Marcus Gagliardi

But we're willing to spend millions on millions to fight housing applications at the land Tribunal instead of working toward collaborative solutions for housing. Taxpayer money going toward political fights. Unnecessary spending.

@frankgreco1 @City_of_Vaughan @StevenDelDuca @marilyniafrate @mgracco1 @VoteVolpentesta Not something they can do at the local level. Provincial government would need to implement it through amendments to the Act. They can advocate for it though....

I am very happy to see #HamOnt @vicparkch get the last piece of the financing puzzle in place to begin construction of 261 new affordable housing units at 60 Caledon in #Ward8Hamilton! The @cityofhamilton is a key financial partner in this project. thespec.com/news/council/h…

@JohnPaulDanko All the while, making the cost of homeownership and home purchases in Hamilton that much more expensive. #notaffordable

#HamOnt - Do you own a home? Would you like a 15% property TAX CUT? A municipal Land Transfer Tax would generate an estimated $177M / year in alternative revenue - relieving 15% from every single current residential property taxpayer in the City.

@oldTOseries Sittler, Lanny....

Can you name them? Worlds collide outside city hall in 1990. credit: Toronto Star

@jen_keesmaat People drive because transit schedules, availability and routes can't fulfill their needs. Fix the problem.....transit.

Cheap parking is a pricing problem that creates traffic congestion. We’ve consistently raised transit fares but the price of parking in the city is cheap, and also heavily subsidized. Today, for a family of four, it is cheaper in many instances to pay for parking than to pay for transit for a night out. Prices send signals, and the signal today is ‘take your car.’ If we want to fix the chaotic congestion mess on city streets, we need better construction managment (it’s true) but we also need to fix the price of parking. planetizen.com/blogs/126598-w…

@jen_keesmaat Too little too late. They're still opposing Development and still contradicting themselves continuously on the record. I.e. how can you want housing, density, supply, Affordability, but oppose heights, smaller units, densities, parking reductions, etc.?

I've talked to three left leaning politicians in as many days who now recognize/acknowledge: 1) they have said no to housing developments that they should have approved 2) they were hung up on the wrong issues (i.e. shadows) that they now see were NIMBY tools for keeping newcomers out 3) they made housing more expensive by adding consultation ad nauseam to the approvals process, and it did nothing to improve the project, but rather just gave some loud mouths a platform 4) all affordable housing built in the city in the past 20 years, while not enough, was still effectively and successfully built by the private sector These are big realizations! Maybe change is on the horizon.

@perez_avry @jen_keesmaat There's more money being made by those contractors than owners of land in the greenbelt. Billions on billions of dollars for their companies. And guess what, no houses built, business shut down, etc. What looked great on paper still hasn't amounted to anything

@marcusg788 @jen_keesmaat I agree. An audit needs to be conducted on the contractors and which companies were awarded bids. The public has a right to know this information. The Greenbelt isn’t the only matter that needs investigation. The construction of the Eglinton LRT is right up there

Canadians deserve more than smug silence when public projects go off the rails - the Eglinton Crosstown is four years late and $3-billion over budget. We worked evenings and weekends to create the design concept for that gorgeous green track you see in the picture (and the rest of the project, from the below grade tunnels to the stations) on schedule to ensure no delays. But today, 95% built (maybe more?) there is no one in charge to grab the bull by the horns and get it over the finish line. $3 billion over budget and no opening date in sight? No wonder people are giving up and getting back in their cars. Time for leaders - at the Province, at the City - to step up, grab the bull by the horns and tell the public how and when they are going to get this done. #comments" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editor…

@jen_keesmaat The same twenty somethings likely don't own a.property, condo or freehold, and will likely complain about affordability for the next 10 years with little ability to enter the market. Drive till you can afford is often a harsh reality but a necessity.

The beating heart of democracy is an informed, aware and engaged public. We’ve struggled with this lately, both in the Province and in Toronto. We haven’t been having the conversations we need to have about who we are, how we growth, what where we should invest as a society. You can see it on the streets of Toronto - we mistakenly became something we didn’t mean to become. It only took about 8 years of a passive Mayor focused on press releases and gladhanding. And at the Province level, a ‘sprawl accelerator’ highway (the 413) is proceeding that absolutely no one thinks is a good idea except for a handful of landowners who stand to benefit financially. It too - like the #Greenbeltgrab - is off side with our regional planning objectives and framework which focuses on becoming a dense urban region. The #Greenbelt scandal has jolted many into action. Sometimes it takes governments going a bridge too far for the public to say “enough.” On the day of the Big Apology, I sat around a kitchen table and heard a bunch of 20-somethings talk excitedly about the Greenbelt reversal, the implications from a political perspective, governing and public trust, and the way regional aquifers work! And all I could think was: this is good, this is so good. If handled right, scandals can leave inter-generational legacies (Watergate was over 50 years ago). They can change the public discourse, accountability, checks and balances in government, and they can kick start participation in forward-looking change. There is hard work to do, but this was a watershed week. We are far far from being bedazzled by buck-a-beer. The beating heart is back.

@tommyhump 9B spent, and we can't build "affordable housing" at home...

Terrifying

@danielfoch Think there's a long way to go in this story....he kept mentioning "process". I think you're going to see a "process" for evaluation, and potentially even more lands taken out. Not immediately, but 24 months from now, maybe....

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Greenbelt lands won’t be developed after all apple.news/AGteI-pksTn2eM…

@danielfoch Scary stuff. 😨

@marcusg788 Likely

When Canadian homeowners plan to sell their primary residence:

@VinceGaetano Grocers are going to need to invest in those robots that stock shelves soon....self checkout, self stocking, self cleaning....AI run stores by 2040?....

Coming to Canadian cities soon??

Time to reconsider supply management???

@LeafsWave 100%....when he's 37 and hasn't won a cup yet. They'll bring him here for one last swan song at $10M/year. He'll get us to the conference final and we'll lose in 7. I said it here first.

HOT TAKE: At some point in his career, Connor McDavid will be a Maple Leaf one way or another.

@birgitomo Completely out of context. Mispronouncing a last name vs using a word in hate or derogatory manner are two very different things. Let's not forget that the current leader of the country dressed up as "black face" on several occasions....and he was re-elected.

Mistakes do happen. But for the federal leader of the conservative party in Canada to "mistakenly" use the N-word is a whole new level. I have words.

@VinceGaetano Buckle up!! How many hikes between now and end of Q1?

Wow! 4% CPI for August! Tighten the chinstrap on your helmets! This will be a rough ride through to the end of the year.

@danielfoch If it's a brand new house the builder would have already paid the CA fee for their permit. If there's no extension of the structure and the permit is only for works inside, seems like a double dip in my opinion. Push back.

Explain this one to me: I just had to pay a permit fee and apply to the conservation authority for a basement apartment in a brand new house. Walkout and stairs already exist (from builder). Zero change to the lot or outside of structure.