The fact that the powerful Montreal Mafia was so involved in the construction industry for so long didn't help. It seems to have change after the Commission. The city of Montreal now has a permanent controller office through which every construction contract pass by for aproval; it already cancelled many contracts with collusion attached to them. So it's working to some degree.
To invoke a common SSP narrative - this cannot be stated so conclusively.
It may very well be that the simple fact that Quebec has way better investigative journalists than the rest of the country means that more corruption cases are brought to light.
As someone who is involved with politics and has connections, those who think MTL is the most corrupt city in the country.... you couldn't be more wrong, that's all I'll say.
Your argument is literally "If Toronto had better investigative journalists they would have just as much corruption as Montreal". I don't buy it.
No my point is actually that there is no way of knowing for sure either way, as no one in the rest of Canada truly does the job that Gravel, Denis et al. do.
As someone who is involved with politics and has connections, those who think MTL is the most corrupt city in the country.... you couldn't be more wrong, that's all I'll say.
Timmins is very corrupt and most people here know it. If you're a wealthy developer here you don't have to worry about by-laws, being approved by council to start building and actually do what's in your plan and agreement. City administrators lately have been known to make changes to development agreements without notifying council and then it comes up as a surprise to both council and the public.
Smaller places in general tend to be more corrupt. The number of stories I've heard from small-town Ontario is intense - the implications just aren't as obvious. Check out the results of the Elliott Lake Inquiry for some insight into what I mean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
No my point is actually that there is no way of knowing for sure either way, as no one in the rest of Canada truly does the job that Gravel, Denis et al. do.
To be fair, Toronto journalists FOI virtually everything the City does, and there's a huge amount of scrutiny in general. This is how the Rob Ford scandal broke and we know about things like the (sort of) mismanagement of TCHC. It's to the point where small things often get blown way out of proportion in the media.
I do/buy a lot of things online, but I draw the line at food shopping. Food shopping is an experience for me - often the highlight of my Saturday mornings. I don't feel burdened by the need to leave my house - indeed, I live in a tiny condo and I look for every excuse to leave my condo on weekends - and I like the sights and smells of food shopping. It's an experience for me.
Plus, as a Chinese person, I'm adamant about personally selecting the fruits and vegetables that go in my cart, and I'll jostle with the lao tais to pick the right mango, the ripest tomato, the parsley that's browning the least. Nothing is less appealing to me than getting my groceries delivered by a stranger, opening the box, and finding tomatoes that are off white and hard as a tennis ball.
Inconvenience is the new convenience, especially when it comes to food. Perhaps if cooking brings you no joy, and your objective is to just stuff your stomach full of calories you would be a good candidate for online food shopping.
Quite the opposite. All of these online provides put a lot of effort into training pickers to pick the absolute best product.
Grocery Gateway was purchased by Longos at a severely discount rate. It started out as one of the first virtual grocery websites and attracted millions in investment all across North America to never make a cent. Groceries stores having a delivery service has been around long before the internet.
I think is was around $100M that Grocery Gateway raised and lost. Longos brought them in house. Grocery Gateway was Toronto focused.
Out of the west coast it was a different story. Mighty Oaks (www.mightyoaks.com) about the same time developed the software used by Thrifty Foods (www.thriftyfoods.com). Thrifty turned online into a profitable operaiton and Mighty Oaks continued to license their software to other small and mid-market grocery store chains.
Vancouver's new waterfront entertainment district retail plans
This will make Vancouver's waterfront the best in the nation -- if it isn't already...
It connects:
Science World - new creekside park - a big new marina - entertainment district - Plaza of Nations redevelopment - the BC Place stadium - Chinatown - the new Vancouver Art Gallery coming in nearby - multiple train stations and bus stops - and the St. John's Hospital. If you extend it a little further, you have Granville Island as well.
NEFC Sub-area 6D - The City Owned Lands West Block
NEFC Sub-area 6B- Plaza of Nations Redevelopment
A lot of retail space for this project as well.
This is sad news about Sears closing...I remember how excited I was to flip through their Wishbook every year as a child.
I wonder how much longer until The Bay make an announcement about doubts in its future?
Strangely enough, a lot of this talk seems to be happening in the Atlantic Section in the Moncton Retail thread.
In any case, and this is just a gut feel for me; but all in all, I don't think HBC is anywhere near in as bad a shape as Sears (and Sears Canada) is. HBC seems to be having a bit of afterburn from absorbing those US chains, and is shedding some excess weight it put on from that; but all in all, it seems like it is still doing quite decently.
Sears has had vultures circling it for years and is now in the "Cut off limbs and hope to survive" stage. Which puts it in good position for HBC to snag some prime real estate.
Out here by the sea, I think we're hoping/expecting that HBC is just waiting to snag some prime locations (at least Sears Champlain place in Moncton and possibly Sears Regent Mall in Fredericton.... maybe the location in Saint John as well for the trifecta; but since SJ is in the first wave to close, maybe HBC will avoid it).
I wonder how the hudsons bay stores will do in Europe. The renovated stores in the Vancouver area are really nice the non-renovated ones are pretty bad. It kinda sends a mixed signal. The one closest to me is really bad but is closing soon as the whole mall gets a complete redo and expansion so I can forgive that one, but some of them really need some work done to them, there is no consistency or uniform feel to their stores.
HBC is midway through a modernization. Their old stuff, especially in smaller centres, is lower end and not the nicest. Their newer stores are very nice and do big business. HBC in Toronto (queen street) is always bustling, but their Yonge Bloor location is depressing since it hasn't been renovated.
I feel like HBC has a much better brand image than sears too.
Hindsight is 20/20 but when you look at the list of chain retail bankruptcies in Canada over the past 15-20 years, they all sort of make sense - even to people like me who know next to nothing about retailing other than what they experience as consumers.
For example:
1. Youth-oriented fashion retailers completely decimated by inexpensive global fast fashion stores that can introduce new products much more quickly: Mexx, French Connection, Aeropostale, Guess.
2. Lumbering department store giants whose clientele just got older and older every year and whose diverse product offerings were staid and more readily accessible online: Sears, Eatons.
3. Fashion retailers that didn't change who catered to a certain generation which just got older and either switched tastes or don't consume as much: Danier, American Apparel, Gap, etc.
4. Fashion retailers of women's basics that had little product differentiation, and either got decimated by fast fashion or by discount/off-price retailers like Winners: Jacob, Smart Set, etc.
5. Retailers that were bought out by others, but had completely redundant product lines and locations: Chapters/Indigo, Future Shop, Forzani
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