Whitby Shores Community Forums

I was waiting for someone to start this thread!

I hate the idea of extending public funding to other religions. If it was up to me there would be only one system - public.

I know nothing about the Liberal or NDP candidates. I'll probably end up voting Green and wasting my vote again. I always liked consumption taxes instead of the ones on income.

For me the local issues would be a new school and a new hospital. Somehow Elliott's pamphlet on the rising crime (and what she's going to do about it) did not impress me (the crime has been dropping steadly...). Also, I am for protecting (if not expending) the Green Belt and that's very important to me. Cutting taxes is not a priority for me (please don't yell at me...).

I haven't made my mind regarding the referendum question.

I too am not a fan of extending funding for different types of schools (belief based or otherwise). However, someone started us down this slippery slope many, many years ago when Catholic schools were provided with full funding. Why should one faith be treated differently than the others? I truly believe to be fair that it either has to be one system (call it Public or whatever else you want), or funding availability to all that meet strict criteria for education provision.

Consumption taxes do reflect passing on the cost to those that use services instead of allocating the costs on an income based prorated basis. However, for many programs, it is those that need the program most that have the least ability to be able to pay for it. Consumption based taxation would ultimately start a spiral whereby the tax would have to rise to cover the costs, which would in turn make it less affordable to those that need it. This would cause a further increase in the cost to reflect the drop in use, etc., etc., etc. The other problem is that consumption based taxation does not solve, and likely encourages, even more black/grey market/under-the-table activity to avoid the tax cost. Yes --this type of activity exists now, but is limited to those who are self-employed. Consumption based taxation would encourage it for all.

For my overall impressions of this election, I have much the same feeling as I did for the last federal election -- isn't there anything better out there than what is currently being offered??!??!?!?

Continuing to expand a bad policy or program (ie. extending the funding of religious based schools) does not justify nor make the orginal bad policy (ie. the funding of Catholic schools) right. This is a bad idea on a lot of fronts not to mention the loss of jobs for teachers currently in the public system.

I am also pretty skeptical of the PC claim that they can increase spending, provide more programs, and cut taxes. I'm no expert - and I understand the theory that lower taxes promotes spending and hence increased government revenue - but this doesn't fly to me. There comes a time when people stop spending (ie economic downturn) and the lack of government revenues forces program cuts and reduced spending.

I'll stick with the devil I know this time around.

John Tory is smart. Follow me here...

I suspect he knows the way to finally fix our education system is too have only one system. Our money goes to paying 2x the support staff, 2x infrastructure, etc with the Public and Catholic boards.

If he went up and did a frontal assault and said "remove funding for the Catholic board", there could have been an ugly uproar and lots of alienation. Instead, he flanked and said "fund all or none", and thus has created a healthy discussion on "why are we funding the Catholic system" by people like and you me. That's a pure business sales strategy.

It's time we allow someone with business smarts and a proven track record in the private sector in public office. He'll treat government like a business and finally clean up where others are afraid of, or at least try. Both McGuinty and Hampton have spent almost their entire careers in govt...I suspect no one in the private sector will take them and they don't want to lose increadibly generous pensions.

There's something that I think is worth pointing out in all of this:

The PC policy statements on this matter have stated that they have earmarked $400 million over four years for 53,000 students.  That works out to $1,887 per student per year.  Doing some quick arithmetic with the numbers on the Durham District School Board site, I see their total expenses work out to just over $8,000 per student per year.  I think this is roughly typical for the province.

That's quite a difference, and it's not something that's been addressed in anything that the PCs have put out.

I also wonder whether the people involved in faith-based schools who are supporting this measure have thought their positions through.  If, for whatever reason, the leadership of a school decides that it cannot accept the conditions that the government would impose on the public funds (or, perhaps, if there are more applicants than money and their school isn't selected), then they'd find themselves in a situation where the government would be offering a subsidy to their students to switch schools.

Personally, I'm opposed to any sort of public money going to religious schools, including the existing funding of the Catholic boards, but I think that even the supporters of this measure have to realize that  the devil's in the details.  If there are religious schools that are just keeping their heads above water now, a poorly-implemented public funding policy would kill many of them outright.

Thanks for posting Porch Light On. John Tory knows he can't just do away with the Catholic system, and has put thought into it, but is correct he has to fix a system that isn't fair. Interesting that 7 other provinces have already done it.

Just think in the past couple of days how much this issue has brought attention to the campaign by various groups. Who'd ever thought this would be such a stir.

Now what I haven't read though are the Catholic board's view on this topic?

The Green party are the only one's saying to only have one system.

Why can't he do away with the Catholic system?

I haven't heard anything from any school boards per se, but the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement.  You can read it here.

Has apathy set in? Here we are less than a week away from the election, and apart from one set of spirited discussion about school funding, nary a topic has been debated.

Do we all care this little about the upcoming election?

What about the referendum -- good, bad, or just plain stupid?!?!

Friendly reminder: no matter what you believe in, go out and VOTE

Voter turnout was very dissappointing. Is it that we are lazy, or just don't care? I don't get it...