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Newsstand: August 10, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Today: Torontonians hit the sweet sands of a new beach, the new mayor should get raise, and ringworm gets probed.
Looking for something sweet this summer? Mayor David Miller officially opened Canada’s Sugar Beach yesterday. The parking lot turned two-acre park at the foot of Jarvis Street was funded by all three levels of government. Look for the white Muskoka chairs and pink umbrellas. Read more about the new hot spot from us here. If you’re sensitive to the sun or don’t have any friends to go with, you can take a video tour with Christopher Hume here and read what the CBC has to say about it here.
Yes, it’s summer, but let’s face it: weather goes back to crap in a few months. And if you had planned on hitting the slopes to make the white season a tad more bearable, maybe even enjoyable, then you may be short on options in the city. Due to lack of private investors, Toronto ski hills might be shutting off their lifts come winter. As of now, Centennial Park and Earl Bales Ski and Snowboard Centres will have to close for the season. Some councillors want the hills to remain open by using public funding, but the clock is ticking since the last meeting is later this month, and then won’t be held again until after the election in January.
Whichever of the less-than-stellar candidates snags the title of mayor, they may be in for pay raise. According to a consultant’s report, Toronto’s next-in-line deserves a 9.4% increase. The current salary is just shy of $168,000, which is less than other major cities like Ottawa, Montreal, and even Mississauga. When the mayor is sworn in on December 1, he should be getting about a sixteen thousand dollar top-up, the report says. Council will hold its last meeting of the year later this month.
Trains will continue to run as usual, but it looks like there will be no strike for Union Station workers. Last night, negotiators from the Canadian Auto Workers representing 125 railway workers and the Toronto Terminal Railway reached a tentative agreement. The tentative three-year agreement avoided a strike deadline set for Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. Wage increases and better health care benefits were some of the terms discussed. Workers will likely vote to ratify the agreement by next week.
The OSPCA is worming its way back into the headlines. Ex–chief justice Patrick LeSage and former vet school dean Alan Meek will be reviewing the handling of the ringworm outbreak that resulted in the euthanasia of nearly one hundred animals at a Newmarket shelter earlier this year. The report will be made public, but no deadline has been set.