Archive for 'In The Media'
InsideToronto.com: A matter of priority in Weston-Mount Dennis
Posted on 18. May, 2012 by Jeremy.
For years, the Weston and Mount Dennis neighbourhood didn’t seem to be much of a priority to the city.
Violent crime was on the rise with several high-profile homicides involving youth reported in the news.
Employment rates have been on a steady decline ever since big industries like Kodak left the community, taking thousands of jobs with them.
Poverty remained a big concern in York South-Weston, which has often been referred to as the second poorest riding in Ontario.
In 2005, the United Way and the City of Toronto partnered to form the Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy, choosing nine neighbourhoods to invest in that were identified as having poor access to services and other challenges.
Surprisingly, to many local residents and community agencies, Weston-Mount Dennis was not one of them.
That same year, police responded to more than 50 homicides as a result of gunfire. One of the victims was Jamal Hemmings, 17, who was fatally shot near Eglinton and Marlee avenues. His friend, Amon Beckles, 18, was shot at Hemmings’ funeral.
Continue Reading
Metro Morning: Matt Galloway Speaks with John Campey Regarding New Garbage Pick-up Fees for Non-profits
Posted on 14. May, 2012 by Jeremy.
Listen to Matt Galloway interview John Campey about the City’s new fees on Non-Profits for garbage pick-up, the unintended consequenses and cost to taxpayers that this desicion will create.
Continue Reading
Toronto Star: Province’s new school fundraising rules don’t address rich/poor gap, say critics
Posted on 07. May, 2012 by Jeremy.
by Patty Winsa and Kristin Rushowy
Staff Reporters
Raising funds has become a fourth R in Ontario’s education system — but new provincial rules will do little to curb the ubiquitous practice or address the gap between have and have-not schools, critics say.
The guidelines, promised since 2002, were finally released by the province Friday. For the first time, they require schools in Ontario to report annually to the community on how much money they raise and where it’s spent.
But they do nothing to close the massive disparity in fundraising between rich and poor elementary schools — from a high of $250,000 over three years to less than $7,000 — uncovered by the Star in a 2011 series using data obtained from boards in Greater Toronto, says Lesley Johnston of Social Planning Toronto.
Continue Reading
Toronto Star: Charities face up to $20,000 in new garbage fees
Posted on 03. May, 2012 by Jeremy.
An employee for an after-school children’s program, or garbage collection?
More than 1,000 Toronto charities and non-profits are now scrambling to make decisions necessary to balance the books after learning of a city council decision to charge for garbage pick-up.
Beginning July 1, charities and non-profit groups will pay for waste collection — a motion passed by city council late last year that many organizations say they’ve only recently been informed of.
“The roll-out of this has been just awful. Organizations are now just waking up to the fact that they are facing really significant costs,” said John Campey, executive director of Social Planning Toronto.
Hardest hit, Campey said, are organizations that accept food or clothing, since they receive loads of poor-quality donations that wind up in the garbage. For those groups, costs will be between $10,000 and $20,000 once they are phased in by 2015, he said.
Continue Reading
Terence Corcoran: Toronto’s transit feud is so bad there’s only one solution left: Start over (National Post)
Posted on 08. Mar, 2012 by Jeremy.
In the first of two parts, columnist Terence Corcoran examines the trouble with transit policy-making in Toronto. (Read part two here.)
In the great Toronto transit debacle, more than $12-billion in projects are at stake in decisions that will shape the region for half a century. The concepts are complex, the risks are high, political infighting is deep and nasty, and the need for something that approaches rationality has never been greater — and has never seemed so far away.
The gap between here and good governance, already seemingly insurmountable, reached the absurd at Toronto city council’s now notorious Feb. 8 meeting, the one where Karen Stintz, councillor for Ward 16 and chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, orchestrated a coup de transit against Mayor Rob Ford’s plans for subway expansion and in favour of greater use of above-ground light rail transit schemes.
Never mind the details of the debate. The real indicator of the state of transit policy-making in Toronto came after council had voted to set up “an expert advisory panel” to determine the feasibility of several core transit projects, including expansion of the Sheppard subway.
Continue Reading
Find Us Online:
