By Patrick Metzger

Faced with a distasteful choice between imposing unpopular new taxes or recommending draconian budget cuts, City Council came up with the ingeniously gutless idea of deferring the decision until after the provincial election in October. The premise is that maybe that the province will agree to once again pony up for the social service costs that it downloaded under Mike Harris. Or maybe the City Hall lotto pool will win the 6/49, like, forty times in a row. Either way we’re golden.
A report from TD Economics notes that Toronto’s economic growth seems to have run out of steam. Per capita GDP growth over the last five years was less than half that of the country as a whole, and well behind most major US cities except Detroit. As a solution, City Council has recommended re-branding our tourism website, replacing “clean and safe” with “gritty and urban.”
Toronto police will soon be targeting drivers who don’t stop behind streetcars while passengers are getting on and off. In theory, drivers can get fines and three demerit points for passing open streetcar doors, but in practice they rarely do. The operation is unimaginatively named “Project Take Time To Check,” possibly because “Project Some People Are Just Assholes” was deemed too wordy.
Thieves broke into a Forest Hill home and as part of their haul got away with a pair of cufflinks which once belonged to a former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and which bear the crest of that office. No suspects as yet, but detectives are investigating the whereabouts of newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor David Onley on the day in question.
Photo by cliphfrom the Torontoist Flickr Pool.