It is interesting to note that while the Greater Toronto Area does not boast the highest house prices in Canada, more properties change hands in the GTA than anywhere else in the country.
In March 2008, 6,631 homes were sold in the GTA, compared to 8,518 in March 2007. Although there was a decrease in sales in the City of Toronto and the GTA, we have only completed the first quarter of 2008, and the outlook for the rest of the year remains positive.
All other major Canadian cities followed a similar pattern.
Real estate investment guru Don Campbell agrees these are times of economic uncertainty and turbulence for Ontario, but for investors it means opportunity.
"This period will provide an excellent buying opportunity for property buyers who focus their research on the economic fundamentals of key regions," said Campbell, president of the Real Estate Investment Network (myreinspace.com), who just released his latest Top 10 Ontario towns for real estate investment. Campbell says many older industries are restructuring and refining, while newer, less labour-intensive industries expand. Smart investors must do their homework.
An Orangeville restaurant owner traded $165,000 cash for blank pieces of paper that he believed to be chemically-altered foreign currency. Police have charged a Brampton couple in connection with the "elaborate hoax." According to York Regional Police, which investigated the fraud, a possible buyer approached the restaurant owner on March 3 saying they wanted to pay cash for his business.
Orangeville will spend $150,000 to repair a trio of roads this year. Town council gave the go-ahead Monday evening for work on sections of Shelburne Street, Townline and John Street.
If there`s enough money left over when project tenders are returned, a downtown laneway may also see some improvements. "Given that the funding available for 2008 is limited, staff`s recommendations focus on road rehabilitation projects and not road reconstruction projects," Ed Gill, managing director of operations and transportation, said in a report to council.
Halton residents may soon have to dish out $70 a year in taxes to cover what Halton Region would lose through giving developers mandatory and voluntary discounts on their development charges (DC).
This notion left at least one local citizen unhappy at a public meeting the Region`s administration and finance committee held on the new proposed DCs Wednesday morning. "There has to be more consideration for the taxpayer," asserted Miltonian Olga Shewchun. "We`re not a bottomless pit."
Ministry comes to safety village; transportation minister jim bradley unveils addition
With the help of the Ministry of Transportation`s $15,000 boost, the Niagara Region Children`s Safety Village will be able to continue to help keep kids safe.
Every year about 15,000 children visit the village to get interactive, hands-on experiences on injury prevention and safety from police, paramedics and firefighters.
"The safety village teaches you safety in many different areas," said Transportation Minister Jim Bradley to a group of students from St. Kevin visiting the village during the announcement yesterday, "and you know something, adults learn from you."
Welland families have about $1,000 less to live on than they did five years earlier.
Yesterday, Statistics Canada released data obtained during the 2006 census, that paints a grim economic picture for Niagara.
The information in that report "should be an ongoing wake-up call. It`s like the bells shouldn`t stop ringing," said Peter Papp, executive director of Opportunities Niagara.
The data shows the median income for a Welland family dropped from $63,135 in the 2000, to $62,067 in 2005 when the numbers are adjusted to take the costs of inflation into account.
St. Catharines call centre closing in July; 400 jobs lost
About 400 downtown St. Catharines call centre jobs will disappear when TeleSpectrum Inc. shuts down in July, Mayor Brian McMullan said yesterday.
The mayor said he learned Thursday afternoon the call centre branch operating out of the MTO building on St. Paul Street was planning to close.
"It`s terrible news for the city, for the downtown," McMullan said. "That`s 400 jobs, decent-paying jobs, and 400 families that are directly affected."
Worker income is down; it dropped in Chatham-Kent while rising across Ontario
Chatham-Kent workers have experienced a slight dip in their income, according to Statistics Canada.
Census data released Thursday states the median annual figure for full-year, full-time employment (before taxes) in the area was $40,888 in 2005, compared to $41,483 in 2000.
Provincially, the earnings were up slightly at $44,748.
Chatham-Kent`s median income per household was $51,081; $82,453 for households with children; and $25,133 for one-person households.
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey says Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen personally told him this week that the controversial widening of Highway 402 has been approved.
Bailey said Friday that Gerretsen approached him at Queen`s Park and said he`d "signed off" on the mega-project. However, no formal confirmation has been issued by the ministry.
