news
Newsstand: November 17, 2010
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
It’s a wet, windy Wednesday but the news doesn’t stop on account of the weather. Today, your hydro bill should drop next year, Pearson to Union route will be dieselized, and nature shows Dalton McGuinty who’s boss.
Ho ho ho! With the holidays almost upon us and a provincial election set for next October, the McGuinty government has dug into the big bag of voter bribes and come up with lower hydro bills. Energy Minister Dwight Duncan will announce on Thursday that beginning in January 2011, Ontario residents will see an average ten percent drop in the cost of their electricity. Just so it doesn’t escape your notice, the change will take the form of a monthly rebate and will be clearly marked on your bill as the “Ontario Clean Energy Benefit.” With economic times still tough for many people, the Liberals have taken a lot of heat lately for steadily rising hydro rates, and the news this week that the provincial deficit will be a billion dollars less than expected has given them a few dollars to hand back to unhappy residents who’ve had to choose between Xbox and lunch for the kids.
Cheaper rates or not, we won’t be seeing electric trains on the planned Pearson to Union rail link in time for the Pan Am Games in 2015. Notwithstanding a recent report which found that electrifying GO trains would be more efficient and cheaper in the long term than the current diesel engines, Metrolinx says there’s no way they could do all the necessary work to electrify the Georgetown GO line and attached three kilometre spur to the airport in time to ferry awestruck foreign athletes into the city for the games, but could possibly get it done by 2018. The Clean Train Coalition, who are, in spite of their name, not a group representing GO janitorial workers, want Queen’s Park to put the project on hold and halt a planned purchase of new diesel trains by Metrolinx.
Speaking of new and exciting ways to get to the airport, a draft environmental assessment has given the green light to a plan to build a pedestrian tunnel to the Toronto Island airport. The report, commissioned by the Toronto Port Authority which owns Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, says there should be no serious issues with building a forty-five-foot underground walkway to permit easier access to the airport. Community groups are vowing to stop the project, which they say would lead to more flights using the airport. You know what would be really cool if they’re going to build a tunnel anyway? A little tiny forty-five-foot subway with miniature diesel trains driven by elves. Somebody call Rob Ford.
Chinatown merchants want the law to keep Anthony Bennett out of their hood. Bennett recently became Toronto’s most famous petty thief when he was tied up and thrown in a van by Chinatown grocer David Chen after stealing from the shopkeeper’s business, leading to a trial in which Chen was acquitted of various charges but picked up the nickname “Vigilante Grocer.” With Bennett now facing five new theft charges laid in October, local merchants are requesting that the Crown ban him from Chinatown and Kensington Market area. At the trial, Bennett failed to bolster his popularity by mouthing obscenities at the lawyer representing the business owners. Forget it, Anthony, it’s Chinatown.
Windy weather yesterday may have been what caused a construction wall to fall on top of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s unoccupied car, causing some minor damage. Most intriguing for the conspiracy minded is that the National Post says the vehicle in question was a Toyota Prius, while 680 News claims it was an OPP-operated SUV. This thing stinks to high heaven people, and Newsstand vows to get to the bottom of it, or at least feel mildly disgruntled until someone else does or we forget about it.