The Ben Mulroney Show - City Hall has a brilliant idea to stop the Coyotes... They're going to yell at them

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Guests and Topics: -City Hall has a brilliant idea to stop the Coyotes... They're going to yell at them -Should Toronto middle man World Cup tickets to pay for them? If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show and if you live in Liberty Village or the Fort York area of Toronto and you're a pet owner, my heart goes out to you. With all of the infrastructure construction in those areas, it has caused a disruption in the lifestyle of the coyotes, the resident coyotes. And because of that, they've apparently become far more aggressive and they have been attacking pets and humans alike. And it's a real problem. Everybody deserves to feel safe. And sometimes you don't feel safe. It's not just because of crime.

It can be because of the wildlife. And so Toronto has stepped up and they did what Toronto does. They talked about, well, here's what Deputy Mayor Osmo Malik said about calling an expert panel together to solve this problem. The city brought this panel together following the unprecedented number of incidents with coyotes in our downtown communities of Liberty Village in Fort York as a result of habitat loss and as a result of the coyotes' increasingly aggressive behavior. I've spoken with many residents fearful of their safety and the safety of their pets

and share their heartbreak at the harm and tragic loss of pets as a result of coyote incidents. At my office, Wood City staff have been in communication with community members, the Coyote Safety Coalition on a weekly basis to continue to address and take action on this issue. All right, so the city takes this seriously. They convened a panel of thinkers to drill down and come up with solutions.

And I think there were half a dozen or so people on this panel. And in five months, they sat with the problem and they researched the problem. And here are some of the measures that that think tank came up with. The wildlife expert panels immediate responses, a recommendations pardon me,

are to procure a specialized team to assess the target coyotes, apply adapted aversion techniques on them, monitor results and report back to city staff on successes. Continue with aversion techniques that utilize bodies, voices and handheld objects as objects to projectiles, bullets or dogs, all of which will make coyotes overly reactive. Remove human food sources by enforcing no dumping and no wildlife feeding, repair fences and improve lighting and sightlines,

and increase community education for the public about how dumping wildlife feeding and dogs off leash impact coyote activity. Well, they certainly have a lot of recommendations. So there's certainly a lot of them. Are they any good? Because this is what five months of handling a problem in Toronto gets you.

Let's see if I can solve this problem in five minutes with my callers. Give me a call at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. What do you think we should be doing about the rampant coyote issue? Because let's, let's remember part of these aversion tactics is to make yourself big and scream at them. And also if they are caught, the bylaw only allows you to transport them one kilometer away because I guess as the logic goes, they deserve to find their way home, which doesn't solve the problem as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to share with you a quick little story about how an infestation of raccoons in my house and that raccoon decided to give birth in my walls and life was unlivable.

I called somebody to get rid of them, and the bylaw prevented them from doing anything but putting the babies in a box right next to my house, because as I was told, the raccoon deserves to find her kids. And what did she do? She took the kids and brought them right back in the house. So I had to pay again to get rid of them. And let me tell you, this time I took a different tactic and they didn't come back. I'll leave it at that.

And it feels to me like this is another one of those situations with, I think, a group that is pushing for humane treatment of the coyotes, prioritizing the coyotes over the health and welfare and rights of the people in the area. So let's hear what you have to say, Frank. Welcome to the show. What do you think? What do you think we should do with these guys? Morning, man.

I get the impression that the city is trying to defend these coyotes. Yeah. You know what I mean? For the people, the kids and the pets or whatever, we're gonna protect the coyotes. I thought, this is insane. Yeah.

You know, they better go to church and pray that no child gets attacked. Yeah, you're right. Because if I'm the parent to that child, I'm going to crucify everybody at City Hall. No, you're absolutely right. After five months and seven people working on this, if they say, well, we're going to try to scare them away. And if that doesn't work, maybe we'll take other measures.

