Mayor David Miller has been named chair of an international group of cities fighting climate change.
Miller`s appointment was announced yesterday as he attended the rollout of hybrid, diesel-electric pop delivery trucks that Coca-Cola Bottling Co. says will lower fuel consumption and emissions by one third. Coke plans to run 22 hybrids across Canada, 10 of which will become a part of its 65-truck fleet serving Toronto.
Warmer weather is failing to heat up the Toronto area housing market as it was hit with the fifth consecutive month of declining year over year sales since the start of the year.
Existing-home sales in May plunged 16 per cent to 9,411, compared with 11,146 a year earlier, according to figures released yesterday by the Toronto Real Estate Board.
Many analysts had expected pent-up demand left over from the spring market, when buyers were hampered by slush and snow. But April and May have not brought encouragement to realtors.
"With economic uncertainty, people become more cautious," said Pascal Gauthier, an economist with TD Bank Financial Group.
Personal bankruptcies across Canada in April rose to their highest monthly level in four years, new statistics show, as a battered manufacturing sector took its toll on Ontario and Quebec.
Across the country, 8,035 individuals declared bankruptcy in April along with 592 businesses, bringing the total for the past 12 months to 87,929, says a study released yesterday by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.
"Some of the biggest increases were in Central Canada, namely Ontario and Quebec, whereas we saw declines in Saskatchewan and Manitoba," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets.
The Glebe Community Association is unhappy that the city is having direct, private talks with a group proposing to bring CFL football back to Ottawa. Actually, it`s good news. It`s about time the city stopped pretending there is value in an international competition to design something at Lansdowne Park that the public doesn`t need and can`t afford.
Instead of dreaming, city staff and politicians need to figure out if a redevelopment deal can benefit the public, and that`s exactly what they are doing. The community group is right to call for openness and public consultation, but there has to be a real plan before the public can be consulted. So far, all we have seen from the group of developers behind the football bid is a sketchy idea that came out last September.
A standard contractor-built kitchen looks great when brand new. The plastic-covered MDF cabinets look trim and solid, and the laminated plastic counter lies flat and level. Below your feet, the vinyl flooring appears to be one continuous piece of lustre. As a whole, the kitchen looks durable and capable of lasting indefinitely.
However, the truth is something else. Such materials are "engineered to last 10 to 15 years," said Oscar Finizia. He owns The Granite Shop, Allternative Kitchens & Interiors, and Ironwood Decks and Flooring; all located at 207 Colonnade Road in Ottawa. After this point, these materials will start to degrade and fall apart "like a car," he says. "They have been engineered to break down."
A proposal to change a major downtown one-way street to accept two-way traffic has some councillors fuming.
Members of the city`s transit committee said they were never informed about changing Nicholas St. north of Laurier to Rideau, into a two-way street. "We found out for the first time (yesterday)," said River Coun. Maria McRae, who was also angry that area residents weren`t engaged in the debate.
Homeownership in Ottawa-Gatineau is turning into a luxury that some people can`t afford.
Rising prices of gas and food have combined with the increasing cost of housing prices, causing area residents to pay more for housing than a decade ago, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. In a report on national shelter costs based on 2006 census data, it was found that the median cost of housing in Ottawa-Gatineau was $10,733 a year -- or $894 a month.
The biggest cargo operator at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is getting bigger.
Cargojet will more than double the size of its maintenance hangar at a cost of $9 million, add two Boeing 767s and one 757 to its fleet of 14 smaller 727s, hire 50 to 100 more employees over the next 18 months and start the airport`s first scheduled cargo service to Europe this fall.
ESSEX - Windsor`s GreenLink plan won`t bring any significant air quality improvements over the Windsor-Essex Parkway proposal being pushed by the province, Essex County council was told Wednesday.
Even an end-to-end tunnel connecting to a new crossing would only reduce fine particulates within a 50-metre corridor around the roadway, said Detroit River International Crossing study leader Dave Wake.
