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Ontario Economic Fundamentals 2008 Q2
Big cities pump out university grads: study
In real estate as in higher education, location matters.
A new Statistics Canada report shows that the country`s largest cities continue to collect university graduates at a higher rate compared to smaller rural areas. Cities have long attracted university graduates from outlying regions, but according to data gleaned from the 1996 and 2001 censuses, urban residents are earning post-secondary degrees at a higher rate than rural residents. In 2001, a young person from an urban centre was twice as likely to earn a degree as their rural counterpart.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/s...9a-5924d4c51bcc
Private Lansdowne talks anger Glebe residents
Members of the Glebe Community Association are angry that the "open and transparent" process the city was following to determine the future of Lansdowne Park is stalled while city officials deal directly and privately with three developers who won a conditional CFL franchise for the city.
Association president Bob Brocklebank said the city was doing the right thing by holding an international design competition that was heavy on public consultation and openness. Stopping that open process to hold private conversations with developers is a "major step backwards," he said, because it is exactly what residents said they don`t want.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/c...10-cbf2adb90857
Councillors to see what future holds for Plasco
Ottawa`s experiment with Plasco Energy technology could soon go beyond the pilot project stage, with full-sized plants helping the city solve its garbage problem.
Rod Bryden, chief executive of Plasco Energy Group, and city manager Kent Kirkpatrick will be at a briefing for councillors early this morning to answer questions about a staff report on the technology, which breaks down garbage into a fuel gas that generates electricity.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/c...ee-954d755c0afe
Supreme Court agrees to hear BCE appeal
The Supreme Court of Canada breathed new life yesterday into a $52-billion takeover of the country`s largest telecommunications company, BCE Inc., by agreeing to hear an appeal of a court ruling that endangered the deal.
A three-judge panel, by convention, gave no reasons for the decision, which was expedited through the normal process because the private takeover was in danger of falling apart following a May 21 Quebec Court of Appeal ruling.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/b...da-28e215c65eef
City faces $6.4M shortfall
Windsor is facing a budget shortfall of $6.4 million unless councillors take preventive action, the city`s finance department said Monday.
The city ended up with a $5.4-million surplus in 2007 and set much of it aside in a reserve fund in anticipation that this year there could be some major expenses resulting in a deficit, said treasurer Onorio Colucci.
That is now playing out.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/sto...d4-61da75994c88
City eyes charges over illegal parking lot on site of future hotel
The city is preparing to crack down on an illegal parking lot on the site of a future downtown hotel.
Bylaw staff are recommending charges be laid against the owner of the former Hamilton Motor Products garage at Main and Bay streets. This prime location is slated to become a 15-storey Hilton hotel.
The property is owned by Vrancor Development Corpor-ation, which is run by noted hotelier Darko Vranich
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/379499
Condo king opening sales office weeks early
Harry Stinson is so confident in his Connaught project that he`s opening his sales office early -- more than three weeks before he even takes possession of the property.
Stinson told a full house at a Chamber of Commerce presentation last night that he plans to open his sales office in the former Laurentian Bank space at King and James streets downtown.
He said he expects to sell 100 suites in the first few weeks.
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/379486
Council OKs arts centre
The city is set to break a leg on a small performing arts centre in downtown Barrie.
Councillors gave initial approval, last night, to convert 1 and 5 Dunlop St. W., the former Scotiabank site, into a facility seating 120-220 patrons.
It could be open as early as this fall as a basic facility for Talk Is Free Theatre and community based groups.
"I think this is a bold step on the part of this council," Coun. John Brassard said. "I`m extremely excited about the potential this type of facility offers the city.
"The cultural plan does talk about us taking small steps."
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDi...h=BY+BOB+BRUTON
Superstore proposal opposed by Waterloo may get bigger
WATERLOO
A proposal for a giant grocery store development, already drawing fire from city councillors, may be about to get even bigger.
In 2004, Waterloo council voted unanimously to fight a plan by Loblaws Properties Inc. to build a 175,000-square-foot Real Canadian Superstore on five hectares of vacant land near King Street North and Weber Street.
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/360205
RIM human resources ranked among top three
WATERLOO
Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry communications device, is one of the three companies most admired by Canadian executives for its management and investment in human capital, according to a survey released yesterday by The Beacon Group
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/360193
Hospital breaks ground on new wings
June 3, 2008 09:22 AM - Credit Valley Hospital will hold a groundbreaking ceremony this Friday for its long-awaited `A` and `H` wings.
