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Newsstand: January 17, 2012
Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday! Here's the news on this Monster Tuesday: Budget battle royale is going down at today's city council meeting, outside workers union and City still haven't reached an agreement, York Region ends contract with transit company in an effort to restore transit service, and Boyz II Men are still a thing and they're playing a show at Casino Rama (this is relevant to your interests, we swear).
It’s been a long time coming, but today’s the day the city councillors have their council meeting about the 2012 budget. And some councillors are planning a revolt. No, sorry. That’s not the right word. But it is accurate to say the clamshell was abuzz yesterday with councillors pairing up, sometimes in unlikely pairings, to collaborate on cut-blocking tactics, primarily using some of that $154 million surplus to fund services. In a way, we’ve been bracing for this since last April, when council agreed to launch the KPMG report, so stay tuned for what will surely be an interesting day.
There’s been another status update on the Facebook wall that is the City’s negotiations with CUPE Local 416. The City has rejected the union’s offer to freeze wages for four years and instead wants to end the so-called “jobs for life” provision for union members with less than 25 years experience on the job. The union is not into that plan. And after just an hour of negotiations on the matter, the City walked away from the table. For those of you who are not labour negotiation super fans, all you need to know is a strike/lockout deadline of early February is still on.
Up in York, the region is cancelling their contract with one of the companies involved in the ongoing transit strike. The move could mean some service starts getting back to normal by early February. Also, some suspect the region might be hoping to scare workers at the other two companies involved in the strike back to work. But not so fast, says Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear, who represents some of those strikers, because “the region can’t just change contractors like it changes underwear.” Not only would the new contractor have to negotiate with ATU Local 113, but they would also have to think for a long time about what it looks like when a region changes its skivvies, which will either be terrifying or comical, but probably not edifying.
But enough about all that, guys. Let’s talk about casinos some more. Last week the Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation, the brothers Ford, and some unnamed provincial politicians talked about what it might be like if Toronto had its own gambling emporium. Now provincial politicians, like Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, are going on the record about how great (but also maybe bad) a casino in the city would be. Great for Toronto, maybe bad for places that already have casinos, like Niagara Falls and Casino Rama. But really, if there’s one thing we can all agree on it’s that Boyz II Men should play more dates in the GTA.