North Bay to get provincial funds for Oak Street Construction
The province is pouring more money into crumbling municipal infrastructure, announcing $8.5 million Friday for local projects including road repairs and water and sewer upgrades.
North Bay was the biggest winner as Nipissing MPP and Minister of Revenue Monique Smith unveiled grants for eight area communities, including
$2.3 million the city has been counting on to help finance the reconstruction of Oak Street.
"It will be tendered right away," said Mayor Vic Fedeli, noting engineering and design work for the latest phase of the project is already complete.
After years of giving homeowners fits over perplexing increases to property assessments, the tables may be turned on the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).
The provincial government has announced it will table legislation that would make the Crown corporation justify its assessment numbers.
During the last few rounds of assessments, so many homeowners complained of unfair increases that the province had no choice but to listen, said Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley.
Welland gets $2.5 M grant; province approves application
Just in time for the Welland`s 150th anniversary celebrations, many of the the long-awaited enhancements to the city`s downtown core will be completed.
And by the time the Niagara Food Festival is held this fall, the entire downtown revitalization project should be a reality.
The city learned late Friday afternoon that its application for a provincial Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative grant was approved.
With $2.5 million of provincial funding available, Mayor Damian Goulbourne said the city now has enough funding to complete the entire project this year.
For the first time, home buyers in Ontario will be told in advance whether the new house they are about to buy is subject to an environmental review or zoning changes or if building permits have even been issued by the municipality.
The newly-minted amendments to the Tarion warranty are designed to take some of the mystery out of buying a new home and side-step late closings -- the date when the builder hands the keys over and you start paying the mortgage.
We Canadians use more energy per capita than any other nation in the world, but our opportunities for repentance are on the rise. LED lights offer one such glimmer of hope.
The acronym stands for light emitting diode, and this technology uses a tiny fraction of energy consumed by conventional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs for a given amount of light. The working life of LED lights is measured in tens of thousands of hours, too.
Just as Ontario`s economy is slipping alongside its manufacturing base, the government is raising the minimum wage – a scenario economists say will lead to job losses.
Ontario`s general minimum wage goes up tomorrow, to $8.75 from $8.00, a near 10 per cent increase. It`s the first of three yearly increases aimed at reaching a rate of $10.25 in 2010.
Ever thought you must be the hardest-hit taxpayer in the GTA? Or wonder if you`d be paying less in a different city? Wonder no more. Check out the Star`s tax calculator to see how much your local and regional property taxes will go up this year - whatever your property`s assessment, and wherever you live in the GTA.
While ranked marginally more expensive overall than the average U.S. city, Windsor is equally or more competitive in key sectors such as manufacturing, research and development and software, according to a business competitiveness study released this week by KPMG.
Using 100 as a benchmark calculated by taking an average of cities across the U.S., Windsor`s research and development sector is ranked at 94.2, followed by software at 97.5 and manufacturing at 100.
City council will be asked Monday to delay dealing with a "flawed" report from administration on late-night rowdiness and safety in the downtown core.
Larry Horwitz, chairman of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, said Friday that businesses and residences were not consulted in the drafting of the report, which took six weeks to compile.
Mapleview makeover will appeal to fashion fans: manager
Mapleview aims to cut the traffic between Burlington and Toronto with an ambitious expansion.
Upscale shoppers from Burlington, Hamilton and Niagara looking for trendy duds often have to travel to Toronto-area malls, says Mapleview general manager Ellen Kennedy. "This will mean better shopping for people in their own neighbourhood."
Leases are being signed but new retailers won`t be identified until the summer and fall, she said.
Hamilton International Airport is poised to become one of the "top 10 airports in Canada," due in part to its history and its management company.
That`s the view of Mike Tretheway, president of Vancouver-based InterVistas transportation consultancy.
"It`s now the 13th busiest airport in Canada. It used to be number 65," he said. "That will continue to grow and it will become one of the top 10 airports in Canada and one of the major cargo centres in North America.
Millions of dollars -- and more than a few hugs -- were doled out yesterday at an infrastructure funding announcement in Waterloo.
Local Liberal MPPs John Milloy and Leeanna Pendergast came to the Region of Waterloo`s environmental education centre with news that six municipal grant applications had been approved to the tune of more than $15 million.
A long-time New Sudbury automotive company could be on the move.
Duhamel & Dewar Tire Centre, at 770 Barrydowne Rd., as well as the Star Mart convenience store in the same complex at the northeast corner of Barrydowne Road and Gemmell Street, could be affected by the sale or lease of the property.
Remi Dufresne, who works at the service counter at Duhamel & Dewar Tire Centre, said the business could be relocated "by the end of the year". For now, he said, it will "keep on going" until something develops.
Homeowners who live in the aging industrial city of Oshawa pay the highest property taxes in the GTA, while those who live in Toronto and Milton – the country`s fastest-growing community – pay among the lowest municipal taxes, a Star survey has found.
As Toronto City Council begins final debate today on a budget that includes a proposed 3.75 per cent tax hike, we`re taking a comparative look at tax rates and what drives them in the 25 municipalities that make up Greater Toronto.
The head of Ontario`s electricity-system operator says that injecting "intelligence" into the provincial grid must be given higher priority if the industry is serious about accommodating renewable energy, smart appliances and emission-free electric cars. Paul Murphy, chief executive officer of the Independent Electricity System Operator, the agency that manages the flow of megawatts in the province, is expected to announce today – on the heals of Earth Hour – the creation of an industry-led group to lay out of vision for modernizing Ontario`s aging electricity system.
Province puts millions into area; City getting $1.1 million for water, sewer work.
Money to upgrade drinking water and sewage systems in the 4th Street and 2nd Avenue East area of Owen Sound was part of a wave of provincial funding announcements that will bring nearly $10 million to Grey-Bruce.
"I`m delighted we got the money. It`s a project that has been on the books for years . . . We knew we had to do it . . . now that we`ve got that funding it allows us to do some other projects as well that would have had to wait," Mayor Ruth Lovell said.
The $1.1 million will pay for the removal of lead pipes and separate the sanitary and storm sewers in the area.
"I think there is definitely a recognition by the province that too much has been downloaded onto municipalities and steps are being taken to do something about it," Lovell said.
Now that the new Harmony Square has finished its first successful season of ice skating, you can almost hear the self-congratulatory backslapping at city hall. Conceived in politics and born in controversy, the square is the most recent in a series of multi-million-dollar projects intended to kick-start a renaissance in the downtown.
Has it done so? Yes, if you consider that many more people are making downtown a destination. Out-of-towners have commented that they can hardly recognize Brantford`s core because of all of the development that has taken place in the past four years. Add to that a partnership of universities that has created one of the fastest growing campuses in Canada, and you would be tempted to think, as they say in the movies, "My work here is done."
It was an all-out assault: light-armored vehicles, machine guns, a dive truck, and even a field ambulance.
The Canadian Forces converged on Windsor Saturday focusing on one main target -- new recruits.
The biggest Canadian Forces recruitment fair in Windsor history occurred at three spots in Devonshire Mall. And it happened, not coincidentally, in the middle of an auto-industry meltdown that has left this manufacturing town with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
A hamlet in northern York Region has become the latest battleground over a series of natural gas plants planned to replace Ontario`s coal-fired plants. Residents of King Township have formed the King Country-side Stewardship Alliance and organized a public meeting on the weekend to battle a gas plant that might be located in the King countryside.
