Shakespearean summer
Katherina (Sophie Goulet) tries to drown Bianca (Jennifer Dzialoszynski) in Canadian Stage’s season-ending production of The Taming Of The Shrew in High Park.
Labour daze
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) was quick on the trigger with a pre-Labour Day “reality check” claiming federal government employees “take nearly three times more sick days than the rest of us.” The CTF called on the feds to “crack down on abuse of workplace sick leave by government employees,” citing a recent Treasury Board survey showing government employees take 17.9 sick days a year versus the 6.7 days taken by everybody else. The CTF singled out “desk jockeys” at Veterans Affairs, who averaged 24.2 days. But almost half the sick days taken by federal workers are actually unpaid.
Weird Scene
The World Wildlife Fund’s Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup scheduled for September 21 to 29 is billed as “the largest direct-action conservation effort” in the country. Last year some 136,036 kilograms of litter was collected from the shores of lakes, rivers and streams across Canada. It’s a massive volunteer effort whose roster of corporate sponsors this year includes (ta-da) the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. That would be the “national voice” of some of the biggest polluters in the land. Indeed, food wrappers, caps and lids, plastic bags and beverage bottles made up four of the top five litter items collected during the cleanup in 2012, behind only cigarettes. Maybe it’s the business’s way of saying sorry? The CPIA’s participation will no doubt buy some eco cred – and sell lots of garbage bags 12,895 of them were filled in last year’s cleanup.
Spotted
WHAT The Pull Of The Land, by Cape Town artist Faith47.
WHERE Underneath the Metrolinx Bala Subdivision rail line near the east parking lot at Evergreen Brick Works.
WHEN Completed earlier this summer.
Housing Gap
$161.3 million
What the city received in funding for affordable housing from Ottawa in 2012.
$33.4 million
Amount to be cut out of housing transfers from the feds by 2017.
1.4%
The property tax hike required to fill that funding gap.
$81 million
Annual housing shortfall Toronto has to cover from provincial funding sources.
September 12, 10 am
City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing launch bus-shelter ad campaign putpeoplefirst.ca.
$275
The new fee each foreign musician and crew member coming to a club, restaurant or bar in Canada will have to pay under the Conservatives’ temporary foreign workers program. NDP MP Andrew Cash says for many small club owners and promoters it would be the difference between making a small profit and going out of business. Large venues like Roy Thomson Hall and Molson Amphitheatre are exempted from the fee. Sign the petition at change.org.
