Building on Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s pledge to axe the city’s 25 cent single-use cup fee, councillors have brought forward a motion to repeal the bylaw by June 1, 2023.
First introduced in January 2022, the bylaw requires residents pay $0.25 on single-use beverage containers.
In a motion before City Council, Councillor Rebecca Bligh is arguing that the policy hasn’t been effective in accomplishing its objectives, which included changing consumer behaviour and reducing landfill waste.
“Given the overwhelmingly clear, unambiguous evidence that has accumulated over the past year since the introduction of the City’s $0.25 single-use beverage cup fee, notably its failure to change consumer behaviour in the manner intended, it is incumbent upon Council to explore other policy options and pathways in order to achieve the desired and intended waste reduction outcomes,” wrote Bligh.
Funds accrued via the charge were kept by the businesses – which were encouraged by the city to reinvest into reusable alternatives.
Vancouver spends an estimated $2.5 million per year collecting and disposing of single-use plastics.
Upon passing, the bylaw will be repealed and new policy recommendations will be put in place to reduce waste.
Early this year, Sim called the bylaw unpragmatic and punitive, especially to the city’s most vulnerable.
“Everyone here in Vancouver loves the environment but we can make a distinction between things that are pragmatic and not,” said Sim.
“What we’ve heard from the business community and residents is the cup fee just ain’t working, that it’s punitive. So that’s why we’re committed to getting rid of the cup fee by this summer,” he continued.
“We’ll have a very open mind. If someone can convince us why it makes sense to still have the cup tax there, we’re all ears. But if people can’t provide that argument and why it is truly a benefit to the environment, we’re going to get rid of it.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that John Tory “will be remembered as a dedicated and hard-working mayor who served as a steady leader during the most difficult days of the pandemic.”
If only that were true, but it’s not. Ford was being too kind.
Instead Tory will always be remembered as the long-married 68-year-old Toronto mayor who squandered it all to have an intimate affair with a 31-year-old “beauty queen” who once worked in his office before landing at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
That’s the bottom line. He was thinking with the wrong brain.
And he’s not getting an overwhelming amount of sympathy. An informal poll in the Toronto Sun which asked the question—”Do you agree with John Tory resigning as mayor over his affair with a now former staffer?”—had 57% voting yes, with a little over 10,000 votes in.
In other words, more than half.
Not that it matters. Tory appears to have broken a bunch of ethics rules which city council must adhere to, one of which was “members should act with integrity and avoid real and apparent conflicts of interest and the improper use of their influence.”
Bad enough to have an affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter, but to have that affair while she worked for him encircles the word “guilty.”
Happy Valentine’s Day? Hardly.
Another rule? “In serving the public, a member of Council is expected to meet the highest standards of conduct to maintain and foster the City of Toronto’s reputation and integrity.”
More to the point. “Members should perform their duties and arrange their private affairs in a manner that promotes public confidence and bears close public scrutiny.”
John Tory’s judgment quite literally stunk, and this comes from a man who knew him well enough and respected his role and dedication to the City of Toronto, and that’s regardless of the fact he followed the disastrous mayoralty of Rob Ford, his legacy saddled with cocaine and alcohol abuse before he succumbed to a relentless form of cancer.
Tory could seemingly have been mayor for as long as he wanted, but now he is forced to leave with his tail between his legs, not retiring from politics like his wife, Barb, wanted, with rumors now that she was dusting off the separation and divorce papers.
A sad end to a lifetime filled with plaudits.
Tory’s brand was that of a solid, family man, married for 44 years, and a father and grandfather with a successful career in both business and the public service.
A middle-aged Lothario was the last thing anyone expected before the Toronto Star broke the story and Tory resigned seemingly only minutes later, choosing not to ride it out and see where the chips fell.
We live in a world now that demands perfection. Unlike days of old, reporters are not going to turn their backs on a politician cheating on his wife.
They’re going to dig deep to bring him or her down. It’s now the nature of the beast.
I’ve known people in the industry who cheated on their wives with happy abandon and who today would still rush John Tory to judgment.
The difference is their infidelities were none of my business.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says teams are working to “find and analyze” the “unidentified objects” shot down over the Yukon and over Lake Huron by the American military during the weekend.
Plus, John Tory has resigned as Mayor of Toronto after news surfaced that he had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member during the pandemic. What happens next?
And the RCMP unveiled the Tesla Model Y as the first EV to be added to the Mounties’ vehicle fleet, with tests of the electric Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Ford F-150 coming soon.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Anthony Furey and Andrew Lawton!
Canadians born in the millennial demographic filed half of all insolvencies last year, according to an insolvency trustee.
The “Joe Debtor” study from Hoyes and Michalos (HM) released on Monday said half of Ontario clients that cannot pay debts on time were between the ages of 26 and 41.
While co-founder Douglas Hoyes confirmed this number was specific to HM, he believes the findings are consistent with all cases across Canada.
“Based on my conversations with government and various creditors, our conclusions are representative of the entire insolvent population,” he said.
According to the study, Canadians have a common problem.
“We have seen not just an increased use of traditional payday loans, but a […] dramatic rise in the use of larger, longer-term, ultra high-cost loans,” the report read.
Half of millennial clients carried loans with interest rates typically between 29.99% to 59.99%, the report said. The average balance for these was $11,940.
Notable percentages of millennial insolvency cases also carried student debt (35%), credit card debt (87%) and owed taxes (46%).
Last October, True North reported that a quarter of Canadians reported going into debt to keep up with everyday expenses.
In 2014 when John Tory first ran for mayor he told would-be voters he’d heal a divided council and bring order and integrity to the circus of the Rob Ford years.
He even presented a Code of Conduct for himself which promised to treat city staff with professionalism and ensure city resources were only spent on city business.
The most pertinent to this moment in time is his guarantee that “real penalties” would be introduced for those on the city payroll who abuse their power (presumably himself as well).
Now just slightly more than eight years later and barely three months into his third term, Tory has resigned in disgrace for abusing his power.
He crossed the line by carrying on an affair with one of his own staffers and apparently using city resources to travel with her.
It appears to have carried on not just during the pandemic. Sources say it endured for three years and just ended a month ago.
However lengthy, one wonders how he could have fully kept his eye on the ball during the pandemic and last fall’s election.
This is the legacy that will haunt Tory.
This plus the simple fact that with his resignation Friday night he leaves a weak council divided and in chaos — the very same chaos he vowed to end in 2014.
Aside from the very hubris and ever increasing egoism that caused the mayor to order Torontonians to stay home, that closed down public parks and forced businesses shut for the longest period of any Ontario city during the pandemic, it also led him to run for a third term (despite promises he would not.)
Once returned to office by the lowest voter turnout in years, he appeared to take his newfound strong mayor powers very seriously, installing the weakest executive team I’ve seen in my 20-plus years covering City Hall.
These were the same people who followed him around during a laughable campaign last summer in which he did photo opps on social media at safe bakeries and restaurants.
He never once touched on the city’s rising crime rate, Toronto’s surging homeless and drug addiction issue, council’s rampant overspending and the general decline of the once great city.
He never once visited neighbourhoods rife with crime and drug addicts, as if such a thing didn’t exist.
The lazy media never asked hard questions, never pointed out what was right in front of their faces (crime, drug addicts and homelessness) and never held Tory to task for his repeated efforts to pander to the activists.
Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the legacy media gave him a free pass. They didn’t do their jobs.
And is typical, instead of concentrating on the here and now, they’re all abuzz about who might run to replace him for a by-election that is months away. They’d rather focus on the latest shiny object.
At a time when Toronto so desperately needed capable people steering the sinking ship, the executive team was selected because they wouldn’t show up Tory and as quid pro quo for their public appearances with him (I called it a deal with the devil) instead of integrity and talent.
But the weakest link is the woman who is set to take over with all the powers of a strong mayor until a by-election is held.
Deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie is a nice enough woman and certainly far better educated than most of council, but she’s inexperienced and in my view, will be easily manipulated.
Besides, she wasn’t elected by the citizens of Toronto, only those in her Scarborough ward. That’s a far cry from getting the nod across the city.
Still there is no doubt that Tory selected.all of these weaklings because he wanted to remain in control, particularly at the numerous photo ops he had everyday.
That’s not my idea of a strong mayor. A strong mayor shares decision making and the limelight.
It’s sad to think that Toronto — already verging on the New York of the 1970s and current day Seattle — has been left in the hands of a weak collection of has-beens, retreads, never beens, not terribly insightful or bright and radical defund-the-police types.
Had Tory not run again, perhaps someone of depth, ethics, strength of character and business savvy would have come forward.
I’ve been at this long enough to know how Rob Ford — for all of his warts— had a strong team around him to pick up the slack. There was absolutely no ego with him.
Surprisingly enough, problems were addressed and constituents were treated with respect, despite his addiction issues and the abusive way the media dealt with him.
Had the media held Tory’s feet to the fire (as I tried to do), exposed his conflicts for sitting on the Rogers Trust board, his duplicitousness around tax hikes and his total disdain towards constituents plagued with lawlessness around hotel shelters, perhaps he would not have run again.
But they didn’t and Toronto is left with an impotent council, another costly election on the horizon and the inevitable grandstanding to which we will be subjected by those who have it in their mind to run or support a would-be candidate.
Now the city is in limbo yet again for months. I predict that until there’s a by-election and the new mayor gets up and running, it will be the fall before we see any sort of “vision” if we can call it that.
Meanwhile I predict Toronto will suffer and stagnate — saddled with a huge deficit, a hollowed out downtown core and no political will to improve anything.
There has been an increase of racially segregated events happening in Canada – particularly on university campuses. No, they aren’t whites only events but rather blacks only. What on Earth is going on?
True North’s Campus Watch series has exposed a number of bizarre and quirky things happening in Canadian universities. As we’ve learned historically, some things that begin in academia often become broader phenomena elsewhere. A prime example is the National Arts Centre following in the footsteps of universities and putting on a blacks only event.
Anthony Furey discusses the rise of racially segregated events in Canada.
After calls from northern and rural British Columbia communities to reinforce policing, the province unveiled a plan to hire 277 more police officers targeting communities with 5,000 or fewer residents.
Although details on which municipalities will get the new recruits have yet to be announced, it was a “record” commitment in the province’s $230 million Safer Communities Fund.
“It’s a record investment in this province, in fact probably the largest in its history,” said provincial public safety minister Mike Farnworth. “The goal is to ensure that those positions get filled and that will take some of the pressure off.”
Northern communities have long gone underfunded and understaffed when it comes to law enforcement, as many struggle to deal with an uptick in property and other crime.
As reported by True North last week, residents in Taylor, BC gathered for a town hall recently and called on more policing resources. Taylor, which has a population of under 2,000 people is located just outside of Fort St. John along the Alaska Highway. It shares policing resources with a number of other rural communities in the vicinity and does not have a dedicated town force.
“Two members at the most to cover this huge area we feel, in Taylor, is not enough,” said Taylor mayor Brent Taillefer.
“So if we need to increase provincial policing and that means they need to collect money through taxation to do so for the rural areas, I believe that people are OK with spending a little more money to see more police.”
Last year Prince George saw a reported 22% increase in crime, according to RCMP statistics.
Statistics Canada data also shows that the crime rate in rural communities is on average 23% higher than the urban crime rate.
Rural residents have been asked to take extra precautions including installing security cameras, motion sensor lights and keeping an eye out for suspicious behaviour.
Conservative MP Shannon Stubs recently brought up the issue of rural crime in the House of Commons.
“I think of my own constituents and those of other rural MPs facing record levels of ever more brazen and violent theft and robberies, trespassing, assaults and murders,” said Stubbs on Feb. 2.
