Newsstand: February 27, 2015

Yesterday was a nice day on the internet: some llamas made a break for it and we all argued about a dress. Hopefully today is a nice light pre-weekend day for everyone as well. In the news: TTC CEO Andy Byford cares about transit, city councillors look at funding rinks, and craft beer stores may be coming to Ontario.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

The ups and downs of helping provide transit to the citizens of a large city can be chaotic. People expect the most from their transportation, and when it fails to meet those expectations (like this winter when extreme cold has led to streetcar breakdowns and at least one shutdown of both the Yonge subway and the Scarborough Rapid Transit line) they often take it out on the people they see as responsible. Toronto Transit Commission CEO Andy Byford is one of those people. He’s also, from appearances, a genuine fan of public transit who seems committed to his five-year plan for improving the TTC.

Following a motion last year that passed but failed to get action, City Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) is pushing the City for a contingency fund to keep public rinks open during winters when it’s cold enough to do that. Her motion made it through the park committee Wednesday. Fletcher was spurred to action after Mayor John Tory announced last week that the city would look for corporate donations to extend the lives of local rinks. This would be the second year in a row of leaving the rinks’ lives in the hands of corporations, and Fletcher is unhappy about it. She had a bill passed last year that also requested this contingency fund, but the wording was not strong enough to compel action. “I was nice, maybe, and said ‘consider,’ so maybe you shouldn’t be nice,” Fletcher told the Globe and Mail. “This time, the committee has said ‘Go away, figure it out, bring it back’.”

A Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament has called for changes that would allow the province’s craft breweries to sell each other’s beer. “Essentially, what you would be doing is allowing them to create 40 mini beer stores,” said MPP Todd Smith.