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CBC
22 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
25 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
25 minutes ago
- CBC
What strong mayor powers could mean for N.S. government and why they might be granted
Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Andy Fillmore continued his lobbying to gain expanded power in a letter late last month to Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr. The letter, obtained by CBC News, comes as some provincial officials and Fillmore have raised the idea of strong mayor powers. Among other things, those powers could give the mayor of the capital city the ability to hire and fire staff and to override situations where the mayor's vote would otherwise be in the minority at council. In his letter, Fillmore writes that a "disconnection between democratic choice at the ballot box and decision-making at city hall" is hindering his ability to deliver on campaign promises. As an example, he says he asked for a draft budget that would hold the tax rate flat, yet staff presented council a document during budget deliberations that proposed a 7.6 per cent increase in tax bills. "This is a problem which is rooted in Halifax's governance model," Fillmore writes, neglecting to mention that council was able to eventually land on a lower number, which included freezing the tax rate. In Nova Scotia, a mayor acts — sort of — as a chair of an elected board, with one vote just like every other member around the table. Cape Breton University political scientist Tom Urbaniak says the governance model used here is the same as most of the rest of Canada, with the exception of Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford has made strong mayor powers available for about 170 municipalities in recent years. Even in those cases, however, it was not pursued by municipal officials the way it has been in recent months by Fillmore, according to Urbaniak. "I'm actually surprised by the extent to which Mayor Fillmore has insisted on these powers," Urbaniak said in a recent interview. Fillmore's overt pursuit of strong mayor powers risks creating the perception that he's incapable of advancing an agenda and building consensus around the council table without the intervention of the provincial government, said Urbaniak. "That's not the experience of other mayors across the country, who usually did not demand these powers and in many cases were able to drive an agenda." Indeed, Lohr confirmed earlier this year that he offered similar powers to Fillmore's predecessor, Mike Savage, and Savage turned down the offer. Premier Tim Houston mused recently about passing legislation to create strong mayor powers in part because of his frustration with a decision by HRM council to make Morris Street a one-way street, which would also accommodate a bike lane. Speaking to reporters last month, Houston said that decision, which Fillmore opposed, would not help address concerns about traffic congestion, and the premier thought councillors were out of touch with the needs and wants of the people they represent. But that's not a situation where strong mayor powers would even be necessary to make a change. Houston's government passed legislation earlier this year giving itself the power to override any municipal decision related to transportation. The premier has subsequently given HRM council a deadline of this week to reverse the Morris Street decision or the Progressive Conservatives will flex their new powers and do it for them. Urbaniak said one issue with strong mayor powers — and the reason some jurisdictions moved away from it in the past — is the risk of outsized influence in the operations of the city by one person, with no mechanism for having their power checked outside of elections. That's less accountability than what's in place for premiers or the prime minister. Although Houston has a supermajority that allows his government to comfortably advance its agenda, that's only secure as long as Houston has the confidence of the Nova Scotia legislature. While he's unlikely to lose it, if something were to happen to create a division in his caucus an election could be forced. Despite a growing leader-centric political culture in Canada, you only need look at the recent example of Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals to see how much power a caucus actually has when they choose to exercise it. That's not the case in a strong mayor situation. Political calculus for the province Urbaniak says the political calculus for Houston when it comes to strong mayor powers is based on a public frustrated with things such as traffic congestion and housing challenges, both difficult problems to solve. The province has tools to work on those issues — Houston's government ordered but has not yet released a study looking at how to address congestion in the city — but the fixes are not fast, said Urbaniak. Creating strong mayor powers can make the premier appear decisive and "allows the province to create this impression that if the problem still persists it's on the municipality or it's on the mayor, and it's not on us as the province," said Urbaniak. But there are risks to that for Houston. His government already has that recently created power over essentially all municipal transportation decisions. And during their first mandate, the Progressive Conservatives all but assumed control of planning in HRM. Overriding the way municipal government functions — without ever having put it to the public first — would further tie Houston's government to HRM and its operations, and by extension the responsibility for the results.
