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(05-19-2016, 04:39 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Apparently the mayors of North Dumfries and Wellesley haven't really read up on how development fees work. In fact, new construction in the townships pays ZERO development fees toward transit improvements.
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/doingB...6Final.pdf
Cry wolf first, check for wolf later ...
From the article linked one of the councillors said they wanted to open up a discussion about adding a development charge for transit to the townships, so they aren't commenting out of the blue.
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There go those damn architecture students again, giving me the heart attacks:
(From: http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/gettin...or-web.pdf)
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That's a Toronto Flexity Outlook (aka New Streetcar) painted blue, if anyone missed it.
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05-19-2016, 09:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-19-2016, 09:45 PM by Canard.)
Yup. Compared to our trains, the nose cone is ugly as sin!
Confirmation came today that Bombardier is moving production of the FLEXITY Freedom order (our trains and Eglinton Crosstown) to Millhaven:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...e30101340/
This frees up Thunder Bay to focus strictly on Toronto's FLEXITY Outlook order and not get bogged down by the Freedom build.
Frames for both will come from La Pocatiere in Quebec.
This is good news/bad news. Good because I get to drive by the whole facility/test track whenever I visit my folks.  Bad because it means our trains are a lot further away than 2 months. 
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I read that report wondering how it's going to help if the problem is, as alleged, faulty parts from Mexico.
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05-19-2016, 10:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-19-2016, 10:11 PM by SammyOES.)
Development charges are pretty complex, and in my experience, almost no councillor actually understands how they work.
My understanding (which could easily be wrong here) is that development charges are meant to ensure that new developments receive the same services that existing developments have. The process of setting the charges is quite complex and involves studying what services are currently offered and coming up with specific projects/things that would need to be done in order to offer that same level to the new developments. The costs of all of those projects are added up (in some cases only a portion gets to be applied to development charges) and is combined with growth projections to come up with the final charge amounts.
It doesn't make sense to me that the LRT should have any impact on Township development charges. The level of service for transit is non-existent in most places in the Townships now, so the cost of providing that service to new developments should be almost 0. I'm also not sure if existing (almost-completed in this case) projects can be included in the study for new charges.
So while there may be a special case here that I don't understand, I find it highly unlikely the Townships would be paying LRT fees in their development charges.
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The regional commissioner in charge of the Ion and Hub projects is moving on to be Stratford's CAO in 6 weeks.
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/201...applicants
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(05-19-2016, 10:11 PM)SammyOES Wrote: Development charges are pretty complex, and in my experience, almost no councillor actually understands how they work.
It was fun during the elcetion listening to councillors and mayors and people other people running trying to explain how property taxes work, how it was calculated, and how to best compare them to neighbouring cities.
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(05-19-2016, 04:59 PM)darts Wrote: (05-19-2016, 04:39 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Apparently the mayors of North Dumfries and Wellesley haven't really read up on how development fees work. In fact, new construction in the townships pays ZERO development fees toward transit improvements.
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/doingB...6Final.pdf
Cry wolf first, check for wolf later ...
From the article linked one of the councillors said they wanted to open up a discussion about adding a development charge for transit to the townships, so they aren't commenting out of the blue.
Maybe. From their comments, I'm not convinced. (And having lived in the townships, I don't have a super high opinion of most of the township politicians.) But I don't have hard evidence to the contrary, either.
It's Sean Strickland, who is the head of the region's finance committee.
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05-20-2016, 06:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-20-2016, 06:02 AM by Canard.)
(05-19-2016, 10:09 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I read that report wondering how it's going to help if the problem is, as alleged, faulty parts from Mexico.
About a month ago, Bombardier said they were going to transition frame fab from Mexico over to their facility at La Pocatiere (or, "The Poke", as the Thunder Bay guys call it  ), in Quebec. The frames for the Toronto Rocket subway vehicles were built there, and apparently there were no issues.
So, overall, this is a good thing, but it will likely mean more delays.
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Apparently Queen/Charles isn't going to be opening for another couple weeks... just a rumour I heard but wondering if anyone heard otherwise?
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Concrete rail ties were delivered to the hydro corridor today, up to just past Michael's from Cortland.
After seeing the pictures with the fence posts i went back to check the maps and noticed there wasn't a spot that connects all those apartments to Fairway. Has that changed? i thought there were spots you could cut across in previous maps. Also, I don't see how it would be a safety risk if there's crossings in UW and Waterloo Park, and not having a place to cut across will encourage people in the area to drive to plazas on fairway rather than just walk.
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(05-20-2016, 06:51 PM)clasher Wrote: Apparently Queen/Charles isn't going to be opening for another couple weeks... just a rumour I heard but wondering if anyone heard otherwise?
It's certainly not looking closer to being finished. They love to fill holes, roll the surface flat, then dig a new hole somewhere else...
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The Record reports that the first 5 vehicles will be built in Thunder Bay and the rest will come from Kingston. Still on track to meet the late 2017 opening date, supposedly. http://therecord.com/news-story/6565440-...t-on-track
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Interesting breakdown.
I'm still stunned that all of these media outlets are still misunderstanding and incorrectly reporting what was actually said about the delay. They keep saying that "two of the trains are delayed - the first by two months, and the last by four months". They're totally missing that what it actually means is the entire timeline slipped, and also stretched - so every train in between is also late, getting progressively later toward the end.
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