Cloe Logan

Ford will file appeal against court ruling to release personal phone records | Globalnews.ca The latest twist in a three-year-old transparency battle means the government has now twice lost its argument Ford should not have to make parts of his phone records public.

In Windsor, Premier Doug Ford reminds people to call him, reading out his personal number.

Reminder: The province is appealing against a court ruling which found Ford is using his personal phone for work and should make some records public.#OnPoli
globalnews.ca/news/1159987...

Thank you Eric! :)

The letter linked in the story sheds some light on that. "The Province retains the ability to limit or override the City’s authority through legislation, such as the recent amendments to the Highway Traffic Act related to Automated Speed Enforcement and the installation of bike lanes."

With speed cameras out, Toronto faces decade-long safety rebuild with a price tag of $52M Speed cameras across Ontario were removed in November with the passing of provincial legislation that banned them after Premier Doug Ford called them a “cash grab” for municipalities.

The City of Toronto says the traffic-calming measures needed to replace speed cameras removed by Ford will cost $52 million and take 13 years to install. The passing of Bill 60 (which limits new bike lanes) combined with speed camera removal, is concerning cyclists. For @nationalobserver.com #OnPoli

The Local Fellowship 2026 | The Local Our fellowship program provides training and mentorship to emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. Applications are now open.

📣 Announcing The Local Fellowship 2026—paid positions designed to provide opportunities to early-career journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media. This year's Fellows will join us during the fall municipal election campaigns. Applications are open. thelocal.to/local-fellow...

John Tory not seeking re-election as mayor of Toronto: Sources The former mayor of Toronto will not run in the fall’s municipal election.

Breaking: John Tory set to announce he's not seeking re-election as mayor of Toronto, according to sources www.thestar.com/news/gta/joh...

Nobody would tell @rorywh.bsky.social and @cloelogan.bsky.social where data centres were planned in Ontario, or how big the plans are. So they scraped the picture together themselves, and it's startling.

Thanks so much Jaela :) Hope you’re well!

Thanks, Jenn! Appreciate it.

Thanks Jay 😊

One data centre or one million homes? Mapping Ontario's proposed hyperscaler boom Canada’s National Observer found and drew from multiple sources to put together a map of planned data centres in Ontario, and found at least 15 projects with a combined capacity of 2,202 MW currently ...

Really glad to have this investigation out. It wasn't easy getting this information, @rorywh.bsky.social and I chipped away at this piece for months. Give it a read and let us know what else you want to know about data centres in Ontario. 🧵

This is a really important time for the data centre convo in Ontario. Regulations are being drafted *now* to establish how data centres are approved, determining the future of Ontario’s energy demand, following the passage of Bill 40. Lots of this piece focuses on that bill + concerns with it. 🧵

While reporting this, one of the many things that stood out to me: Ontario is “ground zero” for Canada’s data centre boom, said researcher @simonenoch.bsky.social.

He said it’s the mix of Bay Street proximity, relatively cheap power (about half NYC rates) and access to water. 🧵

I went to Milton, where a data centre proposal is earmarked at 720MW. That is HUGE! This is more energy than the average natural gas plant produces. Informed community members had no idea their town was being eyed for data centres. 🧵

One data centre or one million homes? Mapping Ontario's proposed hyperscaler boom Canada’s National Observer found and drew from multiple sources to put together a map of planned data centres in Ontario, and found at least 15 projects with a combined capacity of 2,202 MW currently ...

The government wouldn't give us a list of data centres seeking power in Ontario.

So, we built one ourselves.

What @rorywh.bsky.social and I found: at least 15 projects drawing a combined 2,202 MW: more electricity than 2 million homes.

#OnPoli for @nationalobserver.com 🧵

Politicians are being sold AI-powered 'digital fighters' A new app gets around bot bans by recruiting real people to post political messages generated by AI.

Chilling article from @rorywh.bsky.social. A new tool is being marketed by a little-known Israeli company (LogiVote) to Cdn political strategists + elected officials. You'll need to read the story to get the full rundown, but the tool uses *real voters* armed with AI-generated social media messages.

Four decades of road salt take their toll on Toronto’s waterways After a record-breaking snowstorm, melting ice is flushing tonnes of road salt into Toronto’s waterways. New data shows how much the city uses and why experts say the real problem may lie in the priva...

