The South Bayview Bulldog

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

Health Minister Eric Hoskins has ordered Ontario Hospitals to cut parking costs. Hospitals that charged more than $10 a day will have to offer passes that discount rates by 50 per cent. Dr. Hoskins said hospitals will have to offer 5, 10 and 30-day discounted parking passes starting in October. In recent years hospitals facing staggering costs and pressure from the government on all fronts have taken the opportunity to find revenue from parking. The discounted prices will be welcome but the cost of health care and hospitals will  still have to be paid by the taxpayer.

This appears to be part of climate-related growing problems but one can never be sure. Canadian Press 

The by-guess-and-by-God nature of power outage perimeters is seen again as reports dribble in about Saturday’s blackout. It was a trying time that lasted between one and two hours for those effected. But the guessing about just where lights went out was well off the mark. Twitter reports repeated some media as saying all of Leaside as far as Laird Drive was out. Nothing like this was true. And even Toronto Hydro must have had its fingers crossed when it said the blackout went as far east as Bayview. In fact, the power failure seems to have come no further east than Mt. Pleasant. Reader Angela Rickett reports her home on Redpath Ave. was without electricity for a good two hours. Helen Godfrey told us yesterday that the lights were out only on the west side of Mt. Pleasant, as far as she could see. And here’s a surprise, the northern boundary of the outage was given by Hydro as Eglinton. But shops like Degrees Kitchen along Yonge as far north as Albertus were closing because of the blackout.

Emma Pye

Leaside Wildcat forward Emma Pye scored a seldom-seen hockey curiosity Sunday as her team fought off a two-penalty burden against the Bluewater Hawks. With only three girls on the ice against five Hawks in the second period, Pye slipped away from the opposing team and scored Leaside’s third goal unassisted. It was a cake walk all afternoon at Leaside Gardens as the Wildcats strolled to a 5-1 victory over the ladies from the Lake Huron shore.

LEASIDE VAULTS TO FOURTH

Sunday’s play vaulted the Wildcats two rankings into fourth place in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League. Other Leaside goals came from Siobhan Birch in  the first, Samantha Jones in the second and Mariah Hinds in both the second and third. Assists came from Alex Woods, Olivia Reid, Megan Pardy and Kristin Della Rovere. Bluewater scored on the efforts of Jessica Forcey with assists from Madison Davey and Madison Melo.

PENALTIES

On the minor side, Leaside was collecting penalties again. There were eight infractions resulting in 16 minutes of penalty time. Bluewater was unable to take advantage of eight power play chances. This team visits from the most rural of the 20 teams in the PWHL. Their home ice is West Middlesex Memorial Arena in the town of Strathroy (population 22,000).

Goodwill Industries will close stores across Toronto as the non-profit business deals with a  shortage of cash that has become a crisis, according to a statement by the firm. In all, 16 stores, 10 donation centres and 2 offices,  including the store at the corner of Overlea Blvd and Thorncliffe Park Drive, will shut immediately. Goodwill offered little explanation of what had caused the cash crisis referring only to “factors in the retail environment.”  The statement came from CEO Keiko Nakamura.  As many as 450 employees will be out of work. Many of them showed up for work Sunday morning and learned of the closure from a sign on the door. Locations in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Newmarket, Barrie, Orillia and Brockville are closed until management can meet with representatives of the Canadian Airport Workers Union, which represents the employees.  Described by Wikipedia as an American nonprofit organization, Goodwill provides job training, employment placement services, and other community-based programs for people with disabilities. This work is funded by a large network of retail thrift stores operating as nonprofits as well. It has a huge network across the U.S. in Canada and in Latin America.

Toronto’s bid committee seems intent on buying new trucks. Will service east of Yonge be privatized? The decision is supposedly still to be made by City Council isn’t it?  Toronto Sun 

The unwelcome appearance of water bubbling up in front of his business Saturday was snapped by a citizen. It led very quickly to the closure of lower Jarvis Street between Front and The Esplanade as City crews work to replace the main. It’s cold and difficult work that makes it impossible to say just when it will be finished. Photo Twitter