Ottawa home price increases below national annual average
While new house prices in Ottawa outpaced the rest of the country in February, the city`s real estate continued to lag Canadian growth rates on an annual basis.
Prices rose 1.3 per cent in February, compared to January and well ahead of the national average increase of 0.3 per cent, Statistics Canada reported yesterday.
A pension fund has bought another`s investment stake in Devonshire Mall for $130.7 million, joining the mall`s co-owner and property manager Ivanhoe Cambridge.
Essentially, the Toronto-based Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan purchased the 50 per cent, non-managing interest of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, also from Toronto.
A quarter of Cambridge city workers are eligible to retire over the next five years, at the same time as there are fewer younger employees available to fill the jobs. It means there`s a "war for talent" happening for both public and private employers, said George Vandermay, city human resources director.
The landfills that hold our buried trash are leaking.
They were built without modern environmental safeguards. Dangerous wastes were buried that today must be disposed of more carefully, at special sites outside this region.
"We are dealing with our sins of the past," says Linda Churchill, senior environmental engineer with Waterloo regional government.
Today, only the Waterloo landfill is still operating, on Erb Street West. It opened in 1972 and has swallowed an estimated eight million tonnes of garbage.
Five landfills in Kitchener, Cambridge, North Dumfries and Woolwich filled up and shut down between 1958 and 2002.
Guelph builders are confident the local housing market will remain a hot one with starts continuing to go through the roof.
In the first three months of this year, housing starts were up more than 21 per cent, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported this week. Those year-to-date starts amounted to 204, up from 168 in the same period last year in Guelph.
WHITBY -- A $45-million fund to renovate and construct accessible buildings has finance minister Jim Flaherty taking heat from the opposition.
A request for funding proposal for a project being planned for Whitby, the Abilities Centre, is at the heart of the controversy.
Critics claim the 30-day deadline -- April 1-30 of this year -- to receive proposals for funding, gives the Abilities Centre an unfair advantage over other facilities that may not be ready to request cash.
Water levels creep higher; Roads, property near Severn and Black rivers submerged;; peak levels expected early next week
The Severn River was barely lapping at the edge of Canning Road on Wednesday; by noon Friday, warning cones were in place as water covered a section that had been dry just two days earlier.
At the intersection of Lauderdale Point Crescent and Peninsula Point Road, a spot that was being used as a sandbag depot is now covered in water. The sand pile has moved farther up the road.
Rainfall that began Thursday night and lasted into Friday is forecast to continue through the weekend, not good news for residents in Severn Township and portions of Ramara Township already battling water levels in the Severn and Black rivers that have been rising all week.
Jack Alexander, director of operations with the Trent-Severn Waterway, said outlet dams from Lake Simcoe have been closed in an effort to let the Black River peak.
Development moratorium proposed to end native land protests
A proposal being floated by provincial negotiator Murray Coolican to end protests against local development is causing a stir.
What The Expositor says. Opinion, Page A9
Coolican visited the Six Nations Confederacy council at the reserve`s Onondaga Longhouse last week and, according to the Tekawennake, a native weekly paper, discussed an idea to halt development along parts of the Grand River in return for an end to native protests.
The paper said Coolican proposed that a two-year moratorium on development could be applied to "no go" lands chosen by Six Nations. The moratorium would limit municipalities from pursuing new development but would allow current projects to continue unhindered. The Tekawennake quotes Coolican saying: "We need to turn the heat down right now. It can be turned up at any point again."
KTH in Shelburne has expanded again. The manufacturing facility supplies Honda (and Acura) with frame components for the Ridgeline, Civic, MDX and CSX models. Now the company has added two Aida 2,500-tonne transfer presses to their capabilities.
You can find out if there`s crime going on in your neighbourhood of Whitchurch-Stouffville by signing up with the new York Region Police Community Alert program.
If there are problems such as a rash of break-ins, car thefts or a missing child in your area, you will receive an e-mail or phone call to let you know. The system will also let you know about emergencies.
Developer hasn`t heard the last from some Kleinburg residents
A proposed subdivision in Kleinburg got the green light to move to the next phase of development, despite some residents wanting another chance to discuss it.
The plan for 312 detached homes at the north side of Major Mackenzie Drive, west of Regional Road 27, isn`t sitting well with everyone in the area.
A number of business owners and residents want another meeting to discuss the Lake Rivers Inc. development.
The Motel 6 project is going ahead, after the Ontario Municipal Board shot down an effort to drag it into a full hearing. On Friday, OMB chairman Norman Jackson issued his decision on the matter, in which he upheld a motion by the City of Pembroke and Siljub Investments Ltd., asking the board to dismiss an appeal launched by Pembest Ltd.
The owners of the Best Western Inn and Conference Centre objected to zoning changes which would allow a 60-room hotel to be constructed on International Drive and were seeking an OMB hearing to deal with them.
In his decision, Mr. Jackson stated he agreed with the city`s assertion the appeal was motivated more by commercial concerns about competing with another hotel than with planning principles.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope said Friday he`s more than willing to discuss the possible annexation of Lighthouse Cove. "My doors are always open for such discussions,"said the mayor, in a telephone interview.
Hope was commenting on newspaper reports that some Town of Lakeshore officials would rather let Lighthouse Cove go to Chatham-Kent than spend millions to provide the area with water and sewer mains.
"It`s the first I`ve heard of it, but I`m game to enter into discussions with Lakeshore officials about annexation,"Hope said.
The mayor said he would be "more than happy"to at least discuss the matter with Lakeshore officials.
Londoners are footing a hefty bill to make up for what the city`s deputy mayor says may be a corporate tax dodge.
Owners of large apartment buildings in the city are converting them to condominiums -- but in paper only, city staff told controllers this week.
The conversion enables owners to have their buildings taxed at a residential rate -- less than half the rate for traditional apartment buildings. The conversion of 17 properties in London has enabled owners to shave 28 per cent off their municipal tax bill -- leaving other Londoners to make up the loss of $658,000.
The $2.5-million growth in the City of St. Catharines` annual budget this year is something to be proud of, the city`s acting treasurer says.
"Each department did a really good job in keeping increases down," Shelley Chemnitz said Friday afternoon.
After being pared down over the last few weeks, the final draft of the budget councillors will vote on Monday evening comes in at $89.45 million, up from last year`s $86.99 million.
Chemnitz said the increase is modest, and there isn`t any one budget item responsible for the increase.
Rather, the expansion of the budget is the cumulative result of smaller increases in all department budgets.
Housing starts may be slowing across the province, but that`s not the case in the urban Sarnia area.
In fact, they were more than double in March what they were for the same month a year ago, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported Tuesday.
"It`s mildly slowing down, but it`s nowhere close to the U.S. major slow down," said CMHC market analyst Margot Stevenson. "Ontario is just pulling back slowly."
Stevenson said housing starts across the province last month were down a modest two per cent compared to the previous month.
New Sudburian Marc Langlois doesn`t need to be reminded it`s time to go for a leisurely walk each day.
He lets Cass, his 12-year-old golden retriever, tell him.
"At 9:30 a.m., he starts getting restless and it`s like he`s saying `let`s go: it`s time to go,` " explained the retired taxation employee.
And with a section of new Rainbow Routes trail right behind his Gary Avenue home, it`s no big deal to go out for a walk and see what is happening with his neighbourhood`s section of Junction Creek.
"The buildings are within sight, but you feel you are in nature," Langlois said. "Today, I saw two mallard ducks and a beaver. We see rabbits quite often in the winter. We see all kinds of fox tracks. We also snowshoe when conditions are right."
