Let's face it. We were all a little bit shocked when the Toronto Star announced yesterday that Ontario was now a bit player in the Canadian provincial hierarchy.

"Ontario is not the mighty king of the economy any more," said TD's chief economist, Don Drummond, predicting the province could get $400 million in 2010 and $1.3 billion the following year.

"It's one of the weaker partners, but again it's not so much Ontario's being weak as the other provinces are really roaring along."

The report noted that one traditional "have-not" province, Newfoundland and Labrador, is about to join the "have" club, thanks to revenues from offshore oil and gas production.

There is the argument neatly summed up by one of the Country's more respected economists. Unless we are either pumping oil or making cars for some other country's automobile sector, we are nothing. Well, I don't buy it. Rather than wail that the sky is falling, in a quarterly driven profit and loss blinkered vision of reality, why not use this obvious sign that industry is changing as a reason to revamp our economy and prepare to take on the real big "NEXT" markets?

We all know what they are. I wasn't surprised to read a few short weeks ago that the German industrial sector has made a few good deals buying up Canadian environmental technology companies and relocating them to Europe. Some European countries are literally changing their landscapes because of an economic shift to sustainable, knowledge-driven industries.

What about this picture don't our policy makers understand? Big cars pollute, cause global warming, and use too much of a non-renewable commodity. Plus, no one in their right mind wants them now except as a symbol of conspicuous consumption that would make Thorstein Veblen blush.

Still, here we are bemoaning the fact that people aren't buying enough obsolete car designs, and our smokestack industries are failing. Come on! We've predicted this failure for a generation and a half. That it seems to surprise government should be a warning sign to the electorate: Why can't our elected representatives think outside of the short term and plan for the future?

Change is good. Change usually involves short to mid term pain. If we are going to experience that pain anyway—as a have-not province—let's make something out of it. Let's build an economy for tomorrow's markets using the best of today's ideas—you know, the ones that far-seeing countries are buying up from under us. Then when residents of other provinces can't breath because they've burned up so much fossil fuel to convert sand to oil, we'll have clean air, livable cities, and an economy with a future.

WInnipeg general strikers tip streetcar over—1919—a scene that stranded Toronto TTC users might have replicated if they could of early Saturday morning

Our collective relief over the announced TTC strike settlement wasn't enough to actually prevent a walkout by TTC workers who voted to reject the agreement their leadership accepted. In spite of the union promise to provide 48 hours notice of a strike action, they walked off at 12:00 AM Saturday morning with 90 minutes notice—stranding thousands of commuters. Right now the Ontario Legislature is about to meet to issue a back-to-work order.

Why did the initial agreement fail? Ron Nurwisah at the National Post has been live-blogging the strike, its causes, and its repercussions. The Toronto Star is all over this story with continuous updates on its web site including person on the street interviews that are worth reading.

My favourite take so far? Well, that's got to be poet Philip Quinn's TTC poetry site with the latest addition, "Strike me dead." Here it is:

Woke up at my girlfriend’s to the news, that the TTC is on strike

Drivers, trains, buses, nothing’s moving

Woke up to the news


How am I going to??????
And then do that?

Fucking walking?

I might as well stay here, stay in bed until this thing is settled.
It’s going to put the entire city to sleep

But I join the other sleep walkers at Bloor Street, in small clusters, drinking coffee and muttering about the TTC strike that seized the city at midnight

in small clusters
drinking coffee, the paper cup clenched strongly in a working man’s grip

the needs of many should outweigh the needs of the few, the man beside me said. It’s turning the city into a cripple.

this old man made up of tall buildings and decayed roads hobbling along with a bad limp, that's our city alright

in small clusters we debate the strike
in small enraged clusters, we feel the anger
solidarity with all brothers and sisters who ride the underground

every possible swear word, doesn’t even begin to describe the TTC, said another man

But now I’m walking the backbone of the city, Yonge Street, the hump past the cemetery
Breaking my back, carrying a sports bag with all my worldlies

Who said the world could stop?
Who said that they could say no to the contract?

I’m walking my way back home
Thumb ready to pop out like a flick knife
At the first chance of a ride in a car

(from The SubWay, a collection of poetry)

Sarah Anne Johnson, a Winnipeg based artist, has won the AGO's first Grange Prize for Photography. In keeping with the AGO's new strategy of increasingly involving the community in its programming choices, Johnson won a people's choice selection driven by online voting. Almost 3,000 votes were tallied in the process.

Last night's announcement took place at the Drake Hotel. The Grange Prize is sponsored by the AGO, the Globe and Mail, and Aeroplan.

Here are two samples of Johnson's work:


Nadine


Ben

Every once in a while Reading Toronto reposts a previous entry because history catches up with the topic. CBC radio announced this morning that ERA Architects will be advising a city in China on how to reduce the energy use of its residential towers. This success is the evolution of a thesis project by Graeme Stewart that was first published in Reading Toronto about two year ago. Here is the original:



By Graeme Stewart

There has been much talk in recent months of Toronto’s strategies for a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emission. Incredibly welcome news, there seems to be a flood gate of creative strategies for seriously combating climate change. Not yet part of the discussion however is the opportunity inherent within Toronto’s extensive stock of hundreds of bulky concrete residential slabs. Typically viewed with scepticism as ‘mistakes’ from the 60’s and 70’s, they may in fact be one of our greatest opportunities for creating a sustainable region.

These buildings are energy pigs. Counterintuitive to the accepted theory that density aids sustainability, our stock of again modern slab apartments demands more energy per square meter than any other housing type; a full thirty percent more than a contemporary single detached house. Though certain efficiencies are gained from reduced land coverage, transit use and the like, exposed slab edges, minimal insulation, single glazing and aging mechanical systems give these buildings a huge environmental impact.

As a result, a typical twenty five-storey slab building contributes more than one thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide alone. These buildings demand environmental consideration, and due to their relatively straight forward structure and boxy facades, environmental upgrade can be achieved with relative ease. This has not been lost of two members of U of T’s Faculty of Architecture, Dr. Ted Kesik and Ivan Saleff. After running numerous simulations, they have concluded that this building type may be the most cost effective candidate for retrofit in the City.

While glass window walls are the cladding fad of the day, the bulky masonry walls of these older slabs offer an ideal surface to support over-cladding systems. This approach extensively insulates the exterior of the buildings, encloses balconies and covers slab edges, which is predicted to halve energy requirements. Additionally, these buildings provide an economy of scale that makes geothermal heating, solar electric/water heating (locating panels on generous blank end walls), and green roof technology highly effective investments. These strategies would give the opportunity for carbon reductions of over two thirds the current output. In other words, a hundred and eighty unit apartment building would require less green house gas production than fifty traditional bungalows. Suddenly density begins to make sense.

These aging buildings offer endless opportunities for green modification. Containing the structural capacity to handle the addition of new floors, the buildings themselves could be the launching pad for (appropriate) intensification. By design, the concrete walls create the necessary fire separations to allow for mixed use, anything from at-grade retail, office conversion, to light industry.

And opportunities abound beyond (...read more...)