ArchiveApril 2014

By: Metro Canada Published on Tue Apr 29 2014 Let’s recap. Early in 2013, Mayor Rob Ford launched his claim to have saved Toronto $1 billion. I spent a lot of time dealing with this claim, because it made no sense and appeared to be based mostly on magic. But Ford continued to make it, often asserting that city manager Joseph Pennachetti and chief financial officer Rob Rossini supported his...

By: Metro Canada Published on Fri Apr 25 2014 Had Toronto's transit planning not taken a hard right turn into crazy town in 2010, the city would be on its way to building a light rail network. According to the revised construction schedule established after the provincial budget in 2010, LRT on Sheppard Avenue East would have opened to regular service this year. With that, Toronto would have...

By: Metro Canada Published on Wed Apr 23 2014 After three years, the best Mayor Rob Ford can say about his record on the Toronto Community Housing Corporation is that, hey, it’s not like his predecessors did a great job either. TCHC has struggled with a ballooning repair backlog and a growing wait list for years, all while the corporation seems to consistently find itself mired in bad press. So...

By: Matt Elliott Metro, Metro Canada Published on Tue Apr 15 2014 It’s been a weird couple of weeks at city hall. First, councillors — after years of reports and consultations — pushed through new regulations that continue to make it harder than it should be to buy food from a truck. Just look at all the places they still won't be able to operate. A group of councillors followed that up last...

By: Matt Elliott Metro, Metro Published on Thu Apr 10 2014 Since he registered to run for mayor in January, I have been trying to find things to dislike about David Soknacki’s wonkish, policy-heavy campaign. It’s still a short list. Really, there’s only one thing to dislike: the sinking feeling that he’s not going to be able to compete with his high-profile opponents. We asked Soknacki about his...