The municipality`s preferred $4-billion mass-transit system passed its first major hurdle last night when it was endorsed by the city`s transportation committee on a vote of nine to one.
It will now go to a full city council vote next week, where it is expected to pass by a healthy margin. In the fall, council is scheduled to decide in what order to build the system, and final approval of the entire transit system and strategy is slated for next spring.
There`s more than just old pipes under Ottawa`s asphalt.
According to the city`s 2008 budget document, there`s about 50 km of street light cable also on the verge of breaking down.
As part of a capital request for funding for roads projects, officials included a "base funding renewal program for the installation of new/upgraded street lights and street light plant to address deficiencies as a result of aging infrastructure." Rideau-Vanier Coun. Georges Bedard knows many of the aging pipes and cables run under Rideau St. and surrounding streets.
OTTAWA - Canada`s beleaguered auto-parts sector is poised for a sustained recovery beginning later this year, ending a multi-year downturn that has shuttered several plants and put 30,000 people out of work, the Conference Board said Wednesday.
Although profits will continue to slide for most of 2008, the industry`s outlook will brighten considerably in the fourth quarter with the opening of Honda`s Alliston, Ont., engine plant and increased production from Toyota`s new RAV4 plant in Woodstock.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has voted to pursue a two-tower block redevelopment project in the core with McMaster University and the city`s public health department.
Last night, trustees approved a concept plan for the block at Main, Bay and King, telling staff to subdivide and get rezoning for 100 Main St. W., forge agreements with Mac and city public health, and obtain Ministry of Education approval.
Parents and neighbours opposed to a Waterloo apartment building for homeless people have lost their chance to stop the project.
Waterloo regional council -- which allotted the project $2.1 million last year -- listened to their appeals yesterday, but not one councillor moved to reconsider the project.
Developer to create new condos from rental townhouse complex
CAMBRIDGE
A rundown rental townhouse complex at Walter Street and Patterson Place will be cleaned up as part of its conversion into a condominium building, city councillors were told before they approved the change this week.
Already 17 of the 49 units have been renovated inside and out, said a spokesperson for developer Preston Estates Ltd.
The south end could soon look more like the west end.
That`s because two new banks are poised to set up shop on the corner of Clair Road and Gordon Street where the old Pergola Golf Centre used to be.
The development could give the area a similar feel to the Imperial and Paisley roads intersection where bank branches have major street frontage. There are presently two banks at Clair and Gordon and another is slated to open next year. The Pergola addition would bring the total to five.
A proposal to build a 17-storey condo development in Woodbridge is so controversial that this week alone residents packed city hall and protesters — including former mayor Michael Di Biase — filled the street.
Part of the problem for those living in the Hwy. 7 and Kipling Avenue area is the developer`s request to amend the city`s official plan to allow 17 storeys, instead of 10. Other concerns cited include traffic and safety at what homeowners say is an awkward intersection.
Newmarket taxpayers could be hit with a $3.3-million breach of contract lawsuit from a Vaughan developer crying foul after losing out on the contract to build the Magna recreation centre.
Last week, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Newmarket erred by correcting a miscalculation in a bid submitted by Bondfield Construction Co. Ltd., the company that built the 215,000-square-foot complex on Mulock Drive.
There was much excitement when plans for extending the Yonge subway into York Region were announced last June, but is the subway the best plan for York Region? And who is making that decision?
"It`s a very exciting time ... but the bad news is the way we`re approaching this thing, it`s not a well co-ordinated frontal attack," former TTC general manager David Gunn said, who also ran transit systems in Washington, DC and New York City.
Ford Motor Co. is cutting production of gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs as consumers, hit by record-high gasoline prices, turn to vehicles that are stingier on fuel. While Ford`s St. Thomas plant dodged yesterday`s bullet, the industry`s Canadian union leader said 300 jobs will likely be lost at the automaker`s Windsor engine plant.
Smoke alarm violators under fire; Fire department`s zero-tolerance policy results in more charges
Thursday was something of a banner day for the team of inspectors at the St. Catharines fire department.
In the afternoon, seven people appeared in provincial offences court to answer to smoke alarm-related charges.
While not exactly a crushing caseload for any courtroom, those seven cases demonstrated how serious the department is about charging people who don`t have functioning alarms.
The seven people who appeared in court Thursday represented more charges laid by the fire inspectors than for all of 2007.
"We are using a zero-tolerance policy now," fire Inspector Jim Waycik said. "When we are called out to a fire or to a complaint that someone doesn`t have working smoke alarms, then we are going to lay a charge or hand out a ticket."
How big is it? Too big to ignore, that`s for sure.
Harry Stinson`s proposed 1,000-foot condo tower in downtown Hamilton would be the tallest habitable building in Canada, and one of the 35 highest in the world.
It would be the equivalent of two storeys taller than First Canadian Place in Toronto, and reach a little higher than the halfway up the CN Tower. It would come within six storeys of the Eiffel Tower, and within 400 feet of the twin towers of the World Trade Center destroyed in September 2001.
Consultants say Hamilton is less attractive to industrial investors than five of seven competing cities studied, yet "appears well positioned to capture a significant share" of the region`s long-term economic growth.
Brampton, Guelph, Milton, Brantford, Caledon all rank higher than Hamilton in the analysis done for the proposed Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD), formerly known as aerotropolis.
Jobs, and what constitutes good ones, have become key issues in what`s expected to be a 17-week hearing at the Ontario Municipal Board to decide the fate of a proposed retail complex on Eastern Ave.
Toronto has said no to the proposed SmartCentres project, a large shopping centre in Leslieville. The company is courting Wal-Mart as an anchor tenant.
Housing people with mental illnesses in residential neighbourhoods doesn`t harm property values or increase crime, a new Toronto study confirms.
In fact, supportive housing can have a positive effect on the community, says We Are Neighbours, a three-year study of the social and economic impact of housing for people with mental illness.
Consumer home-buying intentions in the Toronto area have dropped sharply this year, according to a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report.
About 6 per cent of households in the Toronto area intend to buy a home this year, down from 9 per cent in 2007, the federal housing agency said yesterday.
"With the cost of buying a home moving upward, some people are re-evaluating their home-buying decision," said CMHC analyst Jason Mercer in an interview.
Among potential first-time buyers, who have been a key driver in Toronto, buying intentions have also cooled. The report says 40 per cent want to buy this year, compared to 47 per cent last year, taking some additional steam out of the market.