Well, in the interim, if somebody does, a child does get hurt, that's on City Hall because the option, the nuclear option is available. It is. And I'm not trying to be callous or cavalier, but I prioritize human life over animal life every day of the week and twice on Sunday. And I will die on that hill. And thanks for your call. I really appreciate it. Hey, Jim, we treat coyotes clearly, raccoons, and trees with kid gloves. Anytime somebody wants to remove a tree from their property, the city says, back off. That tree deserves to be on your property far more than you.

So what do you think? Is this an appropriate way to deal with a wildlife issue? Ben, you know, I'm listening to it. I'm just laughing because this is typical city hall. Talk, talk, talk. And you're not going'm listening to it. I'm just laughing because this is typical city hall. Talk, talk, talk. And you're not gonna scare them away. Coyotes travel all day, all night looking to eat. That's all they do.

So it's like, just eliminate it. Eliminate them. It's four coyotes. Do you know how many coyotes there are out there? Yeah, it's not just four coyotes. I mean, I don't even know, but it just doesn't feel right. But you're a hunter. So what would happen if you humanely transported

a coyote a kilometer away? Because according to what I understand, that's as far as they're allowed to take them. Well, if it's a kilometer away, it's still in the city. Yeah. So if you need to. Yeah. Yeah, good point, man.

I didn't even connect those dots. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. We got a lot of calls to get to. So Shane, way into this conversation, you're a country guy. What do you do when you have these problems in the country? We shoot those little bastards. And like I said to your screener, I feel sorry for you city people. You wouldn't survive a day out in the country if you ever needed to i mean you know they end these coyotes i don't honestly don't believe the coyotes the coyotes like forty forty five how do you think these things are i think they're coy wolves on it see because i mean you guys about callers

honored they've been in the news and uh... hot hot hot these coyotes people are seeing are up in the eighty kilometer or eighty uh... i don't range i mean that's typically a coy wolf a coy a coyote doesn't get my interesting interesting wouldn't even occur to me that this might not even be a coyote hey Shane thank you so much let's move on and welcome Dudley into the conversation um you've got a little bit of background on this uh on and an experience in this matter yeah I mean I used to work work in in King and Strong area last year

and there's a park there with a dog park at the off-leash dog park but the entire park in the summertime is just littered with dogs and dog owners which becomes a feeding ground for coyotes. Yeah. Because I mean, I would sit there taking my break outside and I'd see a coyote walk right by me. Just look at me and then just keep walking. Wow. Yeah. I mean, look, and this park isn't going anywhere

and the people who live there aren't going anywhere and they don't deserve to feel unsafe for even a second. And the fact that we are allowing the possibility that more attacks could happen because we're simply saying, Hey, just put your hands up and scream, go away, go away, coyote is, I think, irresponsible of the city. And it's putting it's putting the priority where it's elsewhere than where it should be. And it should be firmly with the taxpayers and the residents of the area. Thank you for your call. Chris, what's it gonna take

to fix this problem once and for all? Yeah, good morning, Ben. I enjoy your show. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. It's a cynical approach, but there might be a little bit of truth to it. A two prong approach.

We can take care of two pests at one. We can lure them and bait them on with politicians and until one of these politicians gets bitten in the ass by one of them nothing's gonna happen. I put forward Olivia Chow to go out into the streets and to pet them. Yeah I don't want anybody to get hurt my friend and I appreciate the modest proposal of it all. I do think that it's more reasonable in a very bad way that somebody, a child could get maimed. And I think that would be the flash point that changes people's perspective at City Hall

because like I said, they're gonna have to own that injury. I think we've got time for a couple more calls before the break. Let's welcome Iggy into the conversation. Iggy, what do we need to do to fix the coyote problem in Toronto? Well, I think that, I mean, the city never really allows us to protect herself and we have dog spray,

or like a pepper spray, but a lot less strong. And I think that if we were to be allowed to just carry some dog spray with us when we walk our dog, it would definitely help with the coyote. No, I know, but that would be help with the coyote. No, I know, but that would be mean to the coyotes, Iggy. That would be mean. We gotta treat them with respect that they deserve. We're in their area.