A blockade set up by hundreds of General Motors employees Wednesday morning may soon be removed after GM announced it will meet with the Canadian Auto Workers union Friday in Detroit.
CAW members and their supporters erected the roadblock in front of GM Canada`s headquarters in Oshawa, Ont., to protest the automaker`s decision to effectively shut down the truck facility in this city next year.
The owners of long-vacant lots on Margaret Avenue are trying to scuttle the city`s move to preserve the historic character of the Civic Centre neighbourhood.
Community Expansion Inc., a Kitchener-based company, objects to the height restrictions on new buildings proposed for the Civic Centre heritage conservation district.
A gravel pit is a better place to build a solar electricity generating operation than a proposed farmland site along Highway 401, a township councillor says.
"It`s not using this land to its potential at all . . . it`s a shame to use it this way," said Gord Taylor, a farmer who was uneasy with what he saw as loss of prime farmland.
Taylor was speaking at a township council meeting called to hear details of a proposal for an eventual $24 million array of solar panels on Tim Barrie`s farm on King`s Road near Highway 401.
Worried about rising prices and the jittery economy, potential homebuyers are starting to back away from real estate purchases in Waterloo Region.
Home sales sank by 20 per cent in Kitchener and Waterloo, and 32 per cent in Cambridge last month, compared to May of 2007, according to figures released yesterday by the region`s two real estate boards.
It marks the fourth month in a row sales in Kitchener and Waterloo were down.
Extra money allows Grand Erie board to enhance services
Finally, a good news budget for the Grand Erie District School Board.
After years of cutting expenses to the bone to balance the books, the board is looking at a $249.8-million operating budget for next year that actually includes a few enhancements.
"It`s a lot better starting point than we`ve had the last few years," said board chairman Bill Johnston on Monday.
That`s partly because the board has more money to work with this year, even though it has fewer students.
The province gave Grand Erie an extra $2.6 million last year to pay for basics such as salaries and busing. Johnston said that`s a recognition the provincial grants weren`t sufficient to cover the actual costs incurred by the board.
A high tide of opposition is greeting plans for a condominium on Barrie`s Dock Road.
A public meeting Monday on a rezoning application -- needed to develop a four-storey, 23-unit condominium for almost 1.2 acres of shoreline land there -- was met with broad opposition.
Nearby residents said this is a single-family residential area, period.
"This news felt like a sucker punch," said Craig Duncan of Madelaine Drive. "It has sparked great concerns and passion from the community."
City exploring five proposals for Allandale Train Station
Five Points arts centre getting mixed reviews
Council preserves history by moving engine, caboose
there has been "a moderate level of interest" from a hotel chain.
"We really see a broad mix of uses in there," Lisso said, including a GO train platform on Gowan Street. "We really want to open the site back up to the people. It`s just endless what we can do."
Tinkering continues with Barrie`s development charges.
On Monday, city councillors gave initial approval to reduce new, higher fees recommended by the city`s background Development Charges Act (DCA) study, by Watson & Associates Economists.
The changes include creating a separate industrial rate, 29 per cent below the recommended level, and offering a 50 per cent reduction to institutional development for non-profit and charitable groups.
Ten non-residential Barrie landowners and developers hired legal firm Townsend, Rogers LLP to review the city`s background study.
Field naturalists are concerned about a proposal to build a residential unit on sensitive wetlands.
If the city approves the plan, the land located just north of Springfield Golf club at Gordon Street and Clair Road would be rezoned to build a mix of homes, town houses and apartments.
"The land falls on the Paris moraine, an important groundwater recharge area," explained Charles Cecile, a member of the Guelph Field Naturalists.
A lot of planning goes into adding 50 per cent more residents to your hometown. If you want a say in how it all turns out, now is your chance.
York Region`s Planning for Tomorrow growth plan is nearly complete and a series of public meetings in September present you with a final opportunity to comment on what they have come up with.
"We want to find out whether we`re heading in the right direction," John Waller said, the region`s director of long range and strategic planning.
