County rent bank in the black, again; Province restarts housing program
Six months after Simcoe County`s rent bank ran out of funds, the province announced yesterday that it is allocating $333,580 to the program.
The provincially-funded program was established in 2004 to help low-income renters who are facing eviction for non-payment of rent. Applicants who qualify for aid can receive up to two months rent. The funds are paid directly to the landlord. To qualify for assistance, a person has to be working or have a source of income (such as employment insurance) other than Ontario Works or Disability.
Bracing for "tragic" times, the Canadian Auto Workers reached early tentative agreements yesterday with General Motors and Chrysler, which they hope to ratify in speedy fashion over the long weekend.
"We see more dark clouds on the horizon (so) we wanted to move quickly. It was a real motivator for us," CAW president Buzz Hargrove told reporters in Toronto.
"The best way was to get in, get out," he said, noting he and negotiating teams were exhausted after round-the-clock, back-to-back bargaining with both automakers.
Canada`s housing market is "coming off the boil" with the average resale home price in Canada registering its first inflation-adjusted quarterly decline in seven years, says a report.
"After many false calls, there is now convincing evidence that Canada`s housing market has come off the boil," says Bank of Nova Scotia economist Adrienne Warren in a study released yesterday.
Existing home sales have now fallen for four consecutive months while running at 15 per cent below last year`s levels, says the bank.
Coalcorp Mining Inc. is no longer trying to sell itself, choosing instead to focus on developing its La Francia project and increasing production to take advantage of high coal prices.
Coalcorp, headquartered in Toronto and focused on Colombia, said yesterday that after a review of strategic alternatives announced in February, "the company and its advisers believe that the inherent value of its assets is significantly in excess of any and all proposals received."
With the city`s transit ridership growing at rates unseen for years and the price of fuel marching ever upward, planning officials are making sure construction of a proposed city-wide light-rail system can be accelerated and expanded if needed and that the money to do so is available.
In a report on the results of a recent round of public consultations on the $4-billion plan, deputy city manager for planning, transit and the environment Nancy Schepers said several people feel the city`s future ridership projections are too low, and that the municipality should be thinking about a bigger plan.
TECUMSEH - An Ontario Municipal Board hearing opened Thursday with a surprise announcement that Lakewood Golf Course had just filed an application with the town to demolish the 87-year-old course.
The town, whose notice to historically designate the course prohibited any alterations to the course, has 90 days to respond.
Residential construction across the Windsor metropolitan area is expected to continue declining this year, dropping by 40 per cent by the end of 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The report also projects that prices in Windsor`s resale housing market will remain flat but that employment levels will improve slightly over the next nine months.
Sarnia oil refinery raising production to normal rate
Royal Dutch Shell said its 72,000-barrel-a-day Sarnia oil refinery is increasing production after unplanned maintenance at one of the plant`s units curtailed output for about a week.
City life may revolve around malls, power corridors to reach them
In 20 years, how many people should live downtown? How about around Lime Ridge Mall?
The city is drafting plans on how it should grow over the next few decades. The work promises to change the design of the city with a focus on more people living along "nodes and corridors."
Hamilton`s piping hot housing market will cool off over the next two years as sales tumble from record heights, a new report says.
A slowing economy will see sales of existing homes fall 7 per cent this year and 6.2 per cent in 2009, according to a forecast from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The declines follow a sizzling-hot 2007, when sales spiked 6 per cent in the area.
Residents react angrily to housing for homeless proposed for Waterloo
WATERLOO
Fears that a housing project for the homeless would bring drugs, crime, violence and lower property values to a west-end Waterloo neighbourhood boiled over at a public meeting last night.
Residents who live near the proposed 30-unit affordable apartment complex on Erb Street West packed a gym and laid bare their concerns about the project -- the first of its kind in Waterloo -- and what it would do to their community.
UW research park filling out with addition of two buildings
WATERLOO
The University of Waterloo`s Research and Technology Park is starting to fill out with the construction of two new buildings.
The Research Advancement Centre, which will house research and laboratory projects that are expected to develop into startup companies, will open May 28.
Single-detached housing starts are expected to rise this year, but not enough to suit the Waterloo Region Home Builders` Association.
In its spring housing market outlook, released yesterday, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. predicted foundations will be poured for 1,400 detached houses in the region this year, a jump of 20.8 per cent over last year`s meagre total of 1,159, the lowest in more than a decade.
But Peter Armbruster, president of the home builders` association, said work could begin on many more single homes if development approvals at the municipal level were expedited and infrastructure problems eliminated.
A section of Carden Street has been converted to one-way traffic to accommodate new angled parking -- but not all drivers have realized that yet.
Yesterday, vehicles travelling down the street in front of city hall were mostly going in the right direction. But there were some exceptions.
"We`ve observed some people going the wrong way, but it`s a habit people have to break out of, especially if they`re routine drivers in that area," said Anna McKee, supervisor of traffic investigations for the city.
Manufacturing retreat raises concern growth could slip below zero
OTTAWA
Surprisingly weak manufacturing output in March has left the Canadian economy teetering on the brink of the first quarterly economic contraction since 2003, economists said yesterday.
For years the soft underbelly of the Canadian economy, manufacturing sales fell 1.6 per cent in March from a month earlier, far below the market expectations of a modest 0.4 per cent slide. The retreat totally gives back February`s 1.6 per cent gain.
No crash Expected for Toronto`s Condo Market: CMHC
Two housing reports released this week have been making headlines across the country. The reports from Scotiabank and CMHC are forecasting a `soft landing` for Toronto`s real estate market and a low risk of a major correction.
