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ON Economic Fundamentals 2008-11

1108CATH
`Smart-growth expert`s` testimony assailed by PROUD lawyer

Smart-growth policies don`t apply to the Port Place project, and even if they did, the tower is not smart development at all, the lawyer representing tower opponents says.

And the so-called smart-growth expert who testified for the developer appears to have "confused intensification with smart growth," said Jane Pepino, lawyer for anti-tower citizen group PROUD (Port Realizing Our Unique Distinction).

Speaking on the sixth day of final arguments being presented at the Ontario Municipal Board hearing being held to decide the fate of the controversial development, Pepino said the evidence of Mark Brickell, the vice-president of smart growth and partnerships for Niagara Economic Development Corp., "was full of baseless assertions of appropriate intensification, entirely devoid of any heritage planning considerations."

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/Article....aspx?e=1301654
 
1108TNTO
Road tolls called `inevitable`

The biggest transportation plan in the Toronto region`s history failed to recommend road tolls as a way to pay for billions in needed transit improvements.

But if the absence of tolls from Metrolinx`s $50 billion transit expansion plan suggests the idea is dead, nobody told the 125 people, including almost two dozen from the provincial government, who packed a one-day conference in Toronto last week.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/538731
 
1108ONTR
Ottawa, Ontario share auto bailout concerns

OTTAWA–Ontario will team up with Ottawa on a visit to Washington to get the "lay of the land" regarding a U.S. bailout of the auto industry.

The federal and provincial governments are on the same page when it comes to salvaging the battered sector, Ontario Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant said yesterday. But the Ontario minister appears to want a decision on financial assistance sooner than does federal Industry Minister Tony Clement, who is leading the trip.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/538735
 
1108BAOR
Council drops airport partnership

Orillia city councillors have ended a longstanding partnership with the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport.

Monday night, in a seven-to- two recorded vote, councillors agreed to pull out of their partnership in the airport commission with the municipalities of Barrie and Oro- Medonte. Orillia joined the commission, which oversees the airport located on Line 7 in Oro-Medonte, in 1990.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1301358
 
1108WIND
Council eyes limit on tax increase


AMHERSTBURG - Town council struggled Monday to chip away at its 2009 budget so that the increase in taxes could remain at around three per cent.

As it stood Monday, property taxes on a home valued at $191,521 would rise $51 to $1,386, an increase of 3.81 per cent. That includes a 1.38 per cent levy for "proposed new initiatives," projects over and above the operation and capital costs.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/sto...93-0ee288017bd4
 
1108WIND
Council says no to Essex split


ESSEX - A breakaway citizens group has been dealt its third setback in two weeks.

In a 5-2 vote Monday, Essex council declared de-amalgamation a dead issue in the wake of its unanimous rejection by county council.

Coun. Paul Innes successfully pressed for a resolution to endorse the decision of county council on Nov. 5.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/sto...58-c5ee02cb422a
 
1108OTWA
Curtain to rise on new Mayfair

OTTAWA - Facing closing at the end of the month, the Mayfair Theatre has found new life thanks to a self-described "dream team of film-loving investors" with ambitious plans that could even include serving alcohol to film-goers.

The partners -- John Yemen, a film scholar and entrepreneur, Paul Gordon, the Mayfair`s current film conservator and part-time projectionist, and filmmakers Lee Demarbre and Ian Driscoll -- will announce Tuesday that they have leased the 76-year-old Bank Street cinema for 10 years from its Vancouver owner, Stephen Ng.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/c...f4-1ea1844d9917
 
1108OTWA
Councillors pitch quicker rail remedy


Two city councillors proposing an alternative public transit plan got an enthusiastic reception yesterday from supporters who want more trains and fewer buses in Ottawa`s transportation future.

Close to 200 people filled the Gladstone Theatre as Capital Councillor Clive Doucet and Kitchissippi Councillor Christine Leadman unveiled their plan, which would cut out the proposed expansion of the bus system and make rail transit the priority.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/c...d5-253dd66374eb
 
1108KWCG
Homeowner disputes heritage rules

KITCHENER

Dan Howard learned the hard way that people who live in heritage districts can`t always do what they want.

Howard installed a new front door, with a transom made of plastic and aluminum, on his Dill Street house in the Victoria Park heritage conservation district.

