Toronto To Get Stimulus $$$$$....

....but successful bidder only required to 25% of the labour force be in Canada and I have to wonder how much of the "$1.5 Billion" will end up in the pockets of Canadians. Under the terms of the agreement, at least 25 per cent of the new streetcars' content must be made in Canada. Labour groups had been hoping for much more Canadian content.

Harper, McGuinty to make TTC announcement The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty are holding a joint news conference Friday morning in Toronto.The 11 a.m. event is being held at a depot used by the Toronto Transit Commission.

Toronto has committed to a $1.22-billion plan to build a fleet of 204 new streetcars for the city, but did so before getting a firm funding commitment from the provincial and federal government leaders.The contract is set to go to Bombardier (TSX:BBD.A) and the streetcars would be built in Thunder Bay, Ont.

McGuinty has said the plan was not something the province budgeted for.The New Democrats have said the province should pay its share for the plan, which would help workers in struggling northern Ontario.

Comments.......

Planeteer wrote: Posted 2009/04/26
The other problem with city hall and its satelite organizations is that they lack transparency and accountability. Politicians will loose their position of priviledge and in the know of things if information got out to public. So all these decisions are made in secret or as near a secrecy as they can create. They treat us like children. Citizens should be seen but not heard. So much for Miller's Harvard education. He has not put it to good use as is evident in their finch avenue street car decision. That way they also can stand up infront of the media and crow cock-a-doodle do to the admiring public! The media by giving them attention also wants to gain the respect of the government very unlike the US media.

What they have to do is to make every document that is generated available in electronic form, as all the documents are in an electonic form. This refers to studies, decisions, policy and correspondence. These should be posted automatically by law, rather than having someone file a freedom of information request. Failure to do so by bureaucracy should lead to prosecution. In other words when they hide information they must notify the FOI officials as to what they are hiding and why. Now I can go my go to my library or internet and read the progression of every machination that is going on. David Miller ain't progressive despite his Harvard education. He wants to release as little information as possible so that he can not be subjected to criticism by the citizenry. That is how the city hall wins.

Folks wear your thinking caps and let us put an end to secrets in a democracy. Controlling information means only one thing. They want the citizen to be powerless. So we have an autocracy by politicians.

Blackbear wrote:Posted 2009/04/26
I guess anyone doing the thump downs for a Canadian company to build our Canadian street cars paid by our Canadian Tax $$$ are not CANADIAN. And if you are Canadian and you are such against Canadian having jobs I hope to God that you do not find yourself on the employment line. It is time for true Canadian to stand up and show the world what we could do. We do not need the AMERICAN or the ITALIAN or CHINESES or any other countries to show us that we can do a great job better than any other countries. Or is Canada became so diversivy that the immigrant and the refugee are so against Canada to succeed? Our government already gave $170 million to an AMERICAN company to build our CANADIAN army truck. The same company that shut down the plant in Chantam Ontario. I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THIS HAPPEN AGAIN.......

Proud to be CANADIAN