Frank Miele, professor of public policy and administration at York University, said studies have shown the top item on the list for companies is to find an area with a good quality of life, solid public infrastructure including transit services, access to a skilled work force and serviced industrial land. “If you haven’t got shovel-ready land, then forget about it, you’re not getting that industry,” he said in the Hamilton Spectator May 7. Read full story.
Debate over farmland heats up
A major problem in preserving farmland near cities is that land values go up when annexation is in the offing, so farming is no longer the highest-value use. Ontario addressed that problem in 2005 partly by establishing a massive greenbelt that is agricultural reserve in a swath of Toronto’s golden triangle around Lake Ontario north to Barrie, said York University environmental design Professor Laura Taylor in the Edmonton Journal May 8. Within that massive area, suburban cities were given enough land for about 30 years’ growth and then had to come up with plans for higher density growth within those boundaries, said Taylor. Read full story.
GTA students campaign for Nigerian girls’ safe return
Manal Ahmed and her friends were among some 1,000 students, aged 12 to 18, who gathered at York University on Wednesday to discuss a wide range of issues, such as obesity, environment and domestic violence, reported CBC News and others May 7. Read full story.
Tottenham high school grad honoured
York University Professor Jane Heffernan, who graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in 1996, is one of the nine graduates honoured by the school board for their contributions to society as part of the annual celebration held to mark Catholic Education Week, reported the Alliston Herlad May 7. Read full story.
Q&A with Oliver Rui: Gender and corporate fraud in China
Schulich School of Business Professor Douglas Cumming discusses research that shows firms that have a higher proportion of female directors on their board commit less fraud in China, reported Voice of America May 6. Read full story.
Universities should maximize their role as city-builders
In this dynamic and challenging environment, we believe, based on a recently completed study at York University, that universities’ primary strength remains to deliver well-educated graduates and, secondarily, to foster relations with non-traditional partners through knowledge mobilization and joint research, reported University Affairs May 7. Read full story.
Employed, temporarily
Now that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is in the spotlight and a national election not too far off, the feds are promising to overhaul it. But given Ottawa’s track record on this issue, says Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Fay Faraday, she has little hope that it will lead to substantial improvement. “They know these are not isolated incidents. These are not a couple of bad apples,” said Faraday in Now magazine’s May 8 to 15 issue. “The problem is systemic, and it needs a systemic response. I think we are at a tipping point, and real change needs to happen.” Read full story.
And social justice for all
On CBC’s “Here and Now” May 7, a Toronto District School Board principal and one of her students talk about the annual And Social Justice for All conference, which they attended at York University. Read full story.
Xtra chats with Toronto’s LGBT axe throwers
Sheila Cavanagh, coordinator of sexuality studies at York University and playwright of the Queer Bathroom Stories, commends the QAF for breaking the boundaries of sports often inaccessible to LGBT people, like wrestling, football and axe throwing. “It challenges our ideas about who is athletic and who isn’t athletic,” she said in Daily Xtra May 7. “It disrupts myths we have that women don’t know how to use an axe or gay men don’t know how to throw an axe.” Read full story.
Stadium seating
Work is moving along on the seating at the York University Athletic Stadium in Toronto, Ont., reported Daily Commercial News May 8. Read full story.
Time to give annuities a second look?
The overriding fear for clients approaching retirement is that they will spend more than their portfolio can return, reported Financial Planning May 7. To help allay these concerns, Moshe Milevsky, a well-known professor of finance at York University in Toronto, argues that advisors should consider adding annuities to their clients’ portfolios. Read full story.