CITY HALL
• Toronto budget: what was saved, what was sacrificed [The Star]
• Toronto’s budget balancing act [National Post]
• Toronto budget committee votes to chop library, but save two pools in Ford allies’ wards [The Star]
• Budget bartering saves two pools, but libraries still face 10-per-cent cut [Globe & Mail]
• Two pools saved amidst charges of favouritism [The Sun]
• Libraries must trim $7 million more for 10-per-cent cut: budget committee [Globe & Mail]
• Tensions grow over EMS’ lack of essential designation [National Post]
• Toronto’s budget committee approves loan for Leaside arena expansion [National Post]
• Student nutrition program rescued, but most other proposed cuts remain in budget draft [Torontoist]
• James: much to celebrate in the city budget [The Star]
• Ford not the ‘radical conservative’ opponents make him out to be [Globe & Mail]
• Ford, allies branded ‘radical conservatives’ [The Sun]
• A tax break that’s bad for business [The Star]
• Oshawa resident mocks councillor over legal threat [The Star]
• Mediator brings city, outside workers together [The Star]
TRANSIT
• GO fares head north [The Star]
• GO transit to hike fares starting Feb.18 [Globe & Mail]
• TTC boss goes undercover [The Star]
OTHER NEWS
• The Real Jerk getting evicted from Queen and Broadview [Torontoist]
• Why one of Astral Media’s “info-pillars” got chalked up [The Grid]
• Pages’ former Queen West home gets condofied [The Grid]
One comment
GO fares are going up, eh? I was a GO commuter for two years. There are a few tensions in the setting of fares:
– do you instead get the needed revenue from making the lots paid-parking, at a moderate cost, or do you worry about losing driving customers?
– if you keep the lots free, how do you justify charging the non-driving customers the same fee for less service, much less increase the fares for them?
– is GO about getting cars off the road, or is it about moving people?
– is it about moving people where they need to go, or is it only about shunting suburban commuters into downtown?
– does GO in fact support ‘multi-modal’ travel, or will that remain a ‘Potemkin Village’*
What they should do with fares or parking fees should only be decided once these fundamental issues are answered.
*-Suburban bus connections are poor, and often ill-timed for transfers. Some municipalities (e.g. Mississauga) give a discounted fare connecting with GO, but I doubt all do, or do so for a similar cost.
-Bike parking is limited, poorly weather protected, and unmonitored. Provision for taking bikes on train is also limited, and often inconvenient.