We gotta respect that it's not their fault. And I know it's not their fault, but again, human trumps coyote every day of the week. Let's end this with Pete. Pete, give me your take on the coyote crisis. Well, I get a real kick of the guys from the country that talked about shooting the coyote. That's what they do. They still have coyotes.

And there's a reason for that. Because when you call them, the females go into heat more often and produce more. And they become very good at reproducing. So the way you deal with this is the ones that are local, you bait them with food that will cause sterilization or prevent them having a reproductive cycle. And then they will die out. Problem solved. Problem solved, my friend. Thank you. See, we didn't need five months and paying an expert panel. The Ben Mulrooney Show gets results. Solve the coyote problem in less than 10 minutes. Thank you to all who participated in my roundtable. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show.

Thank you so much for joining us. So we know that the World Cup is coming to North America and some of those games will be played in Toronto. We know that the cost associated with getting the city ready has grown as everything does. What we were told it was going to cost is now ballooned, and that's fine. I mean, we're numb to it at this point, right? But now there is word that Toronto has been given, the city of Toronto has been given a number of VIP ticket packages to those games. And the idea has been floated that what Toronto is going to do is resell them to people. And that's rubbing certain people the wrong way. Certain people are saying that this constitutes scalping.

In fact, we're turning ourselves to the city of, is turning itself into a version of StubHub. And the counterpoint to that is, look, they're giving us these tickets. If we don't resell them at a profit, we're leaving money on the table. And this is not a grift or anything, as far as I can tell. This is, people will be paying for it. Going to the World Cup is not a grift or anything as far as I can tell. This is people will be paying for.

Going to the World Cup is not a right of the citizen. If you wanna buy tickets, you can buy tickets and here's how much they're gonna cost. And if you're willing to pay it, well then there you go. And if that's money that comes back into the city coffers, I kinda don't have a problem with it. I know people expect me to rail against everything that comes out of City Hall, but if it's not a bad idea, I'm going to call it as I see it.

And I'd love to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. Is it fair or foul for the city to try to turn, well, turn into scalpers and recover some of the money that we spend on the World Cup? Again, I don't have a problem with it. Like who cares? If you don't want to spend the money, watch it on TV. If you can't afford it, don't go. These are high end tickets, I believe with VIP access. And so only a certain type of person is is going to be able to afford this in any event. And if I had to guess this, a lot of people

from out of town who aren't even Torontonians are the ones who would be willing to shell that money out. I don't, I don't have a problem with it, but give me a call at 416-870-6400 or one triple eight two two five talk and I get it. I get it reflexively. You hear it and you're like, I don't know that the government should be in the business of reselling tickets at a profit. Yeah, OK, I get it. That is that is a take.

But if you just if once I thought about it for just a few minutes, I realized, no, this is a revenue stream for the city. It's a revenue stream. And I don't have a problem with it. I really, really don't. Yeah, the city has said that there's nearly $11 million of ticket packages that they are gonna resell at marked up prices.

And so FIFA controls all the tickets to the games. And as the host city, Toronto has been given the opportunity to buy up some of the packages, which include. Oh, so they weren't given. They were bought up. I apologize. Which include tickets to the games. Like what? They could not buy any of them, which is one way of going, or they can buy them and upsell them. So why would the city leave any money on the table? I think that's the irresponsible thing.

And so it's going to city council next week for final approval. And a lot of people I respect are coming down on the other side of this. I'm going to disagree with the Councilor John Burnside, who says that we're acting like stubbub. I don't think that that's exactly the case Josh Matlow whom I disagree with but have respect for He's been a long critic of the deal and he agreed that FIFA He criticized the outlay. He said it's a sign the city is desperate to find ways of covering world cup

Probably probably we listen. We're desperate to cover costs on a lot of fronts, Councillor. This is just one of them. But if we have an out to recoup tens of millions of dollars, I think we should take it. Hey, Tony, what do you think? Should it be, is it one or the other? Or do you see a third option here on how the city should behave? I would like to introduce you to the third option, if I may. A lottery. It's $10 for a ticket. You can buy as many tickets as you want. That way, not the super rich. I've got no problem with super rich. They don't burn their money, I'm sure. But instead of that one person,

the entire city and the province and the country has a chance to win that beautiful packet. Tony, I'm gonna go ahead and say that that is the smartest possible answer to the question that I just posed. Like what's another option? That's a brilliant idea, Tony. I think you're absolutely right.

