Morning Brew: Ford wants to replace the Gardiner with a tunnel, Toronto still on the hook for Transit City, Ontario's Sunshine List, NOW gets some attention, and the Leafs are hanging on
Looks like that "Toronto Tunnel" might become a reality after all. According to documents obtained through a freedom of information request, Rob Ford would like to see the Gardiner Expressway buried by 2018. You might remember this idea being tossed around by former mayoral candidate, Rocco Rossi, who planned to connect the Allen and Gardiner expressways via a subterranean corridor during his (failed) campaign. Details regarding the size and cost of the tunnel are yet to be revealed, but not surprisingly Ford says he's "absolutely" considering a public-private partnership.
Transit City may be history, but that doesn't mean Toronto is off the hook. The City must pay at least $49-million for cancelling the Transit City rail plan for any penalties incurred for breaking or altering the contracts, says Bruce McQuaig, the CEO of Metrolinx. Part of that figure includes the $8 to 9 million committed to planning the now cancelled Finch Avenue West light rail line.
Toronto police officers working overtime at the G20 were just some of the many Ontario public servants who made the "Sunshine List"--a list of those public servants earning over $100,000. The list grew 11 percent from last year, which the opposition calls "shocking" considering Finance Minister Dwight Duncan call for voluntary pay freezes in the public sector last year. Duncan insisted the government is making progress with the average civil servant wage down a whopping one per cent.
By now (no pun intended), you've probably heard about NOW Magazine's recent cover controversy. The scantily-clad (and photoshopped) image of our mayor that graces this week's cover resulted in an email being sent from his office requesting the removal of the newspapers from all City of Toronto facilities/locations. The mayor's press secretary, Adrienne Batra, chalked up the request to a miscommunication and overzealous City staffers, and denied that the mayor had made any removal order. NOW was up in arms over the whole thing, but judging by the majority of the comments on the cover story, it wasn't just the mayor's staff who were unimpressed.
IN BRIEF:
Photo by stro1multimedia in the blogTO Flickr pool.
Join the conversation Load comments