The South Bayview Bulldog

Stephen LeClair

Financial accountability officer Stephen LeClair has pretty much shredded the rosy picture presented yesterday by Premier Wynne and Finance MInister Sousa by declaring that Ontario’s debt will grow to $350 billion in the next four years. At $300 billion, Ontario already shoulders the largest non-sovereign debt in the world, bigger than California, a jurisdiction with maybe 40 million people compared to Ontario’s 14 million souls. The FAO says the net debt will keep growing largely because of the Liberal government’s $160-billion, 12-year plan to invest in infrastructure and public transit projects. And, considering that it requires nearly $12 billion a year just to carry the debt, his predictions are not surprising. The debt is no zero-interest car loan. The government’s happy report Monday featured the growth of the Ontario economy and prediction that the deficit will be zero on 2017.  But LeClair say Ontario plans to go right back to deficit spending in 2018 and 2019. We’re going backwards in effect.

Toronto Pearson Airport security has been re-arranged to place Canadian security (with baggage x-ray and shoe inspection) now taking place ahead of the often perfunctory discussion with U.S. immigration personnel. The revamped Security in Advance  or SIA protocol is already in place elsewhere and was urgently put forward by the Americans in talks with the federal authorities. To a layman it is not necessarily clear how this arrangement makes travel safer but seem to amount to the same thing at the very least. Security officials say it is more likely to avoid people sneaking through to the departure lounge. The switch is also said to open up travel to American destinations where local airports don’t have a customs set-up.

Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP snapped some shots of a transport truck that spilled what looks like mayonnaise onto the northbound DVP ramp to 401 West Tuesday morning. Yeccch. And why is it trucks can’t stay upright? No one was hurt and lunch was delayed.

Please don’t drop #PokemonGo lures inside or outside @SickKidsNews. Read our message: pic.twitter.com/lNqCFBQBjB

— The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) (@SickKidsNews) July 18, 2016

Fears are growing that a power-hungry president Erdogan is taking advantage of public opinion against the recent coup attempt to cleanse the country of liberal-thinking officials in all capacities. The Turkish government Tuesday issued short notices that it had fired nearly 24,000 teachers and another 1,577 university deans. This concern arises in a fear for democracy in the once-secular land and a concern that many of those being purged make Turkey stronger against external attack. It seems obvious that none of these people knew anything about a coup. Would you have the courage to speak up for them in this atmosphere?

The new Canada Child Benefit payments begin this month. The government has posted a calculator online to let you estimate what you might get if you have small kids at home. Just make sure you have your 2015 or 2014 tax return handy because you need to enter your net income information, plus information from lines 117 and 125.

The LCBO is tweeting Tuesday that it will open an “Australian boutique store” in the SmartCentre liquor playground on Wicksteed Ave. next Friday, July 22, 2016. No worries mate.

R Hill and Markham fire crews have rescued a trapped man from Thornhill trench today. https://t.co/8en6yMiUoV pic.twitter.com/c9EKLP5ssR

— Marney Beck (@MarneyBeck) July 18, 2016

Twelve-thirty six has giggled about the peccadilloes of Adam Giambrone but it might have been wiser to warn Brooklynites about the monstrous St. Clair Ave. Berlin Wall for streetcars which is Mr. G’s signature act while in charge of the late unlamented Transit City.  Here’s what 12.36 said: “Adam Giambrone got Googled in NYC. “This is the ‘Canadian Anthony Weiner’ and he works for us now,” reads an online headline above a story about the one-time Toronto city councillor, who has been appointed to oversee the Brooklyn-Queens Connector streetcar line. “I didn’t handle the situation very well,” Giambrone told New York magazine about the couch scandal that scuttled his 2010 mayoral run. “I didn’t come out and tell the truth because it was difficult for me personally.” Good enough for page two!”

Millwood Road is fully open after crews repaired a gas leak at a home on Millwood at LeMay Rd. The leak occurred when workers misjudged the location of the line during renovations