Morning Brew: Retailers may decide to keep plastic bag fee, tracking Adam Giambrone, Toronto police look for budget increase, electricty bill rebates, New Year's Day to be downright balmy
Welcome to the last day of 2010. Let's see what's in the news.
After yesterday's revelation that Rob Ford might kill the plastic bag tax -- er fee... or would levy be most appropriate? -- the speculation is that this won't be easily accomplished. Although the by-law that mandates the charge may be eliminated, retailers might independently decide to continue to charge five cents per bag. I'm not sure that Ford would really care about this, though. After all, under that scenario those people who "can't stand" the charge would be forced to direct their ire at the retailer rather than the municipal government.
The Toronto Star asks "where in the world is Adam Giambrone?" -- and find that he's right here in Toronto, though you wouldn't necessarily think that when reading the majority of the article, which focuses on his work on an archeological dig in Egypt. Oh, and he's still a supporter of Transit City and there's no word on the state of his relationship with Sarah McQuarrie. Maybe this one wasn't worth publishing?
Police Chief Bill Blair wants a three per cent budget increase, which will constitute about $26.7 million more than last year's. Not such a big deal, but it underscores the challenges that face mayor Ford's budget chief, Mike Del Grande who's been instructed to maintain a budget of $9.2-billion without cutting services.
Get ready for a 10 per cent rebate on your electricity bill in 2011. With rates predicted to rise by as much as 46 per cent over the next five years, the Liberal government decided to throw us a bit of a bone, though their opposition claims that the move is an transparent attempt to get re-elected.
IN BRIEF
Photo by syncros in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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