Want to own a piece of the Loblaws store?

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321 Moore Avenue

Loblaws is going to form a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to include many of the properties in owns. It’s a nifty way to get the public to give you money in the expectation that commercial real estate will continue to hold  and increase its value. And for a lot of people, the familiar feeling they have for the homegrown grocery giant will make that decision easier. Maybe you can own a piece of 321 Moore Ave (inset). Units of the REIT are expected to be sold in an initial public offering expected to be completed in mid-2013, subject to regulatory approvals. Own a piece of Loblaws. Hmm. We’ll take the Ziggy’s.   CBC

Two improbable videos for this Thursday

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In New Zealand, left, a charity is training dogs to — um — “drive” so that they may be seen as intelligent and thus more eligible for adoption.  And it is quite remarkable but  please, not on Jarvis Street. On the right, two  gents who say they are on their way to doing away with the tea bag. Wot!  We certainly hope not. But it is an interesting device they have and much safer than letting Spot drive the VW.

$4.4B hostile bid for Primaris shopping mall REIT

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The leader of the ambitious takeover is KingSett Capital which doesn’t have a very high public profile. But its got money and it has formed a consortium of Ontario and Qeubec interests to try to scoop up the Primaris Reit. Primaris is owner of among many other malls, the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre at Victoria Park Ave. and Eglinton Ave. E. The very high -profile RioCan Inc, owners of at least two properties in Leaside, has also agreed as part of any successful bid to buy up some of the assetts, unnamed at this stage separate from the consortium holdings. RioCan owns Sunnybrook Plaza and the RioCan Leaside Centre at Eglinton Ave E and Laird Drive.   CBC

Tory, NDP members slang it out in Commons

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They’re saying in some news reports that the kerfuffle in the Commons between Conservatives and NDP members was just short of fisticuffs. Well, maybe. But it seemed tamer than that. It began when CP house leader Peter Van Loan took issue with a motion from his NDP counterpart Nathan Cullen calling for the House Speaker Andrew Scheer to revoke the report stage of the marathon omnibus budget vote taken Tuesday. Cullen argued that the end of the vote should be deemed “illegitimate” because Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wasn’t in his seat at the time. Van Loan didn’t like that and walked over to Cullen. The mikes were off but it’s said Van Loan’s language was unparliamentary and he may also have used his finger, well you know. The picture shows all the parties, including the cooler heads who arrived to put an end to it. Just like the old Fuddle Duddle days.  

Mayor Ford can stay in office until appeal is heard

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An Ontario judge says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can remain in office while he appeals a decision that turfs him for breaking conflict-of-interest rules. If not for the “stay” granted by Superior Court Justice Gladys Pardu, the mayor would have had to vacate his seat Dec. 10, as so ordered by Justice Charles Hackland. Now he can remain until a judgement is rendered on his appeal, scheduled for Jan. 7. Speaking to reporters outside his office minutes after the decision came down, Mr. Ford said he was happy with the outcome. National Post 

Stuff A Bin at Tremblett’s Dec 23 and 24

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A new and charitable event will take place in the days just before Christmas at Tremblett’s Valu Mart at Bayview Ave. and Davisville Ave. It’s the first annual Stuff A Bin collection of food and toys for needy folks in our area this Christmas.

All  food collected will be donated to the local foodbank and the toys will be distributed by local firefighters. It is a very good cause and is sponsored by well known and reliable members of the community — Tremblett’s, Realtor Patrick Rocca, and All-Canadian Storage on Millwood Road. The dates are December 23 and 24.  Mark it down and make a gift of food or toys. 

CPR to lengthen freight trains, says Harrison

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The musings of Hunter Harrison, the new president of Canadian Pacific Railway may be of more than passing interest to residents of Rosedale and Moore Park. They own the homes that sit on either side of the busy CP thoroughfare in central Toronto.  Mr. Harrison was showing off his decisive command today in New York as the company announced it will cut  4,500 jobs by 2016.  In a remark which may be of interest to South Bayviewites, Mr. Harrison also said CP will seek  more efficient use of its trains. CP will be increasing its train length and efficiency, in order to haul more with fewer trains. It’s hard to imagine that trains could get much longer. Globe and Mail. 

Undercover cops don’t have to warn teens

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Macleans magazine has a fascinating postscript to the story of the so-called Toroto 18. These were the dangerous Islamists — hometown boys — who were planning terrifying acts, among them, cutting off the head of the prime minister of the day. Out of the successful prosecutions came a challenge to police practice that the authorities should be required to somehow warn any teenagers who were part of the criminal activity, even on the fringes, that they were doing the wrong thing. The Macleans story linked here reports that the courts found this burden placed on undercover cops trying to stop terrorism would be ridiculous.  Macleans

Holdup at Midtown Digital, 1391 Yonge St.

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The Midtown Digital computer store at 1391 Yonge Street south of Pleasant Blvd. was robbed Monday by four men at least one of whom was armed with a handgun. The 56 year old owner  says the men entered about 3.30 p.m., showed a weapon and demanded to know where the computers were kept.  The victim complied. The suspects removed a quantity of computers and fled the scene towards Pleasant Blvd.  No injuries were sustained by the victim. Midtown Digital specializes in Apple products and is an authorized service store and Apple re-seller.  

Bank of Canada rate remains at 1%

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Reuters

Yonge subway “Rockets” looking like Lemons

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Things are so bad — and so embarrassing — at the TTC that CEO Andy Byford (right) has called a top-level meeting here in Toronto with the boss of Bombardier, the company that manufactured the new so-called rocket trains. Turns out they are far from rockets and the evidence has been building for quite a while. Primarily, they suffer from what appears to be GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) programming in the software operating the doors. Quite frequently, the doors have trouble closing. News reports last summer lovingly heralded the new trains as state-of-the-art machines that would deliver a much-needed upgrade to Toronto’s 60-year-old Yonge line.  Byford has described the vehicles’ performance as “unacceptable”  and effectively summoned the CEO of the subways’ manufacturer, Bombardier, to impress upon the company “the need for substantial improvement in the performance” of the trains. A delegation from the Montreal-based company, including CEO Pierre Beaudoin (left) is expected in Toronto on Friday. The TTC’s latest monthly scorecard shows that trains on the Yonge-University-Spadina line where the Rockets are deployed are on schedule only 92.7 per cent of the time, well below the commission’s reliability target of 96 per cent.

Flaherty says housing market is under control

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says we’ve got the housing market under control and he’s not worried about a  collapse. The reason, he says, is that he has helped cool the market with a round of stricter mortgage rules. The finance minister says he is also encouraged that taxpayers are paying down their mortgages and credit cards, and taking on less debt. A soft landing in housing is better than a boom followed by a bust. Overall, the country’s economy advanced slightly by 0.6 per cent, about half the expected growth predicted by the Bank of Canada.