logo
Durham Region Transit strike averted as tentative deal reached

Durham Region Transit strike averted as tentative deal reached

CTV News2 days ago

Bus service in Durham Region will run as scheduled this weekend as the union representing area transit workers has struck a tentative deal with their employer on Friday, swerving away from potential strike action.
Unifor Local 222, representing Durham Region Transit (DRT) workers, has said it has been looking for wages that fall in line with other transit agencies in Mississauga and Brampton, adding they earn up to $5 per hour more.
If an agreement wasn't reached, the union planned to walk off the job—halting bus service—as of 12:01 a.m. on June 7.
In a release issued on Friday, the union said the details of the agreement won't be shared until after a ratification meeting in the coming days.
The union represents around 616 employees who work as transit operators, maintenance workers as well as in dispatch and specialized services at Durham Regional Transit. According to the union, DRT serves more than 14 million riders every year.
With files from CP24's Chris Fox

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Toronto housing among least affordable on this global index. Here's what experts say needs to change
Toronto housing among least affordable on this global index. Here's what experts say needs to change

CTV News

time26 minutes ago

  • CTV News

Toronto housing among least affordable on this global index. Here's what experts say needs to change

A new global index suggests Toronto is among the world's worst cities when it comes to housing affordability — as experts blame decades of policy missteps, development delays, and overwhelming population demand for the problem. The 2025 Global Cities Index from Oxford Economics finds that as a result of Toronto's expensive real estate market, residents 'spend more of their income on housing than residents of nearly every other city in the world.' While the federal government recently promised to eliminate the GST on first-time home purchases under $1 million, critics argue that restrictive housing policies, costly development charges and sluggish approvals have created a market that's out of reach for most buyers. The average price of a home in the Toronto area did decline four per cent year-over-year in May but still stood at more than $1.1 million, according to the latest data from the Toronto Region Real Estate Board. 'Over the past 20 years Toronto's population has grown by 35 per cent but affordable housing hasn't kept up. The result? Life is getting too expensive for families,' Mayor Olivia Chow said during a press conference on Friday. 'Young people are giving up on the dream of home ownership.' The City of Toronto has a program where it will defer development fees for some projects so long as at least 20 per cent of its units are affordable. However, demand for the program has far exceeded the city's ability to fund it and as a result Chow says that there are projects totalling 300,000 new units from about 70 different developers that are 'shovel ready' and just 'sitting there in the pipeline' waiting for funding from other levels of government. In Toronto alone, development fees can add more than $100,000 to the cost of a new home and in some areas in the GTA development fees can easily double that, says Frank Clayton, Senior Research Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously promised to help municipalities reduce those fees by 50 per cent through additional payments that could be distributed by the provinces though he has not provided a timeline for those investments. 'If a municipality takes $200,000 up front, developers got to increase their prices such that $200,000 is reflected ultimately in the price of the house,' Clayton said. 'Builders won't build, unless they can cover their costs.' Toronto housing A real estate sign is displayed on the front lawn of a house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, May 11, 2017. Clayton identifies three key culprits behind Toronto's crisis: high fees, restrictive planning rules, and relentless demand — the latter driven in part by immigration. Last year alone, nearly 300,000 newcomers arrived in the region, fuelling further housing pressure. 'You need sites. You need sites that are zoned, and you need sites that are serviced,' Clayton said. 'The planning system is very unresponsive to changes in demand.' 'We have to act now' New home sales in the GTA hit a seventh consecutive month of record all-time lows in April, owing in part to a significant reduction in housing starts. Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), says time is running out to fix the system. 'We are seeing real market consequences. 80,000 people leave the GTA,' Wilkes said. 'The longer we wait, the longer that it's going to take to balance supply and demand.' Wilkes is calling for urgent action on housing taxes — especially the harmonized sales tax (HST) formula, which hasn't been revised since 1991. 'Making that change on HST today is the most immediate thing we could do,' Wilkes said. 'It would bring costs down by a dramatic 13 per cent for the first million dollars of a purchase.' He also warned that the federal government's plan to remove GST only for homes under $1 million misses the mark in high-cost cities like Toronto, where the average sale price sits well above that. 'Under a million is just not a product type that is available in the GTA,' he emphasized. Row of houses in Toronto Children ride bikes by a row of houses in Toronto on Tuesday July 12, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston What is the market is lacking? Jason Mercer, Chief Information Officer for the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, says affordability has technically improved — but warns that too little new construction could reverse that trend. 'Two years ago, a lot of households simply wouldn't have qualified,' Mercer said. 'Today, I would argue that a lot of those households could qualify, because prices have edged lower and interest rates have come down.' Still, Mercer says demand will eventually rebound, and if the city can't match it with supply, prices will climb again. 'We haven't done a good job keeping up with housing supply to meet that population growth,' he said. 'From a public policy perspective, we want to look at ways that we see sort of a sustained pipeline of new housing coming online.' A turning point with urgency Clayton says the roots of the crisis stretch back to the early-2000s when Ontario shifted its land-use focus towards environmental protection, including the establishment of the Greenbelt. He argues the policy limited where housing could be built, and gave too much power to growth management plans that discouraged the types of homes most people want — townhouses and detached units. 'We have to have a competitive supply of land,' Clayton said. 'Because if there's competition, then prices don't go up very much.' Despite efforts from all levels of government to address the issue — including a recent Ontario bill aimed at speeding up construction — most experts agree that housing affordability won't be meaningfully restored unless there's a broad and urgent shift in policy, from zoning and fees to taxes and timelines. 'The time for discussion has concluded. We really need the time for action,' Wilkes said.

