Sasha on the Street

Yesterday Dalton McGuinty shuffled cabinet in a hope to improve operations of Ontario Governments. Although, that’s also what he said in January when he had again shuffled cabinet. Instead of efficient, reliable government Ontarian’s were sidled with an eco-fee debacle, a raid on ministries and a strengthened sense that our government is no longer serving [...]

Build them smaller? Build them greener? Build them with the future in mind. I had the opportunity to attend the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy’s (OCEPP) lecture on Engineers and the Future of Ontario’s Healthcsare System. The presentation was delivered by Dr. Kimberly Woodhouse, a chemical engineer, Dean of the Queen’s University Engineering [...]

This morning I had the opportunity to attend the breakfast forum on Ontario’s Waste Diversion act hosted by the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. My quick summary can be found at one of my favourite engineering news websites, Renew Canada.

Wind. Solar. Geothermal. Hydroelectric. These all are forms of renewable energy that should be part of our future electricity mix. Currently there are incentives in place to help residents invest in personal renewable energy, but what about commercial incentives To date the government has offered no incentives to commercial businesses to invest in individual renewable [...]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a presentation hosted jointly by the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy (OCEPP) and the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. The presenter Chris Kennedy spoke about how Ontario, namely the Golden-Horseshoe, should develop infrastructure over the next 10- [...]

Unfortunate but true it happens more often than it should. Ontario estimates that over the past decade over 2000 people have died due to impaired driving and over 50,000 people have been injured! But it’s not just those affected, both emotionally and physically, it is estimated that impaired driving costs the province $3billion annually. The [...]

Friday I had the opportunity to attend a seminar put together by the OTC (Ontario Traffic Conference) on Transportation Planning. The day covered various southern Ontario initiatives from bicycle routes, to public transit, to planning for long-term projects. Here is a summary on the presentations I enjoyed: Transit City: Planning for Light Rail in Toronto [...]

I recently took a trip with part of my family on a ski vacation on in Quebec (4 of us in a car has to be better from an environmental perspective than 4 of us flying). What amazed me was the difference in the highways between Quebec and Ontario. I’m not sure I could conclude [...]

Recently I did the drive from Toronto, Ontario to Mount Ste Anne, Quebec (about 50km east of Quebec City); it’s about 850km. Not only was I amazed by how long a drive that really is but how consistent the roads were all the way. From the signage, to the driving surface, the roadside stops and [...]

The London Free Press is reporting this morning on an audit currently underway in Ontario. The number 1 concern … SAFETY. The article starts with the devastating propane explosion in Toronto this passed summer; that definitely was a wake up call that perhaps we aren’t that safe! What peaked my interest in the article was [...]