It's democratic. It allows participation from everybody in the city. And yeah, I mean, I mean, I think you probably picked the number 10 out of the air, but I think people could be willing to go 25 bucks, 50 bucks for a ticket with the possibility that you win this package. I think that's a brilliant idea, Tony, well done. Please pass it along and you can use it as your own. I'm okay with that.

No, no, no, we're on the record on the Ben Mulroney show. Hopefully somebody at City Hall heard that. That's a great idea. And I think that that can get a lot of backing even from the people who think that the StubHub model is the wrong way. I wonder what counselor John Burnside thinks of it. I wonder what Josh Matlow thinks about it. I wonder who else I think Brad Bradford. I'd love to know what he thinks of an idea like that because that's a third way that makes a lot of sense. And I they'd have to study it to see how much they could make. But I think you could make maybe not $10 million off of it.

But if you could make $5 million and in the process engage the people of Toronto and reward somebody and a number of people in Toronto, that to me feels like a better version of this. Hey, Dave, what do you think? Good morning, Ben. Morning. Ben, I had that same idea. And then I thought of another one, just to sell them to make

money because what's the sense in people at City Hall getting, they probably don't even care to go to a game, it's just an event for them to get a free ticket. Yeah. Let's sell them, let's sell them and let somebody who actually wants to be at the game use them. Sure, listen, but I'm a dog with a bone now with Tony's idea. What do you think of the idea of creating a lottery where anybody anywhere in the country or maybe you just restrict it to Toronto if you want, but anybody can buy as many tickets as they want.

I mean, you generate a lot of revenue there. I mean, it could be in the millions of dollars if the appetite is right, if the teams playing here are, look, if you had Portugal versus Italy in the city of Toronto for even one of these early games, how many people would buy those tickets? What do you think, Dave? Yeah, I thought that at the beginning, it's a perfect idea. Raise money for charity even. Yeah. Pay some of the bill. I think it's a brilliant, all credit to Tony on that. That blew my mind. It's so easy. And I hope somebody at City Hall

heard that because I would love to see that injected into this conversation. We have a binary choice and Tony has offered what I think is a really solid third way. Daniel, what do you think? What should we be doing here? Hey Ben, big fan of the show. I'm a Greg Brady in the morning but I'm happy I get to listen to you right after. Thank you. I just want to say I think Tony's idea is fantastic, it's very equitable. I kind of changed my mind but I'm gonna say my idea anyway. Okay. I just want to say, I think Tony's idea is fantastic. It's very equitable. I kind of changed my mind, but I'm going to say my idea anyway. Okay. I was thinking they could do like a 50-50 split. Maybe half of them, they raised some money for charity.

I'm sure they can get some kickbacks on that. Yeah. Maybe from the federal government or something. And the other half, just let the ultimate rich bid stupidly on it. But I mean, yeah, you know, you're getting some money on charity and then you're still going to be able to make some money. The city's got to make money in the end because they know they owe Thanos money. I'm guessing that's who they owe money to.

And in all seriousness, I think there's got to be an equitable way, but you still got to make some money on it and let the rich just bid blindly on it. That's what I think. I mean, there could be you may be a hybrid system, maybe allowing certain ones to be bid up as high as you can possibly go. Maybe the banks, maybe the big companies in Toronto, they want to host a corporate party and they're willing to pay 10x the offer. So hey, money is money, right? At the end of the day, and if it goes back into our coffers to the service of the people who are paying for all of this, you know, that should be

the end goal. Blair, what do you think of all this? Hey, Ben, can you imagine Toronto City Council trying to organize a lottery? OK, they can't even get rid of a few coyotes in downtown Toronto. Toronto City Council. Yeah. A million dollars to organize a lottery. Whoever won the tickets wouldn't get them until the game was over. Come on! Okay, you know what?

