Month: February 2017

Judy Keenleyside 1928 – 2017

Judy Keenleyside has died at the of 88 at home in Toronto on Monday, January 30, 2017. She was the wife of the late Dr. Hubert (Hub) Keenleyside.  Judy was born in Ottawa and met her husband-to-be in Montreal working as an RN. She had two children, Dave and Anne. She was a tireless volunteer on behalf of the Royal Ontario Museum after the couple moved to Toronto. She served as a docent and at the ROM Reproduction Shop.  She was also a member of Oriole-York Mills United Church. The family will receive friends at the Humphrey Funeral Home — A.W. Miles Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Davisville Avenue) from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, February 10..  A funeral service will be held in the chapel on Saturday, February 11 at 11 a.m.  Interment Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Obituary

Behind the scaffold, a sign

Recently opened in SmartCentre

690 before deal was done

Meridian Credit Union has taken the long-vacant space at 690-692 Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Soudan Ave. Workers are busy putting a bank-like stone front on the premises this week. It is a tenancy which seems likely to bring important additional vitality to the Mount Pleasant Village BIA strip. Meridian is Ontario’s largest credit union and it has vowed to take on Canada’s banking “Five Sisters” by creating a sixth national bank. The ambitious firm was formed in 2005 in the Niagara Region where it is still headquartered in St. Catharines. Meridian was formed April 1 of that year by the merger of the Niagara Credit Union and the HEPCOE (hydro workers) Credit Union. Since then Meridian has been on a tear, opening more than 40 branches in Ontario, one of the most recent being the outlet in the SmartCentre on Wicksteed Ave. Locally, the Meridian strategy has caused it to straddle Bayview Ave. where BMO, CIBC, TD, Royal and Scotia have formed a well-known Canadian banking cluster. But no such cluster exists on Mt. Pleasant. Only RBC has a branch there.  All the banks are represented on Laird near the SmartCentre but only two — Royal and BMO — are in the shopping complex.

Persons per sq. km.

More and more tower dwellers

The 2016 census headline released Wednesday suggests that Canada, at slightly more than 35 million souls, is more than ever a land of city-dwellers with an increasing trend to condominium life. It is a fascinating and in some ways sobering view of the country with the second-largest land mass in the world (9,984,670 sq. km.) As the Statistics Canada comparison above shows, our enormous land mass is populated on average by just four persons by per square kilometre. Russia, the largest national land mass in the world (17,075,200 sq. km.) has nine people were square kilometres. For those who think strategically about a country’s capacity to truly command its territory, disparities like these cause unease. It is of course why Canada more than any other country is so eager for immigrants, and is prepared to grant dual citizenship almost without exception. Few other countries are as generous. On the plus side, the 2016 numbers show our cities are growing with those in the west growing fastest. We have the fastest rate of growth of any country in the G7.  Statistics Canada reveals this in the first of what will be seven tranches of 2016 census data to be released over the course of the year. Wednesday’s release focused on population and dwellings; the next one, in May, will be focused on age and sex. CBC

Wallet theft suspect #1

Wallet theft suspect #2

Wallet theft suspect #3

Wallet theft suspect #4

The timeless downside of carefree fun among downtown crowds is the message from Toronto Police Service Wednesday as they hunt for four suspects alleged to have stolen “multiple wallets” in a 48-hour period last Thursday and Friday. They were taken from victims’ coats and bags while customers were seated in coffee shops and eateries in areas with high pedestrian traffic Credit cards were compromised and used for cash advances and retail purchases. Don’t hang your coat with the wallet in it on the back of your chair.

The City will demolish and then re-build the eastbound off ramp from the Gardiner Expressway to York, Bay and Yonge Streets. Get ready. Here

The City of Toronto has issued an extreme cold warning for Wednesday night and Thursday morning when temperatures will sink to minus 11 and similar depths. It is a reminder to check on friends and family who may not see these extremes heading their way. Saturday is predicted by the Weather Network to see a high of five degrees with the sun peeking through clouds now and then.

Connaught pool

Penny Oleksiak

Mayor Tory

Toronto Executive Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday to cease funding for the Duke of Connaught swimming pool at the S.H. Armstrong Community Centre on Woodfield Road. The pool will close for lack of the $85,000 a year subsidy which has kept it going until now. There is bitterness expressed Wednesday at the role of the mayor, who voted with the majority, because of previous expressions of sympathy with those hoping for an extension. He had been messaged in January by Olympic Swimmer Penny Oleksiak asking him to save the pool and had replied “Gold medal message received.”  His tweet below says he will ask the budget chief to try to find a way to save pools. This is no guarantee but it was taken as an assurance that Tory was prepared to save the pool. Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32) made what is being called an impassioned plea in the cause.  But on a day when the mayor felt the need to explain how City staff had found several million dollars in savings to balance the Toronto budget, the Connaught pool was just another casualty.

Gold medal message received, @OleksiakPenny. I've asked Budget Chief Gary Crawford to find a way to save these pools. https://t.co/A9N9HK2inH

— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 11, 2017

Thanks to all our new families for coming to our JK/SK Open House! #davisvillerocks All are welcome. pic.twitter.com/vQHZHnS2WC

— Davisville Jr PS (@DavisvillePS) February 7, 2017

Elevator Alert: Davisville Station, Concourse to Street Level is out of service. #TTC

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) February 8, 2017

The CBC has examined the bureaucratic issues around the smuggling of Fentanyl from China into Canada (right above). The government is only beginning to work with the Chinese about getting tough on smugglers. And Canada Post rules forbid inspectors from opening packages weighing less than 30 grams, a favorite form of shipping Fentanyl. The stuff enters Canada in powder form so a pill press is needed to make the drug easy to sell. They’re now talking about controlling the availability of pill presses.

The federal government will extend $372.5 million in loans to Bombardier to support the Global 7000 and CSeries aircraft projects. Bombardier’s railway division is the notoriously slipshod manufacturer of streetcars for Ontario and City of Toronto. CBC

Monica Mueller Millwood Rd.

Monica Mueller Millwood Rd.

Monica Mueller Millwood Rd.

Ice has brought down a tree on Millwood Rd. near Hanna Rd. blocking the street, on this treacherous Tuesday night. There are numerous reports from the Twitter account of TPS Operations of ice falling from buildings downtown. At Church and Bloor Sts. a pedestrian has been hit by ice and Bay Street has been closed between Elm and Gerrard because of ice falling onto vehicles. No one is hurt there. At Kingston Rd and Cornell Ave. a transformer has exploded leaving wires hanging..sparking. Hydro is on the scene. Ice is said to be delaying streetcars on Queen Street. TPS Operations

Collision: Mortimer/ Broadview.. Ped struck. Woman w serious injs takn to hosp. Mortimer now closd frm Broadview to Jackman Av. #239280 ^adc

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) February 8, 2017

A special weather statement is saying ice accretion of 4 to 8 mm on wires and tree branches has been reported in some places. Freezing rain will continue before changing to rain this evening. The temperature 1 celsius in most of Toronto.