A new report from Statistics Canada shows the country’s unemployment rate is near record low – and that’s a bad sign, according to a business and public policy expert.
Business professor Ian Lee told True North that Canada’s near record low unemployment rate – reported as 5% for the month of January – is a reflection of Canada’s struggling economy.
“There’s just massive, serious [worker] shortages,” he said.
“The [low] unemployment rate is because you’re hiring everybody that’s raising their hand.”
While low unemployment may sound like a good thing to most people, Lee said it’s a misleading figure, resulting from one specific burden on Canada’s economy.
“The unbelievable vacancy rate,” he said. “The largest ever in the history of Canada.”
Last May, Statistics Canada reported there were over a million unfilled positions in Canada – setting a record high.
The shortage fell to roughly 850,000 in the most recent data from November, but Lee says the problem isn’t going away soon.
“We’re no longer in the boomer half-century,” said Lee. “We are not in a period […] of significant labour excess. We are going to be, for the next half century, according to every forecast I’ve read, [in] massive labour shortages.”
“It’s changing everything.”
Lee said labour shortage is steering Canada’s unemployment rate to its recent record lows.
Last year, Canada set two unemployment rate records: the first for its lowest annual rate (5.3%), and the second for its lowest rate in any given month (4.9%).
With respect to the country’s labour shortages, these numbers are not a good sign, according to Lee.
Not everybody agrees with him.
In a press conference on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland cited the unemployment rate, among other stats, as a show of Canada’s prosperity.
“Canada is operating from a position of fundamental economic strength,” she said. “Our economy added almost 70,000 jobs in December, and our unemployment rate is at 5%, close to our record low.”
Canada set its record low unemployment rate last June, one month after setting its record high of over 1,000,000 job vacancies.
Since 1976, the annual unemployment average has been roughly 8.1%. The high was 12%, set in 1983, and the low was 5.3%, set in 2022.
This week on The Alberta Roundup, Rachel discusses the awkward handshake between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their first encounter earlier this week. Smith also raised her concerns about the feds’ “Just Transition” proposal directly with the prime minister.
Plus, Alberta is expecting to ink a 10-year healthcare funding deal with Ottawa. This comes after the prime minister pitched a $46.1 billion healthcare deal with the provinces and territories.
And a new poll from Abacus Data suggests the United Conservative Party is gaining steam as election season ramps up.
These stories and more on The Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel!
In a GoFundMe post, a Canadian social worker going by the pseudonym Reena Kaur has claimed she was fired from her position for voicing unorthodox opinions about transgenderism and supporting the views of Dr. Jordan Peterson.
The fundraiser which was set up by Kaur – who has hidden her identity over fears of retaliation – described how after 25 years in the field of social work she was labeled “transphobic” by her management and subsequently fired.
“I was terminated from a high-paying Government position within an agency that I got due to my vast experience accumulated over 25 years working in social policy, working with the oppressed/marginalized including, women rape survivors from the Congo/Rwanda, homeless communities, new refugees and abused women and children,” Kaur explains.
“I always received high praise for my work from peers and supervisors alike. I committed to this work for 25 years, and then one day just let go because the following personal tweets were deemed “transphobic” by management.”
The tweets in question had to do with statements pertaining to the fact that men cannot get pregnant, children shouldn’t be taking potent puberty blockers and “extolling the virtues” of Peterson and “others who fight for freedom.”
According to Kaur she was then replaced by a less experienced individual who towed the line on gender ideology.
“I was accused of supporting a man who disseminates transphobia and misogyny,” the fundraiser states.
According to Kaur, any funds contributed to the drive will be used towards legal consultations and to compensate for lost wages.
On Friday, Peterson confirmed the story’s authenticity on his personal Twitter account.
“She is using an alias because of nonstop harassment but I know the story is true…” tweeted Peterson.
There have been other cases in Canada of government workers being censored and reprimanded for speaking out against gender ideology. In a recent case, Vancouver registered nurse Amy Hamm is facing an ongoing disciplinary investigation for speaking out against radical gender theory.
