tunetardis

Big changes are coming. To summarize the main points:

• The city is switching to standardized bins for garbage and compost that can be lifted and dumped onto trucks mechanically.
• This will be phased in over the next several years starting in the suburbs.
• 120L bins will be standard issue: one for garbage and one for compost.
• You can upgrade to a 240L bin if you need one, but it costs $120 initially + $196/year. The initial fee will be waived if you switch to the bigger bin within the first 3 months, however.
• The city is outsourcing blue and grey box collection to a company called Emterra Environmental. Whether they choose to go with bins also is uncertain, but that wouldn't change before 2026.
• You can still bring stuff to the residential drop-off at KARC for the time being.

IMO the Kingstonist is awesome! Definitely worth supporting them with a subscription if you have the means. If not, visit them anyway and stay informed.

The app is called Maple Scan. Just downloaded it but have yet to give it a whirl.

I wish I could find another source to confirm this, but if true, that's basically the nuclear option to kick out all American companies and halt all mineral exports to the US.

If I'm not mistaken, this means Netanyahu would be arrested on the spot if he set foot on Canadian soil. Trudeau has indicated as much. For its part, The US does not recognize the ICC's authority.

Every year in September, the city where I live holds a ribs and craft beer festival on the fairgrounds. This year, the band I play with landed a gig there.

Everything was going well until, partway through a set, I noticed one guy who looked a little out of place at such a venue. He was dressed in a 3 piece suit, brandishing a large briefcase, and walking around purposefully. He looked like a lawyer. And wouldn't you know it, he's striding right up towards the stage. Uh-oh…

What happened next stopped the show and left us all with jaws dropped. I'll leave it at that for now.

I seem to recall an incident the day my daughter was born that saw 3 large axe-wielding men bursting open doors in the maternity ward as alarms blazed across the hospital. And yes, it was my fault.

Posts would describe bizarre situations people have found themselves in, and commenters would take a stab at what put them there.

I have no idea how true this is? It is just a random shower thought.

It may be more true where I am in Canada than in the US? Here, senators are essentially appointed for life. I understand US senators are elected but have longer terms and generally more stable careers than their counterparts? In either case, there seems to be a lot of prestige that comes with the position.

Of relevance to Kingston:

For the last 10 years, Amélie Brack’s property-management company had no trouble renting out both halves of a duplex near St. Lawrence College in Kingston, one of Canada’s most notable student-dominated cities renowned for its high proportion of out-of-town students, with both St. Lawrence and Queen’s University in the area. This year, it’s still not rented out as the fall school term is about to start – a first for her. It’s not the only unit going empty, after demand for student housing in Kingston drastically fell in the past few months. “Up until last year, we would get 25 to 50 inquiries per week in August. This year, it’s been crickets. It’s quite a surprise,” said Ms. Brack, leasing manager for Limestone Property Management.

It’s a phenomenon that hasn’t shown up yet in any official statistical reports. But it’s one that many at ground level are observing, a noticeable U-turn from the last few years where there were often frantic bidding wars for student housing in the months leading up to the start of the fall term. They point to the cap on international students as a significant factor behind the drop. “The international student reduction has definitely affected us,” said Ms. Brack, who said that large, multibedroom houses in what’s called the student ghetto in Kingston are also going unrented and owners are finding themselves having to list them for rents closer to what a family could afford, rather than what five desperate students (or their parents) might be willing to pay: $2,700 a month for a four-bedroom, rather than the previous $4,000.

The cap for 2024 was set at 360,000 study permits for the country, a 35-per-cent reduction from the previous year.

In Ontario, internet searches for student housing near universities in Waterloo, Hamilton, and Kingston are down 46 per cent to 55 per cent, Ms. Yiu said.

The thrust of it is that the federal government would withhold funding to municipalities unless they meet certain home-building targets.

Critics worry that this will accelerate suburban sprawl in order to meet quotas. There are some provisions regarding rental housing and transit infrastructure, but with unrealistic time/budgeting constraints.