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May 2010.

Ally

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Manufacturing sales rise in March

Food and motor vehicle manufacturers led the way as manufacturing sales advanced 1.2 per cent to $44.5-billion in March.

Statistics Canada reports constant-dollar manufacturing sales increased 1.7 per cent, their seventh straight monthly advance.

Sales gains were reported in 12 of 21 industries, representing two-thirds of total sales.

Food manufacturers reported the greatest increase in the value of sales, up 3.5 per cent over February.

The agency says most of the remaining sales increases for March were attributable to durable-goods industries.

Motor vehicle manufacturers reported a 3.6 per cent increase in March, their sixth advance in seven months.

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Ally

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St. Catharines builder tries unusual marketing tactic

A new detached home is going on the auction block Saturdayas builder Mason Homes tries a novel marketing approach at its Chicory Walk site in St. Catharines.

Up for bid is the two-storey, 1,201-square-foot Dove, at 77 Chicory Cres. The three-bedroom home has a traditional brick front facade, contemporary interior layout, one bathroom and another three-piece roughed in. Finishes include eight pot lights in the great room, dark wood laminate flooring in the formal room and great room and a landscaped front yard. It`s built to Mason`s Green for Life standard (which incorporates Energy Star), which includes water and resource efficient features, enhanced indoor air quality as well as energy efficient products and building techniques.

The house is valued at $219,000 and there is no reserve bid, says Sean Mason, vice president of sales and marketing.

It`s on a 35-foot lot and while it doesn`t include a garage, the successful bidder can choose to add a single or double detached garage (at extra cost).

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Ally

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Slimed-down Transit City moving forward

The trimmed-down version of Transit City is on track for approval this week by the Metrolinx board, despite repeated criticism of the plan`s longer construction timelines by Toronto Mayor David Miller.

Metrolinx CEO Rob Prichard told the Toronto Board of Trade on Monday that his agency is poised to order custom tunnel-boring machines for the underground section of the Eglinton line and the new LRT cars.

The Metrolinx board is expected to approve the revised timelines that were recommended after the province cut $4 billion to its disbursements over the first five years of construction. Metrolinx can move ahead as soon as the province endorses what Prichard called "a bold, aggressive but doable plan."

He made an impassioned case for accepting a slower phase-in, as opposed to further delay in getting started. The plan calls for spending $8.15 billion on light rail along Sheppard, Eglinton and Finch, and rebuilding the Scarborough Rapid Transit line, plus $1.35 billion to build express bus lanes in York Region.

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Jump on Transit City plan or else, David Miller told

Mayor David Miller threatens the future of his own Transit City light rail lines by refusing to get on board a revised provincial plan, says Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne.

"Does he want (the projects) to stop? Because undermining the process can lead to that," she said, referring to a proposal in which TTC riders will wait longer for shorter lines with fewer stops.

It was the latest salvo in a war of words between the province and the mayor over the deferral of $4 billion in funding for lines on Sheppard, Finch, Eglinton and the Scarborough RT.

The volume went up after Miller wrote Premier Dalton McGuinty Wednesday saying the city would never support a revised Metrolinx plan that cuts the lines and delays their completion to at least 2020 rather than 2016.

While Miller said Thursday he was aware of "a proposal" to reduce the scope of the projects by 22.5 kilometres and 25 stops, he never agreed to it if it meant construction would be delayed.

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GTA existing home sales up 7%

Existing home sales in the Toronto-area market were up by 7 per cent in the first two weeks of May, compared with the same time last year.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported Wednesday that 4,887 sales occurred through the Multiple Listing Service.

The average price for May mid-month transactions was $448,641, up by 12 per cent compared with $399,811 last year.

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Sophia Aggelonitis vows crackdown on incompetent `eco experts`

The Minister of Consumer Services has vowed to crack down on incompetent "eco experts" after a Toronto Star investigation revealed many are cashing in on a booming green building industry awash in government incentives.

"Is it something we should regulate is really the question," Sophia Aggelonitis told the Star
. "This is a very serious issue and I will definitely be assessing the need."

Aggelonitis said the ministry`s consumer protection branch will begin tracking complaints against businesses that misrepresent themselves as eco-friendly.

The number of complaints they receive will determine the ministry`s next step, she said.

In the meantime, she encourages consumers to educate themselves on their rights

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The shady side of the green building industry

Mike Preston was everything his environmentally friendly customers wanted in a contractor.

The Oakville entrepreneur promised homeowners across Ontario he could solve their energy woes with state-of-the-art geothermal systems. They`d be cool in the summer and warm in the winter, saving money and the environment along the way. He said he was an accredited specialist who could help them get government rebates.

What happened next — the complaints of shoddy and unfinished work, the utility bills that doubled, the missing money — is part of a growing problem in the loosely regulated green building industry, a Star investigation has found.

