A Look At Our World Class City...

Rob Ford is Mr. Zero: Granatstein

By ROB GRANATSTEIN, Toronto Sun

There are reasons to vote for Rob Ford. But the fact he spends nothing — not a cent — on office expenses is not one of them.

...I agree. I would be  inclined to sit and have a beer with Ford but I wouldn't feel confident that he could get a consensus with the remainder of council.

...and as far as retailers opening on Stat Holidays I would be more inclined to support the idea if Toronto Silly Hall and various city departments were also open.  

The holiday’s over: Levy

By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun

To be blunt, I’m not at all convinced that allowing all of the city’s shops to open their doors — if they so choose — on the year’s nine statutory holidays will increase anyone’s bottom line.
In fact, I suspect if council approves the proposal to allow wide-open shopping throughout the city on public holidays, businesses will simply find their pool of potential revenues spread out over the 365 days.
“I’ve never had anyone ask me why they can’t shop on Canada Day,” said Case Ootes, the lone councillor on the economic development committee that voted against the plan last Thursday.
I have a lot of respect for Ootes. But the time has more than come.
After all, Toronto is a multicultural city and so many people — whether Jewish like me or practising another religion — consider holidays like Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Sunday just regular days.
Not that I will ever shop until I drop on those days.
But our feckless leaders at Socialist Silly Hall can’t constantly yap about having a world-class city when most much smaller cities in Florida, for example, have no problem keeping their designer discount malls open on stat holidays without missing a beat.
They don’t seem to have an issue getting staff to work at holiday rates. I suspect Toronto retailers won’t either.
More than anything, it’s a matter of fairness.
The city’s current shopping rules are outdated and cumbersome — so much so that people often don’t know which stores are open on an average public holiday.
“There is a patchwork of policies and special exemptions for certain stores,” said Peter Thoma, speaking on behalf of Oxford Properties which owns Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
That’s for sure. Stores selling food, antiques, gas, flowers, fresh fruit, books, newspapers as well as drug stores that are less than 7,500 square feet, restaurants, bars, cinemas and casinos are allowed to stay open on public holidays — exempt from the city’s municipal code and the province’s Retail Business Holidays Act.
Specific shopping locations — such as the Eaton Centre, Bloor-Yorkville, the Queen’s Quay Terminal and the Distillery District — were also granted tourist area exemptions prior to the creation of City of Toronto Act.
John Kiru, executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA), said the time has come to give stores the chance to be “competitive” with malls outside Toronto like Square One and Vaughan Mills.
Evidently council speaker Sandra Bussin, who was against the idea when it went before council in 2008, has now seen the light.
“I’m happy to support this,” she sniffed.
Howard Moscoe said he led the fight against Sunday shopping in the 1990s but he’s now prepared to hoist the “white flag of surrender.
“Our society tends to evolve,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.” OK, I confess. I always get the willies when council’s socialists support business-friendly moves like this.
Which brings me back to the competitiveness issue.
This move, while a step in the right direction, does not make up for all the David Miller team has done to chase business from this city.
I’m talking about the massive amount of red tape, the ever-increasing taxes and the attitude that business has deep pockets but does not deserve to be treated with any respect whatsoever.
I still get flashbacks of Moscoe running from one Shoppers Drug Mart to another two summers ago looking for a loo he could use — and the s--- he stirred up as a result.
Then there are the panhandlers, which I notice are already out in full force now that the weather is good — despite the extra $5 million per year poured into the Streets to Home program specifically aimed at them.
“If they want to deal with being helpful to business, deal with the panhandling and deal with taxes,” said Ootes. “Those (issues) of more concern to business than adding another nine days of holidays.”
sue-ann.levy@sunmedia.ca