A Kanata councillor is putting her fellow suburbanites on notice: if they want light-rail service in their neighbourhoods, they`ll have to accept a lot of new neighbours.
Marianne Wilkinson, a longtime mayor of Kanata and now the councillor for Kanata North, proposed the bargain during debate on the city`s proposed new $4-billion mass transit system, which goes to council for final approval next week.
Canada`s long-running housing boom has ended, with the formerly bubbling markets of Calgary and Edmonton already having gone from hot to not, and with the current hotspots of Saskatoon and Regina to follow, a major Canadian bank says.
Mortgage-market innovation delayed the inevitable, but couldn`t prevent it, Royal Bank of Canada said in its analysis of major urban real estate markets yesterday.
Downtown Ottawa is reaching new heights but that`s not the vision architect John Leaning had when the city paid him to look into its future more than 30 years ago.
Leaning, a city-commissioned architect, drew up a plan for Centretown in 1974 that is being threatened today by the construction of more highrise buildings. His vision included residential pockets criss-crossed by major roads and a boundary that would keep buildings taller than 12 stories north of Gloucester St.
The Ambassador Bridge company has no intention of competing with Windsor`s $75-million bid to secure a tunnel deal with Detroit, president Dan Stamper said Thursday.
"It doesn`t bother me if it goes forward," he told The Star.
"If Detroit can get $75 million, they should take it."
Prospective investors are afraid to put money into the city because of ongoing native protests, Brantford`s economic development officer says in court documents filed as part of the municipality`s application for an injunction.
"In general, the recent aboriginal blockades/work stoppages have had an overall negative impact on economic activity in the city resulting in a reduction of investment inquiries and the postponement and/or cancellation of projects."
Frabotta said that financial institutions are becoming reluctant to finance local projects.
And he noted realtors have told the economic development office that the city now is "perceived to be an undesirable community within which to invest."
Optimism on Lake Simcoe; Experts share knowledge, discuss future during annual Great Lakes conference
Politics is what often floats to the surface in the debate of how best to heal an ailing Lake Simcoe.
Behind the headlines, however, efforts to shore up scientific knowledge about the 725-square-kilometre lake are quietly shedding light on its fragile balance.
That was evident Thursday during a meeting of experts at Trent University for a conference exploring the Great Lakes.
Lake Simcoe, a sixth and junior partner in the mighty quintet, was the focus of 19 presentations from different agencies, universities and government ministries on the last day of the three-day 51st annual Conference on Great Lakes Research.
Core buildings are OK: chief; Age of structures not cause of fires
Downtown Barrie is sprinkled with old buildings, but that has nothing to do with the number of major fires that have rocked the city`s core in the last year, says the fire chief.
"First of all, none of these fires that we`ve experienced in the downtown were a result of fire code violations," Barrie Fire Chief John Lynn said yesterday. "They were a result of other things."
Thirty-six firefighters were called to a building on Dunlop Street East, Tuesday night, for a blaze behind one of the buildings. The fire is under investigation.
The chief commended his firefighters for containing the blaze and getting it under control as quickly as possible.
University of Waterloo projects share $1.5 million
WATERLOO
Six health-related research projects at the University of Waterloo have been awarded $1.5 million. The money, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, includes nearly $300,000 to study bone health in patients with spinal cord injury.
Demand for hotel accommodation in northern York Region is huge, so the new Residence Inn by Marriott hotel and conference centre to be constructed in Keswick will be bigger than originally planned, council heard.
The hotel, to be constructed at the mouth of the Maskinonge River as part of the Crates Landing development, will have 140 suites instead of the originally proposed 110, John Blackburn, president of BrightStar Corp. said.
AJAX -- Setting aside hundreds of acres for employment purposes is paying off for Ajax.
The Town approved a site plan for an industrial development put forward by Higgins Development Partners. Council`s community affairs and planning committee approved the plan on Monday. Committee members heard the company plans to construct six buildings on Harwood Avenue, north of the Sentinel Self-Storage site. The six buildings would total more than 647,000 square feet (60,132 square metres).
