Promised Childcare Centres Delayed by Provincial Red Tape, says TDSB
Six years after the ministry of education greenlit 28 new childcare centres, construction hasn’t even begun, leaving parents in underserved corners of Toronto struggling to find care.
In Small Claims Court, Justice Delayed
While Ontario’s other court systems bounce back from their pandemic-era backlogs, analysis by The Local shows that “the people’s court,” where many low-income people seek justice, is lagging far behind.
Behind the Unprecedented Rise in Food Bank Use
Food charities started out as a temporary measure to alleviate hunger. But since COVID, demand has skyrocketed for services that were only ever meant to be a stopgap.
Evaluating Olivia Chow’s First 100 Days
On issues from intergovernmental relations to housing, transit to taxes—we try to make sense of the mayor’s first months in office in the final column of our First 100 Days series.
The New Middlemen of the Rental Market
With demand high and renters desperate, property management companies like Urby Housing are using non-standard rental agreements that try to sidestep the protections of the Residential Tenancies Act in creative, increasingly brazen ways.
A New Approach to Homelessness on the TTC?
85 Days In — a new message at the TTC Board, turning shuttle buses into shelters, and how to derail a train.
Everybody’s Got to Eat
Decadent chicken sandwiches, steaming bowls of pho ga, classic jerk chicken, and pillowy pupusas worth the commute—eating our way across Jane and Finch.
“Canada’s Worst Obstacle Course”
Metrolinx has promised Toronto a more interconnected tomorrow. As it rips up some of the city’s busiest streets, is it paying enough attention to the safety and wellbeing of Torontonians today?
The Crisis After the Crisis
During lockdowns, politicians, journalists, and policy makers suddenly started paying attention to communities along the Finch West corridor. Then they stopped. A panoramic look at Toronto’s northwest after the COVID emergency.
At Jane and Finch, a Fight for Community Space
Metrolinx is building a maintenance shed in the middle of their community. These residents are fighting to make sure they get something in return.
Meet Wency Leung, the Newest Member of The Local
The veteran reporter, who’s worked everywhere from Cambodia to Prague to Vancouver, will cover health and education
Growing Up on the 36 Finch West
It takes me two hours on transit to visit my mom in Rexdale. Can a transit line begin to connect a neighbourhood that sometimes feels a world apart?
The Apartments the Union Built
In the 1980s, aircraft workers in Malton were struggling to find housing—so they built their own. What can this obscure Rexdale housing co-op teach us today?
The Slow Fight for Rapid Transit on Finch West
After more than fifty years of talk, northwest Toronto is finally getting an LRT. But as the new line brings higher rents, changing businesses, and on-going construction, residents are demanding a say in how their community will change.
Welcome to Finch West
The LRT doesn’t open until next year at the earliest, but it’s already transforming Toronto’s northwest.
A Return to Pre-Budget Consultations
68 Days In—budget chief Shelley Carroll on how this budget’s process will be different, her reluctance to raise property taxes, and how to negotiate with the feds and the province.
Olivia Chow’s Financial Plan Takes Form
50 Days In - If the mayor can’t wrest funds from the province or feds, or convince council to approve new revenue tools, her tenure will look little different from Tory’s.
A Leftward Tilt for the City’s Committees
34 Days In—Olivia Chow makes council appointments, and the by-election churn continues.
What Can Olivia Chow Do About Climate Change?
24 days in—How a city mayor can tackle a global problem, a literal train wreck in Scarborough, and what’s next at Toronto City Hall.
Tracking Olivia Chow’s First 100 Days as Toronto Mayor
9 days in—a shelter and homelessness crisis reaches city hall, Olivia Chow's first council meeting, and drinking in (some) parks.