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/445813
 
1108KWCG
City offers $5M for green projects

KITCHENER

Individuals and organizations are being urged to seek money from the city for environmental projects.

The new Local Environmental Action Fund will eventually make a total of $5 million available to residents, city agencies and not-for-profit organizations.

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/445817
 
1108DAJX
Ajax eyeing reconstructing Fairall Street


AJAX -- Building Canada could include a new Fairall Street.

Ajax is submitting an application under the Building Canada Fund, an infrastructure program that involves the federal and provincial governments. Dave Meredith, the operations and environmental services director, told council last week staff recommends reconstructing Fairall Street.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/ajax/article/113171
 
1108DOSH
Council will try for four per cent tax cap in `09


OSHAWA -- Economic times are tough and that goes for City Hall, too.

At a special meeting Monday, councillors learned more than $3 million has to be cut out of the 2009 budget if they hope to keep their promise of capping next year`s property tax increase at four per cent.

City manager Bob Duignan said several factors are conspiring to put the City in a tight financial spot. "There`s the economic downturn, the loss of investments and assessment growth, inflation and the impact of what`s happening at General Motors," he said.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/oshawa/article/113185
 
1108DSCG
Scugog adds `rural focus` to transit plan

SCUGOG -- Scugog has thrown its two cents into the mix regarding a proposed transportation plan for the Greater Toronto Area, which was somewhat panned by municipal officials last month when they first laid eyes on the draft document. At the Oct. 27 council session, Scugog`s political masters raised concerns that the recently-released Metrolinx draft plan focussed extensively on the GTA`s bigger, urban centres, leaving small rural communities as little more then a footnote in the plan.

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/scugog/article/113089
 
1108TNTO
Some hotels can cost serious scratch

It was a bedbug near Maciej Ceglowski`s Travel Lodge coffeemaker that prompted her to say enough is enough.

"I noticed bite marks on my arms. The hotel didn`t have a response," Ceglowski said in an email from Poland of her 2006 stay at the Travel Lodge on Market St. in San Francisco. That stay pushed her to start bedbugregistry.com where bloggers write about their bedbug experiences in hotels and apartments.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandg...457526-sun.html
 
1108TNTO
City scores a win in tax war

A decision that sliced hundreds of millions of dollars from the property tax assessments of Toronto`s biggest office towers can be appealed, a court has ruled.

The issue involves an obscure legal argument over the precise meaning of the words "fee simple, if unencumbered."

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/539491
 
1108TNTO
Property assessed at cycle`s peak

Like most homeowners, I received my property assessment notice recently. Here are the lessons I learned.

A higher assessment doesn`t always lead to higher taxes.

My property`s value went up by 30 per cent in the three years from Jan. 1, 2005 to Jan. 1, 2008.

But this number means nothing, since it`s out of context.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/539360
 
1108LNDN
Another St. Thomas manufacturer to close

St. Thomas suffered another blow to its economy yesterday as ZF, a maker of heavy duty steering systems, announced it will close at the end of 2009, with the loss of 57 jobs.

The manufacturer of steering gear for trucks produced by Ford, General Motors, Freightliner and Volvo will transfer operations to Brazil. The company, a partnership of ZF and Bosch, both from the Stuttgart area of Germany, opened on Harawill Street in St. Thomas in 2001.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...458091-sun.html
 
1108TNTO
Sellers roll out red carpet as Toronto home sales cool


The homebuyer who purchases the spacious, two-storey detached brick house on Westlake Avenue will get a new fridge, a gas stove, a finished basement --and a new car.

The owner, who has been trying to sell it for two months and repeatedly lowered the price, decided to list the three-bedroom home in East York for $379,000, with a purchase bonus of a vehicle worth up to $15,000.

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/s....html?id=970853
 
1108CATH
Port proposal a `military-style assault`: resident


From the perspective of an ordinary Port Dalhousie resident, the Port Place development is an attack on the neighbourhood, says Hank Beekhuis, one of the citizens who appealed the project to the Ontario Municipal Board.

"This community has borne the brunt of a well-organized military-style assault by the developer, complete with a battalion of lawyers and paid experts, special forces of lobbyists and well-orchestrated community organizations, T-shirts, billboards, and even a psychological warfare of dirty tricks, pressure tactics and sordid politics, which has led to a complete lack of trust in this development," Beekhuis said.

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/Article....aspx?e=1303773
 
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