A Windsor man was sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail and given a two-year probation term for setting a fire that caused $127,000 damage to an Ottawa Street apartment building last February, forcing tenants to be evacuated.
"I feel bad," Lloyd Butt told Justice Gregory Campbell before sentence was passed. "I apologize," he said, telling the court he was high on drugs at the time of the incident Feb. 3.
You`ve been pre-approved for a mortgage and want to start shopping for a home. Where do you begin?
With your price range established, begin outlining your ideal home on paper. Create a list of the most important features you want, type and style you prefer. And, before eliminating one or the other consider what both resale and new and already built homes have to offer.
New homes are built to modern standards of taste and comfort and often have warranties. They don`t include fully-grown trees or the lived-in look that comes with time, but owning a new home provides the chance to grow with a new community. They are sold either as is, modified to your specifications, or completely custom built.
A Gatineau Wal-Mart became the first in North America with a union contract yesterday when a collective agreement was put into place between the retailer and eight employees of the store`s auto shop.
After a three-year process that ended with a ruling by an arbitrator, the eights employees at the Tire & Lube Express centre, represented by local 486 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada should see their wages rise to a minimum of $11.54 an hour from the current $8.50 an hour.
Gennum Corp. announced yesterday a sale and lease-back agreement with LPF Realty Office Inc. for its Burlington-based headquarters valued at $13.5 million.
The technology company said the deal will help it raise money to accelerate growth and new product development.
The building, located at 4281 Harvester Rd., includes the company`s global head office with 68,000 square feet of suite space on two hectares of land.
Our city council finds clarity of issues to be a taxing matter
First, city council furiously debates area rating and agrees to do nothing. Then one councillor goes on vacation, another returns, they have a second vote and reverse themselves. They`re committed, kind of, to do something, though they`re not sure what, before the end of the council term. Confused?
While exorbitant property taxes burden families and businesses, all anybody at City Hall seems interested in talking about is shifting the load between the old city and suburbs.
Construction of single-detached homes in Waterloo Region is expected to surpass the average across Ontario for the rest of this year and 2009, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says
But starts of multiple-housing units won`t keep up with the provincial average, the agency said in its quarterly outlook released yesterday.
The housing agency said that Waterloo Region and several other areas will fare better in residential growth over the next 18 months than border regions of the province.
Kitchener Frame still hoping for extension from GM
KITCHENER
General Motors has still not signed off on a deal to extend the life of Kitchener Frame, the facility`s parent company said yesterday.
During a conference call to discuss Martinrea International`s second -quarter results, Martinrea`s president Nick Orlando said that GM has yet to endorse a deal that will extend production in the plant to July 2010.
"We`re waiting day to day on what they`re going to say," he said.
"As of now, we do not know and it would be foolish to speculate on our part."
Kitchener Frame makes frames for the poorly selling Chevrolet Trailblazer and GMC Envoy sport utility vehicles, both of which are slated to be discontinued by 2010.
PICKERING -- The last tenant remaining at what`s left of the old Bay Ridges plaza has finally budged. Dr. Janet Sawyer, owner of Millennium City Veterinary Hospital, has been in a battle with San Francisco By the Bay developers, SR&R Bay Ridges Ltd., since the City granted the company`s request to construct a high-density, mixed-use commercial/residential area. Despite Dr. Sawyer winning the right to run her veterinary clinic at the plaza until her lease expires in 2010 (with a renewal option until 2015), demolition of the rest of the plaza and construction has gone forward. And after conducting her business in a "demolition zone" and an unsuccessful attempt to halt the development of a temporary building to relocate her business on the property, Dr. Sawyer recently purchased a house as a potential new location.
WHITBY -- The Town is edging closer to its goal of providing enhanced recreational opportunities for residents as construction for a new soccer dome kicks off Monday. To celebrate, Mayor Pat Perkins, members of council and representatives of the Whitby Iroquois Soccer Club (WISC) will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 18 at the site of the facility: Rossland Road and Country Lane in Whitby, adjacent to Donald A. Wilson Secondary School.
The lush green backdrop of the Kortright Centre was used this week to announce new guidelines for expansion of the Greenbelt, the same setting where the protected area was first announced in 2005.
Ontario citizens, municipalities and community groups have repeatedly expressed interest in expanding the Greenbelt, which protects 1.8 million acres of agricultural and environmentally sensitive land in the Golden Horseshoe, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Jim Watson said.
The announcement explained the province`s criteria for judging municipal requests for expansion in the Greenbelt.
Gary Worters writes: I have tried to find out for months from various local government officials as to why Bathurst Street was closed a number of years ago, just north of Hwy. 11/Yonge Street. Would it not have made more sense to continue Bathurst into Bradford rather than stopping it north of Green Lane?
This road, although rough, used to go straight through and has now been blocked. It is a public roadway, so why was it closed? Anyone living in Newmarket knows how bad the traffic has become between Davis Drive And Yonge. Thank you for your time.
No problem at all and thank you. Living not far from the area in question, believe me when I say I feel your pain when it comes to that stretch of Hwy. 11.
