Friday, May 4, 2018
Toronto's Waterfront Could Show the Future of Data Collection
Toronto's waterfront is the location for the plans of a smart city — one that provides the blueprint for the future of data collection. The connected neighbourhood would collect data to make city living more efficient, but raises issues of privacy.
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Thursday, May 3, 2018
Bombardier selling Downsview property for $635M
Toronto: Bombardier has signed a deal to sell its Downsview property in Toronto for $635 million to the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Under a lease agreement, Bombardier will continue to operate from Downsview for up to three years following the closing of the deal, with two optional one-year extension periods.
Bombardier also signed an agreement with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority for a long-term lease of a property at Toronto Pearson International Airport where it plans a new final assembly plant for its Global business jets.
The company made the announcements as it reported its latest financial results.
Bombardier says it earned $44 million or a penny per share on $4.03 billion in revenue in the quarter ended March 31. That compared with a profit of $6 million or zero cents per share on $3.61 billion in revenue a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Bombardier says it earned $35 million or a penny per share in the quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $38 million or a penny per share a year ago.
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Toronto home sales, prices down from year ago
TORONTO — The Toronto Real Estate Board says home sales in April were down 32.1 per cent compared with a year ago.
The board says there were 7,792 homes sold through its MLS system last month compared with 11,468 a year ago.
The average selling price was $804,584, down 12.4 per cent compared with the same month last year.
However, the MLS home price index composite benchmark, which strips out the impact of changes in the mix of home sales, was down 5.2 per cent compared with a year ago.
The Toronto board says that on a seasonally adjusted basis the month-over-month changes in sales and the average selling price were minimal compared with a steeper drop-off in January and February.
The board says compared with March, sales slipped 1.6 per cent lower, while the average selling price fell by 0.2 per cent.
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Giorgio Mammoliti Toronto Councillor for Ward 7 Threatened City Staff Over Controversial Land Deal says report
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti threatened city staff to push for a land sale in his ward, says a secret investigative report.
The report from Torys LLP, hired by the city to investigate the now-cancelled deal, was presented to council at a closed-door meeting in April and obtained by the Star on Wednesday. It says Mammoliti played a “central role” in advocating for the land sale and “made express and direct threats” to a city staff member and “appeared to be actively pushing” for staff to direct the Toronto Parking Authority, an agency of the city, to acquire the parcel of land in his York West ward.
For the first time, the report also confirms that two parking authority executives were fired by the city on April 4 “based on the information in the report” from Torys.
The now-cancelled land deal is currently under investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.
Speaking to the Star on Wednesday, Mammoliti said he couldn’t speak to report, as it is still confidential, but pointed out that he, in a public portion of the council meeting last week, insisted the report be made public.
“I’d love to speak publicly on this,” he said. “I don’t think this is about Mammoliti at all. I think there’s much more to this than what you think there is here.” When asked whether he threatened staff as described in the report, he said: “I’m going to say absolutely no to that.”
Mammoliti would not be interviewed by Torys investigators, which included former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, without them paying his legal fees or sending questions in advance, which they didn’t do, the report says. Mammoliti did not dispute this Wednesday.
The two fired parking authority executives, president Lorne Persiko, and vice-president of real estate and development Marie Casista were interviewed by investigators, along with several board members, parking authority staff, city staff and others.
During the investigation, the board has been governed on an interim basis by senior city staff.
The earlier proposed land sale between a real estate broker, who owns the five-acre strip at Finch Ave. and Arrow Rd. near Hwy. 400, and the parking authority first came under scrutiny in 2016. Councillor John Filion, who was then a member of the parking authority’s board, brought his concerns about the deal and a lack of due diligence to the city’s auditor general.
After a 10-month investigation, in 2017 auditor general Beverly Romeo-Beehler told council that the parking authority was poised to approve the deal that would have seen them overpay for the land by $2.63 million — what resulted, she said, from a “hairball” of relationships. The auditor general alerted Toronto police, who forwarded the case to the OPP for investigation.
The Arrow Rd. land has long been of interest to Mammoliti, who has pushed to build a project in the area that includes a 125-metre, “monumental” flagpole which is supported by the local Emery Village BIA.
The land at the centre of investigation is owned by Katpa Holdings Inc., according to public records, which is solely registered to real estate broker Frank De Luca.
In recent years, the BIA and Mammoliti looked to the parking authority to purchase the land, both the earlier auditor general’s report and the Torys report explain.
Ahead of a March 2016 council meeting, city staff were preparing a report about public realm improvements to coincide with the proposed Finch West LRT, which will run through the area at Arrow Rd.
The Torys report found Mammoliti told Jeffrey Climans, the director of major capital infrastructure co-ordination, “that if the report did not provide the direction regarding 1111 Arrow Road, he would actively work against all of the public realm improvements,” in his own ward.
Ultimately, the final staff report approved by council did include a recommendation for the parking authority to acquire the property. The city’s legal department had concerns that the wording of the recommendation might suggest the parking authority was required to close the deal even if the terms were “not acceptable,” but those concerns weren’t addressed in the staff report.
Climans told legal staff he’d ensure Mammoliti knew an amendment to the recommendation needed to be made at council, the Torys report says. “Councillor Mammoliti did not want the amendment and it was abandoned,” according to the report.
