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More by Tim Bousquet

Reading between the pipelines

Why are Americans so much better educated about the risks of the Keystone XL project than Canadians are about Line 9, a similar Enbridge project that will pipe bitumen through Toronto?
- by Tim Bousquet
- Apr 18, 2013
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District boundary recommendation to be made public at 5pm

Public has little chance for comment.

by Tim Bousquet

click to enlarge

City staff has made a recommendation for council district boundaries for next year's election. The recommendation will be made public at 5pm today. Five o'clock Friday afternoon is of course the media black hole time when governments attempt to bury bad news and bad ideas, and that certainly looks to be what's going on here: I just called the city clerk's office, was told that the recommendation is in hand, but they refuse to make it public until 5pm. That leaves the weekend for the public to find out about it, study it, discuss it and get back to their councillors with feedback by Monday. Council votes on the recommendation Tuesday, and that's it. Done. If council approves the recommendation, it goes directly to the Utility and Review Board Friday.

Why the rush? The district boundaries could be certified as late as next April and meet the requirements of the October election. Wouldn't it be better to let this sit with the public for a few weeks, to have some public discussion?

I'll have more details and commentary right after 5pm.