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Weekend Newsstand: March 16, 2013
It's the last Saturday of winter, so make it count—or winter will haunt you. Sorry, them's the rules. In the news: Other cities mad about Toronto's casino deal, city councillor's brother signs up to lobby for a casino, money found for TCHC repairs, some people are visiting the waterfront, and a cool kid is having a party.
Other Ontario cities are finally being upfront about disliking Toronto. Mayors from other cities competing to land a new casino are pissed to find out that the OLG is offering Toronto a better deal. If a casino does come to Toronto, the OLG is willing to double the cut of gambling revenue it shares with the host city. Not so in other places like Ottawa and Niagara Falls, where the mayors and councils definitively want a casino.
Look who’s lobbying now: John Nunziata, the former Liberal MP and brother of councillor Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston). Mr. Nunziata is registered to lobby on the casino issue on behalf of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association. It’s a good thing Councillor Nunziata doesn’t need any more lobbying, since she’s already come out in favour of a casino. Her brother wasn’t planning to lobby her anyway. (Also, isn’t lobby a weird verb?)
Refinancing Toronto Community Housing mortgages could save the housing agency almost $100 million, says Councillor Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport). She’s the head of a working group that’s trying to find ways to drum up the $751 million needed to fix the TCHC’s crumbling housing stock. Bailão says the move to refinance 18 mortgages would free up $93.5 million that could be put towards repairs, and she doesn’t want anyone to vote against that plan.
Looking for something to do on this last weekend of winter? How about heading to the waterfront? Come on, two-thirds of the city’s doing it. A new poll by Forum Research says that 66 per cent of Torontonians visited the waterfront in the past year, with most of them going to people watch. So everyone’s getting together in one spot to watch each other, which is helpful, really.
And if you’re friends with this kid, that must be awesome. Twelve-year-old Jorel Hoffert made an incredibly elaborate and well-produced musical invitation to his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. But after the video went viral, as the kids say, Hoffert’s parents are slightly worried about party crashers. So go and have fun if you’re supposed to; stay home and just wish you were there if you’re not.
