Newsstand: March 30, 2015

Happy Monday! Here's some news to get you out of bed this morning: York University might be on the road to ending its strike, new homeless shelters are planned for the city (kind of), and Earth Hour was less well-observed than usual.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

After weeks of bargaining, York University and graduate students represented by CUPE 3903 have reached a tentative deal, which the union membership will likely vote on this evening. The deal offers a tuition cut for international students, who pay significantly higher tuition than domestic students; an increase to graduate assistants’ funding package; and a tuition freeze for the length of the collective agreement.

The city’s need for new homeless shelters, and its plan to build some of those shelters in the suburbs, has some downtown homeless people and their advocates worried. More than half the city’s 4,500 shelter beds are located in just three downtown wards, with almost half of the city’s wards not housing any shelter space. However, St. Stephen’s Community House Executive Director Liane Regendanz pointed out that, while there is more poverty in the suburbs of Toronto, most of that is made up of working poor people rather than “street-involved” homelessness. And those three shelters in the suburbs would represent the only actual increase to the number of shelter beds: there are a number of shelters in the city centre that are either closing to renovate or at risk of losing their space, and need new space either temporarily or permanently.

Toronto’s participation in Earth Hour on Saturday dipped to its lowest point since the event was introduced in the city in 2008. The city saw just a 3.5-per cent decrease in power consumption during the hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Last year it was six per cent, and in 2009, the city set its record with 15 per cent.