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Newsstand: February 24, 2015
The truth is stranger than fiction. That phrase should be a platitude, except that it is, well, true. Just take today’s mixed bag of news: a mysterious tunnel discovered near Rexall Centre, Toronto’s worst parking offenders, the woes of the Toronto Transit Commission, and a new job for Hazel McCallion.
National security officials have been investigating an underground tunnel that was discovered near Rexall Centre and York University’s Keele Campus. While more details will be made available at a press conference by Toronto Police Services at 10 a.m. today, we know that the tunnel was discovered by employees from the City and Region Conservation Authority a few weeks ago, and has since been filled in by law enforcement. Before you start imagining this as some sort Charles Bronson-esque tunnel-digging racket à la The Great Escape, it appears that this was a sophisticated operation. When discovered, the tunnel measured seven metres long and 2.5 metres high, with reinforced walls and a generator for power. So far authorities have ruled out that it was used as a drug lab or grow op. A former Canadian Security Intelligence Service assistant director, Ray Boisvert, admits that the tunnel’s proximity to 2015 Pan Am Games location at Rexall Centre raises the question of a possible threat to the Games.
In January, Mayor John Tory expanded his zero-tolerance crack down on illegal parking to include issuing tows for out-of-province license plates with three or more outstanding tickets. Now, the worst offenders have been revealed. According to Toronto police, an ICS Courier has used Alberta plates to skirt paying more fines than anyone else—612 tickets, totalling nearly $33,400 in fees. If that was not already enough, a second ICS Courier vehicle has 468 unpaid fines totalling upwards of $28,000. For those of you doing the mental math, that is 1080 collective parking infractions at a total cost of $61,400.
It is only Tuesday, and already it is shaping up to be a pretty rough week for the Toronto Transit Commission. After an auditor’s report revealed that the TTC has not been effectively monitoring internal use and maintenance of its non-revenue vehicle fleet and corporate gas cards, Mayor John Tory came down hard on the transit agency, requesting TTC CEO Andy Byford that the report’s 21 recommendations for better tracking and quality control procedures be put in place before the year’s end. Meanwhile frustration among public transit riders is also growing, as more people contend with service failures connected to the recent onslaught of freezing temperatures. An equipment failure Monday morning saw the Yonge subway line shut down between Union and Bloor stations, while flooding last week caused both St. Patrick and Bathurst stations to close down. Breakdowns of the City’s aging streetcar fleet have also been on the rise during this record-breaking cold snap. TTC spokesperson Brad Ross repeated the familiar refrain that that these troubles are symptoms of an underfunded transit system. “This is infrastructure that should have been changed 20 years ago, and it wasn’t, for various reasons. We are where we are today, we recognize that things need to be improved and that’s what we’re doing,” says Ross.
Not content with idle retirement from public life, former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion has a brand new gig. The 94-year-old will soon begin a yearlong appointment as special advisor to the principal of the University of Toronto Mississauga, where she will help develop a new master’s program in urban innovation and development.