I mean, great idea, great idea, but wrong people. I'm just following the puck here. So on a conceptual level, Tony's idea is absolutely correct. On your idea, on a practical, your sort of, your pushback brings practicality into it, and you're probably right. I mean, we all remember the debacle when they tried to build a food cart. So I get it.

But I don't know, maybe they bring in a third party to organize, whoever does the Princess Margaret lottery. Maybe we could ask them to do it, right? As far as coyotes, round them all up, take them to Northern Ontario. If you round them all, they're all gonna be with their friends. Blair, maybe you should run for city council. I like your straight talk, man.

Thanks so much for joining us on the Ben Mulroney Show. The only way to be. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you for spending some of your Wednesday with us. And there is a study that was conducted of 1700, almost 1800 Canadians about tipping in this country. And the results are that most Canadians believe that tipping culture has gotten out of hand and they feel that gratuities are too high.

And they were asked what they think is the appropriate percentage to tip at a restaurant. And it's not even the 15% that a lot of us have been used to in the past, which has now ballooned to 25 and 30% in some cases, but most Canadians feel that 9% is the appropriate number. I wanna hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. 9% to me personally feels awfully low. And I wanna know from you,

how do you determine your tip size? And do you ever get guilted into leaving a tip because simply the machine prompted you to do so? Yeah, there's tons of times where I don't feel that the work that was put in by the server warrants any more than I mean, sometimes nothing, to be honest, you just picked something up and gave it to me. And look, you know, let's let's have a little context here that the the minimum wage in Ontario is now $17.20 an hour for most jobs. And that includes I want to check I was like, but sometimes that doesn't apply to certain industries, it applies in Ontario to restaurant servers, bartenders and waiters.

$17.20 an hour. And some would say, well, you can't make a living wage on that, to which my heart goes out. I have empathy for that. But it is not my job when I go to a restaurant to solve the housing crisis and the affordability crisis. My job when I go to a restaurant is to eat. That's my job and to get great service and to pay what I owe and reward my server with a tip worthy of the high level of service I got. It's not for me or anyone else to solve that. That's the people in power who should square

that circle. Walter, what do you think of tipping? Has it gotten out of control? And what's your sweet spot? Yeah, it's gotten way out of hand everywhere you go. Everybody wants a hand that wants a tip for service that's take out or whatever. But I worked in the industry years and years and years ago. And my base pay was $4.95 an hour. Right. To keep away my age. So my tips were based on service. So that's how I acumen my tip. If I get excellent service, then you get an excellent tip.

If the service is not up to what I expect, then you get nothing or you'll get like two bucks. The biggest tip I ever left was 75 bucks at Red Lobster. The bill was 150. And the young lady that was our server was absolutely amazing. Yeah. Everything. I look at everything. Yeah.

Like the setting on the table, the cutlery, the positioning of the cutlery, the plates, whatever. Yeah. And I look at everything. Walter, I'm going to say two things. Let me say two things, Walter. One, I love Red Lobster. I am here for Red Lobster.

I hear it's going bankrupt. I am here for Red Lobster, man. It's a high watermark for me. Two, when I am told, well, but servers depend on tips. You gotta be generous, because they depend on tips. I like to flip it back on them and say, if you depend on tips, then show me that you depend on tips by giving me service over and above what the minimum is.

But if you're gonna give me the minimum, I'm sorry, it is not incumbent upon me to reward that. And I remember growing up, you know, when I finally had disposable income, the general rule, Walter, and tell me what you think, I always believed 15% was standard and 20% was if somebody went over and above. That was sort of just the rule that as I've gotten older, you're right, somebody blows your mind and you reward them with even more. Exactly. Like when I was when I was a server, it was 10% was the average.

