As Toronto prepares for the annual Santa Claus parade, that festive jingling sound isn’t coming from sleigh bells, but a collection cup.
Facing rising costs amid Canada’s ongoing affordability crisis, the 120th edition of the parade is in financial hot water, prompting organizers to issue a GoFundMe campaign to help keep the annual tradition on the street.
Saying the chair of the Toronto Police Service Board has “breached our confidentiality agreement” and spread “false statements” during contract negotiations, the union representing Toronto Police officers has called for her resignation.
More than 350 vehicles have been recovered and 59 people have been arrested following an auto-theft investigation by Toronto police, who say some ServiceOntario employees were involved in a scheme that provided fraudulent vehicle identification numbers (VINs) for stolen cars.
The results of the investigation, known as Project Thoroughbred, were shared by police Chief Myron Demkiw and Supt. Ron Taverner at a press conference in Scarborough on Friday morning. Toronto police say they have recovered 363 stolen vehicles, valued at $14 million, and have laid 302 charges so far.
TORONTO – Ontario is planning to remove sections of bike lanes on three major roads in Toronto, as it considers whether to rip up more bike lanes elsewhere.
The Progressive Conservative government tabled a bill last week that would require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.
The government is going further through regulation, posting a proposed new rule that would require the province to remove sections of Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue bike lanes and restore them as lanes for vehicle traffic.
Smart move. Hope Chow goes off her rocker, well more off her rocker.
Over the weekend, Toronto budget chief Shelley Carroll conducted a mock budget session with listeners on Newstalk1010 Toronto and I give her credit for doing it.
However, her response on just one issue should be instructive to any taxpayer in any city, town or territory in Canada.
She was asked why Toronto still adheres to a policy that only allows contracts — on an estimated $1.65 billion in construction — to companies whose workers belong to a group of favoured unions.
If this is to be the start of a new Toronto tradition, it’s a brutal one. For the second year in a row, the City of Toronto unveiled its winter homeless shelter plan by acknowledging the insufficiency of the measures it plans to take. That’s a depressing press conference: Here’s the plan! It ain’t going to work!
It looks like planning for failure — when the stakes are whether people freeze on the street or not — but, believe it or not, as I wrote last year, it is progress. The old annual tradition involved failing to draw up a proper plan at all and then being shocked when there wasn’t enough space in the shelters, and then vowing to do better next year when people froze to death, and then promptly forgetting about it when it came time to set budgets.
The homeless situation will always get worse with leftists in charge. Chow and Trudeau are a perfect match
Mayor Olivia Chow concerned about new federal immigration cuts
When Chow was asked what these cuts could mean for the city and whether she has concerns, she was quick to raise what it could mean for family reunification.
“I am concerned about all of those people that have been waiting to bring their mom and dad to Canada … I’m worried about refugees in refugee camps waiting to come and join their loved ones,” she told reporters.
Just one day after the Ford government tabled legislation to review all existing bike lanes in Ontario, the premier is strongly suggesting the decision on at least three routes has already been made.
On Monday, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria introduced legislation that would require provincial approval to install new bike lanes in any Ontario municipality and would prohibit new separated lanes if infrastructure interferes with existing vehicle traffic.
It is popular.
The bike lanes in my area running along Dundas (at Bloor) are rarely used.
They aren’t the traffic impediment of others in the city but I bet the money spent to maintain them could be better used elsewhere.
Work to replace parts of 470,000 failing water meter transmitters in homes and businesses across Toronto is underway, but the latest update shows it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars to solve the problem that’s only getting worse.
In July, civil servants said thousands of radio transmitters on water meters were failing years ahead of schedule, meaning they can’t relay usage from homes or businesses to the city. In a new report to councillors on the infrastructure committee, Toronto Water says over 150,000 of those units have now failed and the city will need to spend $5.6 million on the first wave of replacements.
Andrew Mayer’s frustration with Toronto traffic is a perfect example of what residents and visitors deal with every single day – non-stop bedlam.
The Kitchener man was supposed to run in Sunday’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon but didn’t make it to the starting line due to traffic.
I am convinced that the traffic mess is deliberate.
Toronto to swiftly ‘limit activity’ near Rogers Centre during Taylor Swift’s 6 concerts
Taylor Swift is coming to Toronto and the city is working to shake off its gridlock problems by implementing a “limited activity zone” around the Rogers Centre during the two-week period when she is scheduled to play six sold-out shows.
A city spokesperson said the zone will circle Rogers Centre and the neighbouring downtown areas to help mitigate traffic woes during the two-week period in mid-to-late-November.
So the cops will let the Pallies tie up traffic for a year but act decisively to clear a path for Taylor Swift. F-You Chow.
Talk about a black mark.
Saying “it doesn’t matter” that she didn’t attend the Oct. 7 vigil to honour those slain at the hands of Hamas because she “wore black” the entire day, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has now boxed herself into a corner.
There’s just too many stories, spins and unfathomable narratives to count.
What a lying scumbag.
Mayor Olivia Chow is defending her handling of protests over the Israel-Hamas war that have rocked the city over the past year, a day after she faced criticism for missing a vigil to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack which sparked the war.
In a sit-down interview with CP24 Breakfast Thursday, Chow was asked to address the perception that not enough is being done to police alleged hate speech at some protests, including calls for Israel’s destruction.
Toronto’s cycling lobby, led by groups like the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition (TCBC), claims a surge in bike lane usage, backing their argument with statistics that paint a picture of soaring ridership.
However, a deeper look reveals a troubling trend — these numbers are often cherry-picked to support an agenda rather than reflect reality.
Typically a high usage bicycle lane day in my neighborhood is one rider.
I usually encounter more adult riders on the sidewalk when out and about and even at that it’s just two or three.
Mayor Olivia Chow has finally said she is “sorry.”
Or has she?
The only problem is it’s not clear what she is sorry about or to whom she is directing the apology.
