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Newsstand: September 26, 2012
It is Wednesday. Smile, because today is the first day of the rest of your week. In the news: stop hoarding your plastic bags; it isn’t taxpayers' money, right?; a very costly condo; and elephants.
Plastic bags might be sticking around for a longer time than expected, and not only because they don’t break down when you put them in the garbage. A motion to reopen the ban is scheduled for next Tuesday’s council meeting, but, in the meantime, the Ontario Convenience Store Association says that the ban was made without consulting major stakeholders and the plastics industry is claiming that almost all the bags are made in Canada, especially Ontario. Because if it is made in Ontario there is good justification to keep making it.
Apparently, Torontonians will not pay a dime for Rob Ford’s recent trade mission to Chicago. Why? Because if you say a publicly owned organization’s profits aren’t taxpayer money, then they just aren’t. Any costs of sending city council members on trips that were not covered by their own personal money or their office budgets will be paid for by the profits of the Toronto Port Lands Company (TPLC), which pays for Invest Toronto. TPLC earns revenue for the City by leasing City-owned land and buildings.
Do you have your eye on buying a home? Look no further than Toronto’s second (yes there has been another) $28 million condo. If this Philip Johnson–designed home meets the asking price, it and the penthouse at the Four Seasons will be tied as the most expensive condos in Canada. It is a bit surprising, though, that Toronto’s condo developers haven’t chopped the 10,200 square feet unit up into 28 $1 million bachelor apartments yet. As a bonus, watch the video included in the article to hear the sales rep talk about people that “need” a $28 million condo (around the 2:25 mark).
Knock, Know. Who’s there? Elephants! Elephant’s who? Elephants you…oh whatever. The Toronto Zoo has passed another blip on Operation Plinko Drop (get it?) back to city council. The senior veterinarian at the zoo, Graham Crawshaw, has raised concerns that an Asian Elephant at PAWS, the California facility where Toronto’s African Elephants are going, has an active case of tuberculosis, even though the elephant with TB will not be housed with the three coming from the Toronto Zoo. According to a PAWS representative, this is not new information and is being used now by the zoo as a tactic to keep the animals in Toronto. This could mean another cold winter for the warm-climate animals. The zoo board’s update goes to the executive committee and then council in October.
