A woman recently returned from Iran has been diagnosed at Sunnybrook HSC as the fifth presumptive positive coronavirus case. The patient, who is 60, has been sent home to remain in self-quarantine for two weeks. Toronto’s only other active COVID-19 case is a woman in her 20s, who is also in self-isolation at home and recovering well. Canada has confirmed 12 cases of the illness overall, which has sickened more than 80,000 people and caused more than 2,700 deaths across the world.

Many banks and investment companies are trying to reassure panicky investors in the wake of sharp market declines related to the spread of COVID-19 this week. The coronavirus was first identified in early January in China but after reports that the contagious virus had spread to Europe stocks began to slip. This past weekend dozens of cases appeared in Italy and Iran dashing hopes that the outbreak would be contained to Asia. Stocks were down again Tuesday dropping nearly 900 points on the Dow and 385 in Toronto. Johns Hopkins world summary of COVID-19 cases

The snowballing blockade of railways and paralysis of transportation has seen eastbound GO trains stalled east of the Guildwood station Tuesday afternoon. Social media posts and video, as seen below, indicate that trains are moving at 6 p.m.

Police stand by as GO train travels through rail crossing near Guildwood Station in Scarborough https://t.co/mSxb4e0co0 pic.twitter.com/gR9u308hO4

— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) February 25, 2020

One of the country’s top central bankers says the Bank of Canada is going to start the work to build its own digital currency as a backstop should the day arise where cryptocurrency dethrone cash as king. In a speech Tuesday in Montreal, deputy governor Timothy Lane says there isn’t a compelling case to issue a central bank-backed digital currency right now. But the timeline to create one is long enough that the Bank of Canada is beginning work in the event cash is no longer used for most transactions.

Bank has an eye on Facebook’s currency

Mr. Lane said the bank could issue its own cryptocurrency if private digital currencies like Facebook’s proposed Libra become widely used in Canada and erode the central bank’s ability to manage monetary policy. There are still several steps to go through before the Bank of Canada can issue a digital offering, including settling on the technology to use and getting the legal authority from Parliament to do so.

As telegraphed Monday on The Bulldog, there’s a big snowstorm heading in our direction. Tuesday, Environment Canada said it may drop as much as 20 cms of snow by late Wednesday. But EC also says there is uncertainty about the track of the low-pressure system responsible for the precipitation. Right now it’s dumping rain and snow on Illinois and Indiana, as seen in the Accuweather weather radar image from 11 a.m. Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned. 

Memories of 2009 strike

Last-minute negotiations between the City and CUPE inside and outside workers may turn on the so-called jobs-for-life issue. It is a provision of the present agreement which states that any employee with 15 years of seniority cannot lose his employment “as a result of contracting out or privatization.”  Mayor Tory said late Monday the union had agreed to a “fixed sunset clause” four years ago, which meant that all employees with less than 15 years seniority as of December 31, 2019 would no longer qualify for protection under the clause. He said that the City “is not asking for anything different on jobs for life, just to keep with what was agreed to and what was ratified by the membership of CUPE 416 four years ago. “We have made it clear to the bargaining team that we will not be going backwards on jobs for life,” he said. The union has said that outside workers never agreed to phase out the clause which comes “no cost to the City”.

Here are a couple of invitations from St. Cuthbert’s Anglican and Northlea United that you may find hard to resist. Organizers at Leaside United announced earlier that its pancake supper had been cancelled this year because of renovations at the church

Grass fire “near an encampment” at Gardiner and Jameson

Not the end of the world but an interesting insight into City life as the Toronto Fire Service extinguishes a pretty good-sized grass fire on a mid-Winter Monday. The police Twitter service notes that the fire occurred “near an encampment” at the Gardiner Expressway and Jameson Ave. Someone’s living rough, it seems

Garbage and grass fire WB Gardiner ramp to Jameson – ramp closed, expect delays. #WBGardiner pic.twitter.com/rErzhbPuSj

— 680 NewsRadio Toronto Traffic & Weather (@NewsRadioTO) February 24, 2020

Pier One seeks Starbucks customers on Sunday

Wingporium gone in about six months

Over at Eglinton Ave. E. and Laird Drive the bankruptcy of Pier 1 in the US has caused the imminent closure of all stores in Canada. On Sunday, this man (left) was outside Starbucks kitty-corner from the Pier 1 in the RioCan Leaside Centre. Slightly west, Wingporium has closed after less than a year at 856 Eglinton E. Locals will recall that this is the site of the former Shoeless Joe’s, an apparent victim of disruption caused by the Crosstown LRT.

A long thread at Leaside Community tells of kids (and possibly men in a white van) selling recyclable bags door to door in Davisville Village. The twist is that when they’re turned down, they make a return visit to say that bags were in fact purchased and now they want payment. Uh-huh. FB

Once easy access to Granite Brewery on Mt. Pleasant at Eglinton

LRT construction has owner worried

Toronto Star writer Francine Kopun says Monday that Granite Brewery, the well-known brewery and restaurant at the corner of Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Eglinton Ave. E., has been hurt by delays in construction of the Crosstown LRT. The seven or eight-year ordeal for businesses and residents in the area has been extended another year with the announcement last week that the system will not be completed until 2022. She quotes Ron Keefe, owner of the brewery: “When it first started, I thought we were going to come through it unscathed. The first three or four years, it seemed to be okay, but in the last year-and-a-half, it’s been noticeable; people are just really getting fed up. We’re lucky, because we have been here so long, we do have a lot of regular customers that are sticking with us, but it certainly has been a challenge,” said Mr. Keefe. He likened conditions to Granite’s early years. He began at the site some 29 years ago. Francine Kopun, Star

A woman in her 20s who is said to be doing “quite well” is the third presumptive case of coronavirus infection in Ontario, health officials announced Monday morning. The woman is in isolation at home. Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr Eileen de Villa says the woman’s condition had been “improving and resolving for a couple of weeks now,” after she travelled to Wuhan and the Hubei province of China in January, prior to the region being cut off from the outside world on January 23.

Checking other passengers within two seats

De Villa said that when the woman arrived in Toronto on February 21, she was told to call Telehealth Ontario, who after learning of her travel history and symptoms, told her to go straight to North York General Hospital. “Since arriving in Toronto the individual has had very limited exposure to others,” de Villa said. She said they are following up with everyone who sat within two seats on the plane with the woman diagnosed with the virus. Ontario’s three other patients, a Toronto couple in their 50s and a London woman in her 20s, have all since fully recovered.