Friday notes of interest

FCM Conference – Toronto Councillors attending

Adam Vaughan, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Giorgio Mammoliti, Josh Colle, Joe Mihevc, Pam McConnell, Mary Fragedakis, Mary-Margaret McMahon, Shelley Carroll, Michael Thompson and Ana Bailao.

From the FCM site

FCM launches The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012

The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012 surveys the national challenges playing out in the places Canadians live, work, and raise their families.

The report has two parts. Part One takes a look at recent fiscal trends affecting our cities and communities. It reviews the financial challenges cities and communities have struggled with during the past two-and-half- decades, and what progress has been made in addressing them.

Part Two looks at the state of intergovernmental cooperation in Canada. It focuses on three areas where federal, provincial-territorial, and municipal governments have overlapping roles and responsibilities: policing and public safety, housing, and environmental sustainability.

The report shows that despite recent investments, the outlook for our cities and communities is uncertain. Local governments continue to operate without a stable, secure share of the total tax revenues generated by their communities. They also remain vulnerable to offloading of costly responsibilities by other orders of government. As a result, they are caught in a chronic state of fiscal insecurity, without the stable financing and settled responsibilities to effectively plan for the future.

The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012
The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012 – Highlights and key findings
The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012 – Backgrounder

News release: The State of Canada’s Cities and Communities 2012

Ford park land grab may fail today.


Image National Post newspaperLink to full size map

Text Excerpts from the Toronto Sun.

Mayor Rob Ford’s bid to buy the piece of conservation land beside his Etobicoke home could end at a Toronto and Region Conservation Authority meeting Friday.
A statement filed to the TRCA executive committee from Ford’s spokesman to the organization makes it clear Ford and his wife Renata are “disappointed” with the staff report recommending they not be sold the land.

In the report going to the executive committee, TRCA staff conclude disposing of the land is contrary to the authority’s policies and its mandate “to conserve valley corridors.

“Staff is recommending that the subject parcel be retained for conservation purposes,” the report states.

Farmers Market Tomorrow

8:30 am


Link to their site

Leave a Reply