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Newsstand: April 4, 2012
G'morning! Hump day has arrived, and with it, some news: Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday wonders what Rob Ford plans to do for the next two-and-a-half years; CUPE 79 reached an agreement with the City; and we might be gettin' some islands off Humber River.
Other than shouting frenziedly about subways and, less recently, gravy trains (dude loves trains), is Mayor Rob Ford actually saying anything? Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday—a known Ford supporter—has said he is unclear about the mayor’s agenda from here on out. But actually, he has no clue what the mayor wants to do—get rid of the plastic bag fee? Um, some other stuff? Yeah…he does like talking about the 2014 election. That we know.
One thing the guy doesn’t want to do until 2014 is deal with labour unions. The city’s 8,600 part-time recreation employees accepted an amended deal endorsed by the City and CUPE Local 79 last night. The agreement in place, all of the city’s full-time—and most of its part-time—workers have ratified new contracts. Mayor Rob Ford, for his part, is pleased, and pronounced a glorious end to labour disruptions for the next four years. And in two-ish years, there’s going to be an election. An election! Did you know? Let’s talk about it.
The City is considering using the dirt that will be dug out during the construction of the Eglinton light rail line as material for building islands in Lake Ontario. Whatever your stance on light rail—or islands, for that matter—admit that that’s pretty effing cool. Do it, admit it right now. Anyway, the islands would be built at the mouth of the Humber River, and could help improve water quality along city beaches (underwater barrier something something), support wildlife, and be generally pretty. Plus, they could be opened up to the public.
An earlier edition of this post included a summary of the recent Ontario Court of Appeal ruling on the Toronto billboard tax. Torontoist wrote about this story on Monday; find our coverage here.