Councillors say no to one-week-per-month free parking downtown
BOWMANVILLE -- An effort by downtown merchants to have the Municipality provide free parking at meters one week a month isn`t going anywhere.
Downtown merchants had made the request, via the BIA, in an effort to stimulate business which some say has lagged over the last few months. "The board knows we have to do something to get people coming back downtown," Edgar Lucas of the BIA told Clarington councillors Monday. "We`ve just noticed it`s getting slower and slower."
UXBRIDGE -- The Township will decide in the next month whether to allow summer activities that have already been offered for years without proper zoning at Lakeridge Ski Resort. A public meeting was held April 29 regarding a rezoning application from the Chalk Lake Road resort to accommodate a four-season recreation site. Activities requested, which officials from the resort previously admitted have already been offered for a number of years, include mountain biking, high ropes and wall-climbing.
Aurora homeowners to fork out Aurora homeowners to fork out more money as taxes hiked
The average Aurora property owner will pay $53.89 or 5 per cent more in taxes this year.
Aurora council passed the town`s budget Tuesday night in an 8-1 vote with Councillor Evelyn Buck voting it down.
Mrs. Buck voted against it "in principal", she said, because the budget was not what staff recommended.
As the farming sector continues to fluctuate, provincial Minister of Agriculture Leona Dombrowsky wowed industry representatives yesterday with a new 10-year research and education partnership with the University of Guelph. She said the department has committed to spending $300 million over the first five years.
"We will continue to work closely together," Dombrowsky told an audience of university, farm and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs representatives at the campus Arboretum Centre. The deal comes as a successful decade-long "enhanced partnership" between the Guelph-based ministry and university is coming to a close, she said.
Repaving roads now will cut rebuilding costs later, city says
CAMBRIDGE
Spending $2.7 million now to repave 21 kilometres of city streets will save the city about $15 million over the next decade, the city`s engineering commissioner says.
It`s the difference between repaving sections of streets now in mid-life, instead of waiting for them to fall apart in old age, Ed Kovacs told city council this week. The city has been working for three years to get a clear picture of the condition of its streets. Now, a computer program ranks the streets according to repair needs.
Local: Listowel reeling over news of Campbell`s plant closure
LISTOWEL — The closure of Listowel`s largest employer could have a devastating ripple effect on the local economy, business leaders and local residents fear.
"It`s scary how big this is going to be," said Tami Chauvin, general manager of the North Perth Chamber of Commerce, as news of the decision to shut down the Campbell Company of Canada plant spread.
The Warden corridor is changing - and this old Scarborough artery cleans up well.
Formerly, a ramshackle collection of decrepit factories and rundown industrial properties lined Warden Avenue from north of St. Clair, wrapping around Danforth Road to the south. "It was an industrial wasteland," says Adrian Heaps, Toronto city councillor for Ward 35 (Scarborough Southwest). "It was where people parked their factories in the old days - in Scarborough, because it was cheap."
In a move likely to continue playing out across the GTA, Durham Region is building five new public elementary schools to meet demand in new and growing neighbourhoods even as it begins looking at closing them in other areas.
Construction on four schools – two each in Whitby and Ajax – is expected to begin later this year, with their opening planned for September 2009.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan wants lawyers, insurers and other critics to agree on fair and affordable changes to Ontario automobile insurance. But the process is getting off to a rocky start, with lawyers and insurers taking pot shots at each other, and with little participation from premium-paying motorists.
The government is required by law to conduct a review this year of the highly regulated and controversial product, which costs more here than in any other province.
TORONTO - Facing mounting bad news about the provincial economy, Premier Dalton McGuinty admitted yesterday that Ontario is headed for have-not status, and warned that any impending downturn will be more pronounced unless the country`s "perverse" equalization system is changed.
Mr. McGuinty also lashed out at the federal system of regional subsidies and transfers, saying Ontario should not be paying as much as it is -- between $20 billion and $21 billion more than it receives -- to subsidize other provinces, many of which are booming because of high commodity prices. Comparing Ontario to a slumping star hockey player, he suggested other provinces lend a hand by demanding less federal funding.
