The South Bayview Bulldog

The COSTI Immigrant Services agency in Toronto has found itself swamped with Syrian refugees sponsored by the government and has asked for a five-day moratorium on arrivals. Mario J. Calla, the executive director of COSTI, told the CBC she has requested a five-day stoppage from the government of federally sponsored newcomers. “In the past few weeks, we’ve been received about 300 refugees a week,” Calla said. “We’re talking about a five-day pause, we’re not talking about stopping. We’re talking about we can do this better is what we’re saying,” Calla continued.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key interest rate at 0.5 per cent as Toronto and New York markets again plunged Wednesday morning on the falling price of oil. .BoC Governor Stephen Poloz seemed to have nowhere else to go as the global petroleum glut threatened to devalue almost everything. Poloz dropped the rate twice last year to help absorb the impact of sliding oil prices, but crude has since fallen even further, hovering below US$30 a barrel in recent days.

The layered concerns related to cost and most useful service has led the Mayor to propose an  extension of the SmartTrack commuter scheme to the west with a portion of it as a light rapid transit line. The rail line portion bringing riders from both ends of Toronto is said to be sound and is projected, as Tory has always maintained, to carry the most people in the most efficient way.  Current estimates for SmartTack, which could be seven years away, is that it will carry  more riders each day than GO Transit.. CP24 uses the figure of 300,000 per day. CBC

Postmedia, the national newspaper chain will merge newsrooms in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary as it lays off some 90 personnel across the country. But here is Toronto the flagship papers National Post and Toronto Sun will continue to  operate in separate newsrooms.  CBC

The outage effected Toronto Police Operations service which communicates with the public solely by Twitter.  CBC

The CEO of Goodwill Industries Keiko Nakamura says she has heard from a number of government leaders, including officials in Mayor Tory’s office, and says she is in the process of putting together a “plan of action” that could make the organization viable. She spoke to the media today flanked by members of the non-profit organization’s administration after announcing yesterday that stores across Ontario have been closed because of a cash crisis. It seems reasonable that there will be much positive concern for Goodwill although, as some are saying, the crisis closure of the well-known service body leaves doubt about the management  The Globe and Mail writers spin the story toward the cost of rent and union staffing rules as the reason for the failure. “We have to pay rent at all our locations,” said Nakamura. Still, the question remains why wasn’t this seen as it came down the road. See below from TVO’s The Agenda