"It shouldn`t be this hard to do something that`s so right," says Lesya Cooper of Richmond Hill, who paid Preston more than $70,000 before he vanished — leaving a couple of holes in the wall where two gas furnaces used to be.

During the past two years, Ottawa, Ontario and the City of Toronto have handed out more than $1 billion in government rebates and interest-free loans to help homeowners and residential developers go green.

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Laurentian bursting at the seams

Barrie`s downtown could well have its own Laurentian University campus in 10 years time.

It`s not such a big stretch, suggests Laurentian`s president, Dominic Giroux.

About 1,200 students are enrolled in Laurentian`s programs through its partnership with Barrie-based Georgian College.

"We can easily contemplate a campus of 2,500 students in the next 10 years," said Giroux. "That`s not even including new programs."

That`s one-third of the 7,500 students enrolled in Laurentian`s home campus in Sudbury.

"When we look at a five to 10-year window, we will be facing a critical space issue" at Georgian`s Barrie campus, said Giroux.

At the same time, the university expects to see a critical mass of students wanting to enter the post-secondary school system.

Barrie`s Growing by Degrees committee developed five years ago with the intent of attracting university education in the core.

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Secondary homes will bear primary cost of HST

COLLINGWOOD—Unless you are planning to make it your permanent home, purchasing a new ski chalet, a new weekend condo, or a new cottage will get a lot more expensive when the harmonized sales tax comes into effect July 1. The tax will add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new second home.

Last summer, after vigorous lobbying from developers, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), and the Ontario Home Builders` Association, the province backtracked on charging the HST on the full cost of a new home priced at more than $400,000 by introducing a housing rebate of up to $24,000. The catch is that to qualify for the rebate, the home has to be a primary residence.

"If it`s a new ski chalet, it will be subject to HST with no rebate," says Scott Blodgett of the Ministry of Finance.

The same goes for a new cottage on a Muskoka lake, a new condominium at developments such as the Village at Blue Mountain or Red Leaves in Muskoka, a new home in a golfing community or any new home in Ontario, if it`s not going to be a primary residence.

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New home sales and prices up in April

I find myself saying "what a difference a year makes" quite a lot these days, usually when I open the monthly email from RealNet containing the new home sales data for the past month. Earlier this week, I got the numbers for April revealing a continuation of the very strong market pace set during the first quarter of the year.

According to RealNet Canada Inc., BILD`s official, independent source of new home market information, there were a total of 3,196 new homes and condos sold in the GTA in April 2010, up 64 per cent over April 2009 — yes, what a difference a year makes.

The 64 per cent increase in sales in April was made up of a modest 23 per cent in sales of low-rise (single-detached, semi-detached, townhomes) product in the 905 regions and a whopping 164 per cent increase in highrise sales, primarily in the City of Toronto.

Though the first four months of this year, total new home sales are up 163 per cent which translates into nearly 13,000 new homes and condos to be built in the coming months. This is all good news for the workers that will ultimately build those new homes and condo suites.

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OPG trims proposed hydro rate by 32%

Ontario Power Generation has reduced a proposed rate increase by 32 per cent after coming under pressure from Energy Minister Brad Duguid – but opposition critics say consumers are still paying "exorbitant prices."

OPG is now proposing new rates that would increase a typical householder`s bill by about $1.86 a month, down from its original proposal of $2.75 a month.

The new rates, which must be approved by the Ontario Energy Board, would come into effect next March.

Duguid had asked OPG and Hydro One, both owned by the province, to keep their increases "to a minimum." Hydro One scaled back its proposed increase last week by more than 25 per cent.

OPG produces two-thirds of Ontario`s electricity. The price of about 70 per cent of that output, which comes from its biggest hydro-electric stations and nuclear plants, is regulated by the energy board.

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Housing affordability and the Hated Sales Tax

HST, OMG! Can you believe how this thorny issue -day after day after day -continues to dominate the news and commentary? It certainly has hit a raw nerve with many thousands of British Columbians.

Actually, HST has been under my skin since March 2009, when Ontario announced it had inked a $4.3-billion tax harmonization deal with the feds. I figured then, what with B.C.`s budget challenges and all, it would only be a matter of time until this province jumps aboard the HST bandwagon.

We all know what happened. On July 23, 2009, the B.C. government, without consultation, announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government on HST implementation. In exchange, B.C. was promised $1.6 billion. The firestorm of criticism and accusations has been relentless ever since.

The Province recently published a letter to the editor from provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen, who wrote that the Liberals did not promise during the election there would be no HST. He acknowledged his party "received dozens of surveys from organizations" and that two of those surveys (restaurant owners and home builders) asked about the HST. Further, he wrote "these surveys are answered on behalf of candidates by individuals working out of party headquarters."

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