The Torys report outlined several concerns with how the sale was negotiated and how the parking authority determined the value of the deal.
For example, the parking authority recommended its board approve a conditional agreement to purchase the Arrow Rd. land for $12 million despite, the investigators say, there being, to their knowledge, “no information or documentation that explains clearly how the TPA arrived at the $12 million purchase price” and in spite of appraisals valuing the land at $7.5 million and $8 million. There was also never a business case for the land sale or explanation of parking needs in the area, Torys found.
At one point, despite Casista having “significant doubts” about the quality of work to value the price of a digital sign on the property and potential for a second sign for the site that would not have been blocked by provincial rules, Torys reported that both Casista and Persiko “repeatedly pushed” an independent appraiser, Altus, working on an updated land value to include the sign values in their report to the parking authority board.
Altus refused to include the sign values in their report but attached the work as an appendix. The concerns about that sign valuation were never disclosed to the board, Torys found.
Both Persiko and Casista have maintained, including to Torys investigators, that they would have completed a due diligence review but that it was interrupted by the auditor general’s investigation.
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Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Toronto Police Post Most Wanted Posters On Instagram
This is the idea behind Bolo — a new police support program that aims to harness the power of technology for the purpose of getting murderers, terrorists, rapists and child sex traffickers off the street.
Toronto Police Service announced on Tuesday that it would begin testing Bolo (short for "be on the lookout") in partnership with the Stephan Crétier Foundation, effective immediately.
A website and several social media accounts have been set up for the pilot project in hopes of "finding Canada's most wanted," including a YouTube channel with short but impactful AMW-style briefs.
The program's creators say they can tailor most-wanted listings using a proprietary engagement engine called Spark.
"Spark tells us what channels to use to make sure that you know about Canada’s most wanted," explains Bolo's website, "so that you contribute to keep your community safe."
You see, officers aren't looking for evidence of crime with this initiative. The people they seek have already been charged.
What they need are citizens to notice and report actively-wanted suspects in their own communities.
"At any given time, there are tens of thousands of outstanding arrest warrants in Canada," reads the Bolo program's website.
"The police typically request the public's assistance for those 'most wanted' cases, counting on tips from the public to help locate the suspects. But in many cases, the public simply isn't getting the message. When was the last time you saw a most wanted notice?"
Touché. Wanted posters aren't the best way of spreading awareness these days.
If a face popped up in your Facebook feed surrounded by bright yellow and the word "WANTED," however, you might pay attention — especially if you recognize it.
The pilot project is focused for now on a few top priority most wanted cases from the Toronto Police Service, with a full launch expected later this summer.
"The people we’ve selected for the Bolo Program currently are those that we believe are still within the GTA or still have strong ties to the GTA," said Detective Sergeant Stacy Gallant during today's press conference.
"Hopefully by picking cases that have a strong connection still to Toronto, we're going to reach the biggest portion of the community that we can through both the digital, social media and through handing out flyers in the community."
As police are constantly telling everybody, members of the public should never approach or try to apprehend a suspect.
"If you see a most wanted individual or have a tip to submit, contact Crime Stoppers, the police, or 911," advises Bolo's website. "Don't forget that citizens are the eyes and ears of the police."
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Toronto Newspaper Boxes Slowly Disappearing
As if we needed more evidence of print media's dwindling relevance, the city of Toronto has released a 10 year status update on its Coordinated Street Furniture Program, and things are looking pretty bad for print.
The number of publication boxes on city streets has dipped from 15,418 in 2006 to just 3,624 as of 2018, according to the Transportation Services report.
That's a decline of nearly 77 per cent over 12 years, which translates into roughly $974,000 less in annual revenue for the city.
"It is anticipated that the number of boxes licensed will hold steady or decline slightly in 2019," reads the report, which is set to go before Toronto's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee next Tuesday.
Instead of having a single publication occupy one box to themselves, the city has been widely implementing newspaper corrals and kiosks where print publications are stored together.
Toronto city council decided at a previous meeting that all publications in single boxes—as in regular newspaper boxes—would be migrated into kiosks or box corrals by December 2020.
Traditional newspaper boxes are soon going to become a thing of the past in Toronto, but that doesn't mean print is ready to give up the ghost just yet. Faithful readers will still be able to buy their hard copies at corrals and kiosks.
The number of publication boxes on city streets has dipped from 15,418 in 2006 to just 3,624 as of 2018, according to the Transportation Services report.
That's a decline of nearly 77 per cent over 12 years, which translates into roughly $974,000 less in annual revenue for the city.
"It is anticipated that the number of boxes licensed will hold steady or decline slightly in 2019," reads the report, which is set to go before Toronto's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee next Tuesday.
Instead of having a single publication occupy one box to themselves, the city has been widely implementing newspaper corrals and kiosks where print publications are stored together.
Toronto city council decided at a previous meeting that all publications in single boxes—as in regular newspaper boxes—would be migrated into kiosks or box corrals by December 2020.
Traditional newspaper boxes are soon going to become a thing of the past in Toronto, but that doesn't mean print is ready to give up the ghost just yet. Faithful readers will still be able to buy their hard copies at corrals and kiosks.
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