More On TCH And Landlords

Good landlords get a seal of approval New code designed to give prospective tenants peace of mind By BEN SPENCER, SUN MEDIA The fact that the headline acts were a no-show didn't seem to matter. With mint-flavoured ice-cream the odd choice to mark the occasion, Toronto yesterday became the first North American city to unveil a quality assurance program for rental properties. Billed as a significant day in the Toronto rental industry's history, both Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Jim Watson and Mayor David Miller were slated to appear. Neither showed up. Nonetheless, the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario pushed on, officially launching its "Certified Rental Building Program" for rental housing in the GTA. The landmark program will set good and bad landlords apart and give prospective tenants an easy way of working out the quality of their next home. Property owners will have to meet three requirements, including undergoing a rigorous building audit. Those buildings that win the tick of approval will bear the CRBP symbol. The program will give tenants "peace of mind," said FRPO certification director Ted Whitehead. Whitehead said it is hoped 500 rental buildings will be certified this year and another 1,000 added by the end of next year. FRPO is the largest rental housing industry association in the province. $1M and they still can't get bugs out

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, SUN MEDIA

Toronto Community Housing spends more than $1 million a year trying to get rid of pests but admits so far the solution has escaped them.

The TCH Community Management Plan, which will be presented to the city's executive committee today, says more work needs to be done with staff, tenants and pest control contractors to stamp out the problem.

The housing provider issues 30,000 work orders a year for pest control, a service provided free to tenants.

TCH spokesman Jeffrey Ferrier said infestations remain a very common tenant complaint. "Pest control is a Toronto issue that affects everything from social housing to five-star hotels," he said. "The bugs are becoming genetically mutated to be resistant to the treatment."

UNHAPPY EXPERIENCE

The housing authority has not always been happy with the quality of the pest control services it hired, so it will pre-qualify contractors, and monitor their work.

An education program for tenants will focus on behavioural issues that contribute to infestations, include picking up used furniture from waste bins, poor housekeeping, hoarding and failing to report sightings.

Seniors, the disabled and tenants with mental health issues often find it hard to do the cleaning required to get rid of an infestation, so the pests tend to come back quickly, a report to the TCH board in December said.

The most common infestations in public housing stock are German cockroaches, house mice and bed bugs.

More Smoke & Mirrors From Comrade Miller???

