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Morning Brew: January 14, 2009

Posted by Joshua / January 14, 2009

16 Comments

20090114-mb.jpgPhoto: "Icicle" by ~EvidencE~, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Not that this breaking news or anything, but, uh, it's very cold (and GO Transit is having big troubles). And just in case you haven't heard, it's not getting better soon.

Not too long ago dogs were getting poisoned in High Park and now just a click or two away dogs are getting electrocuted on a Keele Street sidewalk, near Annette. Hydro teams have made it a high priority to find the cause of the problem, which is good, since paramedics won't have 20 minutes to try to resuscitate a dog every day.

Get this. A Scarborough Grand Union Steinberg's Miracle Food Mart Dominion Metro store is the newest nominee for heritage property status. Apparently the store is a "rare example of a late 20th century commercial building."

Bad news for Nortel. With a loan repayment due later this week and the company stock trading under 50 cents (down well over 90%), it looks like Canada's previously-richest company is about to file for bankruptcy. Investors won't like this, but if Nortel does file for bankruptcy common shares would be worthless. Of course, at yesterday's close at 38 cents per share, they pretty much already are worthless.

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Want to build green? Transport Minister John Baird says that means you should be able to build fast. He wants to eliminate federal environmental assessments from green projects. I like his intention of helping get environmentally-friendly projects off the ground. But doesn't it seem awfully ironic that the enviro-friendly projects would bypass the environmental assessment?

"Our computers ate the data" will no longer be a valid excuse for Toronto municipal agencies in withholding information. The Star is claiming victory after winning a lawsuit that requires city agencies to comply with all Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requests, even if it means writing new software. The court determined that the city, believe it or not, is also a part of the "information age" the rest of us live in.

It may not have been the superstar himself, but Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe was on hand at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. He shared insight into potential Canada-U.S. relations under Obama and how to run effective campaigns in the internet world. I hear several Liberals were taking extensive notes.

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Rob / January 14, 2009 at 08:54 am
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While it is a bit ironic that in order to get green projects off the ground various levels of gov't are going around the assessments but when you look at it a bit closer the time to get these projects off the ground is now not a year or two down the road (or months, I'm not sure). And it depends on the projects as well. I would imagine a subway extension would require more of an assessment than something else. If it helps people find jobs quickly and gets important projects off the ground, I'm all for getting around the assessments.
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James / January 14, 2009 at 09:06 am
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It seems pretty chic to want to get rid of the Environmental Assessment process but it serves an important role.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/01/14/8016541-sun.html

Never mind the fact that the developer didn't let people know about the high levels. The levels never would've been detected if it hadn't been for an EA.

They may be extra paperwork but they are there to protect the all of the parties involved and that includes us.
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Andrew replying to a comment from Rob / January 14, 2009 at 09:42 am
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Once you introduce this loophole, then all projects will claim to be green. That's why we have these checks.
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Mr. Constant Negativity / January 14, 2009 at 10:25 am
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In these economic times greener green projects should be assesed to see if they will ultimately be in the black and not in the red.
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Mark Dowling / January 14, 2009 at 10:29 am
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The problem is that what we rarely get even with EA is a public Cost-Benefit Analysis and/or an Alternatives Analysis especially with roads projects.
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Diane / January 14, 2009 at 10:49 am
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As Andrew indicated, you can't determine whether a project is green *without* putting it through the environmental assessment.

A truly green project should speed through the process in no time.
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Jamie / January 14, 2009 at 11:20 am
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^-- Depends on if they are looking to pass it or fail it from the outcome. FInd the problems or excentuate the positive and also how thorough an assement it is. It can speed throgh the process but depends how long the process it.
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Parkdalian / January 14, 2009 at 11:29 am
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Having seen a recent picture of that Metro store, i agree it should be preserved. It's simply beautiful and the city needs more of that unfortunately.
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Jacob / January 14, 2009 at 11:43 am
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Do we even need to report on GO Transit troubles anymore? If the temperature is below zero (or if the temperature is at or above zero), GO Transit is probably having delays.
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Shawn Micallef / January 14, 2009 at 11:54 am
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I don't know why you said "get this" in front of the metro piece. Have you seen the building? It's fantastic. Preserving/ recognizing mid-century heritage is critical right now - it's at exactly the point of most risk - like Victorians were just post-war.

This is what the book Concrete Toronto was all about.
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Davedavedave replying to a comment from Diane / January 14, 2009 at 12:09 pm
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"A truly green project should speed through the process in no time."

Tell that to anyone trying to put up a wind farm. EA's are often used to roadblock projects - and most of the time it doesn't have anything to with the enviornment.
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o_O / January 14, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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Expediting an EA process like McGuinty has done for public transit EAs is good. Eliminating EAs for "green" (whatever that means) projects sounds like Baird is opening the door for is Bay St. and Tar Sand friends to do terrible things without oversight.
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gray / January 14, 2009 at 01:05 pm
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i love it when the star runs stories of this kind (really interesting building! wow!) and doesn't bother to throw up a photo. ugh.

have a look: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-17617.pdf
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Parkdalian replying to a comment from gray / January 14, 2009 at 01:16 pm
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Wow, thanks Gray for that link. That 1958 illustration is hilarious with it's "parking pizza" stall! Scary aswell in the sense this is when the mass auto consumption began to take shape(*sigh)
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Parkdalian / January 14, 2009 at 01:18 pm
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Oh shoot!! That reads "Parkway Plaza" not Parking Pizza.... haha. Funny had it been Parking Pizza though. Like a drive-in pizza joint.
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Diane / January 14, 2009 at 03:53 pm
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"Tell that to anyone trying to put up a wind farm. EA's are often used to roadblock projects - and most of the time it doesn't have anything to with the enviornment."

That's because wind farms are notorious hazards for flying saucers:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/do-space-aliens-dislike-wind-power-or-are-they-just-clumsy/

:-)
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