Main Street, Newmarket is experiencing the province`s first power blitz.
A team of electricians descended on the historic stretch earlier this month as part of a Newmarket Hydro-Ontario Power Authority power savings retrofit program, free to Newmarket small business owners.
More than 50 businesses agreed to have their old light bulbs switched out for more energy efficient compact flourescents.
It could translate into about 700 of the light bulbs being installed and Main Street business owners saving 30 to 50 per cent, Newmarket Hydro`s distribution services director Larry Herod said.
A man faces 11 fraud and forgery charges in what police are calling an industrial-scale credit card forgery lab in Vaughan.
A Toronto Police Service investigation yielded 217 ATM card reader overlays — devices that could be attached to bank machines to intercept card information and PINS — at 27 Roytec Rd.
The overlays were in various stages of completion.
TORONTO -- In a suburban Toronto parking lot Friday, a young couple snapped pictures of a boxy Ford Flex with 19-inch polished aluminum wheels.
"I`ve never seen a vehicle like that," the man said approvingly. "It`s hot."
Wherever the Flex goes, it gets noticed, but whether the new car will sell is another matter. The stakes have been raised as Ford Motor Co. confirmed Friday it will build another luxury seven-passenger vehicle at its Oakville, Ont., assembly plant based on the Flex, before the original vehicle has even hit many dealers.
BRAMPTON - The provincial government has given Peel police more cash to boost the department`s year-round RIDE program.
Peel has been given $57,034 to support year-round spot checks, part of the province`s commitment to double RIDE program funding to police services across Ontario to $2.4 million. Provincial funding helps cover the cost of officers` paid duty and overtime for additional RIDE spot checks.
News of the grant came from Brampton Springdale MPP Linda Jeffrey.
"Public awareness on driver impairment has risen over the last decade, but there is nothing like the sight of the RIDE Program on the horizon to bring the issue to everyone`s attention," Jeffrey said in a news release.
Five large propane distributors located in Brampton
BRAMPTON - Five Brampton companies are licenced to handle propane in quantities similar to that of the Sunrise filling plant that exploded in Toronto, according to a list provided this week by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA).
However, all are located deep in the heart of heavy industrial areas, away from residential neighbourhoods.
City officials and Brampton`s fire chief said this week there are no concerns that a similar situation would arise here as a result of a fire, because all of the companies with similar propane capacities are far removed from "sensitive" or residential developments.
The area around Steeles Avenue East and Hwy. 410/Dixie Road is home to the five Brampton companies on the list, which the TSSA expects to update today to confirm all of the companies located province-wide are still in business.
BRAMPTON - A project to widen the south stretch of Kennedy Road to four lanes will include the expansion of a bridge over Highway 407, despite earlier reports from city staff saying otherwise. Confusion over whether the bridge will be part of the upcoming project was provoked at Brampton city council`s Aug. 6 when council entered into discussions on the matter.
Oakville has always been among the favoured destinations of home buyers who are moving up the ladder with growing families. A lot of its cachet comes from its reputation as a relatively affluent community thanks to its history as a lakeside retreat for moneyed folk during the first half of the 20th century.
The scale of that affluence can still be seen in the highly prized, grand mansions — built by shipbuilding, railroad and steelmaking magnates — that still stand along the Lake Ontario waterfront.
As Oakville transformed from a retreat community into a Toronto suburb, developers of new subdivisions north of the Queen Elizabeth Way were more than happy to seize on the town`s pretensions to wealth and comfort. And buyers were more than happy to bank on the resale premium that came with Oakville`s reputation.
Orangeville council has "given the go-ahead" for a deal that would see the town purchase a disputed downtown property. The deal could bring an end to both a looming lawsuit and a potential downtown parking crisis.
Several months of negotiations between the town and developer Forecast Inc. led to the pending resolution, which Mayor Rob Adams says council endorsed during an in-camera discussion Monday evening.
"We feel that we have an agreement ... At this point the lawyers would be finalizing that agreement," he tells The Banner.
"It`s been a ton of work," he adds of the negotiations, which have seen several proposals go back and forth. "I feel relief that it all came together in the end."
A Forecast representative couldn`t be reached for comment at press time. The developer launched a $2.3 million lawsuit against the Town of Orangeville, the current owner of 86-90 Broadway and others last August, soon after the town announced it was purchasing the 0.59-acre property to provide free public parking.
Will tripling rates be double trouble at Tuesday`s meeting?
Will there be a deluge of protesters or will Wellanders go with the flow?
"I don`t know what to expect," Mayor Damian Goulbourne said Wednesday when asked about the meeting being held next Tuesday to decide whether council will stick to its original plan of tripling water bills for residents who refuse to have a water meter installed.
"This has definitely been one of the most contentious issues I have had to deal with as mayor."
Goulbourne said he knew there were going to be "holdouts" for water meters back when council initially approved the bylaw to switch from a flat-rate system to a metered system.
"I did anticipate we would be going down this road," he said.
Goulbourne also admits the city made some mistakes when it sent out a "heavy-handed" letter this summer.