A Landlord's first responsibility is to keep his property in a good state of repair, in compliance with local health and safety codes and to provide a safe environment. 75 million housing questions Is handing a blank cheque to TCH the best way to spend proceeds from hydro sale? Buried deep in the bowels of today's 8.9-cm thick executive committee agenda is the plan to hand over essentially a $75 million blank cheque to Toronto Community Housing for the "rehabilitation" of some of its decrepit housing stock. Not that one would call it much of a plan. The city report proposing the windfall from the sale of Toronto Hydro's telecom arm go to the cash-strapped TCH is a mere 4.5 pages long. It contains only a proposal to create a new TCH State of Good Repair Reserve Fund in which to plunk the money -- but no conditions attached to its use. "The contribution ... makes good financial sense for the city," the report concludes. Well duh. What else would city officials say after Mayor David Miller, practising up for his new strong mayor powers, boldly declared two Fridays ago the sale's proceeds would be used to fix up about 5,000 THC units and retrofit 10 buildings with energy-efficient systems. If this makes such good fiscal sense, why is the report "hidden in plain sight" as an addendum (numbered 16a) to another fairly innocuous report -- and not right next to the report on TCH's 2008-2010 community management plan? After all, the $75 million will impact on that plan. Short answer: The move may make good public relations sense for Miller and his complicit champions of the disenfranchised. But financial sense? I'm not convinced. BACKLOG IN REPAIRS There's no doubt TCH has a serious backlog in repairs -- some $350 million this year -- and sorely needs a cash infusion to get out of its massive debt problems. The Sun recently revealed it has 1,422 fixer-up units sitting vacant. But there are plenty of city assets desperately in need of cash as well. Parks and community centres have a $232-million repair backlog this year, the to-do list for the city's roads and bridges is $310 million. I'm not sure it's Miller's call -- however empowered he may feel as of late -- to devote all $75 million to TCH. It's actually quite cheeky, in my view, to assume city taxpayers don't deserve to drive on better roads or to enjoy better-maintained parks and community centres, or to see their trees maintained in a more timely fashion. I also have a hard time conceiving of handing over such a huge cash infusion -- carte blanche -- to a housing agency that is as much the author of its own misfortune as the provincial government its socialist taskmasters constantly blame for downloading 58,000 units and the associated mess on them in 2002. TCH's community management plan clearly states even with $350 million in operating money from the city this year and rental income, it will still experience a $101 million funding shortfall -- money to be made up by drawing from the corporation's reserves and through third-party financing (no details provided). INANE PLAN Those dire straits notwithstanding, the bright lights at Socialist Silly Hall are prepared to hand over 717 Broadview Ave. to TCH to build a new 62-unit affordable housing project for seniors. That inane plan -- which is also on today's executive committee agenda -- will cost $20 million altogether (or $325,000 per unit) and calls for TCH to contribute $5.8 million toward the project. Now I don't know what kind of fiscal priority-setting the mayor learned in his Harvard economics studies but if you can't afford to manage the portfolio you have, you shouldn't be taking on new commitments. It would also make sense to wait until the TCH has completed its strategic asset review (with an eye to possibly selling off some of its units) before committing any money at all. I'm told that review is due out at the end of July -- or maybe in September. Coun. Case Ootes bristles when he thinks of the long-list of valuable single-family homes owned by the TCH -- which are either sitting vacant or in disrepair -- and the TCH's inability to manage their assets in a "responsible way." His efforts since last November to sell some of them off and devote the money to much-needed repairs have consistently fallen on deaf ears. He also feels TCH focuses far too much on social programs -- their management report talks about anti-racism study circles for residents -- instead of much-needed repairs. "If the TCH uses the $75 million the same way they have managed their assets so far, it's going to be money down the drain," he said." It's not going to make a bit of difference."

Banning Guns Will Reduce Street Violence

The real reason Comrade Miller stopped the bridge to the island....to protect his supporters among the squatters.......

Teen Stabbed Outside Fairview Mall Store

A young man is wounded and another is on the run after one of two stabbings in the GTA Wednesday evening.

Kickass Country

Country singer Tim McGraw doesn't just dress and talk the cowboy part, he backs it up with action. Just ask a rowdy concert-goer, who found out first-hand when McGraw personally booted him from his show Tuesday night.

McGraw was singing "Indian Outlaw" in Auburn, Wash., when he noticed a large man causing a ruckus in the front row, allegedly striking a woman. McGraw said, "Get rid of this guy! Security!" and then stooped down and dragged the man onstage, where security guards took him away.

At one point, the man and McGraw seemed ready to get into a full-fledged fracas, with McGraw cocking his fist back as if to throw a punch.

"While Tim was performing at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn, Washington, last night, he watched a man rush to the front of the stage," McGraw's rep told PEOPLE. "This overly aggressive fan attacked a female fan and Tim witnessed this incident. Tim called for security, but when they could not respond quick enough, Tim and several crew members removed the fan from the audience where he was then turned over to the local authorities."

The incident was first reported on TMZ.

McGraw's had run-ins with overly aggressive fans before. Last year, a female fan grabbed the singer's crotch while he was onstage. Wife Faith Hill immediately put the woman in her place.

Pride Week In Toronto......Pride Day In Vancouver

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

No skipping homosexual classes, Canadian schools tell parents

Not every parent wants her child to learn about gays and transgender sexuality in school. However, the Vancouver board of education plans to enforce a ministry policy that prevents parents from pulling students out of classes that deal with alternative sexuality, the Vancouver Sun reports.

