Ontario Economic Fundamentals

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Budget aims to boost ailing Ontario economy

The Ontario government will unveil ambitious new measures today to bolster skills training and help workers and manufacturers hurt by the slowing economy.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan plans to use the Liberals` first budget since being re-elected last October to blunt the impact of the strong Canadian dollar and soaring energy costs.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/350422

 

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Sales at home on downward slope

Canada`s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty may be right. Ontario`s economy is sinking like a stone.

A sure-fire sign of how our economy is doing is our all-important real estate sector, and here we go with sales continuing their slump into the first half of March. You can blame the worst winter since 1939. You can blame Toronto Mayor David Miller`s idiotic municipal land-transfer tax, that kicked in Feb. 1. Or you can blame nervousness over the subprime mortgage meltdown south of the border, which has sent a deadly tidal wave over world markets

http://www.torontosun.com/Money/2008/03/20/5056086-sun.html

 

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Hydro project opposed; Residents near Wasdell Falls want idyllic setting preserved

On a crisp March morning on Claire Island, the nuthatches are peeping, mourning doves are cooing, and a pileated woodpecker is drumming.

In the background, there is the murmuring rush of falling water.

"It`s melodic," said Dian Smith, who lives on the island of 22 homes and cottages just below Wasdell Falls on the Severn River.

But Smith is concerned a power plant proposed for the falls will create an industrial hum that will drown out the natural sounds of the river and woods.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDispla...uth=Colin+McKim

 

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Residents` revolt sent condo owner to the curb

TORONTO — Jeff Green admits that he`s obsessive: "It takes me three weeks to buy a pair of shoes," he says. And when he bought a condo and moved out of his parents` house in his mid-30s, he took fastidiousness to a new level. Set on the 11th floor of Grenadier Landing, a new building with a panoramic view of Lake Ontario, Mr. Green`s new condo seemed like a Shangri-la. But it wasn`t good enough. He bought it in the fall of 2003, but didn`t move in. Instead, he stayed with his parents and spent nearly a year making upgrades - he changed a wall, removed a granite countertop and tore out the carpeting to install meticulously levelled cork tile flooring.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home

 

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Condo conflicts on the rise, lawyer says

Fights involving condo owners and condo boards are one of the most rapidly growing areas of law in Canada, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in condominium law said yesterday.

"We`re at a situation now where I said: If they stop developing now, we`d still be busier than ever. But they are not. It is just unbelievable the kind of situations that come up," Marko Djurdevac of the law firm of Deacon Spears Fedson & Montizambert said in an interview.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...tional/Ontario/

 

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U.S. mortgage crisis will `bruise` Niagara economy, `buffers in place`

Niagara will suffer economic "bruises" this year as the United States continues to be buffeted by its subprime mortgage crisis and mounting recession fears.

And while the region will feel some punches from a weakening North American economy, Niagara is showing surprising resilience and should still be on its feet by 2009.

That`s the forecast released Monday by Meridian Credit Union treasury manager Robin Eaglesham.

"We are going to see things slow down here in Niagara," Eaglesham said in an interview after his report was released. "But we`re well-positioned in many economic areas and our employment rates are doing better than expected. There are economic buffers in place here that will prevent it from being a terrible year."

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDi...ifer+Pellegrini

 

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Ontario doesn`t bite on corporate tax

TORONTO — Ontario tabled a budget yesterday that thumbed its nose at Jim Flaherty and his corporate-tax-cut agenda, instead preferring a smattering of smaller measures that offers some modest near-term help for the province`s manufacturers and not much at all for other businesses. The tight budget, which shows increases of just 0.4 per cent in revenue and just 0.2 per cent in spending for the 2008-09 fiscal year, didn`t include any reduction in Ontario`s general corporate income tax rate of 14 per cent – which is higher than every province except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...6/BNStory/Front

 

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Skilled trades, schools to see budget cash; Province focuses on training workers

The Liberal government`s plan to boost Ontario`s skilled trade sector is something Gail McCallum, who helps operate Northern Ontario Welding College in Barrie, has been waiting for.

"It seems to me the government has missed the boat," she said. "They`ve geared eduction so much toward the academics, but not near enough toward the hands-on trades, and that`s frustrating."

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDi...CKI+CRUICKSHANK

 

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Canadian autoworkers reject two-tier wages

TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union will not accept a U.S.-style two-tier wage deal when it meets with the "Big Three" automakers this summer for contract negotiations, union president Buzz Hargrove said yesterday.

"We are not accepting second-class workers in our workplaces," Mr. Hargrove said. "It`s my last set of negotiations and my legacy is not going to be that the sons and daughters of current workers that were hired over 20 years ago are going to come in at the same rate in 2008 as their parents did."

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/b...7c-f808f8cedda6

 

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City may help with power-saving home repairs

Homeowners in Toronto may soon be able to get financial help from the city to reduce their electricity consumption, Mayor David Miller says.