Residents on one side of Roman Avenue, on Ottawa`s west side, are facing expropriation of their homes as the city looks for the cheapest way to link two sections of the transitway.
At issue is the city`s push to finally complete the western transitway. To do this, planners must connect the existing dedicated transitway, running north-south and crossing Highway 417 near Woodroffe Avenue, with a new east-west transitway section being built between Pinecrest Avenue and Bayshore Shopping Centre.
A plan that includes at least 10 tunnels that will cover about two kilometres of the Huron Church-Talbot Road corridor is expected to be unveiled today when a binational government team announces its feeder-road fix for Windsor`s border truck problems.
Costs for the new Windsor-Essex Parkway -- to include about 240 acres of parkland -- are expected to reach up to $1.8 billion, according to sources on Wednesday. It will be the most expensive highway project per kilometre in Ontario`s history.
The newly established new-media incubator considered an economic boon for Niagara has hired an executive director.
Jeff Chesebrough is the new head of nGen, a project designed to nurture new-media companies developing electronic games and social networking sites in Niagara. The much-hyped generator is a joint project between Brock University, Niagara College, the City of St. Catharines, the Silicon Knights gaming company and the Niagara Economic Development Corp.
Chesebrough is overseeing nGen, known as the Niagara Interactive Media Generator, as it takes shape. That includes establishing its office at One St. Paul St., expected to open by summer.
City must clear several hurdles to collect $12M; Federal government promised money for brownfield cleanup
The city finally is getting the long-awaited $12 million from the federal government for its Greenwich-Mohawk brownfield cleanup project - sort of.
With council`s reluctant consent, Mayor Mike Hancock has signed a lengthy, complex final agreement with the government, which sets out the terms by which money from the Industry Canada grant will flow toward the remediation of the 52-acre site, which includes the former Cockshutt, Sternson and Massey properties.
The agreement, which took several months to write, contains stringent conditions and hurdles that the city will have to clear to get the money.
Growth plan sees 11,000 new Orillians; Draft Simcoe County document allocates growth across region until year 2031
With the completion of the draft plan of the Simcoe County Growth Management Strategy, local municipalities have discovered how much they`ll be allowed to grow in the next 23 years. Based on numbers set out by the provincial government in its Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Simcoe County and the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia are expected to boast a total population of 667,000 by 2031. That`s an increase of 275,000 from 2001 numbers.
Of that increase, 152,000 people are expected to settle in Simcoe County, 72,000 in Barrie and 11,000 in Orillia. Another 40,000 is unallocated.
To conform with the government`s plan, the county and its 16 member municipalities have been developing a plan to spread growth throughout the county.
Barrie Hydro merger in works; PowerStream, city in talks
Barrie Hydro could cross lines with PowerStream by the end of this summer.
City council has decided to enter into a non-binding letter of intent to amalgamate Barrie Hydro with the Vaughan/Markham-owned electrical utility, in order to probe the business case of a proposed merger.
"I think it`s worth looking into the possibility of lower rates for customers, increased dividends to the shareholder, and the potential for cost savings at Barrie Hydro going forward," Coun. John Brassard said.
He said not investigating the merits of a merger would be irresponsible to Barrie Hydro customers - especially if the business case supports it.
Georgina politicians, backed by cheering residents, voted Monday night to try and short-circuit a bid to have a new gas-fired power generation plant built in Georgina.
With just the dissenting voice of Councillor Ross Jamieson, council approved a motion put forward by Councillor Dave Szollosy declaring Georgina an unwilling host for the proposed plant on McCowan Road at Glenwoods Avenue by Calgary-based Pristine Power.
As King resident Allan Bray surveys his 460-acre property from his perch atop an orange tractor, he makes it pretty clear he`s no proponent of NIMBY. Far from it.
He happily opens his back yard to just about anybody who wants to use it.
Over the past 11 years, he has lived at the northern terminus of Bathurst Street and his property has been frequented by a whole assortment of visitors and, for the most part, Mr. Bray said he has welcomed them all.