A staff recommendation released Friday from the board says parents can pull their children out of sensitive lessons in health classes because of religious or family beliefs, but can't opt their children out of gay-friendly lessons in any other classes:

According to ministry guidelines, students can only opt out of the health portions of Health and Career Education K to 7, Health and Career Education 8 and 9, and Planning 10.

They aren't exempt from the lessons completely and must learn the material outside the classroom setting, by home instruction or self-directed studies. They also have to prove they've learned the material.

The recommendation has the Catholic Civil Rights League, for one, to balk. The league has long fought the policies, claiming parents have the right to remove children from any classes they find objectionable:

Edward Da Vita, a spokesman for the Catholic Civil Rights League, said he would prefer parents be able to pull their children out of any class containing controversial material.

"The problem now is that controversial subject matter can be brought up any time, anywhere, and there is no reasonable alternative delivery available for that," he said.

Source

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Hitting the street

June 18, 2008 17:06

Rainbow Flag raising
June 23, 12:30pm
Join Mayor David Miller at the Toronto City Hall podium (100 Queen W.) for the annual raising of the Rainbow Flag, which signifies the launch of Pride Week.

AIDS candlelight vigil
June 26, 9pm
Light a candle to honour both those who have died from AIDS and those still fighting the disease. This annual community event is held at Cawthra Square Park, 519 Church. Go to www.the519.org for more information.
Street festival
June 27, 6pm-midnight; June 28, 11am-midnight; June 29 11am-11pm
On Pride Weekend, the Church-Wellesley Village hosts the biggest street party of the year, with 12 city blocks shut down to make room for beer tents, a marketplace and live performances ranging from the indie-pop of the Hidden Cameras (Bud Light South Stage, June 28, 10pm) to burlesque from Skin Tight Outta Sight (Via Rail Village Stage, June 28, 8pm). Check www.pridetoronto.com for full details.

Dyke March
June 28, 2pm
Women and trans folk take to the streets for a march with more political heft and less product placement than Sunday’s parade. (No vodka-sponsored floats here!) The Dyke March begins at Church and Hayden, heads north to Bloor, west to Yonge, south to Wood, then east back to Church. This year, honoured dyke and social justice activist Anna Willats leads the march, joined by honoured dyke group the Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club.

Pride Parade
June 29, 2pm
Wrap yourself in rainbow flags, fill up your Super Soaker and prepare to party. The Pride Parade starts at Bloor E. and Church, moves west to Yonge, south to Gerrard and east to Church. At the front, you’ve got international grand marshal Gareth Henry (the former co-chair and program director of JFLAG, the Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays); grand marshal Enza “Supermodel” Anderson; and honoured group Friends for Life Bike Rally.

Judicial System Run Amok.........

Douglas Farrow: In the new Canada, we are all wards of the state.

Posted: June 24, 2008, 12:06 PM by Marni Soupcoff
Filed under: Douglas Farrow

“Leave parenting to parents,” thunders the Post in its Saturday editorial. “The courts have no business — none — in such routine family matters.” Québec Justice Suzanne Tessier’s “galling decision” in favour of a 12-year-old girl from Gatineau, who asked the court to overturn a perfectly reasonable act of parental discipline, must itself be overturned, lest parents no longer know “where their authority over their children ends and the state’s begins.”

Vancouver? Safe Injection Sites, Crime Reduction........

......and now a new Welcome Wagon!

Vancouver police to get armour on wheels

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

June 25, 2008 at 5:37 AM EDT

The Vancouver Police Department is beefing up its fleet, and the new machine's no puny gizmo: The city has approved $345,000 for an armoured rescue vehicle that will act as a mobile ballistic shield.

The Reality Of Our Future......

.......Canada being bested by Mexico is akin to cricket replacing hockey as our national sport (which by the way is actually lacrosse.) How long before Mexico has a problem with Canadian wetbacks?

Mexico ready to eclipse Canada as continent's No. 2 auto maker37

Boom in small-car sales has put nation's vehicle production on track to pass Canada for the first time 1:00 AM 37

Good news: The border fence has been built and fortified

June 24, 2008 03:43 PM by Michelle Malkin

61 Comments | 2 Trackbacks

Good News? A matter of perspective. It isn't good news for CAW workers trying to sneak into Mexico to get those high paying jobs in the auto industry.......