Miller announced new electricity conservation incentives today for industrial, commercial, institutional and multi-residential buildings.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/350996

 

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Help for Homeowners

In an effort to change the Byzantine process in which homeowners must engage to appeal their property-tax assessments, the Ontario government plans to put the onus on the assessment agency to prove its case when a taxpayer appeals.

Yesterday`s provincial budget promises new legislation - as recommended in a critical report by the province`s ombudsman two years ago - to put the burden of proof on the Municipal Property Assessment Corp., instead of on homeowners.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...tional/Ontario/

 

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Council opens reserves to keep Cambridge tax hike to 3%

CAMBRIDGE - City taxes are going up three per cent his year, but the decision means automatic tax hikes of 4.5 to 5.5 per cent over the next three years.

Against staff advice, councillors took $500,000 out of a cash reserve to lower this year`s tax increase from a projected 3.98 per cent. The problem is the reserve money used this year to lower taxes is needed in the next three years to keep taxes down as council faces the costs of a planned fire station near Toyota and a long-awaited pool/library/recreation centre in southeast Galt.


http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/327772

 

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Jobs abound in city border plan

Bouyed by a new report claiming GreenLink would provide 19,000 person years of work, Mayor Eddie Francis launched a public relations blitz Wednesday for council`s $1.7-billion border solution.

The job estimates for six years of construction -- a person year is the equivalent of one person working one year -- were included in a series of new reports commissioned by the city that make Windsor`s case for GreenLink.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/sto...b7-e8bcb3d20470

 

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The 5.4% solution

Do you believe in magic? Ottawa city councillors do. They have decided to make most of this winter`s onerous snow clearing bill simply disappear. What seemed like a problem that required a 2.3-per-cent tax increase to solve became no problem at all yesterday. All it took was a little shell game involving $10 million in provincial infrastructure money and the willingness to believe that it won`t snow again between now and Jan. 1 next year.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/c...db-94d86b5d8ce0

 

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Cash infusion on the way to fix city roads, bridges; Announcement from province made as council talks budget

Barrie`s rough roads could soon be smoother.

The city is receiving more than

$2 million in provincial money to repair its roads and bridges.

Barrie MPP Aileen Carroll, who announced the funding yesterday at Georgian College, said the city`s cheque is more than in the mail.

"That`s direct delivery (of the funding)," she said.

"We are working to fix up the roads that connect our communities because families and goods need to get where they`re going quickly and efficiently. It`s good for families, and it`s good for the economy."

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDi...auth=BOB+BRUTON

 

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Buzz about site builds; Future of waterfront scrapyard has neighbors talking

"There`s something in the wind," says 80-year-old Rene Campeau, who has lived beside the Schachter scrapyard for 20 years. "I heard condos."

Like others in the working-class neighbourhood between Front Street and Veterans Memorial Park, Campeau figured something was afoot when a mountain of scrap metal, some of it dating back more than half a century, was cleared out last year.

"They found the barrels of some Bren guns from World War II in there," said Campeau.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDispla...uth=Colin+McKim

 

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Ottawa`s condo market strong, steady

Ottawa`s condo market will continue to be popular with homebuyers over the next five years, a trend mirrored across much of the country, according to a new report.

The report, by Genworth Financial Canada, found that strong demand from homebuyers looking for more affordable housing options, as well as flat growth in new construction, will keep local condo prices rising steadily through 2012.

http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/291317152372730.php

 

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Bulletproof Living

The premium on deluxe apartments in the sky continues to climb. This follows the theory that when you get to a certain price point, general market conditions do not apply -- and there is no fear of a collapse in prices.

At least that is the theory among those in the ultra-luxury segment of the condominium market. Let us be clear on what constitutes that market: It is not the $600-per-square-foot units which make up an astonishing 6% of condos in the greater Toronto area, according to condo researchers Urbanation. The so-called bulletproof parts of the sector are developments such as the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Toronto`s high-priced Yorkville neighbourhood, and the 53-storey Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences in the city`s entertainment district.

http://www.financialpost.com/money/story.html?id=391974

 

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LIUNA stop on horizon for GO, Via trains

One line in the Ontario budget should put GO and Via Rail passenger trains back on the tracks at Hamilton`s LIUNA Station.

The province is putting up $3 million to put in a platform, ticket kiosk and lighting for a GO train stop just east of the old CN station on James Street North, now a highly successful banquet centre owned by the Laborers` International Union of North America.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/345619

 

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Offices planned for space on Black Road

McDougall Fuels wants to establish its administration building at a vacant former call centre on Black Road.

The building, originally built as a White Rose garden centre in the early 1990s, has been vacant for about one year.

A planning application will be heard at city council`s meeting Monday to rezone the property from medium industrial to 26,000 square feet of specialized office space.

McDougall Fuels is located directly across the street from the vacant building and city planning director Don McConnell said the plan is to expand and consolidate its operations.

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.as...ne+Della-Mattia