SERVING THE THORNHILL COMMUNITY SINCE 1878
ThORNHILL LIBERAL $1 INCLUDING GST /32 PAGES
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Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012
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Day care dilemma
Transit fares to increase in new year
Lavinia Corriero (front, left) with sons, Tyler, 5, and Jason, 3, join other parents who send their children to a home-based day care in Thornhill. The day care had nine children under its care, however the province has told them ministry guidelines say four of the children have to go somewhere else. Parents say kids are traumatized – no time to say goodbye – and the families can’t find anywhere else to send their children. See story, page 14.
Hikes for seniors, students scaled back By L.H. Tiffany Hsieh
thsieh@yrmg.com
Public transit riders in York Region will pay more starting in January, but monthly passes for adults, students and seniors/ children won’t go up as much as originally planned. Regional council voted last week to knock up to $5 off the proposed new monthly fares for three categories following concerns voiced by several members that the hike would drive potential riders away and hit those with fixed or limited incomes the hardest.
$120 for adult monthly pass in January
See CASH, page 2.
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REGION
“I’m really struggling with this,” Vaughan Regional Councillor Deb Schulte said, pointing out many transit users already pay fares for York Region Transit and TTC. Richmond Hill Regional Councillor Vito Spatafora agreed, adding he didn’t think it would be onerous to hike the fare gradually. “I would prefer a more scaledback increase for (students and seniors),” he said. Instead of $125 for an adult
Fall Event
STAFF PHOTO/SUSIE KOCKERSCHEIDT
High school teachers vote 94% to strike by Kim Zarzour
kzarzour@yrmg.com
York Region’s high school teachers have added their support to a growing tide of teacher union strike mandates sweeping the province. The teacher/occasional teacher bargaining unit of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation in York voted 94 per cent
in favour of a strike mandate Monday night. “The membership has sent a very strong message to the government today,” said Colleen Ireland, district 16 president. York’s 4,800 elementary teachers, meanwhile, will vote on a strike mandate Oct. 4. Bargaining units provincewide have been voting in record numbers in support of a strike, accord-
ing to York’s Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario president David Clegg. Contracts between the teachers and public school board expired Aug. 31. The provincial government passed legislation imposing a deal on Ontario public teachers and allowing the minister of education to prevent or prohibit teacher strikes, but teacher unions are
still allowed strike votes under the Ontario Labour Relations Act. “We’re just going to follow the steps and the government will do what it has to do,” Ms Ireland said. The votes are part of an escalating protest against the provincial deal that freezes wages — except for grid movement for newer See STUDENTS, page 24.
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