It Goes On and On and On and On and On.....

Politicians don't know Kyoto

Over the past 18 months I've written scores of columns on global warming. I've read nine books on the subject so far (six by authors supporting the theory of man-made global warming and the Kyoto accord, three by skeptics). I've watched three.. MORE... Dion's plan leaves us guessing Most media reports about last week's Liberal plan for a "Green Shift" in Canadian policy mentioned, and seemed impressed by the fact, that it was a 48-page document. As an avid reader of Stéphane Dion's letters to various separatist.. MORE... Carbon cuts are just a fantasy I have bad news for Stéphane Dion. Out here in B.C., the people are revolting. Gordon Campbell's much-applauded carbon tax was pretty popular in February. But now, as people are being hammered by record gas prices, the enthusiasm.. MORE... Dion's carbon debate challenge Political gamesmanship or not, Stéphane Dion's proposal that he and Stephen Harper debate the Liberals' carbon tax proposal is a good idea. Dion called for the debate on the weekend, as he responded to Conservative attacks on the carbon.. MORE... Speak to the merits, or be silent Stephen Harper is under no obligation to engage in a formal series of debates on the merits of a carbon tax, as Stéphane Dion, the Liberal Leader, has requested. The Prime Minister would be entitled to remain silent on Mr. Dion's Green Shift.. MORE...

Liberals Made This Promise For 13 Years.....

.....and all they really did was shift more and more responsibility to the provinces without shifting the $$$$ which went to pay down the deficit so provinces had to increase tax burden on it's citizens.

Dion's green anti-poverty plan
Carol Goar

When Stéphane Dion announced last November that a Liberal government would cut poverty by 30 per cent – and child poverty by 50 per cent – within five years, his political opponents scoffed.

A Shake Your Head Day In TO

Wieners losers on Bloor St.

Hunting show's OK, says council City Council is reviewing its one-day-old gun policy to ensure it doesn't accidentally kill off the Toronto Sportsmen's Show.

School cops will be armed No golf shirts and slacks for these school cops.

Dog Hill killer tied to bizarre raccoon deaths Dozen animals found poisoned in the park, clutching flowers and in poses The tale of dog poisonings at High Park took a twisted turn yesterday.

Drop Pickled Eggs, Pork & Beans, Etc. From Your Diet.......

....and anything else that can cause farting and gawd forbid you drop one in an elevator which will bring out the fartgestapo. Buy stock in Beano?

Another Mihevic "Dream" Turning In Nightmare

He screwed the citizens of Toronto on the Wychwood Barn fiasco and it looks like the St. Clair TTC right of way is going to be another example of his ineptness......

Turning a dream into a nightmare
Why St. Clair right of way is rolling Toronto in reverse
By ROB GRANATSTEIN

The St. Clair streetcar right-of-way is a classic example of how people who want something so badly can nonetheless screw it up completely, not just for the present, but the future.

Full Column

One Of Those Shake Your Head Things

June 23, 2008

Ass-Kicking Liberal Strategist And Self-Proclaimed Internet Guru A Victim Of A Hoax?

Why, that's hard to believe!

This is a man who opens penis enlargement spam and wonders "how did they find out?"

Posted by Kate at 11:06 PM

Prime Example Of Media Satire

I feel so much safer

June 24th, 2008

Toronto will never have crime again! I’m so excited! At long last, the murders will end, the sirens will be silenced, and candy gumdrops will grow on money trees.

After a long, at times bitter and widely diverging debate, Toronto city council passed a series of measures to stamp out gun violence this afternoon by a two-thirds margin.

The 31-9 vote was a victory for Mayor David Miller, who had championed the steps in order to give the city the moral authority to push other levels of government to get tough on gun crime after council voted strongly in April to ask Ottawa to enact a national handgun ban.

We’ll all sleep soundly from now on. Those pesky target shooters and gun collectors are going DOWN!

