Toronto DispatchOntario promises faster archaeology approvals, with caveats
Ontario proposes legislative changes it says would cut archaeological approval times by up to 80 per cent. The province says the current four-stage assessment process can take up to 64 months. Minister Graham McGregor said the cuts would help get homes and infrastructure built sooner. Phasing would begin in early 2027, with enforcement tools and exemptions for some small-scale residential projects.
Commenters on the March 2026 draft standards said the new limited-assessment rules may suit single parcels, not linear corridors. Some submissions said they suit greenfield sites, meaning undeveloped land, better than urban ones. The ministry said it changed the draft in response to technical comments, including those on single parcels versus linear projects. It said it would consider the broader comments in later Heritage Framework Transformation work.
It intends to finalize the standards in late 2026, after a summer pilot. The proposals are part of a legislative package that has not yet been tabled.
Sources: Government of Ontario · Environmental Registry of Ontario (Ministry of Citizenship a
Ontario cuts its electricity rebate to 15.7%
The Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER), a provincial credit on power bills, falls to 15.7% on November 1, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) said. Toronto Hydro said the province raised it from 13.1% to 23.5% a year earlier, so the cut partly reverses that rise.
NOW Toronto reported that a typical household using 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) a month will now save $23 a month, down from $36. The OEB said falling regulated prices allow the cut, and that the overall rate of increase in bills will stay consistent with previous years.
Delivery charges are separate from both the electricity price and the rebate; Toronto Hydro’s changed on January 1 with OEB approval. Time-of-use prices differ by hour: winter off-peak power costs 9.1 cents per kWh, against 9.8 cents in Toronto Hydro’s summer schedule, while on-peak costs 18.9 cents.
From November 15 to April 30, 2027, distributors cannot disconnect residential customers for non-payment, the OEB said.
Sources: Ontario Energy Board · Toronto Hydro · NOW Toronto
Quebec drags down staffing revenue as Ontario grows
Operating revenues in Canada’s employment services industry fell 1.3% to $23.9bn in 2025, Statistics Canada said, the second straight period of decline. Quebec drove the fall: its revenues dropped $538.0m, or 12.8%, from 2024. Ontario, home to 55.8% of industry revenue, the largest share of any province, grew 1.7%.
Employment in the Toronto area was 3,786.6 thousand in September, up 1.8% on a year earlier. Yet unemployment rose to 7.2% from 6.7% in August, though it was 1.4 percentage points below a year earlier. The industry’s operating profit margin narrowed to 3.8% from 4.3% in 2024, because expenses fell more slowly than revenues.
The industry group covers placement agencies, executive search, temporary help services and professional employer organizations. Statistics Canada said the decline reflected softer labour market conditions: lower job vacancy rates, meaning fewer open posts, and slower population growth through 2024 and 2025.
Whether revenue recovered in 2026 is not yet known.
Sources: Statistics Canada
$23 a month is what a typical residential customer using 700 kWh will now save from the Ontario Electricity Rebate, down from $36, because the rebate is being reduced, NOW Toronto reported.
Data week: inflation
Toronto’s inflation is running a full point below the national rate
Consumer prices, Toronto and Canada, % change on a year earlier
Strong mayor powers: Extra authority for Toronto’s mayor under Ontario’s rules: proposing the city budget each year by February 1, hiring division heads, and vetoing by-laws that could interfere with a provincial priority, such as building 1.5 million homes by 2031. Council can override a veto with two-thirds of all members.
- Weather: Sunny. High 15°C. Overnight low 5°C. (as of Oct 20)
- Daylight: Sunrise 07:38, sunset 18:24; 10 h 46 min, 3 min less than yesterday
- Dollar: 71.15 US cents, up 0.22 (as of Oct 20)
- 5-year bond: 3.64% (it steers fixed mortgage rates) (as of Oct 19)
- Gas: 176.7 cents a litre for regular, down 4.8 on the week (as of Oct 19)
- Subway: Line 1 Yonge-University: no service York Mills to Eglinton, from 23:00; Line 2 Bloor-Danforth: no service Kipling to Jane, all day. (as of Oct 20)
- Civic: Municipal election in 5 days (Monday, October 26)
All the long day the vapours played
At blindfold in the city streets,
Their elfin fingers caught and stayed
The sunbeams, as they wound their sheets
E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), The Lifting of the Mist, in Flint and Feather (1912). Mohawk poet and performer (1861-1913), whose career on stage began at a recital in Toronto in 1892.
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