AJAX -- A massive housing development has been approved for northeast Ajax. Council`s community affairs and planning committee on Monday approved a 1,420-home subdivision proposal from Sundial Homes. The project, at the southwest corner of Rossland and Audley roads, would be built in phases and, depending on the market, take about five years to complete.
WHITBY -- Cullen Central Park needs to make the Town some revenue, says Councillor Joe Drumm. His problem isn`t that the Town purchased the land, it`s the amount of money it is costing. So far it`s about $12 million, he said.
On Tuesday council voted on a report that will see 65.5 acres of Cullen Central Park set aside as public open space. The section will be used only for recreation, conservation and flood/erosion control uses. What will happen to the remaining 20 acres of land has not been determined.
May 23, 2008 01:34 PM - The Region of Peel is considering buying a central Mississauga motel and turning it into a homeless shelter to replace the old Mavis Rd. facility.
The Emergency Shelter Program Redesign report, tabled yesterday at Peel Region Council, calls for councillors to approve a plan to purchase the undisclosed motel at a cost of about $7.1 million. The Mavis Rd. shelter was closed last fall.
London will miss out on what may be a looming wave of investment in the troubled automotive industry, a leading auto sector analyst says.
The city lags behind the pack in auto-related research being done at universities and research centres now in Waterloo, Windsor and Hamilton, and innovation and investment in new technology may be the future, Dennis DesRosiers said. As a result, London will be challenged to compete, he said yesterday.
Big Becky has passed the two-kilometre point in the Niagara Tunnel Project, but is so far behind that Ontario Power Generation and Strabag AG are reviewing the cost of the $630-million project and its schedule.
A review was one of the items announced in OPG`s quarterly report covering the first three months of this year. "The Niagara tunnel is progressing slower than planned. The drilling conditions have been challenging," president and chief executive officer Jim Hankinson said Friday.
OPG is officially sticking to its August 2010 completion target, which had already been revised once from 2009.
LONDON, Ont.–Some southern Ontario politicians say it`s time to stop the "cavalcade" of garbage trucks that barrel through their communities from Toronto.
Trucks packing trash and refuse have been a headache for many area drivers since Toronto ran out of landfill space and started exporting its garbage in 1998.
Yesterday, in a flaming crash, one driver was killed after two of the rigs collided on Highway 401 in London.
For many years, urban thinkers have opined about the "hole in the doughnut" – a condition particular to America where the downtowns of major cities are abandoned by the middle class and left to criminal elements, the poor and urban decay. Except for a central business district and the daytime vibe it brings, the core becomes a wasteland as the middle class, usually white, moves out to the suburbs.
Accompanying this flight is the capital of taxes and school funding, and the repetitive, predictable outcome: abominable inner-city schools, denuded infrastructure, and huge pockets of Third World conditions.
The sign on the door would read: City of Toronto Department of Immigration.
As Quebec agonizes over a report about its treatment of immigrants, talk of a made-in-Toronto immigration policy has found new impetus.
"This is a debate I have been having with my colleagues in recent weeks," said Duberlis Ramos, director of the Hispanic Development Council in Toronto. "People working with newcomers are tremendously overstressed right now because Canada is fairly disjointed when it deals with immigrants."
When Alan Burton moved into Clairlea in 1963 it was a picturesque subdivision carved from farmland.
"St. Clair was just two lanes that went over the railway tracks past Warden and then sloped gently down toward Birchmount Rd.," he says. "As you went over the hill you could see horses in the meadow."
Five years later, the Warden subway station opened and a growth spurt helped Toronto eclipse Montreal as the dominant Canadian city.
Wal-Mart Canada announced plans this morning to build the country`s largest rooftop solar-energy system atop a new Supercentre planned for Markham later this year, a project with potential to spread across the retailer`s national chain. Ontario`s Ministry of Research and Innovation is contributing a $3-million forgivable loan to support the demonstration system, which will supply emission-free electricity and heat to the Wal-Mart store. Minister John Wilkinson attended an event this morning to launch the project.