Nearly 2 in 3 say Canada should not join Trump's Golden Dome defence system: Nanos
Nearly 2 in 3 say Canada should not join Trump's Golden Dome defence system: Nanos

CTV News

time2 hours ago

  • CTV News

Nearly 2 in 3 say Canada should not join Trump's Golden Dome defence system: Nanos

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the UFC-316 mixed martial arts event, at the Prudential Center, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Newark, N.J., with UFC's Dana White, left. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) A majority of surveyed Canadians are against joining U.S. President Donald Trump's 'Golden Dome' missile defence system, new polling from Nanos Research shows. Conducted earlier this month for CTV News, the randomized survey of 1,120 Canadian adults found that 63 per cent of respondents said Canada 'should not be part of the American Golden Dome,' and should instead prioritize spending 'on the capability of Canadian Armed Forces.' Roughly 17 per cent of respondents supported paying the required costs to join the Golden Dome, with 20 per cent telling pollsters they were unsure. Respondents aged 35-54 were marginally more likely to show support for joining the defence pact (19.8 per cent) compared to other age groups, and men were roughly twice as likely as women to do so (22.6 and 11.6 per cent, respectively). Regionally, Golden Dome support was more common in the Prairies (20.3 per cent), British Columbia (19.9 per cent) and Quebec (19.6 per cent), and least common in Atlantic Canada (12 per cent) and Ontario (13.6 per cent). Golden Dome, golden price tag Last month, Trump unveiled his plan to construct the Golden Dome, a sprawling, multilayered defence grid he said would be capable of intercepting missiles launched from around the globe, and even from space. Said to cost US$175 billion, the president later announced on social media that the grid could include protections for Canada from outside threats, but with a substantial price tag. 'I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State,' he wrote in a post to Truth Social on May 27. Trump Truth Social Golden Dome Canada (Image credit: Truth Social) Prime Minister Mark Carney's office told CTV News in a statement that 'the prime minister has been clear at every opportunity, including in his conversations with President Trump, that Canada is an independent, sovereign nation, and it will remain one.' Carney has separately acknowledged the Dome, saying it 'has been discussed at a high level,' but that he was 'not sure one negotiates' on defence matters like this. 'These are military decisions that have been taken in that context, and we will evaluate it accordingly,' he said in a May press conference. Methodology The survey involved a randomized sample of 1,120 Canadians aged 18 years or older, and was conducted between June 1 and 3, 2025, online and over the phone. Results were 'statistically checked and weighted by age and gender,' in keeping with the latest federal census data, as well as geographically to provide a representative sample of Canada. The survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. With files from CTV News' Lynn Chaya and Mike Le Couteur

