Surly Hamiltonian

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Ontario 2012 Hospital Sunshine List Analysis

Here's links to individual Ontario hospital sunshine list information (including ranking information) as well as the total number of people on the list for each hospital and the salary total for those on the list for each individual hospital.

The total number on the list of all 161 hospitals are 10,208. They earned a total of $1,416,849,431.14 for 2012. The average salary for those on the list was $ 138,797.95.

Total Number 10208
Total Salary 1416849431.14
Average Salary 138797.945841

Mainstream Media Wakes Up to Record Ontario Hydro Global Adjustment Fees

I made a blog post a little while ago (December 4th), about how the electricity surcharge, i.e. the global adjustment that gets added to Ontario electricity bills to cover Green Energy initiatives reached a record high in November.

Here's an article from the Toronto Star (December 13th) where they too mention the record high for November. So they're catching up to Surly Hamiltonian. Some good info:

"It’s a lot of money. In November, the total global adjustment payment came to $847 million. Of that, $192 million went to OPG, and the remainder to private power companies."

$847 million in one month? That's a colossal amount of money for Ontario considering the population is just shy of 13 million. That's a lot of money to be taking from the residents of Ontario and can't be helping consumption and further, for poor people is especially damaging.

How high will the global adjustment fee be in 2014? More wind is coming online and the big problem is when the wind blows strongly overnight when demand is low. That power has to be paid for and has been dumped to the Americans in the past for negative rates (i.e. the province pays the Americans to take our excess power). If overall Ontario power demand stays low, the global adjustment could go higher.

Deceased Hamilton Police Officer Staff Sergeant Ian Matthews Salary Information

Yesterday Hamilton Police Staff Sergeant Ian Matthews committed suicide in the central police station. From the City of Hamilton sunshine list, Matthews earned $144,631.01 in salary in 2012 and had the 51st highest salary on the list. In 2011 Matthews earned $131,006.85.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Old 2004 Ontario Document on Distribution of Gas Taxes to Municipalities, Hamilton versus Toronto

I stumbled across this 2004 Ontario government document about the distributions of gas tax money to municipalities, with the amount broken out by municipality. What stood out was the amounts paid to Toronto versus Hamilton and other cities:

Toronto: $81,250,894

Hamilton: $5,906,764
Oakville: $1,091,889
London: $4,544,310
Ottawa: $18,846,257

As I recall this funding is based on public transit ridership and not so much population. However the differences are still quite stark, with Toronto's approximately five times greater population than Hamilton receiving close to 12 times more funding. Similarly Oakville receives way less population wise proportionately than Hamilton (likely due to Oakville's paucity of public transit).

From Hamilton's perspective, this is an interesting program. Gas money from Hamilton is disproportionately distributed to Toronto for their transit system. Obviously Hamilton could try and increase ridership to get more money, but the fact remains that would be difficult to more than budge the needle. Hamilton would be far better off demanding equality for transit funding. However then cities like Oakville would probably benefit significantly more and Hamilton might not be better off.

Here's the entire list. I'll try looking for more up to date numbers, but with Hamilton's transit numbers stagnant they are probably proportionately worse.

Ajax/Pickering	$1,176,793
Barrie	$843,751
Belleville	$348,585
Blind River	$14,079
Brampton	$3,023,264
Brant County	$96,174
Brantford	$643,339
Brockville	$112,260
Burlington	$1,008,495
Chapleau	$13,196
Chatham-Kent	$542,581
Clarington	$363,996
Cobourg	$93,603
Cochrane	$27,080
Collingwood	$85,666
Cornwall	$455,944
Dryden	$38,537
Dysart et Al	$17,273
Elliot Lake	$82,840
Espanola	$18,326
Fort Erie	$66,375
Fort Frances	$39,571
Grey Highlands	$13,272
Guelph	$1,401,872
Halton Hills	$71,821
Hamilton	$5,906,764
Hanover	$197,556
Huntsville	$48,000
Ingersoll	$53,863
Kapuskasing	$39,044
Kawartha Lakes	$339,877
Kenora	$81,046
Kingston	$1,025,547
Leamington	$131,123
London	$4,544,310
Loyalist Township	$85,550
Meaford	$38,861
Midland	$85,071
Milton	$154,255
Mississauga	$7,367,243
Niagara Falls	$546,728
North Bay	$625,067
North Huron	$68,349
Oakville	$1,091,889
Orangeville	$130,836
Orillia	$180,974
Oshawa	$1,137,179
Ottawa	$18,846,257
Owen Sound	$133,357
Peel	$303,050
Pembroke	$104,921
Peterborough City	$745,102
Peterborough County	$38,092
Port Hope, Town	$80,276
Quinte West	$242,898
Renfrew	$140,542
Sarnia	$517,113
Sault Ste Marie	$592,513
Schrieber	$15,186
St Catharines	$1,280,264
St Marys	$31,587
St Thomas	$212,890
Stratford	$242,994
Sudbury (Greater)	$1,354,072
Temiskaming Shores	$67,792
Thunder Bay	$996,091
Timmins	$319,833
Toronto	$81,250,894
Trent Hills	$59,817
Uxbridge/Scugog	$52,736
Waterloo Region	$4,056,791
Welland	$285,729
West Elgin	$67,218
West Perth (was Mitchell)	$32,443
Whitby	$589,336
Windsor	$2,071,154
Woodstock	$189,880
York Region	$5,624,776

Hamilton and the New Transit Taxes, Will We Get Our Fair Share?

The Ontario transit panel headed by Anne Golden has recommended a 10 cent hike in provincial gasoline taxes, a half percent increase in the corporate tax rate and $80 from HST to fund transit initiatives.

This article from the Star's Royson James gives some good coverage, but with regards to Hamilton I'm most interested in this part:

"The measures would be implemented province-wide, but money generated in Timmins would stay in Timmins, not be used in the GTA and Hamilton (GTAH).

The panel further recommends that the province enact legislation to set aside the new revenues — just under $2 billion in the GTAH — in a special fund dedicated to transit."

The big related question for Hamilton, is does the money generated from Hamilton stay in Hamilton or does it get siphoned off into other project deemed more important in the GTAH. Metrolinx the transit authority for the GTAH has already spent considerable money in Toronto on giant projects like the expansion of the Spadina subway to York University and beyond, while Hamilton has received rather paltry amounts for tiny projects, like funding for the A-line bus route during peak periods to the airport along Upper James and a small amount for the new bike share project.

Hamilton is in line for a new GO station around James North and Barton, however the promised trains are almost insulting few in number, an extra two train trips to Toronto in the morning and two back in the afternoon. That is an increase over the four current trips from the downtown GO station (which is already quite small compared to Aldershot and the rest of Burlington).

In theory Hamilton has been promised funding for an LRT line in the lower city by a 2007 campaign promise, which would be a huge expenditure, but it seems Hamilton is no closer to a line than 2007. Meanwhile since 2007 the province has spent considerable sums in Toronto and some of the other areas of the GTA and will continue to do so especially if this new funding comes to pass.

Hamilton has pretty evidently been short changed since 2007 on provincial (and federal transit funding that could have come with it). These new taxes would raise some serious money going forward. If gas tax money raised in Timmins stays in Timmins, would the same hold for Hamilton under Metrolinx (or perhaps the overall gas taxes in Ontario divided by Timmins population would stay in Timmins)?

How much would 10 cents in gasoline taxes (plus the 13% HST charged on those new taxes) raise for Hamilton transit if the proportional amount have to be spent in Hamilton? This Globe and Mail article says that 38,208,346,000 litres of gasoline were sold in Canada in 2012. With a rough guess from Hamilton's and Canada's populations, that's around 545,000,000 litres per year for Hamilton. The eventual 10 cents per litre tax would raise around $54.5 million per year for Hamilton (not including the extra HST revenue which would end up being $61.6 million per year total). That's a lot of additional money just by itself if it were to stay in Hamilton. That amount per year over 20 years could easily fund a $1 billion LRT line to say nothing of the other revenues from the other proposed taxes.

The concern with such new taxes is whether Hamilton would get its proportionate share from Metrolinx. Going by what has happened since 2007, that seems doubtful, although getting funding for an LRT line would seem more likely. Hamilton would need to speak up to get that money (and Bob Bratina certainly isn't going to do it). Frankly Hamilton being part of Metrolinx hasn't been very good for Hamilton.

There's always going to be a transit priority in Toronto that will take precedence. Based on past experience, these new taxes will probably be bad for Hamilton overall as Hamilton will pay the taxes but will end up funding more transit in Toronto than Hamilton receives.

One disappointing thing about all of this, is that Hamilton media hasn't been more vocal about totaling up Hamilton's funds from Metrolinx and comparing it to what has been spent in Toronto. It is something that needs to be done.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Average Monthly Global Adjustment for Ontario Electricity for 2012

In a previous post I calculated the average monthly global adjustment for Ontario in 2012 and I thought I would make a separate post. It ended up being 4.97 cents. I calculated the monthly average by adding up the 12 monthly values and dividing by 12; I didn't take into account the number of days in each month.

Here's the 12 monthly final numbers for 2012 in case they disappear from the website:

January 4.25
February 5.06
March 6.23
April 6.07
May 56.5
June 5.26
July 3.36
August 4.18
September 4.76
October 5.38
November 5.43
December 4.06

Ontario Electricity Global Adjustment for November 2013: Really High

The second estimate for the global adjustment for Ontario's electricity bills for November is out and it isn't good. The second estimate is usually quite close to the final value and for November it was 8.49 cents per kilowatt hour. That's significantly more than the 5.75 cents for the previous November and interestingly a big increase from October's final number of 6.34 cents. More wind power that gets a much higher than market price has come on stream in 2013 and Ontario has to buy it all, driving up the global adjustment.

If the final November number is anywhere close to the second estimate (and it usually is), the 8.49 cents is highest for any month in 2012 and 2013 (and maybe ever). The previous high was June 2013 at 7.04 cents.

Increasing from October is a little strange, as a high number usually comes from high output from solar and wind and low demand. November is usually significantly colder than October so there is usually more demand for electrical heat. However this year November wasn't that cold, but there were some windy days, including some that were uncharacteristically warm. In every month since April, this global adjustment number has been higher in 2013 than 2012. The first estimate for December is 7.61 cents which is considerably higher than the 4.63 cents in 2012. When the final estimates are in for 2013 I'll calculate the average for the year. For reference the average monthly rate for 2012 was 4.97 cents per KWh