Thursday, May 18th 2023

Guest: Isabel Teotonio, education reporter

The Toronto District School Board has been experiencing a staffing shortage that is leaving administrations scrambling for teachers and some parents and students worried about time missed learning. To help, the board has redeployed nearly 100 of its learning coaches and hired more than 200 additional occasional teachers but there is a domino affect to all of the shuffling and other areas are impacted. Unions are calling it a crisis and there’s no quick fix.

This episode was produced by Brian Bradley, Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Wednesday, May 17th 2023

Guest: Lex Harvey, transportation reporter

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT continues to be a nightmare for the residents of that area and the end is nowhere in sight. With reports of “no credible plan” toward completion of the $12.8-billion light-rail transit line, the consortium of companies building it has filed legal papers to stop work until a number of issues are resolved. With another court decision needed to decide the way forward, trains will not be running this year and many are left wondering if this is a harbinger for other transit projects, like the Ontario line.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Audio Sources: CP24

Tuesday, May 16th 2023

Guest: Mark Richardson, technical lead for HousingNowTO

According to polls and the platforms, housing affordability is THE big issue in this mayoral election campaign, especially as the city’s Housing Now program has failed to get shovels in the ground (or people in apartments). Mark Richardson’s citizen-led HousingNowTO organization has monitored the problems and progress all along, and has been taking all the major mayoral candidates on walking tours of proposed sites to show what’s holding things up and what potential is out there. He joins guest host Edward Keenan to outline what all the major candidates are proposing to build on city land (so far) and how.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Edward Keenan.

Monday, May 15th 2023

Guests: Katie Daubs, senior writer, and Christine Dobby, business reporter

As cities around the world return to the office, Toronto lags behind other global centres as many workers are choosing to continue working from home. That’s having a spillover effect on the downtown core, and in particular, on the PATH, the underground network of shops and stores that support a downtown economy. Are these changes temporary or long lasting? What do they mean for the future of Toronto?

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Friday, May 12th 2023

Guest: Wendy Gillis, crime reporter

When George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, protests erupted around the world. Calls to defund the police rang out and, for a moment, it seemed like change was imminent. But three years on, efforts to revolutionize public safety have varied. Star reporter Wendy Gillis recently visited Minneapolis as part of the ongoing “Beyond the Badge” series (made possible with the financial assistance of the R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship) looking at what cities around the world are doing to combat violence and redesign public safety. Gillis explains what’s happened to policing since Floyd’s murder and what we can learn from Minneapolis, a city that’s become a case study in the frustratingly slow pace of systemic change.

Audio Sources: CNN, WWCO, NBC, Kare 11, MSNBC, ABC, Newsweek

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Raju Mudhar and Paulo Marques