Matlow describes subway extension as 'Toronto's longest hole'

June 7, 2016

CBC News

Coun. Josh Matlow says he won't support new taxes while the Scarborough subway plan steams ahead (CBC)

​Coun. Josh Matlow took another verbal swing at the Scarborough subway extension Tuesday afternoon while debating a motion that would see city staff look at new taxes to help balance future city budgets.

At City Hall Tuesday, the councillor for Ward 22, who is a longtime foe of the proposal to extend the subway line, asked councillors to have staff take another look at the cost of the plan and whether that money could be better spent in other ways.

Councillor cries foul about notices asking renters to oppose an “apartment tax,” against their own best interests.

June 4, 2016

Laurie Monsebraaten

The Toronto Star

Proposed new rules would require annual inspections for apartment buildings and require landlords to make sure maintenance plans are in place. Photo: Richard Lautens / Toronto Star file photo

Toronto landlords are urging tenants to oppose a licensing system for apartment buildings, claiming the proposed annual fee of $12 to $15 per unit “will increase the rents and taxes paid by tenants without improving the quality of rental housing.”

The campaign, sponsored by the Greater Toronto Apartment Association, advises tenants to email councillors on the issue before the initiative — intended to give the city tools to crack down on bad landlords — is debated at their meeting this week.

But Councillor Josh Matlow, head of the city’s tenant issues sub-committee, is crying foul. “I’m really concerned about a campaign based on misinformation,” he said of the landlord-sponsored website and door-hanger notices that began appearing in apartment buildings Thursday.

“The landlord lobby is claiming this is a new city hall tax on tenants, which it is not. It is a fee on landlords to cover the cost of a licensing system to ensure tenants have a safe, healthy and respectful places to live,” he said.

Local residents question wisdom of spending billions for subway with homes threatened by tunnelling

May 31, 2016

Jennifer Pagliaro and Ben Spurr

The Toronto Star

One Scarborough resident whose home may be expropriated for a subway extension said Tuesday that "it doesn't really make sense spending all this money" to replace the Scarborough RT (pictured). Photo: Marcus Oleniuk / Toronto Star File Photo

As the city unveils the first detailed plans for the one-stop Scarborough subway, residents whose homes are threatened by tunnelling are questioning why the city is spending more than $2 billion for transit they worry is not justified.

At private meetings Tuesday, the city and TTC officials revealed the recommended alignment and station location for the subway extension to Scarborough’s city centre. That recommendation is to tunnel east from Kennedy Station along Eglinton Ave., north on Danforth Rd. to McCowan Rd., ending north of Ellesmere Rd. with a new station to be located in the middle of the parking lot now at the southwest corner of the Scarborough Town Centre.

But plans to cut just west of McCowan Rd. before Ellesmere Rd., tunnelling under a section of detached family bungalows that may need to be expropriated, has left some residents asking bigger questions. That was the case at a meeting of just under a dozen concerned neighbours who convened with city and TTC staff.

May 14, 2016

Terry Davidson

Toronto Sun

A rainy and damp Saturday didn’t stop Mayor John Tory and a couple hundred others from gettin’ down with the Skinnamarink.

The crowd came out to midtown’s June Rowlands park for the official opening of a music garden in honour of famed children’s trio Sharon, Lois and Bram.

Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison — two-thirds of the iconic group known for songs like Little Rabbit Foo Foo, One Elephant Went Out to Play and, of course, Skinnamarink — treated kids and adults alike to a sing-a-long in the park to celebrate the occasion.

Their friend and fellow member, Lois Lilienstein, died of cancer in April 2015.

Hampson and Morrison acknowledged that Saturday’s honour was, for them, a bittersweet occasion.