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Newsstand: November 13, 2014
Snow. It is coming. Be ready. In the news: a $4,219 price tag on Pan Am Games internal documents, a dodgy presentation to high school students about nutrition from the sugar industry, and an old policy that might make it tricky for banks to issue mortgages for micro condos.
According to the Toronto Star, the local organizing committee for the 2015 Pan Am Games recently charged the paper $4,219 to access 18 months’ worth of public records about construction delays on new sports facilities that were available under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The documents requested from TO2015 included internal communications and emails related to the construction of 10 new tax-funded facilities, equalling 5,808 printed pages for whose printing the paper was charged a $1,241 fee. Reps for TO2015 say that even in this digital age, their organization lacks the technological capacity to provide records digitally, citing privacy concerns. While other government organizations and ministries do provide digital records, it is not an uncommon practice to be charged printing fees for records. Experts say that the costs to access this public information often make it prohibitive for some people and organizations, but there is little that can be done to prevent this practice unless the Act is changed to include provisions against excessive costs.
A 13-year-old student at Northern Secondary School says that he was requested to stop asking questions during a class presentation made by the Canadian Sugar Institute, which was billed as an informational presentation to students on how sugar can be a part of a healthy diet. Ryan Storm started to ask questions about studies that support claims on the health dangers associated with sugar, which presenters kindly asked him to stop doing. The Canadian Sugar Institute bills itself as a non-profit group representing the Canadian sugar industry by providing science-based nutrition information, so it would seem odd that representatives would refuse to answer questions from a teenager about research studies during an “educational” session at a school, right? Well, even the Toronto District School Board is scratching its collective head, wondering how the group managed to gain access to a captive audience of students. Ryan Bird, a spokesperson for the TDSB, says that school officials had no knowledge of the presentation until after it had happened, adding, “The fact is, it was inappropriate, it shouldn’t have happened and this specific presentation won’t be made in that school, or any other school.” Bird says that the board usually vets dieticians, nutritionists, and public health officials invited to talk about nutrition in classrooms, even if that process was somehow ignored in this case.
As the micro-condo trend lands in Toronto, banks are scrambling to find ways to work around old policies that restrict them from issuing mortgages on units that are smaller than 500 square feet. Currently 467 units of micro condos that fall under the 500-square-foot threshold are in the occupancy phase in the city, with another 2,868 expected to be ready by the end of 2015. While investors think brokers still have some hesitancy about the micro-condo market, some banks, like TD, say they intend to work around square footage regulations by reviewing each mortgage on a case-by-case basis.