"I was told it`s now on the minister of transportation`s desk and will move ahead," Bailey said. "They want to advance it quickly."
Pele Mountain Resources is pushing ahead with a pre-feasibility study concerning its Elliot Lake uranium mine project.
"Ongoing mining, processing and waste management optimization studies at Elliot Lake are advancing the project beyond last October`s scoping study, leading us to conclude that a pre-feasibility study will add significant value," stated Al Shefsky, Pele`s president and chief executive officer, in a news release.
Mining boom makes city richer -- comment on this story
sustained mining boom appears to be boosting incomes in Greater Sudbury more rapidly than provincial and national averages, but at the same time resulting in a widening gap between the earnings of men and women. Census data released Thursday by Statistics Canada show the median income for Greater Sudbury families in 2005 was $69,826 - 8.3 per cent more than the 2000 figure of $64,457 when adjusted for inflation. The inflation adjustment means the median income for local families increased by an average of nearly 1.7 per cent per year, over and above the annual inflation rate.
The 8.3-per-cent increase in Greater Sudbury`s median income from 2000 to 2005 compares with a national increase of 3.7 per cent and a provincial increase of only 1.4 per cent in the same period.
Trades are still in demand in Sudbury, according to local employers who spoke to job seekers at a recruitment event and job fair at the Radisson Hotel on Thursday.
Job booths included service, health care, social services, and financial - but due to the mining boom in Sudbury and rising gas prices, the trade booths stuck out.
Xstrata Nickel is looking for certified electricians, heavy duty equipment mechanics, mining engineers and mine labourers.
Innovation park gets $1 million; Xstrata pitches in to help NORCAT surpass $6-million fundraising goal
It`s a done deal: the new Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) Innovation and Commercialization Park being built on the Cambrian College grounds off Maley Drive has hit its $6-million fundraising target and then some.
On Thursday, Xstrata Nickel donated $1 million to the project, bringing the total raised to $8.9 million with two more donations still in the works. The fundraising total will come in at about $10 million when those final announcements are made, said Darryl Lake, NORCAT`s executive director.
Roger Emdin, manager of Xstrata Nickel`s Onaping Depth Project, who announced the $1-million donation, said there has always been a "natural synergy" between NORCAT and his company.
LU leaves impact on Sudbury; University injects $303.9-M into local economy, study finds
In one year, Laurentian University had an extraordinary $303.9-million economic impact on Greater Sudbury, university president Judith Woodsworth told a group of business leaders Tuesday.
Woodsworth, who is leaving her post in July to become president of Concordia University, was the guest speaker at Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce`s presidents series luncheon.
She unveiled key details of a study being conducted by Deloitte and Touche LLP. The study, which analyzed data from 2006 and 2007, has yet to be released.
The total economic impact includes $68 million generated by student spending.
OSHAWA -- Iain Wright`s dad didn`t work at the "Motors" but instead sold insurance. Growing up in Oshawa, it sometimes made him feel like the odd-man-out.
Back in those days, every kid`s dad in Wright`s school worked at General Motors.
So, when he started at GM in 1980, Wright was doing what was expected in Oshawa. They were hard-working guys who could afford to give their families a good life in this blue-collar city, then retire comfortably. "Thirty years and out" is a common phrase around here -- it means putting in three decades at the plant and then leaving with a good pension. The world`s largest automaker is so embedded in the community that up the street from the plant, Mr. Burger offers a "GM Burger" on its menu.
The Canadian Auto Workers will ask General Motors and Chrysler today and tomorrow to match a historic early contract, including a wage freeze, that union members at Ford Motor Co. of Canada have ratified.
CAW president Buzz Hargrove said last night he doesn`t expect much opposition from GM and Chrysler negotiators in accepting the Ford contract under traditional pattern bargaining with the Big Three North American-based automakers, although it falls far short of the companies` initial demands for deep cuts.
Lot `landlocked` on alley the despair of neighbours
There`s no better way to aggravate neighbours than to fill a lot with mouldering garbage and junk, then ignore their pleas to clean it up.
Many houses in the area of Harbord St. and Ossington Ave. have laneways in back that give access to small garages and parking pads, as an alternative to bumper-to-bumper parking on the street.
