Markham OK’s financing for NHL-ready arena: In a 11-2 vote, Markham council Thursday night approved a business deal between the town and a private group to build a $325-million NHL-ready arena in Markham Centre.
From The Otttawa Citizen:
Ontario’s opposition Tories, who previously vowed to scrap the province’s region-al health boards, are acknowledging that some type of lo-cal health planning is needed as the province looks for ways to rein in spending and deliver services more efficiently.
The party’s about-face suggests that, even if Ontario’s 14 LHINs, or local health integration networks, don’t survive a Liberal minority government, some form of regional health structure will likely remain.
From The Globe and Mail:
Suggesting that Ontario’s province-wide Grade 3 and 6 literacy and math tests are useless, as the New Democratic Party’s education critic Rosario Marchese did this week, is to reveal a party that is not to be taken seriously, at least on education.
This is the party that, when it governed Ontario under Bob Rae, set up a royal commission that recommended these very tests. The Conservative Party later implemented the testing regime, and the Liberal government has added resources that have helped literacy scores improve markedly.
From YorkRegion.com:
Vaughan’s professional firefighters’ union is throwing its support behind two local Grits in hopes of helping them extinguish their competitors in the Oct. 6 election.
Mike Doyle, president of the Vaughan Professional Fire Fighters Association, said the union is endorsing Vaughan Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara and Thornhill Liberal candidate Bernie Farber.
“Their values, when it comes to our values, they’re in line with each other,” he said.
From the Ottawa Citizen:
Keon, a lifelong Tory who sat in the federal Senate as a Progressive Conservative before he reached mandatory retirement at 75 last year, praised McGuinty for what he’s done on health, sure (“he’s really been ahead of his time”), but also on education (early and higher). He said McGuinty had “brilliantly managed” the recession and Ontario’s recovery. One sample:
He’s committed to making Ontario’s publicly funded education system even better, and the link between education and health is enormous. Under his leadership, peace and progress have returned to Ontario’s public school system, children are getting the attention they need through smaller class sizes and more teachers, and now he’s introduced full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds to give kids a wonderful start in life and set them on the road to a long, healthy, productive life.
via Jordan