Posted by: Right Girl

Liberals Speak Out On Carbon Tax

Carbon tax: Who wins, who loses? TheStar.com - comment - Carbon tax: Who wins, who loses?

June 23, 2008

Carol Goar

Bill Graham always had a talent for cutting through political bafflegab.

It is a shame the Liberal elder statesman – who served as interim party leader, foreign affairs minister, defence minister and five-term MP for Toronto-Centre-Rosedale – is no longer a member of Stéphane Dion's caucus.

With one simple question, he pierced the attractive packaging of the Liberal leader's carbon tax plan. "What does revenue-neutral mean? It sounds nice when you say it, but it will create winners and losers. Who's going to win, who's going to lose and who's going to pay?"

Unfortunately, Graham – who is now chancellor of Trinity College at the University of Toronto – didn't ask that question in Ottawa. He posed it at a panel discussion in Toronto, organized by the Institute for Research on Policy Public.

The influential think-tank invited the city's business leaders, bankers, economists, energy experts and political analysts to a two-hour working lunch last week to discuss the challenges of crafting a carbon tax that doesn't undermine Canada's competitiveness, doesn't exacerbate regional disparities, doesn't cause federal-provincial battles and doesn't trigger a public backlash.

It was an enlightening session. The three panellists – Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University, Thomas Courchene of Queen's University and Sam Boutziouvis of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives – laid out the complexities of taxing fossil fuel use in daunting detail.

It would force exporters to jack up their prices, putting them at a disadvantage in world markets. To protect Canada's share of global trade, Ottawa might have to exempt products destined for sale abroad from the tax.

It could induce energy-dependent manufacturers to move to countries with lax environmental policies. The one percentage point cut in corporate tax rates that Dion is offering, plus the incentives for investing in green technologies, may not be enough to stem the outflow.

Imposing a carbon tariff could contravene Canada's trade obligations. It is unclear how a Liberal government could penalize imports from countries with lax environmental policies without violating the World Trade Agreement.

Putting a price on pollution would hurt some regions more than others. The impact would be particularly severe in the industrial heartland, which is already reeling from high energy prices and a sputtering economy; and the western oil sands, which spew huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Finally, all the revenue from Dion's carbon tax would flow into federal coffers. Provinces that took the lead – such as British Columbia with its groundbreaking carbon tax and Quebec with its tax on oil and gas distributors – would be expected to join the federal plan, losing their right to distribute the proceeds of the tax according to provincial needs.

"This is going to be messy – really messy," Jaccard warned.

No one in the room needed much convincing. For all Dion's talk about simplicity and fairness, it is clear the "green shift" he is proposing would be one of the most complex, challenging and divisive policy initiatives in Canadian political history.

But it took Graham's plain-spoken intervention to bring the debate back to basics.

He asked the question millions of Canadians will be asking, as they ponder Dion's climate change plan: Will I be a winner or a loser?

The Liberal leader's pledge to return every dollar of his carbon tax doesn't really answer that question.

Collectively, Canadians will be no worse off. But individually, their fates will vary, depending on how much they earn, where they live, how they heat their home, what they do for a living, how many children they have and how much flexibility they have to shrink their carbon footprint.

What Dion is proposing is a massive wealth transfer, designed to clean up the atmosphere, cut poverty and transform the industrial landscape.

If more voters see themselves as winner than losers, Dion's plan will fly. If not, it will fail.

The technicalities of taxing carbon may be opaque. The political calculus is crystal clear.

Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Look In The Mirror For The Source Of The Problem

Tackling the dropouts 45 min. ago

Parents of young black youth in Toronto rightly despair about how their children are faring in the school system.

This Is Not Charlottetown......

.....and do we have a deputy police chief who has nothing better to do than make decisions on parking violations? And who are going to make the phone calls?

Miller: I'll fix parking mess (Just like he fixes everything else) TheStar.com - GTA - Miller: I'll fix parking mess

June 24, 2008 Vanessa Lu

CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Toronto is looking at an alternative solution to catch drivers who are using a massive court backlog to escape paying $30 parking tickets.

