Month: April 2017

The party goes on at 75 Hanna Road (at Millwood Rd) as Doug Radford and his family host neighbours for the Leafs playoff games. Flashback to the 2013 series

The CBC reports that a Toronto woman,Vicki Russell, was bumped from an Air Canada flight taking her to a $10,000 Galapagos cruise after she had checked in and been given a boarding pass for her fully-paid fare. It makes compelling reading. But is it simply evidence again that the airline industry is so perilous that the business model can never be fixed? Airlines go broke, merge, create bargain-basement carriers and abuse their customers because the economics of flying are irrational. Overbooking isn’t a mean-spirited decision to hurt people, it’s a desperate act of survival. CBC

Unicorn Frap

Bradon Burson is overwrought

Jackie Dunham of CTV

How should the First World think about Unicorn Food, and particularly what about the Unicorn Frappuccino? This is a Starbucks product introduced Monday for five days ending Sunday. CTV writer Jackie Dunham finds that the Uni Frap has been measured by the universal social media monitor to be both delightful and disgusting. It seems to meet the “too pretty to eat” definition of all Unicorn Food. The Unicorn Frap has a “sweet dusting of pink powder, blended into a crème Frappuccino with mango syrup and layered with a pleasantly sour blue drizzle.” It is said to change colours. A young barista, Braden Burson of Monument, Colorado, has told his many (he says) followers on Twitter that he has never been so stressed out by the difficult recipe and the wearying demand.

Park Street in Dundas

Our own Kevin R. is LIVE in Dundas, Ontario with flash flooding: https://t.co/MCDxFHnoYm pic.twitter.com/UCZb8hgvbk

— Instant Weather Ontario ⚡️ (@IWeatherON) April 20, 2017

Sydenham Creek in Dundas ON coming out of its banks this evening after 75 mm of rain. Road closures and property flooding #onstorm pic.twitter.com/eQgWjqhcn5

— Chris Scott (@ChrisScottWx) April 21, 2017

The “Valley City” of Dundas has been flooded by the onslaught of rain estimated at between 60 and 75 mm which has spilled down the Niagara Escarpment overflowing the Sydenham and Spencer Creeks. Much of the downtown is under several inches of water, with the depth varying. The CBC says the rain clogged storm drains and triggered a mudslide and flooding on at least eight streets in the community. Calls about the flooding began coming in around 7:40 p.m. For a while the main road into Dundas from Hamilton, Hwy 102, was inundated and all traffic stopped. CBC

Premier Wynne added some shading Thursday to the news that Ontario will apply a 15 percent surcharge on home purchases made by foreign speculators. She said the tax would not apply to immigrants, nor it seems, to foreigners actually living in the homes.

LEGISLATOR’S REMORSE?

Still, the decision to extend rent controls to all apartment buildings is a gamble which may be trickier to manage than the real estate tax. The tax is removable without a voter backlash — rent control is not. If builders and landlords decide the apartment building business isn’t worth it, overall housing stock will absolutely shrink. The government may experience legislator’s remorse about universal rent control.

Against the Grain on Laird Dr

Large two floor space

Against the Grain Urban Tavern in the Leaside Village will close April 28, The South Bayview Bulldog has learned. Sources also confirm that Amsterdam Brewery will renovate the Laird Drive location and open an Amsterdam BrewHouse later this year. This will compliment Amsterdam’s “Tap Room, Brewery & Store”, which opened in 2012 around the corner at 45 Esandar Drive, in the Leaside Business Park.

Walmart Canada will cut staff in Canada in what it calls a restructuring. One report said that 475 workers would be let go, but Walmart says it will be fewer. It gave no number. Walmart Canada employs about 91,000 associates. The company operates 410 stores in Canada, according to its website.

JOE AT WORK

The Globe and Mail says the new president of Rogers, Joe Natale, will “obsess” over customer service. Hope so. Still, Joe can’t make arithmetic go away when it comes to cost. We’ll see.

WEST JET DOLLAR-STORE AIRLINE

West Jet Airlines says it will create a super-cheap airline to catch flyers prepared to squeeze into tiny seats to save a buck. This move will also steal business from other start-ups like Canada Jetlines Ltd. and Enerjet, both of which are trying to raise money for their budget operations.

Actually just across the Leaside line but never mind

Hey, there’s a Tim’s

Whole Foods is busy on Instagram in the hours before it opens the store at 1860 Bayview at Broadway Aves. The titillating Twelve thirty-six @1236 tweets: “Like the artisanal Tim Hortons up there — the people of Leaside like being reminded they’re in Leaside.” Yes, yes. That means having the look of an artisan, but we appreciate the thought. The new Whole Foods opens Wednesday, April 26 at 8.45 a.m.

Kia is said to have overshot curb, hitting truck

No going home this way

Truck totalled

WATCH: Reporter Justine Lewkowicz describes the collision scene at the Bayview/Bloor ramp. Suspected impaired driver involved. pic.twitter.com/4hmEOI5rRF

— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) April 20, 2017

Five people were hurt in an accident on the Bayview/Bloor ramp from Don Valley Parkway Thursday.
The crash caused both vehicles to rollover just before 6 a.m. Impaired driving is the view of police. The scene of this accident is cleaned up with the road reported to be open again shortly after 10 a.m. Ed — 11.08 a.m. EDT

The Canadian Press has learned that the Ontario government will place a 15-per-cent tax on non-resident foreign buyers as part of a much-anticipated package of housing measures to be announced Thursday. The measures are aimed at cooling down a red-hot real estate market in the Greater Toronto Area, where the average price of detached houses rose to $1.21 million last month, up 33.4 per cent from a year ago. Many of the measures Premier Wynne will announce this morning were also reported by CBC’s Queens Park reporter Mike Crawley.

They include:

•  A 15 per cent tax on home purchases by non-resident foreigners.
• Expanding the province’s existing rent control system to cover all tenants.
• A rebate of development cost charges to encourage building of more rental housing.
• A standardized lease document for all tenants.
• A ban on flipping of pre-construction units by speculators.
• A review of the rules governing the conduct of real estate agents.

TAX WORKED IN VANCOUVER — FOR A WHILE

British Columbia applied a 15 per cent tax against foreign buyers last year and saw the price of homes drop. But then demand continued to drive prices up and recently the market appears to be nearly as over-heated as it was before the tax.