Results tagged “financeminister”

Premier Dalton McGuinty has fired off a whiny letter to the PM complaining about Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's public criticism of Ontario and its tax laws. Flaherty, who apparently counts all time lost when he's not psychologically bitch-slapping his governmental inferiors, responded by calling McGuinty a "big stupid crybaby."

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman has caused a furor with his comment that he'd be willing to test-drive an adult diaper to see if being left in soiled diapers for hours on end is really all that bad. Critics say he isn't taking the issue of sub-standard care in nursing homes seriously, which seems a bit harsh, since there can't be too many politicians who'd be willing to spend a day crouched in their own excrement on behalf of their constituents. Brings a tear to the eye, it does.

A three hour Blackberry outage affected millions of people across North America yesterday, leading to much wailing and handwringing over the temporary unavailability of a technology that didn't even exist ten years ago. Truly we are a nation of whiners.

A protest outside the Toronto office of Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Thursday drew attention to the housing crisis in Canada, demanding that resources spent on military action in Afghanistan be diverted to provide an additional 1% of the federal budget for social housing.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

A large part of the downtown core from College to Queens Quay and York to Bayview, was blacked-out for about 2 ½ hours yesterday. In response, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said that Toronto has the ability to generate all the power it needs and certainly wasn't getting any more from the Province, while Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty agreed, adding that Torontonians should stop whining and being all dependent on electricity.

A massive fire at a townhouse complex on Jarvis Street near Mutual resulted in the death of an unidentified victim on Saturday night. Construction on the townhouses had been abandoned for ten months and the building was being inhabited by squatters, says a resident at the adjacent Radio City condo tower.

The Entertainment District got a little more entertaining early Monday morning as an innocent bystander was wounded in a wild movie-style shootout involving at least four gunmen. Mayor David Miller called for a crackdown on gun smuggling as part of his strategy of blaming all problems in Toronto on forces outside of his control.

Benny Hinn arrives in Toronto this weekend. True story: when I was a kid I used to look in the TV listings, see the listing for "Benny Hinn," and wonder why the TV guide was misspelling "Benny Hill." (Da da da DEE DEE da da da da, da da da da da da da da, da da DEE DEE da daaaaaa.)

The Conservative government is expected to announce their new budget today, emphasizing both tax cuts and new additional spending. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wasn't even particularly coy about the Conservatives' budget being a major attempt to disincentivise (Torontoist thinks that's a word) an election, claiming that Canadian families will like it and "vote for it." He then double-dog-dared the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois to vote against the budget. He then triple-dog-dared them. When he got to quadruple-dog-dares, the reporters all got up and left.

Every week (or so), two Torontoist staffers square off to debate an issue that's important to our city. We invite our readers to join the debate in the comments section following the post.

Gas shortages continue to plague Ontario and Quebec and it isn't getting better anytime soon. Hybrid owners laugh manically as the world slowly crumbles around them. Mad Max-style mayhem ensues.

That guy in North York who accidentally let loose his pet giant cobra into the ducts of his semi-detached house pled guilty to mischief yesterday. He also had a poisonous viper in his bedroom and a second cobra that he accidentally left at work. How the hell do you accidentally leave a poisonous snake at work? No, seriously, how do you do that? What major malfunction do you have to have to forget about a dangerous snake that you brought to your job? He only had three snakes anyways; how do you come home, count two snakes, and not realize "hey whoops, I guess I forgot that other dangerous snake, better go get it?"

When the feds handed out $37 million for improving security on transit systems nationwide yesterday, Go Transit received $5.3 million, $4.3 million went to Union Station, but the TTC received only $1.46 Million, just shy of the $17 million it asked for. "It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee,'" said Howard Moscoe, distractedly pushing a rusty shopping cart full of discount surveillance cameras.

The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. is still in turmoil. The Corp. has been without a board chair since the summer. What's worse, Queen's Park, Ottawa and the City couldn't decide who should be appointed to the chair. What's worse Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been meddling in the affairs of the TWRC.

David Soknacki, the right-winger picked by David Miller to be his budget chief, has announced that he is retiring from politics and will not be running for re-election in Ward 43 - Scarborough East this fall.

Every couple of years, everyone outside of Europe in North America decides to become soccer fans. Can that feeling of excitement be sustained over the regular season?

Union Station is getting a $100 million facelift. Commuters will not just be getting wider platforms but a whole new one when engineers and construction workers finish moving a sewer by 2008.

with Cameron Diaz. Do you recall the hyperactive green-faced character's famous catch-phrase? Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara does; it's "Smmmokkkkkkin'!" And now you have to pay more money to do so, as Ontario raised the price of cigarettes effective today. Packs of 25 have gone up 16 cents, and cartons are up $1.25.

Amid renewed concerns of the efficiency of the LCBO, the provincial government has appointed some sort of panel in attempts to modernize the liquor board. While Torontoist didn't actually sit down with panel organizer Greg Sorbara, that didn't stop us from conducting a hard-hitting interview with the Finance Minister. Here's the exclusive: