Sunday, April 25, 2010

En retard 7:30

[For non-Francophones, the title of this post means "Late - 7:30 PM". We ended up taking off at 8 PM or so.]

And so it begins, the delays that are native to Pearson Airport... It was a 7:15 PM flight, who knows when it will be by the time we take off...?

For your amusement and mine, here's a real live news article regarding a new Toronto regulation:


City orders condo developers to buy annual metropass for every unit

Developers building condos on Toronto transit lines will now have to buy every unit a TTC metropass for a year in order to obtain condominium approval from the city, a policy critics say comes at a high cost and without proof people will use it.

“How does the city know that everyone is going to want or need a metropass?” said Stephen Dupuis, president and chief executive officer of Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

City council voted yesterday in favour of the policy, which Mr. Dupuis said adds a systemic cost of about $1,400 per unit. He said his organization is pro-transit, “but people are going to take transit if it suits their lifestyle.”

Councillor Howard Moscoe, however, believes it “will cause people on transit lines to abandon their cars.”

He pushed the initiative forward, which passed council without debate. The policy states the cost of the metropasses cannot be passed on to the condo buyer.

City staff describe it as a “transportation demand management measure” that is aimed at encouraging transit use and reducing dependency on cars. It applies to condo projects with 20 or more units in areas that “are or will be well-served by transit.”

Yet more paternalism by the Canadian government... these policies drive me to lean more Republican every day.

2 comments:

  1. This is not Canadianism per se, but a result of the very left-leaning Toronto City Council. You would never find such a thing happening in the more conservative provinces such as Alberta.

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  2. Fair enough, Michael. I'll admit to knowing nothing about greater Canadian government.

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