City Conducts Review of Billboard Values for Taxation Purposes
City of Toronto staff are currently working on developing the optimal model for a billboard tax that would minimize the impact on the billboard industry while bringing in sufficient revenues to the City.
The City of Toronto’s billboard industry has adamantly refused to provide financial data to staff that would allow them to structure a tax that is consistent with their goals of minimizing impact.
As a result the City has embarked on a study of billboard values using the data that they have available to them, including data from City RFPs. One of the smartest things City Staff did is to use the industry’s own bids on City RFP’s to extrapolate the values of billboard space.
We already know that billboards, especially in the downtown area, earn enormous profits for the industry. For example, documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court indicate that Titan Outdoor was able to sell its sign at 245 Adelaide West to Apple Computer for $195,968.50 for a 12 month period. The proposed billboard tax would levy a fee on Titan or the property owner of about 2% of that value.
This is the power point presentation [PDF] that City Staff have produced with respect to their research on billboard values:
CBS Outdoor Builds Illegal Back-up at Bathurst and Lawrence
We have caught CBS Outdoor backing up another roof sign without a permit.
This time it’s in North York at 3029 Bathurst Street.
This is what the sign looks like from the front; these are side-by-side 10′x20’s under CBS identification plates 1377 and 1378:
And this is what the back of the sign looks like: 
We could tell that the 10′x20′ on the rear of the sign was new for two reasons. Firstly, there are no CBS 4-digit identification plates on the signs. IllegalSigns.ca has previously caught CBS illegally backing up signs by imputing the illegal activity from CBS’s use of non-sequential number plates.
For example, see Illegal Back-up at Bathurst and Bloor and Illegal Back-up: 1018 St. Clair Avenue.
CBS has since stopped using public number plates on illegally backed-up sites. Any time you now see a CBS 10′x20′ sign without a 4-digit number plate, it is almost invariably illegal. We can also tell that the sign was illegally backed up by looking at this low-flown aerial photograph from 2003:
Take a close look and you can see that there is no back-up in the photograph. Satellite images prior to mid-2008 show no back-up.
Only in recent images does the 10′x20′ show. For example, compare the 2003 image above to this one, which clearly shows the 10′x20′:
CBS Outdoor’s Engineer Threatens to Sue IllegalSigns.ca
Another brute threat from a billboard lawyer.
We are not making any changes to this post about Sean P. Hart in response to Philip Horgan’s threats. In fact, we reiterate every word.
Horgan claims that these allegations contained in the PEO’s Summary of Allegations merely represent allegations made by IllegalSigns.ca that the PEO’s staff have “re-framed.”
In truth, our initial complaint against Sean Hart’s conduct at 346 Dupont Street concerned matters of BMEC approval that we later learned, after speaking to PEO staff, did not relate to structural engineering. The Complaints Summary and Allegations makes no mention of the BMEC matters that we complained about in our initial complaint. However, during the investigation of Sean Hart’s conduct, the staff at the PEO found additional information, which they decided, on their own, to bring to the attention of the Complaints Committee. The allegations against Sean Hart have not been proven in a court or tribunal.
As for the use of Sean Hart’s P.Eng. stamp, and Horgan’s claim that “the reproduction of a signed P.Eng. stamp can lead to significant abuses,” we say get a grip on yourself, dude. Signed engineering stamps for billboards are routinely published on web sites such as Toronto.ca [PDF, page 9]. Furthermore, Sean Hart consented to his stamp becoming a public record when he permitted CBS Outdoor to use the stamp in connection with a municipal building permit.
Finally, Horgan incorrectly refers to the vinyl fascia sign at 346 Dupont Street as a “poster panel” structure on two occasions. This may be because Philip Horgan is only a recent inductee to the billboard bar. Horgan in fact specializes as an attorney in abortion and gay marriage cases. He decries “the end of traditional marriage” as he works as a lawyer for groups such as the Catholic Civil Rights League (of which he is also the president) and Real Women of Canada.
Titan Outdoor Teeters on the Brink of Bankruptcy and Fails to Make Payments to Boston Transit Authority
Titan Outdoor LLC Group (Titan) offered the highest guaranteed fee in the amount of $65,250,000 over a 5-year term and $98,750,000 over a 7-year term. However, their proposal submission is considered commercially non-compliant, as they did not submit the required proposal security in the amount of $500,000 CDN with their proposal submission.
In addition, Titan failed to submit an acceptable form of contract security. Titan offered an irrevocable Letter of Credit provided by a U.S. Investment firm (Catterton Partners), contrary to the Commission’s requirements for the Letter of Credit to be drawn from a financial institution with representation in Toronto.
-TTC Staff Report, September 22, 2004
In 2004, when Titan Outdoor was the highest bidder in the Toronto Transit Commission’s Request for Proposals for advertising, TTC staff rejected Titan’s proposal because Titan could not provide the required financial guarantees.
That decision is turning out to have been a smart one for the TTC.
Titan Outdoor has now failed to make its contractually-obligated payments to Boston’s MBTA transit authority and has said that it will declare bankruptcy if it is forced to make the payments.
The Boston Globe, in this article, states that Titan Outdoor “is in fiscal trouble and is having trouble paying its bills.”
Last year, Titan Outdoor submitted an affidavit to the Ontario Superior Court in which it stated that signs by-law enforcement in the City of Toronto has cost it over $1 million.
Astral Media Rejects Request to Provide Ad-Funded Bike Sharing; City Issues Ad-Free REOI
Astral Media has rejected the offer to provide a city-wide bike sharing system that would allow for more advertising on the City road allowance. We covered the issue back in December.
Astral Media’s street furniture contract with the City of Toronto, for which it vastly overbid, has turned into an unmitigated financial disaster for the company; with Astral currently experiencing a 35% vacancy rate on its transit shelter advertising (TSA) product, it was in no mood to put more capital into Toronto street furniture.
As a result, and because Astral’s contract with the City grants it a near-monopoly (actually a right of first refusal) on advertising on the road allowance, the City has issued this Request for Expressions of Interest for an advertising-free bike sharing network (although the bikes themselves may contain logos).
All said, we are quite pleased at this development.
