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Newsstand: July 18, 2013
Good morning people of Thursday. News today: City council voted yesterday to go ahead with the Scarborough subway extension, post-flood garbage just won't quit, the Toronto Star is reporting that the City supposedly knew about a provincial loan repayment they claimed not to know about, and a police detective bakes some delicious car-cookies.
The city’s relentless transit debate has reached a conclusion—sort of. Following two days of debate, city council voted 28-16 yesterday to support the Scarborough subway extension. Of course, the project won’t be a go unless all three levels of government are willing to commit and throw support behind it, and the city manages to establish dedicated funds for it through property taxes. Council set September 30 as a deadline for commitments from the provincial and federal governments.
Last week’s surprise flooding has apparently left epic quantities of garbage in the city—so much so that, even with a special garbage collection day held last Saturday, collection likely won’t be finished until this weekend at the earliest. And this week’s heat wave hasn’t helped any. Good times.
The Toronto Star is reporting that the City of Toronto’s assertion that they didn’t think a $200-million loan from the province needed to be repaid is false, according to documents the newspaper says they’ve obtained. The loan in question is the one that the provincial government said last month they would forgive, to ease the impact of a different compensation fund they were phasing out. At the time, Mayor Rob Ford and city manager Joe Pennachetti said that Toronto had never had any expectation of having to pay it off. But the documents supposedly suggest that the City was actually fully aware of the need to pay the debt off.
And now for the best news you’ve probably heard in a while: A Toronto Police Detective decided that yesterday’s heat was so extreme, he’d attempt to bake a batch of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies in his car, then live-tweet the entire process. And bake cookies he did, to the delight of, presumably, everyone. If nothing else, it brings new life to the phrase “It’s as hot as an oven in here!”