The Vacant Home Tax (VHT) is an unabashed debacle. The City of Toronto just sent 167,000 homeowners tax bills that include a one per cent VHT levy based on the values of their properties. If, for example, their Municipal Property Assessment Corporation valuation is $800,000, then the city just added a surcharge to their tax bill of $8000. Payable when? Now.  Read more

[Read more →]

READ MORE:  Read more

• NEWS: Laneway suites taking hold (Mar. 2024)
• FORUM: Addressing a housing shortage (May/June 2023)
• NEWS: City green-lights garden suites (Spring 2022)

[Read more →]

In the wake of Premier Doug Ford’s move to politicize the Ontario judiciary by only “appointing like-minded judges” whom he says will put more people in jail, three former chief justices have criticized  the move, saying that “judges do not take orders from government.”  Read more

[Read more →]

Greater density is on the horizon throughout the Annex

By Fox Oliver and 

Brian Burchell  Read more

[Read more →]

Monitoring now only occurs at point of purchase 

By Brian Burchell

Following the Annex Gleaner article that appeared in December 2023: “Receipt checks raise retail conflict,” the Shoppers Drug Mart on Bloor Street West at Walmer Road has ceased the practise of asking customers to show receipts after using the self-checkout.   Read more

[Read more →]

Premier Doug Ford’s latest gimmick is his pending “Get it Done Act.” Ford is banking on Ontario voters having short memories, being easily duped, and not minding at all being bribed with their own money. This latest omnibus legislation is a dog’s breakfast of silly, shiny objects designed to distract from a string of failures and flip flops that appear to have been authored by the premier himself.  Read more

[Read more →]

Shoppers Drug Mart faces backlash against receipt checks

By Alexa Méndez  Read more

[Read more →]

In an annual report, Ontario’s Acting Auditor General (AG) Nick Stavropoulos contradicts the conclusions of the government’s stated “business case” for moving the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place. It turns out the “savings” the government promises taxpayers is anything but.  Read more

[Read more →]

Urban design firm DTAH and Bloor-Annex BIA lauded by city

By Megan Bocchinfuso  Read more

[Read more →]

Come celebrate the warmth of community 

By Brian Burchell

Harbord Village’s cherished pumpkin festival is back this year on Nov. 1. Dozens of pumpkins will light up the neighbourhood along Harbord Street from Spadina Avenue to Borden Street.   Read more

[Read more →]

When announcing his latest reversal of plans to develop parts of the Greenbelt, Premier Doug Ford said he was “very, very, sorry.” It’s not clear what exactly he is sorry for, or if he is indeed sorry at all. After months of ignoring his critics, including damning reports from the Auditor General and the Integrity Commission, Ford forced his flying monkey cabinet to line up behind him to try and rationalize his latest u-turn on the Greenbelt file.  Read more

[Read more →]

By Fox Oliver

A local theatre group is telling the story of the Christie Pits Riot, which involved 10,000 people, on the same soil where it happened.  Read more

[Read more →]

Ontario’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, and now, protests across the province, have the Ford government playing their best defensive game. In a scathing investigative report released in August, Lysyk showed more of the same in terms of the Ford government’s approach to decision-making and democracy. For those of us who have been paying attention, none of it comes as a surprise, but we can only hope that this spells the end of a corrupt regime, and that these Greenbelt decisions won’t move forward.  Read more

[Read more →]