International Yoga Day makes its appearance on the calendar for the first time ever with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining a crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren and other residents of the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass session. Before starting, Modi urged people to make yoga a part of their lives, saying the practice — which began in ancient India — doesn’t differentiate between the rich and poor, and is accessible to all.
There is a meeting sponsored by the Leaside Property Owners Association (LPOA) tonight at 7 p.m. in the William Lea Room to discuss traffic in Leaside. It is the first of several public meetings organized by the LPOA as it seeks long-term solutions and action.
Mississauga faces possible closure of its harmless bingo games in quirky Ontario because they aren’t run by the government. A single complaint against the penny-ante entertainment at eleven community centres threatens to shut down the games. This is Ontario after all, where it’s perfectly fine for hooked roulette addicts to flush away their earnings every week but immoral for seniors to pay a buck or two for bingo. Uh-huh. CBC
Eight of Canada’s finance ministers reached an agreement in principle Monday to increase the Canada Pension Plan but Quebec and Manitoba did not sign on to the deal. Approval requires the consent of seven provinces representing at least two-thirds of the population. It may be enough — just barely But the potential hard feeling in the holdouts is a factor as well. The scheme, if it goes ahead, would go into effect in 2019 and increase contributions for a typical worker earning about $55,00 by $7 a month and employers would match those contributions (the hated payroll tax). The plan would be phased in over seven years until 2025 and it means when people retire their maximum annual benefits would increase by about one-third to $17,478. Nothing is stated but the Ontario government has said that its gestating Ontario Pension Plan would remain unborn if agreement were reached on CPP changes. And then there is Phillip Cross in the Financial Post who says that for the feds all of the unsustainable gap between the pensions of public servants and most everyone else. In fact, says Cross, some critics maintain that the push to expand the CPP is driven by an unspoken need to prop up public-sector pension plans a little longer. However, doing so will only delay the inevitable overhaul of both the benefits and the funding of public-sector pensions.
Toronto Hydro says power has now been restored to all but possibly a dozen customers in East York after a falling tree struck power lines in on Gamble Avenue near Pape Avenue. At the height of the outage, some 3,400 Toronto Hydro customers were without power in an area bound by O’Conner Drive and Danforth Avenue north-south and between Broadview and Greenwood avenues east-west.
There was plenty of bad manners to go around in Vaughan this Spring when a man punched a woman driver in the face for honking at him because, apparently, he was taking too long to cross the street. York Regional police said a woman was driving on Cordoba Drive at about 1 p.m. on May 31, 2016 when she stopped at a red light on Bathurst Street. Police said an unidentified man between 60 and 70 years was crossing the intersection. When the light turned green and he was still walking, the woman honked at him Cops say the man then walked up to the driver’s side window and punched her in the face. She is said by police to have been uninjured. .
Sharon Rein met her sister Sharon Dennis at Fredericton airport Sunday when Rein, the older at 58, flew in from South Africa where both women were born. Dennis. who is 56, was put up for adoption by her parents in 1960 because they felt they could not care for a third child. Dennis moved to Canada in 1994. It was only a death-bed confession by their mother that a child had been put up for adoption that led to the reunion. It was Rein who heard the secret from her mother and then went on to use social media to locate her sister. It worked, and the two spoke for the first time by phone earlier this year. CBC
The much-anticipated all-day 28 Bayview bus service will begin operation this week. The new service will be operated from Monday to Friday, and during the evenings on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays. It brings an end the transit isolation of south-end neighbourhoods like South Leaside, Bennington Heights and Moore Park from the South Bayview commercial district. The bus runs from the Davisville subway station directly along Davisville and Bayview to the Evergreen Brick Works. One of the stops is at Bayview and Moore where an easy transfer can be made to the 88 Leaside. The service will operate every 20 minutes in the peak periods and midday from Monday to Friday, and every 30 minutes at all other times.
BULLDOG IN FOREFRONT
The South Bayview Bulldog was in the forefront of efforts to close the gap in Bayview Ave transit and has made many submissions to the TTC and others about a solution. Credit must be given to Jon Burnside (Ward 26) for his continuing interest and efforts in this effort. And Lorna Krawchuk recalls the work of Carol Fripp on behalf of the LPOA. Success! 28 Bayview bus will run 7 days a week in 2016
UD: Rescue (Elevator) – Leaside Park Dr @ Overlea Boulevard, East York (3 Trucks)
— Toronto Fire South (@tofireS) June 20, 2016
It is one thing to reduce the speed limit, quite another to make drivers behave safely.
The Ontario Municipal Board will hear an appeal of the City’s decision to refuse a front yard parking pad on Roxborough St. W. on Friday, July 8, 2016 at 10 a.m. The matter has the potential to set a precedent for similar parking especially across residential midtown Toronto where many streets have no such pads and the front lawn is a highly-prized asset among homeowners. Roxborough at present has no such pads although it is thought that another homeowner is awaiting the OMB decision to apply for a variation to permit such a parking pad.
IVEY FAMILY
The case to be heard in July is brought by the owner of 67 Roxborough, Jennifer Ivey Bannock, a member of the well-known Ivey family. The ABC Residents Association (ABCRA), was successful in its opposition to the pad at the City’s Committee of Adjustment last December. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and the City Planning Department also opposed this application. The committee refused the variance and denied the pad. It was found not in conformity with the City of Toronto zoning bylaw or Official Plan.
655 BAY STREET
The OMB hearing will take place at its offices on the 16th Floor of 655 Bay Street Toronto M5G 1E5. On a motion by Councillor Wong-Tam seconded by Ward 22’s Josh Matlow the City Legal Department and Planning Department will attend to defend the decision of the committee. The residents association, ABCRA, has also retained a lawyer to appear on its behalf. This week ABCRA was soliciting the presence of homeowners on Roxborough at the meeting as a show of the interest taken by the community. With files and photos supplied by Yonge and Roxborough News.
