"Dynamite," says Orillia businessman John Epstein of the plans for a new university.
"It`s the best thing to happen around here in a long time."
The former president of the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce was one of 85 people who attended a breakfast information meeting hosted by Lakehead University Tuesday morning.
1108OTWA Cut transit plan to `realistic` level, city told
OTTAWA - On the eve of a major vote on expanding Ottawa`s transit system, the chairman of city council`s planning committee says the city should cut $500 million worth of projects from the first stage of the plan.
The city needs to recognize the reality of limited federal and provincial government funds as it starts the final debates about what transit projects to do first, said Peter Hume, who is the councillor for Alta Vista Ward and president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
The city wants to double and triple some of its planning fees so developers, rather than taxpayers, pick up more of the tab.
"We`re substantially behind," said Tim McCabe, general manager of planning and economic development. "(This is) really trying to have developers pay more and more of the city`s costs."
A consultant found planning and engineering fees lag behind other municipalities. In Hamilton, a routine zoning application costs $2,870 -- nearly a quarter of the fees charged in Burlington, Brampton or Waterloo. The consultant suggested a hike to $5,585, still putting Hamilton 50 per cent below average.
1108KWCG Railway overpass likely delayed until 2010
Cambridge
It appears construction of a railway overpass in Cambridge has been delayed a year in the fallout of failed negotiations with Canadian Pacific Railway. A regional report says construction on Hespeler Road is now expected to launch in 2010, rather than next year.
1108KWCG Kitchener, Preston communities could see school boundaries shift
WATERLOO REGION
There will be school-boundary headaches ahead for some parents in southwest Kitchener and the Preston area of Cambridge.
The Waterloo Region District School Board voted this week to start boundary reviews in those two areas.
Mainly, the board wants to address overcrowding at W.T. Townshend Public School and Preston Public School. W.T. Townshend, in one of the fastest-growing areas of Kitchener, has 14 portables and has lost playfield space to them. The growing Williamsburg Public School will also have its boundaries reviewed.
Beaverton Minor Hockey is spearheading a possible expansion of the village`s arena. A plan that has been kicked around for years is now picking up steam.
An expansion committee has been formed and has been meeting regularly in recent months, including representation from user groups, such as the fair board and figure skating club, as well as community partners, such as the Lions Club and township council.
1108DNEW
Newcastle developer doesn`t want to set aside 20 acres for a school that may never be built
NEWCASTLE -- A group looking to build a new subdivision in northwest Newcastle doesn`t want to set aside 20 acres for a school they were told at one point wasn`t necessary and which may never be built.
UXBRIDGE -- Township cash restraints have cancelled one project and have council wondering where money will come from for other initiatives. A planned boardwalk at the north end of Elgin Pond, to make the pond more accessible to anglers, has been nixed as original cost estimates for the project were far below what has been quoted to the Township.
1108TNTO City betting tenants, landords willing to `do the right thing`
Will highrise dwellers – weaned on the habit of freely tossing refuse down the garbage chute at the end of the hall – become conscientious garbage-pickers bent on saving the planet? Will they sling smelly, oozing gook onto the elevator and take it downstairs to some community bin, when the financial gain is not easily quantified?
The City of Toronto is betting they will. And Mayor David Miller is counting on landlords and tenants, condo boards and owners to embrace change, not convenience.
1108TNTO City curbs parking at Islington strip malls
Toronto officials yesterday began moving concrete curbs at five strip malls along Islington Ave. to take back a chunk of city-owned land.
The new placement of the barriers will keep people from parking in about 120 spots along a city-owned boulevard that have been used by drivers for years without formal permission.
1108ONTR Ontario has no Plan B if automakers fold: McGuinty
Ontario`s auto sector will keep shrinking and more jobs will disappear, even if there`s a bailout for struggling automakers, Premier Dalton McGuinty warned today.
And if one or more of the Big Three automakers collapses, the province has no Plan B, he acknowledged.
"Not even going to think about that," he said. "What we`re going to do is work as hard as we can to make something good come out of this."
The Toronto real estate market is seeing its worst resale numbers since the 1990s, and analysts say they are the direct result of the Bay Street jitters.
Figures released yesterday by the Toronto Real Estate Board show 1,991 houses sold in the greater Toronto region during the first 15 days of November, down almost 44 per cent from the 3,544 that sold during the same period last year.
The November results show the most significant change to the housing market since the global credit crisis began last summer and the results are beginning to drag the city`s year-to-date sale figures (70,474 sales in 2008, down from 84,994 last year) to pre-boom levels.
TOKYO–Toyota Motor Corp. is reducing production in North America to cope with slowing sales in the United States.
Toyota will stop production at all of its plants in the U.S. and Canada for two extra days in addition to the regular Christmas holidays next month, company spokesperson Kayo Doi said yesterday.
It also will cut about half of the 500 temporary workers at a plant in Georgetown, Ky., by March.
But after 71 days of hearings held over the course of 21 weeks, and 296 exhibits submitted as evidence contained in more than 40 boxes of documents, there`s no hope the answer on the fate of the Port Place tower will be found under the Christmas tree.
As the snow began to fall outside St. Catharines city hall windows Wednesday afternoon, Ontario Municipal Board hearing chair Susan
Campbell said she would make her decision as quickly as possible. But the soonest her answer will be available is late January.
A builder has city council`s confirmed support for a project to redevelop the Penman brownfield property on Grand River Avenue with condominium apartments.
Meanwhile, an opponent will get his chance, after all, to appeal it to the Ontario Municipal Board.
City council approved 7-4 this week a resolution to repeal an earlier approved rezoning application from Salmona
Waterfront advocates are running into resistance in their bid to get an interim control bylaw in place curtailing development along the Grand River until a master plan can be written.
Support is fading a bit on council, as seen in the progress of a resolution by Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith. The resolution would have staff research and submit a report by Dec. 15 detailing what kind of bylaw would hold off construction on vacant lands along the Grand until council can get a waterfront plan in place.
Ceschi-Smith`s resolution gained final approval in a 7-4 vote this week, after receiving unanimous support only two weeks earlier in a committee of the whole meeting, when she first brought the idea forward.
TORONTO - Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement on Wednesday warned U.S. legislators against seeking a protectionist solution to solving the crisis hitting the Detroit automakers.
He and Ontario Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant will travel to Capitol Hill in Washington today to make certain that a rescue package, if any, does not exclude operations in Ontario.
1108OTWA $7.2B transit plan a step closer to approval
The city`s new $7.2-billion transportation plan, including the first phase of a city-wide, light rail-based public transit plan, appears headed to approval at city council next week after opposition crumbled at a municipal committee yesterday.
The transportation plan will shape the way people and goods get around the municipality until 2031, and along with a new land-use plan to be debated in coming months, is designed to create a more compact, environmentally and financially sustainable city that limits sprawl and sees people move from private vehicles to public transit.
All three parties in the family health and education centre being planned for King and Bay are revisiting their business plans in light of the economic downturn.
"This project is a very large, complicated project and is going to take time for all partners, including the board, to work out," superintendent of business Don Grant told trustees this week.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is pursuing redevelopment of its site at Main, King and Bay with a new headquarters, a McMaster University family medicine clinic and city public health sharing the location.