Earlier this week, the hospital officially finalized its financial arrangement with Bondfield Construction, the company that will build 270,000 square feet of hospital expansion and will do 70,000 square feet of renovations.
http://mississauga.com/article/14715
Buzz promises a fight
The London region`s critical auto parts industry -- and other sectors -- are bound to feel the pain from the shutdown of the Oshawa General Motors truck plant, analysts say. "It is a crucial part of our prosperity in Ontario," Jim Stanford, a Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union economist, said yesterday.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/200...765711-sun.html
Downtown budget hike stands, council told
Some St. Catharines councillors might think a 15 per cent increase in the St. Catharines Downtown Association`s budget is too high, but it`s not their money and it`s not their decision, they were told Monday night.
Downtown association chairman Jack Wallace and general manager Tisha Polocko told councillors the DTA budget was approved by their group`s membership at a meeting in February, and although the city collects the money on the association`s behalf, it doesn`t have any control over the special tax rate which is applied only to downtown properties.
But that didn`t stop St. Patrick`s Coun. Mark Elliott from trying.
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/Article...+STANDARD+STAFF
`That tower, no matter how it is treated, will alter that skyline permanently`
Port Dalhousie is in danger of losing its "villageness," an Ontario Municipal Board hearing was told Tuesday.
Testifying at the ongoing OMB hearing into the Port Place development proposal, heritage architect Philip Goldsmith maintained the lakeside community retains many "astonishingly" well-preserved characteristics of a 19th-century village.
Under examination by lawyer Jane Pepino, who represents anti-tower citizens group PROUD (Port Realizing Our Unique Distinction), Goldsmith said the village`s heritage character and qualities — something he repeatedly called "villageness" — would be overshadowed by the development.
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/Article...=By+PETER+DOWNS
Real estate sales down 10 per cent
The Brantford Regional Real Estate Association is reporting a 10 per cent decline in sales last month when compared to sales in May 2007.
There were 251 sales with a value of almost $56 million. The dollar value represents a 4.9 per cent decrease from May 2007, association president Stewart Anderson said in a news release Monday.
DOLLAR VALUE
The dollar value of sales so far this year is just over $229 million, a 4.3 per cent decrease for the same time period last year.
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDi...EXPOSITOR+STAFF
New LRT lines will head east
Transit planners hear it from residents. They hear it from the Scarborough councillors on the Toronto Transit Commission. Their end of the city is underserved, especially when it comes to transit.
Now, TTC officials say Scarborough is setting the stage for the kind of integrated transit plan that will give suburbanites the efficient streetcar service usually associated with downtown.
Two of the first three planned Transit City streetcar (light rail) lines – Sheppard East and Eglinton-Crosstown, from Pearson airport to Kennedy station – will serve Scarborough directly.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/436558
West-end residents fight bars, booze-cans
When she bought a home two years ago in the notoriously rough Oakwood Ave. and Vaughan Rd. neighbourhood, Samantha Goldsilver thought she was moving into a community on the verge of a moral comeback.
Residents had banded together with police and politicians to drive out some of the drug dealers, and it looked as though the violence often associated with the neighbourhood would soon be a thing of the past.
Instead of the peaceful community life she imagined, Goldsilver said she found an area still overrun with violence stemming from an over-concentration of bars, and a series of illegal "booze-cans." Now, she`s taking action and was front and centre at a community meeting last night to discuss a recent spate of violence.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/436603
Princess Margaret Hospital gets $37.5M gift
In the largest known donation to cancer research in Canadian history, three of the heirs to the Thomson media fortune will give $37.5 million to Princess Margaret Hospital over five years, the hospital announced yesterday.
The donors are Linda Campbell, Gaye Farncombe and Susan Grange, granddaughters of late Thomson Corp. magnate Roy Thomson and nieces of his billionaire son and successor Ken Thomson. With their late mother Audrey Campbell, daughter of Roy Thomson, the three sisters already donated $25 million to Princess Margaret for breast cancer research in 2004, and another $5 million in 2004-05.
http://healthzone.ca/health/article/436587
Utility`s value sparks arguments
Opponents of the proposed sale of Enersource, Mississauga`s hydro utility, disagree with the notion the utility isn`t profitable and say the city would regret selling it.
Jim Stanford, a Canadian Auto Workers Union economist enlisted by the Ontario Electricity Coalition – one of the groups that fought the sale of Hydro One a few years ago – said at a news conference yesterday that any suggestion Enersource was unprofitable was patently false.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/436560
Home ownership at record levels
Never before have so many Canadians owned homes. And never before have they owed so much for the privilege.
Interest rates at or near historical lows combined with low unemployment and recent changes that allow people to buy houses with less money down and pay off mortgages over longer periods resulted in 68.4 per cent of Canadians in the housing market in 2006.
That`s up from 65.8 per cent in 2001 and 60 per cent in 1971, according to the latest Statistics Canada data.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/436703
