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Metro: If road tolls come to Toronto, who should pay them?
The city took another step towards tolling the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway last week, but there's no consensus on who should have to pay.
March 16, 2016
Luke Simcoe
Metro Toronto
Traffic jams the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto in this April 8, 2000 photo. PHOTO: Torstar News Service
Tolls could be coming to the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway, but it may not be a pay-one, pay-all system.
Some believe tolls should only be paid by those commuting into Toronto from other cities.
“Given that so many people who drive into Toronto every day use infrastructure paid for solely by Toronto taxpayers, it's a reasonable question to ask,” Coun. Josh Matlow said.
CBC News: OMB ‘very broken,’ needs reform, Guelph councillor says
Kitchener deferred motion to call on province to limit scope of Ontario Municipal Board
March 9, 2016
Kate Bueckert
CBC News
Photo: Colin Butler/CBC News
Several municipalities are calling on the province to change the way the Ontario Municipal Board operates. Guelph city councillor Cathy Downer says "bold reform" is needed.
In January, the Town of Aurora passed a motion calling on the province to limit the scope of what the OMB can address to matters of law and process. The OMB is a tribunal that hears applications and appeals under various land use planning laws and operates under the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario.
Toronto Sun: Who’s keeping eye on city workers, councillor asks
Employee on jury duty break didn't return to work.
March 7, 2016
Maryam Shah
Toronto Sun
Councillor Josh Matlow. Photo: tan Behal/Toronto Sun files
TORONTO - A city councillor says he’s baffled by how a city employee was able to miss work for 44 days during a break in jury duty before being fired.
“It seems like people can disappear around here and there’s no accountability for where they went and when they’re coming back,” Councillor Josh Matlow said Monday.
Toronto Star: Toronto council lacking critical transit information ahead of key decisions
Staff released 369 pages worth of studies on Thursday night ahead of requesting council endorse a new multibillion dollar plan to build out a transit grid.
March 4
Jennifer Pagliaro and Tess Kalinowski
Toronto Star
Some key information is expected to be provided to Toronto council just two weeks before they are set to approve a multibillion-dollar network of new transit. Photo: MARCUS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
Toronto city council is being asked to endorse a network of new transit lines worth billions of dollars without essential information needed to justify those plans.
On Thursday night, city staff posted 369 pages worth of studies about the new network which mostly deal with how many people are projected to ride those lines.
But the studies consider a transit map that’s already been redrawn. Updated numbers aren’t expected until June — just two weeks before council will be asked to approve building that map, to be built out over the next 15 years, and long after public consultations have already wrapped up.
Councillor Josh Matlow said it’s not good enough that those numbers will be provided at the “11th hour.”
“That’s not a responsible way to plan transit, to spend billions of dollars, and it’s not fair to councillors or the public we serve,” he said.
Town Crier Shiplake project declared shipshape for Yonge and Eg
Unlike most development sagas in the neighbourhood, this one has a happy ending
February 27, 2016
Eric Emin Wood
Town Crier
MORE GREEN: Building additional towers on this Dunfield Avenue property will actually result in more greenspace, plus daycare and other local benefits, after a successful consultation process, say residents and councillor. Photo: Google Maps
What could have been another controversial development application for the Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood turned out to be anything but, as the developer behind a pair of towers proposed for 45 and 77 Dunfield Ave. collaborated with city planners and residents.
The results are a new 6,060-square-metre green space, a subsidized daycare to accommodate at least 52 children, and what Ward 22 councillor Josh Matlow called “arguably the most successful agreement in history” for the hundreds of tenants, many of them seniors, who live in the two apartment buildings next door.
Toronto Star: Metrolinx hopes riders flock to half-off UPX
‘Bold change’ needed, agency boss concedes — but effect on bottom line is unknown.
February 23, 2016
Tess Kalinowski
Toronto Star
A passenger exits the UPX terminal towards Union Station. Photo: STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR
The province has slashed the fares on the struggling Union Pearson Express, conceding — nearly nine months after its launch — that there were too few riders to meet the train’s targets.
“We should have started with a lower price to introduce more people to (UPX). We had to build more awareness faster,” said Metrolinx chair Robert Prichard after a special Tuesday board meeting where the dramatic price reductions were unanimously approved.
It remains unclear, however, what the implications of lower prices will be on the UPX’s break-even prospects, the amount of provincial subsidy it will require, or even how the new fares — about half the original ticket costs — were arrived at.
