'We don't want him to go': Toronto students rally to reinstate principal
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CBC
34 minutes ago
- CBC
Book-loving family frustrated by school library cuts
A Woodstock family is worried about the return to school next month, after their district eliminated library workers for the coming year. A labour board ruling has ordered the province to cancel those cuts, but it's unclear what that means for fall.
CBC
37 minutes ago
- CBC
Ford government studied, shelved Hwy. 401 tunnel research in 2021
The Ford government studied tunneling under Highway 401 to relieve congestion but quietly shelved the unreleased work in 2021, years before Premier Doug Ford announced his controversial plan for the mega-project in 2024. Those findings are in documents obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request. The briefing notes for senior government officials, dated Feb. 19, 2025, lay out the history of work on the controversial proposal that Ford first floated publicly last year. "The project was paused in late 2021 based on government direction," civil servants wrote in the briefing note. "The planning study was not advertised, and no additional work has occurred on the project." Ford's plan would see the tunnel built from Mississauga in the west to Scarborough in the east. In April, the government began the process of finding a firm to complete a new feasibility study into tunneling or building an elevated expressway above the current highway. That study isn't expected to be completed until 2027. But the documents obtained by CBC News show that the government appears to have already conducted its own analysis and quietly shelved that detailed work five years ago. The planning study has not been released and it's not clear why the work was stopped. The civil servants say in the documents that the study examined options to compare "assumptions, findings, costing, and technical design considerations." WATCH | Experts say proposed tunnel could cost $100B: Pair of ministries, consultant prepared the 'high-level analysis' The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Ontario worked on the study with the help of an outside engineering consultant. They "conducted a high-level analysis on three tunnel concepts and two elevated roadway concepts," the note says. That work appears to have been prompted by a number of unsolicited proposals to government between 2019 and 2021 from companies pitching plans to build a 401 tunnel. The submission of such proposals is not unusual, and Ontario created a policy framework and submissions portal to streamline the process in 2019, the documents say. "(The proposals) received by the government in 2019 led to an initial assessment of the feasibility and benefits of a tunnel or similar large-scale capital infrastructure project on the central Highway 401 corridor, which would add capacity in support of decreasing congestion," the note says. The documents say firms Aecon, Cintra and Acciona all submitted unsolicited proposals. The note does not provide specifics about each individual plan but says one proposed two tunnels under the existing 401 from Highway 427 in the west to Bayview Avenue or Leslie Street in the east. One of the tunnel concepts consisted of two "large-diameter, five lane, double-deck" tunnels, the documents note. Crombie calls for 'full transparency' Neither Premier Doug Ford nor Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria's offices responded to a request for comment. Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie is calling on the government to release all of the reports on the tunnel. Ontarians need to be able to evaluate the merits of what could be the single most expensive infrastructure project in the province's history should it move ahead, she said. "I'd like to know what the economic benefits are," she said. "I'd like to know what the environmental impacts would be. Will it meet the goal of reducing traffic and gridlock?" Crombie said she's skeptical the tunnel would cut congestion on the highway. It's possible the government shelved the work in 2021 because the civil servants found the mega-project wasn't feasible, she said. "That's why we ask for full transparency and an opportunity to see the feasibility study," she said. WATCH | How Toronto is tackling congestion: Chow explains how Toronto is tackling congestion, gridlock 3 months ago Critic calls for release of Hwy. 401 tunnel reports NDP transportation and infrastructure critic Jennifer French said the Ford government needs to be transparent about what it already knows about the cost and feasibility of the tunnel. "This just speaks to the fact that everything the government does, whether it's infrastructure projects, transportation projects, we are always the last ones to know," she said. "If the premier is drawing from the report, or if he's ignoring the report, I would like to know." Vetting unsolicited proposals is very challenging for governments, said Matti Siemiatycki, director of University of Toronto's Infrastructure Institute. He's not surprised that after receiving the three plans from the private sector, that the government wanted to work on its own 401 tunnel analysis. "Some of them are complete hair brain schemes, and some of them have a kernel of truth to them," he said generally of unsolicited proposals. "It's very complicated and challenging for governments to sift through them and try to figure out the signal from the noise." Siemiatycki said the 401 tunnel could take decades to build and cost tens of billions of dollars. For that reason, the government should release as much of its feasibility work as possible, including information in the unsolicited proposals that isn't proprietary to the firms, he said. That also includes release of the current feasibility study planned by the province when it's completed, he added.
CBC
37 minutes ago
- CBC
'That's a lot of bottles!': Uncorking the value of American booze pulled from NSLC shelves
The NSLC's decision to pull American alcohol from its shelves means it has to warehouse almost 600,000 units of booze as part of the province's response to the ongoing trade war with the United States. As of March 6, between the more than 400 American products in stores and warehouses and orders in transit, there were 587,153 units of product that was property of the NSLC, according to documentation obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request. "That's a lot of bottles!" Dave DiPersio, the NSLC's senior vice-president of corporate affairs, wrote in an email to other company officials that same day. The NSLC removed American booze from its shelves in early March after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods. A previous plan from a month earlier to pull U.S. alcohol was paused after Trump initially did not go ahead with implementing tariffs. The last order the NSLC placed for American alcohol was on Jan. 2, 2025. How much is the booze worth? The product being warehoused includes things that range in size from a 50-millilitre mini bottle of hard liquor to a three-litre bottle of wine. The retail value was $14,896,652. Citing security reasons, the NSLC declined to say where the American alcohol is being stored and wouldn't allow CBC to view it. None of the products pulled was cannabis as the NSLC doesn't carry any American-grown cannabis. The documents reveal some surprising details about just what constitutes an American product. "There are significant beer brands which customers may perceive as American (e.g. Bud, Bud Light & Coors) which are produced in Canada and are not included in the list of products that were removed," a Feb. 3 company document prepared for the finance minister noted. For example, the Oland Brewery on Halifax's Agricola Street is part of the global beer company Anheuser-Busch InBev. Beers such as Budweiser and Bud Light are brewed there. Where is Southern Comfort from? And while Southern Comfort might conjure up visions of the Big Easy as it's "The spirit of New Orleans" — according to its label — details like that had it initially categorized as American and thus removed from the shelves. However, Southern Comfort is produced and bottled in Montreal, and is now back on the shelves. It was a similar story for Goldschläger, the cinnamon schnapps that includes gold flakes. It was also initially pulled off the shelves. "Bottled by Sazerac Distilleries of Canada for Sazerac company. Louisville, KY, USA," the back label of the product shows. For rum manufacturer Bacardi, it didn't want to be labelled as an American product "as our rums are a product of Puerto Rico," the company's regional director for Atlantic Canada wrote in a Feb. 26 email to some NSLC officials. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory, so Bacardi's products remain available for sale through the NSLC. The removal of American booze isn't the first time the NSLC has stopped selling a country's products. In 2022, it removed Russian vodka because of the country's invasion of Ukraine. That ban remains in place. American sales For the fiscal year from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024 — which would also be the most current fiscal year for which American products were available for the entire year — sales of U.S. products totalled roughly $18 million out of the $753 million in beverage alcohol sales. Data provided by the NSLC shows that almost half of American sales were on products from California, mostly wine. Adding Kentucky and Tennessee into the mix, the three states accounted for around 85 per cent of sales. As for how long the NSLC will keep American booze off its shelves, the company plans to do so until otherwise directed by the province. The decision to pull American products has been good news for Nova Scotian alcohol producers. From March 4 to July 11, sales of Nova Scotia wine increased 14.5 per cent and Nova Scotia spirit products increased 26.7 per cent, compared to the same time last year. Canadian wine sales were up 12.9 per cent, while Canadian whisky sales increased by 9.2 per cent during the same time period. "I think overall shoppers have been responding and looking for more local products and Canadian products," said NSLC spokesperson Terah McKinnon. "Overall, we do receive some questions [about American alcohol], but I think the numbers are showing in our sales to say they are exploring products closer to home." Compass Distillers makes a range of spirits including gin and rum, many sold through the NSLC. President Graham Collins said that while Compass products like gin haven't seen an uptick in NSLC sales because most competitors are European-based, they've seen a bump in rum sales. "The bigger difference from an NSLC perspective is simply that the NSLC and people in general are reminding us all that buying local, buying Canadian is a better strategy," said Collins. "And so I think people are a little more focused in that respect." Compass distills alcohol from its home on Agricola Street, which also includes a bar. Collins said the company's customer base has long prioritized buying local. "I think the current political climate helps encourage that behaviour in a widespread manner," he said. Private wine and specialty stores For people shopping at the private wine and specialty stores in the province, they'll notice a lack of American products today. Although private, these businesses must order products through the NSLC to get them on their shelves. The lack of American products is a simple matter of logistics. "The NSLC will no longer purchase U.S. products on your behalf," the NSLC wrote in a document addressed to private wine and specialty stores. The same order applies to bars and restaurants as well.
