There are about 1500 people in the city of Toronto who have city business licenses who collected about $20-million in welfare payments in a two-year period starting in January of 2010.

There are questions that they are ripping off the system. That has not been established as fact but it certainly has city councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong suspicious.

Among the 1500 who claimed zero income, are nearly 800 people with taxi driver's licenses, more than a hundred strippers, over 170 holistic practitioners and 32 buskers.

The information comes from Toronto's Auditor-General Jeff Griffiths who also notes that holding a business license does not guarantee that someone is deriving income from that license. 170-thousand people collected welfare during the same time period described in this report.

That report will be brought forward to the city's audit committee next week.

(some files by D. Agar)