The dispute resolution system likely will be announced on Saturday as an alternative to appearing before a justice of the peace, Mayor David Miller said yesterday.

While Miller declined to offer any details, an example of an alternative system is used in Charlottetown, where ticketed drivers can pick up a dispute form from the police department or city hall. Submitted forms are then directed to the deputy police chief for a decision.

The driver is notified by telephone within three days of a decision.

More

You Wonder Why Crime Is "Rampant" On Our Streets?

Possibly because the judicial system in Ontario is a joke and is hard pressed to handle something as simple as parking tickets........

It's come to this -- fighting a ticket will mean a day's pay

By MARK BONOKOSKI

Night court will be in session tonight at Old City Hall, arguably the last waypoint for justice for the working stiff, and the court will sit again on Thursday evening.

Then it will be lights out.

Officially, night court does not end until July 1 but since it sits only two days a week -- Tuesdays and Thursdays -- and July 1 is Canada Day this Thursday will be it.

Then anyone wishing to fight a parking ticket or a Provincial Offences Act (POA) charge such as speeding will have to book a day off work to argue the case at Old City Hall's weekday sessions.

There'll be no other option.

For many, the principle of fighting a questionable charge will now have to be weighed against losing a day's pay to challenge it in day court.

The timeline of night court's demise, with the story hitting the headlines here in May, was learned from a letter obtained by the Sun to justices of the peace -- the arbiters of night court -- from Associate Chief Justice John Andrew Payne, co-ordinator of JPs for the Ontario Court of Justice.

What the letter showed was that night court had been on the chopping block for months but, because of scheduling complications, its demise kept getting extended.

When Thursday's night court session draws to a close, however, undoubtedly after hearing its usual average of 200 cases, all will come to an end.

The working public should be outraged.

The bureaucratic explanation for night court's dismissal came via an e-mail from Tara Dier, executive co-ordinator for the Office of the Chief Justice.

"Provincial Offences Act night courts in downtown Toronto are the only regularly scheduled night court of any type in the province," she wrote. "The decision has been made to terminate them as of July 1, 2008, to make the best use of judicial and court resources.

"Two new POA first ap -pearance courts, which are able to handle a large number of attendances by the public, have been initiated on Saturdays to ensure public access."

Despite Dier's implied as -surance of unfettered "public access," the initiation of a Saturday court will not fill the bill. Saturday court, in fact, will only accept guilty pleas or those pleas known as "guilty with an explanation" which, on occasion, can get speeds reduced and fines lessened.

CASH COWS FOR CITY

Pleas of "not guilty" will not be allowed.

"Public access," despite the comments from the chief justice's office, will certainly be marginalized when night court shuts down and the only option to fight a charge is to take a day off work.

Parking tickets and POA charges are cash cows, after all, so making it easy to fight them is not profit-productive.

Not that city hall has ever made it easy.

There has never been a ca -shier's kiosk at Old City Hall, meaning fines cannot be conveniently paid. And should you attempt to go directly to Metro Hall to pay the fine, the computers there will have no record of your conviction, or your fine, for at least three working days.

When it comes to parking tickets, those who choose the Trial Option cannot set a trial date by mail. Instead they must personally attend one of four venues -- Metro Hall, North York Civic Centre, York Civic Centre, or Parking Tags Operations East on Markham Rd. -- within 15 days. None is open past 6 p.m.

According to one report over the weekend, there are thousands who have already discovered that the best way to avoid paying a parking ticket is to so burden the court with trial requests that their case gets buried.

Since 2006, for example, some 250,000 requests for trials pertaining to a parking ticket have reportedly been submitted, but only 4,300 trial dates were ever issued.

This year, some 37,000 trials for $30 parking tickets have already been requested but, according to the report, not a single court date has yet been assigned.

When the lights go out in night court in about 72 hours, however, the last chance the average worker has to fight a one-sided system also goes out the window.

Lights out; game over.