This follows a story I put out last week, which digs into the impact of salt on Toronto's waterways. For the story, I got salt figures from the city going back to the 80s: nearly five million tonnes of salt over the past four decades.

Ford government faces calls to tackle 'salt pollution hot spots' in Toronto and beyond At Queen’s Park on Tuesday, advocates called on the province to reform a liability ecosystem that they say pushes private contractors to overuse salt in winter, driving up costs and contaminating wate...

At Queen’s Park on Tuesday, advocates called on the province to reform a liability ecosystem that they say pushes private contractors to overuse salt in winter, driving up costs and contaminating waterways in an effort to avoid injury. For @nationalobserver.com

just a staggering figure, and great reporting from @cloelogan.bsky.social.

"no matter what the city does, there is another major salt user: the private sector, which is unregulated and has little incentive to cut back."

Four decades of road salt take their toll on Toronto’s waterways After a record-breaking snowstorm, melting ice is flushing tonnes of road salt into Toronto’s waterways. New data shows how much the city uses and why experts say the real problem may lie in the priva...

However, the city is just one part of a larger story. There is also the private sector, which is unregulated and has little incentive to cut back. But there's an interesting example of New Hampshire finding a way around that, explained here:

Four decades of road salt take their toll on Toronto’s waterways After a record-breaking snowstorm, melting ice is flushing tonnes of road salt into Toronto’s waterways. New data shows how much the city uses and why experts say the real problem may lie in the priva...

Toronto is covered with road salt right now, which will eventually end up in the city's waterways, where it disrupts ecosystems. To get an idea of how much we're talking, I got salt figures from the city going back to the 80s: nearly 5 million tonnes. For @nationalobserver.com

Back when it was Telehealth Ontario, callers could speak with a nurse within seconds or minutes. Now that the service has been replaced by Health811, the average wait time can be many hours #onthealth

Documents reveal Ontario's $7M Ring of Fire ad bill These ads are pushing the controversial mega-project through a campaign it has dubbed “Protect Ontario,” which Canada’s National Observer has learned is earmarked with a budget of more than $7 million...

Reporting from @cloelogan.bsky.social earlier this year pegged the cost of the government's Ring of Fire commercials (everywhere during the World Series) at around $7 million. #OnPoli www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/13/n...

Important reporting from my colleague @matinsarfraz.bsky.social

Carney replaces EV sales mandate with rebates Prime Minister Mark Carney is doing away with the EV availability standard, promising to replace it with more stringent tailpipe regulations and rebates to encourage Canadians to buy EVs.

PM Carney's new auto strategy dropped Feb. 5.

Out: the EV availability standard (which would have required 100% EV sales by 2035)

In: a $2.3B EV rebate program and more stringent tailpipe emissions regs (aiming for 75 percent EV adoption rate by 2035)

Appeal court ruling backs Discovery Islands salmon farm closures A federal court ruling affirming fish farm closures in Discovery Islands now shifts spotlight to government action and future of industry on the West Coast.

The latest in the loooong fish farm saga on the West Coast from @rochellebaker1.bsky.social

New U of T tool gives cities a roadmap to cut construction-related emissions A new open-source tool from University of Toronto researchers helps cities measure and limit the greenhouse gas emissions tied to construction materials like steel and concrete.

I wrote about a new open-source tool from @utoronto.ca researchers that allows 1,000 cities around the world, including Toronto, to keep track of their construction-related greenhouse gas emission budgets. For @nationalobserver.com

Glad to see the partnership between @nationalobserver.com and @ledevoir.com pick up again! Here's an article of mine translated for the Le Devoir audience ☺️

Michael Longfield, of @cycletoronto.bsky.social previously told @nationalobserver.com: “Ripping out bike lanes that were put in through proper city processes won’t fix congestion — it puts people’s lives at risk ... that’s true whether it’s in Toronto or anywhere in Ontario.”

Ontario aware bike lane removals may not reduce congestion, could make people less safe: internal documents | CBC News Ontario’s premier and transportation minister have said for months that removing bike lanes is a necessary measure to reduce traffic in the GTA. But hundreds of pages of internal ministry documents, r...

The province argued that there is no connection between bike lanes + constitutional rights + pushed back on another key part of the ruling: congestion, which Bill 212 aims to reduce. Prov says it's reasonable to assume that more lanes = more traffic flow. Lawyers on the other side point to this: