www.netflix.com/title/80022611 Good movie.

For a really weird time (over-the-top scifi) watch borderlands. Starring Cate Blanchett, the cute-as-a-button Arianna Greenblatt, and an all star cast. www.netflix.com/title/81586196

Here's the revenue chart. Not surprisingly mostly taxes and transfers.

Here's the line chart. Not particularly illuminating. But it's notable how big the health costs are, and how fast they're rising, in spite of all the austerity. The goal I'd set was to understand why the large Ontario deficit in spite of all the austerity. Health? One has to wonder: mis-management?

Here's expense data. This is the stacked chart. Taken from the 'Statement of Operations' dataset. All generated by Gemini. /3

I'm into fried (ie. crispy) wraps these days. This one is filled with home made bean loaf, and some salsa. I'll probably try that filling with some cheese next.

Not that according to Gemini capital expenditures are relatively trivial overall. Does anyone know if this is reasonable?

Capital

I asked Gemini to change the vertical labels to M$ (more readable) Operating:

Capital payments by sector:

First pass at Ontario Public Accounts 2024-2025. Proxy (using detailed schedule payments data.ontario.ca/dataset/publ...). Entirely generated by Gemini (so probably has errors). (I'm just probing a bit here) Operating payments by sector:

Paul Krugman's oil price scenarios. $99 -$372 per barrel. They're all feasible. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-oil-cr...

Looks like those stairs (and the community garden) are still there, per Google maps.

Would it have been better to leave this in place?

Google AI's view of my political leanings 👇 Not bad.

Happy International Women's Day everybody!

I just got this 👇 in an email from Toronto Hydro. They're using the "X" platform to report power outages in Toronto. Seriously?!? X has become a toxic platform, and should not be used by credible public institution.

I'm not sure what to call this (some kind of stew I guess), but it's a staple of mine. 2 packs of cremini mushrooms 4 good sized onions some hazelnuts and almonds (maybe just over a cup total) 7-ish herbs and spices (savory) 1 litre pressure cooked beans (any type -- this is kidney beans) /2

Here's the City's non-normalized version. Concise but unclear.

Here, by way of example, is the Parks and Rec *normalized* 2026 Budget by Category (revised from Appendix 1 of its Budget Notes). Clear separation of concerns.

Here is a listing of the $340M, received via an FOI request.

Every year the City of Toronto external auditor reverses Toronto budget revenues and expenses for certain classes of recoveries and discounts. In 2022 it was $312M for internal cost recoveries, and $340M for other offsets; a total of $652M budget overstatements on their own.

Here's a fragment from the 2026 Winnipeg Operating Budget showing that "Capital Related Expenditures" (what I call "Internal Transfers") are correctly isolated from revenue and expenses. Sensible presentation. But Toronto conflates these with revenue and expenses. www.winnipeg.ca/media/5071

Maybe this side by side format would help the City feel better about switching to a normalized operating budget format. Note that the City's non-normalized total is $18.9Bm(way over-stated)

And here's a venn diagram of the municipal innovation model.

The add leadership capabilities to the OECD model

They use the OECD's definition of city innovation.

I think this is interesting. The categories of municipal capabilities investigated in relation to innovation capacity.

They're focussing on municipal governments. Do any of the attached points look familiar? (rhetorical)

It looks like one of the ways Toronto reduced its operating budget for 2026 was to eliminate capital costs from the operating budget. If true would be a good thing. Used to be ~$200M as "Transfers from Capital". See eg engineering.