The South Bayview Bulldog

Mike Crawley writing from the Legislature for the CBC says education minister Sandals has refused to deny that the government will close schools for the deaf and disabled.

Motorists both local and those passing through Moore Park should get ready for the Mt. Pleasant and Moore Avenue Watermain Construction and Chamber Refrotfit. Ominous collections of giant traffic cones and backhoes signal a project that will take a while. The construction work goes on until 3.30 when the roads have to re-open.

FORGOT TO TAKE DOWN THE NO TURN SIGN

The sign on Mt. Pleasant just north of Rose Park Drive says we can expect completion in the Spring of 2016. But the no right turn sign does not apply during construction (or any other time the road is open). It was still there Thursday night because, as the foeman confessed Friday, they forget to take it  .

Parents and kids rocked Family Fun Night at North Public School on Rumsey Thursday evening. Infectious excitement sent pupils dashing through the halls to many venues in both gyms, the library and classrooms. Parents purchased tickets to raffles and other entertainments to raise money for in-school extras at Northlea. It seemed as if every parent was there as cars parked up and down Rumsey, along Divadale Drive and other streets. Parent Claudine caught the spirit as she prepared to call first graders to a snack of donuts. No problem.

Vanessa Oliver of Regent Street Retail and Restaurant Solutions was telling the South Bayview Bulldog that 690-692 Mt. Pleasant (at Soudan) will be divided into two locations for restaurant use. Nothing has been finalized and the premises are for lease. Area residents will fondly remember the quality years that this location enjoyed in the early part of the century as Lai Toh Heen (inset) the superb Chinese cuisine restaurant.  Lai Toh Heen was impacted as were many fine dining restaurants by the downturn in business after 2008. It closed in 2011. The good news is that its sister (and original business) Lai Wah Heen has been resurrected at the DoubleTree by Hilton (formerly Metropolitan) Hotel on Chestnut Street. When the hotel was renovated in 2014 it was not clear if Lai Wah Heen would return but it is back with what appears to its previous fine menu which includes some of the better Dim Sum to be had downtown..

Another dangerous bit of dealing on Kijiji has come to light as an Ottawa woman has paid fraudsters the “last month’s rent” on a house she thought she had leased. But no. The owner of the home Kit Pullen had not rented his home and the woman was out of luck. The crooked deal resulted in the woman’s furniture and belongings being dumped in Pullen’s driveway at 4 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm.  It is incredibly irresponsible but finally the driver of the U-Haul did come back and pick up the woman’s possessions.

Parents at Northlea Public School are reminded that this is Family Fun Night at the school. The event will raise money for Northlea in-school programs. Events begin at 5 and last until 8 p.m.

Loblaws says it will expand its program of bruised and misshapen produce across the country as a way for consumers to save money on expensive fresh food. The evidence of this program has been only minor in area Loblaws but based on the acceptance of the misshapen produce generally the store says it will add peppers, onions and mushrooms to stores in Ontario.

The City of Toronto has reached a tentative agreement with CUPE Local 79, which represents the City’s 21,000 active inside workers. Details of the agreement will be released once it is ratified by the Local 79 membership and subsequently approved by City Council. A new agreement with the City’s 4,200 active outside workers, represented by Toronto Civic Employees’ Union Local 416 (CUPE), was approved by City Council on February 29. City services and programs continue as usual. This news release is also available on the City’s website: http://bit.ly/1QtK9RZ

DAYCARE, CITY ARENAS

A settlement pending ratification will ensure continued operation of municipal daycare and other community services, such as arenas and community centres. Leaside Garden for example will see business as usual because of a settlement.

THESE ARE “GOOD JOBS”

Mayor Tory had spoken Wednesday about the negotiations and did not seem hopeful. Nonetheless, many others felt that the union’s ongoing complaint about what seemed like incidental issues was not sustainable. This was underlined by the recent agreement with Local 79’s sister local (416) representing outside workers. In the end, Tory’s assertion that City jobs are good jobs must surely have resonated with the many clerical and maintenance employees who would have plainly been hurt by a strike.

A baby western lowland gorilla is doing well after being born in an extremely rare C-section operation at the Bristol Zoo in the United Kingdom. The job was done by a renowned local gynecologist Dr. David Cahill. Cahill is interviewed by CNN’s Jeanne Moos at home after his challenging task. The 11-day-old infant, a girl, weighed only 2lbs 10oz at birth and initially needed help, including mouth-to-mouth, to breathe on her own. Currently the young, yet-unnamed gorilla is being hand-reared round the clock by a small team of gorilla keepers.

Former Mayor Rob Ford is in Mt. Sinai Hospital in what family members and doctors agree is a fateful battle with cancer. The former mayor has had surgery for the rare soft-tissue cancer discovered during 2014 and although he always been determined to recover there is a shadow over the former chief magistrate.

NO RAILWAYS, HIGHWAYS?

Quebec has said it will launch a legal battle against the Energy East Pipeline, a conduit intended to make Canada energy independent from foreign oil.  Executives of TransCanda Corporation said they are taken aback by the new opposition to this national project. Some observers have said that if prevailing notions about pipelines had applied in earlier times to railways and highways, Canada would remain a largely unpopulated wilderness.

Torstar Corp. has reported another staggering multimillion loss for the fourth quarter of 2015, normally a period when a company should make at least some money.  Analysts expecting a small profit per share got instead another loss. The company posted the surprise loss due in part to the Star’s slumping print ad sales. This is a story that has dragged on through several years and has seen the paper’s share price plummet. It ended trading Wednesday at $1.94, down more than five dollars since the beginning of the 2015.  Some analysts think the day that the Star converts to a full digital tablet publication cannot be long-delayed. That’s what happened to Montreal’s La Presse, another icon of print news. It converted to tablet-only format and claims to be doing well. The Star has a similar  tablet, Star Touch, based on the La Presse model and is investing heavily in it.  But the hemorrhaging cash cannot be ignored forever. Today Torstar said it had written down its newspapers’ value by more than $200 million, contributing to a net loss of $233.4 million, or $2.90 per share, from continuing operations, compared with a year-earlier profit of $20.9 million, or 26 cents a share. Revenue fell an amazing 8.4 percent to $213.7 million.