Then it went to 12 and then 15. But everybody is a status quo is saying minimum 15. No, I go according to what I receive as a patron of that establishment. Hey Walter, I wanna thank you for your call. I gotta get to another call. And Dimitri, you think that there's, it's not just a tipping culture, it's an entitlement

culture that we're dealing with. Yes, and it's the mentality, I think, of servers, that they believe that they are entitled to tipping. And in my view, and I'm certain not in my view, that the purpose of tipping is just to encourage great service. But I can give you an example. I have been recently in one restaurant which is quite expensive we paid about 300 something dollars and so the the servant servant when he came with the bill and so my wife

noticed that there we were over built and he pointed to him he said okay sorry and then he went back then he even didn't my what I think because it's not for the first time that the waiters the servers play this this game they as if they have made mistakes actually they don't make mistakes they're trying I'm quite sure they're trying to steal it's not the first time well listen and Demetri thank you for sharing your story I do appreciate it, I like to start from a position that the people I'm interacting with wherever I go in life are good faith operators and want to do a good job. That's how I present.

I want to be good at what I do, and I want to be polite. And if you hear me speaking, I want you to believe that what you're hearing from me is the truth. And so when I go to a restaurant, I am not going to assume that there is a bad faith actor serving me food who's going to try to steal from me is the truth. And so when I go to a restaurant, I am not going to assume that that there is a bad faith actor serving me food who's going to try to steal from me. And I, I know how hard servers work. I know it's a really difficult job and it can be, there can be bad patrons who are insulting and there could be, it can be a really grueling

job. But again, I'm going to go back to it. If there's an affordability crisis in the world, that means everybody is dealing with it, including the people going out for dinner. It is not my job to solve that problem. When already we have a minimum wage that's higher today than it's ever been, and we're being asked to tip wherever we go. So if the system is broken,

I can see that we should fix it, but it is not, the band-aid shouldn't come from me being forced to tip 25% when somebody simply hands me a donut. Matt, what do you think of this? I think we can all agree, tipping has gotten out of control, but what's your sweet spot? Where do you feel comfortable tipping? You're talking to me?

Yes, yes, sir. Oh, great. I didn't know if I was on. Yeah, my beef now is with all the ATM and credit card machines. Yeah. That the first thing that prompts up after you pay, even if you're walking in to pick up, pick up like go to my local sushi spot once a week, every time I'm there, first thing that comes up when I'm paying is how much would you like to tip? Yeah. Like I haven't gotten any service, why am I tipping? I don't I don't understand Yeah, and like correct me if I'm wrong, but the paycheck you get from the restaurant is For the work of preparing the food. That's right. And I'm doing them a service by eating them And now what do you like? What do you say? And what do you say to those who say but like they can't live on that?

Like, what do you say? And what do you say to those who say, like, they can't live on that? Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of with you. They're getting their paycheck. I'm getting my paycheck, and we're all paying for our services. There is definitely a disconnect somewhere. Yeah. But again, if there is a disconnect,

it's got to get solved elsewhere than from my wallet. Thank you so much for the call. Who do we have? Let's go to Joanne. Hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm well. I'm well. That's great. So my opinion is when I was a server for many, many years, I treated my section as a little

business. Yeah. So I assumed that I was going to get 15 to 20 percent tips. And that's how I get out. If I could do anything extra for these people, I would get a higher tip. If I gave them terrible service, I would get a worse tip. And I would deserve what I would get.

Joanne, we're gonna have to leave it there, but that's the mentality I think all of us want when we go into a restaurant. We want somebody who believes that their tip is based on their service and performance, and I thank you for that. Survivor has been calling me for a long time. These 18 strangers have answered the call

for the adventure of a lifetime. My parents would always say, you're gonna be the first one set home. I can do this. I'm physically fit. I'm mentally fit. They must learn to adapt or they'll be voted out. Being a physicist, playing men's hockey, this does not scare me at all. When my kids watch this, I want them to look at me and say I'm proud of him. Survivor, new season Wednesdays on Global. Stream on StackTV.