Nova Scotia's ambitious ‘Wind West' offshore energy plan wins support with conditions
Nova Scotia's ambitious ‘Wind West' offshore energy plan wins support with conditions

CTV News

time2 hours ago

  • CTV News

Nova Scotia's ambitious ‘Wind West' offshore energy plan wins support with conditions

Turbines operate at the Block Island Wind Farm, Dec. 7, 2023, off the coast of Block Island, R.I. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Julia Nikhinson HALIFAX — Two leading environmental groups are giving a thumbs up to Nova Scotia's ambitious plan to dramatically expand its fledgling offshore wind energy industry. But both groups were quick to add caveats. On Monday, Premier Tim Houston said the province's plan to license enough offshore wind farms to produce five megawatts of electricity would be increased eightfold to 40 megawatts, well beyond the 2.4 megawatts Nova Scotia needs. He called on Ottawa to help cover the costs of his new Wind West project, saying the excess electricity could be used to supply 27 per cent of Canada's total demand. 'Nova Scotia is on the edge of a clean energy breakthrough,' the Progressive Conservative premier said in an online video, adding the province is poised to become an 'energy superpower.' Gretchen Fitzgerald, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said the premier's bold plan, which includes building transmission lines across the country, represents an exciting opportunity for the province. 'It could be a game-changer for the region and for Canada,' she said in an interview from Ottawa. 'But it needs to be done correctly and with consultations.' Fitzgerald said the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments must focus on securing long-term benefits from the nascent offshore wind industry because they did a poor job on that front when dealing with the offshore oil and gas sector. 'We have to make sure that we are not selling out what is a massive resource for less benefit than communities should have,' Fitzgerald said, adding that Nova Scotia continues to suffer from a high rate of energy poverty. In May of this year, utility affordability expert Roger Colton produced a report showing that 43 per cent of Nova Scotians were struggling to pay their energy bills — the highest proportion in Canada. While Fitzgerald applauded Houston's clean energy plan, she criticized what she described as the premier's populist penchant for taking decisive action before consulting with experts and the public. 'Moving from a couple hundred turbines to thousands in the next decade needs to be done in a staged way so we learn how to do this right,' she said, adding Houston appears to have adopted a ''move-fast-and-break-things mentality.' '(That) can lead to unacceptable harm to sensitive ocean life,' she said. 'From a community benefits and acceptance point of view, breaking trust can be the biggest barrier to getting to good climate solutions.' In October 2023, the Public Policy Forum released a study saying Sable Island Bank, an ocean area about 180 kilometres south of Nova Scotia, is among the world's best locations for wind energy generation. 'It and several other similarly endowed areas off the coast of Atlantic Canada hold the potential to place the region among the leading global hubs of offshore wind-powered energy development,' says the report from the independent non-profit think tank. It goes on to say that as the world shifts from a dependence on fossil fuels to forms of energy that do not emit climate-changing greenhouse gases, Atlantic Canada is facing 'a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ... to recover an economic vitality comparable to the Age of Sail — fittingly built again on the power of wind at sea.' The report says the installation of 15 gigawatts of offshore wind generation would create about 30,000 direct jobs annually. Despite the hype, the industry must also earn acceptance from Nova Scotia's fishing industry, which in 2023 contributed $2.5 billion to the province's economy and employed 19,000 people. In Halifax, a spokesman for the Ecology Action Centre called on the provincial government to build public trust, especially with coastal communities. 'There really needs to be a priority on stakeholder engagement for all ocean users,' said senior energy co-ordinator Thomas Arnason McNeil. 'We're going to need to prioritize ecological safeguards and preserve the existing livelihoods that we have. That includes the fishing industry. That's half the economy in Nova Scotia.' Still, he said the province's big push for clean energy is on the right track, especially when it comes to building out its electricity grid to better connect with the rest of the country. If done right, the payoff would be enormous, Arnason McNeil said. 'We're talking serious job creation here and a lot of revenue potentially,' he said. 'The bottom line is that you have to do this right. (But) the prize at the end of the road is monumental in terms of the benefits.' A call for bids to build enough offshore turbines to generate five gigawatts of electricity is expected as early as this year. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2025. Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store