to report any account opened by anyone with American Citizenship to the IRS by 2014 so you may as well get the backlog of taxes up to date now before the banks turn you over to the IRS at that time.

Once this is all caught up and everything is straight again, just remember to file each year from now on. You have to do a US and Canadian tax return every year.
I hope this info helps any Americans living here.

By the way, I think this is complete bullshit and makes me extremely pissed off at the Americans for doing this but also at the Canadian Government for not standing up for the rights of the citizens like my wife that live here.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Thanks for the information, added_time.

My only fear is because this is after the amnesty period (even though it appears most people didn't have a clue about it) that ended in August, they'll try to slap people with the ridiculous fines anyway.

Just looking at a 1040 again makes me sick, haha. I'll try to figure this process out for myself, because I would rather not put any money out of pocket to report to the IRS that I owe them nothing.
 
E

ElNino

Member
added_time said:
Ok. So I just talked to an accountant and to a friend of mine from the States who just heard about this last month and corrected it.

Basically, what you have to do is file back taxes to the IRS for every year that you have been in Canada. You have to state all earnings (even though it is Canadian income) plus there is a section where you claim foreign accounts and investment. That is where you report about your Canadian bank account info and amounts.

Since my wife has been here for 5 years, she is going to do tax return forms for all those years and send them as soon as it is done. I was told you should also include a note explaining why you didn't think you had to file. She is going to say that she thought she only had to file if she lived in the United States and/or had earned US income.
Click to expand...
There is no way I could file my return for every year I have worked here, that would be ~20 years. I might have the information for the last 5-8 or so, but beyond that there is no chance of me having that documentation anymore. That being said, I don't think I have made enough to owe US taxes on top of what I pay here so I'm not too worried about it. Going forward however, things might become more complicated as my income/assets put me in a position to pay US taxes.

added_time said:
The accountant said to do this right away. Canadian banks are being forced by law to report any account opened by anyone with American Citizenship to the IRS by 2014 so you may as well get the backlog of taxes up to date now before the banks turn you over to the IRS at that time.
Click to expand...
This is where I don't understand how they will do this. As far as I can tell, my bank(s) have no knowledge of my American citizenship and I don't know how they expect to get it; I certainly won't be voluntarily giving it.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
ElNino said:
This is where I don't understand how they will do this. As far as I can tell, my bank(s) have no knowledge of my American citizenship and I don't know how they expect to get it; I certainly won't be voluntarily giving it.
Click to expand...

All banks with branches operating in the States will report all information to the IRS, I believe. Regardless of citizenship. They could just compare information and records if they really wanted to chase you down. It seems like it would be very resource consuming, considering the law is 'intended' to capture people and companies involved in big time off shore tax evasion.

Of course, banking with a local credit union might be the way to go, even if you're in compliance. The less information everyone knows on me the better. Does that make me paranoid? ;)
 
F

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
Zombie James said:
The only silver-lining to having Ford as Mayor: http://www.globalnews.ca/ford+nation+hurting+hudak39s+pc+campaign+new+poll/6442486721/story.html
Click to expand...
I love the picture in the article.

Rob_Ford_and_Tim_Hudak.jpg
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
EvilMario said:
Yeah, I'm less familiar with the issue on St Clair than Roncesvalles, so maybe I shouldn't speak to it. But visually, St Clair from Dufferin to Bathurst is a much cleaner looking neighborhood now. What they did screw up apparently was the right of way. There are way too many, confusing, signals for motorist to look at. I agree those are a mess. But the section of the city itself should see a revitalization. I lived at Oakwood and Vaughan for a couple of years, and walking down to the No Frills it was much more run down than it is now.
...
I suppose because the streetcar doesn't have a right of way on Roncesvalles, they didn't suffer many of the signal changes seen on St Clair. They might want to go back and look at changing a few signals, less left turns, or clear signs being posted. I'm not that sympathetic to people that only complain because they want to use St Clair as an expressway though. Really, none of the city streets should be viewed as thruways, and transit SHOULD take priority.
Click to expand...
I've opined on the st Clair streetcar before, but to be concise transit city failed to take into account the impact on local businesses. With an extended construction term and a now divided city, half of the mom and pop shops went bankrupt. So more transit is great and laudable, but transit city had some real failings. To reintroduce it as written would be a mistake.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
BladeWorker said:
I've opined on the st Clair streetcar before, but to be concise transit city failed to take into account the impact on local businesses. With an extended construction term and a now divided city, half of the mom and pop shops went bankrupt. So more transit is great and laudable, but transit city had some real failings. To reintroduce it as written would be a mistake.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the notion that businesses suffered needlessly. The same applied to Roncesvalles. Shops had no idea what was happening, when construction would begin, end, start again. And it was well over a year and a half late in finishing.

