It all makes sense now.
Toronto, much as I love the place, often doesn't seem to work very well. Now I think I've figured out why.
The newsletter we got in the mail today, issued by the municipal government, contains a very pretty bar graph showing how much money, out of the 2336,86$ in annual property taxes paid on an "average" home assessed at 387 000$, is spent on various budget items. I got out a pen and did some math. Turns out? Fully 25% of our property-tax dollars are spent on police services. One-quarter. More than twice as much as the next biggest line item (the Toronto Transit Commission, at 11%). Toronto's 99 public libraries, meanwhile, get 4,7% of said property-tax dollars. Public health gets 1,26%, children's services 1,97%, and EMS 1,85%. Long-term care homes and services? 1,23%.
Someone hasn't looked at actual crime rates recently, I guess.