Tag Archives: Toronto

Finances

Seven ways to tackle inflation without raising interest rates

Originally published on Corporate Knights

Editor’s note: Guy Dauncey’s Big Solutions: Raising interest rates is a cruel cudgel that hurts the most vulnerable. There are other responses that governments and central banks should consider.

By Guy Dauncey

There are many causes of inflation, but there’s only one solution central banks seem willing to consider: increase interest rates. This has many people scratching their heads: Why would this bring down the price of rent, food or gas? Won’t it increase costs for anyone who pays interest on a variable-rate mortgage or consumer loan? And won’t it make essential green investments more difficult?

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Health

Communities across Canada organize to challenge far-right rhetoric of ‘freedom convoy’

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The streets of downtown Ottawa are no longer blocked with trucks and peppered with hate symbols, but residents are not ready to rest while the extreme rhetoric of the so-called “freedom convoy” permeates Canadian politics and society.

“This will emerge again,” said Andrea Harden, an Ottawa resident who participated in many counter-protests against the month-long occupation. “The question for me is when and where?”

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Health

Just a day in the lab seeking COVID in sewage

By Morgan Sharp, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The laboratory in a downtown Toronto university building is under construction, its emergency wash station getting an upgrade, but the daily testing of incoming wastewater samples for COVID-19 goes on unabated.

Samples arrive in Nalgene-sized bottles from sites all over the city — large treatment plants and community and congregate sites, such as university residences, shelters and long-term care homes — and Nora Dannah has to walk down to shipping and receiving to collect them.

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Housing

Toronto’s Unhoused and The Unprepared (P 4): Alternative Housing

By Katia Galati and Talha Hashmani, CJRU 1280 AM, Toronto through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Ontario’s housing market has seen skyrocketing rent prices, lowering the margins of those who can afford a place to stay.

The situation is most prominent in major metropolitans, like Toronto where rent has gone up by nearly two per cent, according to a report by the the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released on February 2022. But while such an increase has made it difficult for many low and middle-income Torontonians, the need for housing remains.

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Housing, Poverty

Toronto’s Unhoused and Unprepared (pt 3): The winter plan


By Katia Galati and Talha Hashmani, CJRU 1280 AM, Toronto through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Toronto’s winter months amplify the unsafe living conditions faced by the city’s homeless population, many of whom are forced to brave a night without shelter or warmth. In a recent article by the Toronto Star, workers at St. Michael’s hospital reported a rise in cold-related injuries including frostbite, painful foot infections, and life-threatening hypothermia amongst those living out in the streets.. 

With the shelter system nearing capacity and facing staffing issues, those  left on the streets are forced to seek alternative shelter arrangements. Shuttle buses, heating vents, and subway stations are some of the many popular spots the unhoused go when they are met with little support from the city. 

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