Transit City, in its most basic sense, providing LRTs to the neighborhoods planned would have been great. But the city has to rethink as a whole, not just with transit, how they hand out contracts. They need to impose very harass penalties for running late, or for having the lack of foresight as they did on Roncesvalles, and having to redo the same portion multiple times. And of course, communication is terrible when business owners can receive an answer from the city regarding anything more than 'well let you know' for years.

Definitely a city wide problem, and not something that would have been specific to Transit City. It's just that installing rails is one that affects a lot more people, but ripping up ancient water pipes and other road repairs run into similar issues. Bloor West Village has been in a constant upheaval now for two years running.
 
Q

Quick

Banned
favouriteflavour said:
How difficult would it be to live in Toronto but work in Burlington? Would it be a grating commute? Otherwise how is living in Burlington?
Click to expand...

You'd have to take the Go Train daily. I'd compare it to a normal commute, so expect crowding in the morning and afternoon. In between those times, it's actually quite peaceful. Trains come in every half hour or 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon, I believe, and every hour for the rest of the day.
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
favouriteflavour said:
How difficult would it be to live in Toronto but work in Burlington? Would it be a grating commute? Otherwise how is living in Burlington?
Click to expand...
If you are proximate to GO stations at both ends, you can survive if you are willing to accept a 1-hour-each-way commute.

If you are not, and you are not - live where you work. A couple of IRL friends like Burlington well enough. Others in the so-called "burbs" would give their right arms to live anywhere else. Depends on your preferences.
 
F

favouriteflavour

Member
BladeWorker said:
If you are proximate to GO stations at both ends, you can survive if you are willing to accept a 1-hour-each-way commute.

If you are not, and you are not - live where you work. A couple of IRL friends like Burlington well enough. Others in the so-called "burbs" would give their right arms to live anywhere else. Depends on your preferences.
Click to expand...

How far west of central Toronto does it become suburban?
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
favouriteflavour said:
How far west of central Toronto does it become suburban?
Click to expand...
Some people call the Bloor West Village "suburban". Other people think Roncey - which is roughly in the same western sphere - is still "downtown". Depends on your definition of Central TO.

I usually define "suburban" as "you find Wal-Mart". In which case, as proximate as Bloor and Dufferin could be considered suburban.

So, in short, you don't really have to go that far. Once you get into the Annex, remodels have started to give the area a cookie-cutter feel. West of Bathurst you suddenly get the feeling that city planners stopped being creative.

Except when it came to which direction was "up". Crikey, all the streets out that way drive me bonkers. The first time I stood at the intersection of Bloor and Dundas my brain exploded out my eyeballs.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
BladeWorker said:
Tolls are inappropriate considering that more than half the businesses in the city are operated by people who don't live in the 416. If you tax people to come in to work, and to leave work, or to patron those businesses in any way, those businesses will move to Mississauga.
Click to expand...
I'm totally uneducated on this, but doesn't London basically tax anyone who drives into the city?
 
A

added_time

Member
firehawk12 said:
I'm totally uneducated on this, but doesn't London basically tax anyone who drives into the city?
Click to expand...

Yes they do. New York also has heavy tolls because it's the correct thing to do.

The people in the city make sacrifices by paying more for everything so the people that choose to live outside the city should also sacrifice by either taking public transportation into the city, moving here or driving and paying tolls.
 
B

BigJonsson

Member
Manhattan makes it easy because you have to cross a bridge or use a tunnel to get into the city

I think I remember Boston also having tolls to enter the city
 
E

explodet

Member
BladeWorker said:
I usually define "suburban" as "you find Wal-Mart". In which case, as proximate as Bloor and Dufferin could be considered suburban.
Click to expand...
hahaha
That doesn't sound like a bad definition at first, but you don't see as many homeless people in the suburbs as you see at Bloor/Dufferin.

Does it seem odd to some of you guys that there's a provincial election campaign going on yet there seems to be more emphasis on municipal politics instead? I'm still struggling to remember the NDP leader's name.
 
Y

YakiSOBA

Member
Question about Markham:

What's it like living there?
Are most places available to rent either condo's (expensive) or basement of homes?

I've tried looking at apartments but have not found anything... like... ANYTHING. :p
 
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