The St. Lawrence Centre’s stage door (Image: jbcurio)

We hate to break this news to our gentle readers, but apparently Rob Ford doesn’t like unions. He really, really doesn’t like them. Nor do many of his allies on council, even the folks who used to run a union, like Giorgio Mammoliti. So, although there’s no reason to think that the mayor’s office is involved in this particular blow-up, we can’t help but think this is a sign of things to come. The blow-up in question? Technical workers at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts (owned by the city) have been locked out by management.

According to the Toronto Sun:

“The decision to lockout our colleagues at IATSE Local 58 is one we do not take lightly,” Jim Roe, general manager of the St. Lawrence Centre, said in a press release Saturday. “In order to ensure the services we offer Toronto’s artistic community stay accessible and affordable, and in keeping with the direction from the City of Toronto to reduce costs and expenses, we are left with no other option.”

The board of directors and management at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts say they have identified several key areas in the current contract that must be addressed in any new deal, including clauses that require stage technicians to be paid for hours not being worked.

IATSE has, oddly enough, been pretty quiet about the lockout, in contrast with previous labour disruptions in this city. The bigger reason all this is worth pointing out is that the mayor seems to be gearing up for a big fight with Toronto’s public unions next year, telling Sun News last week that “we’re not going to let the unions hold us hostage…don’t put a gun to our head.” Of course, the main two tactics a manager (like the city) can use to try and stave off a strike are a lockout like the one at the St. Lawrence Centre, or hiring replacement workers—something that would have been unthinkable during the Miller years but is not uncommon in other jurisdictions. During its 2009 municipal strike, Windsor brought in replacement workers. So anything might be possible in Toronto’s brave new era of labour relations.

• St. Lawrence Centre techies locked out [Toronto Sun]
• Stage workers’ union quiet after lockout [Toronto Star]
• Unionized workers locked out at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre [Canadian Press]

Torontonians woke up this morning to find that the U.S. State Department had put our fair city on the same list as Jamaica and Ethiopia, thanks to the G20 summit. In the language of the U.S. government, travel alerts are usually reserved for “natural disasters, terrorist attacks, coups, anniversaries of terrorist events, election-related demonstrations or violence,” as well as less dramatic stuff, like the World Cup (South Africa currently has a travel alert). Of course, the rest of Canada has wanted people to stay out of Toronto for decades now.

The Toronto Star reports:

“Isn’t it ironic that the World Cup and the G20, two international gatherings by definition, have travel alerts?” said Andrew Weir of Tourism Toronto.

This is only the third time in recent history that Toronto has been brushed with a travel alert. In 2003, the World Health Organization issued travel advisories after several cases of SARS were diagnosed in the city. Less authoritatively, the San Francisco Chronicle published a warning to Toronto-bound Americans about garbage piling up during the municipal strike in 2009.

Hey, at least the G20 is actually happening. The last time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a warning about travelling through Canada, she was repeating stories about 9/11 hijackers coming from here (they weren’t). And this doesn’t count all of the high-level disagreements between Clinton and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In Clinton’s defence, the State Department is likely correct: this city is going to be difficult for a week. So, congratulations to Secretary Clinton for graduating from making up stuff about Canada to getting things right.

• U.S. issues G20 travel alert for Toronto [Toronto Star]

• Travel Alert: Canada [US State Department]

• Stay away from Toronto during G20 summit, U.S. warns its citizens [Winnipeg Free Press]

• Americans warned to stay away from Toronto during G20 [Globe and Mail]

My friend Guu's got a new debut: Masaru Ogasawara is overseeing the Toronto opening (Photo by Renée Suen)

“Patience is a virtue” is an axiom that Toronto fans of izakaya have been repeating to themselves since we first reported that Guu, the west coast’s popular Japanese restaurant, would be coming to town in 2009. Recently, we met up with Masaru Ogasawara, the chef at one of the Vancouver locations (Guu in Gastown), who gave us the lowdown on the opening date (early December), the cause of the delay (the municipal strike) and the  location (398 Church Street, near Carlton).

Right away, he tells us that Guu’s new home will be in a strip mall close to the Ryerson campus. The middling Sushi Plaza restaurant that once occupied the space has been gutted, leaving barren walls and ceilings, and kitchen equipment shoved into one corner. The 76-seat Guu will fill the space with long communal tables—think Salad King, but with more wood than chrome—designed by Bennett Lo, veteran of Spring Rolls. Come summertime, 20 more seats will be added on a patio.

The opening will bring the current chef at Guu With Garlic (on Vancouver’s Robson Street) to man the open-air kitchen, with Ogasawara taking a managerial role. Instead of the bar atmosphere familiar to some of the chain’s B.C. patrons, expect a casual restaurant-style ambience and a menu of fusion dishes.  But that’s just to start; Ogasawara promises that as Torontonians’ palates become more receptive to dishes like oden—a Japanese stew with an assortment of braised fish, tofu and vegetable products—Guu will bring in more traditional izakaya fare.

Ogasawara will be moving to the city next month to look over the last stages of the construction. He tells us there’s still much work ahead (the kitchen and front of house still need to be staffed), but he promises to keep us up to speed with the impending opening.

Stay tuu’ned.

Welcome to Toronto: Temporary garbage dumps are not considered a tourist attraction (Photo by Patrick B)

A travel warnings Web site is making a stink about Toronto’s garbage strike, and that means bad news for a hospitality industry that’s already hurting. World Travel Watch, which is syndicated to such papers as the San Francisco Chronicle, has warned travellers that Hogtown streets and parks are a smelly mess. While they don’t explicitly say to avoid the city, we think it’s pretty unfair to list Toronto’s strike alongside the coup in Honduras and an outbreak of bubonic plague.

He’s seen the unfavourable post, but Tourism Toronto’s Andrew Weir says that his main concern right now is dealing with the effects of the global recession. Even before the strike, Toronto’s hotel occupancy rate had been plunging 10 per cent year over year. Weir admits that the strike could have an impact, but he thinks recent nods from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune should outweigh the negative publicity so far.

Besides, if our strike keeps tourists away for too long, we can always call Mick Jagger and organize StrikeStock in Downsview Park (assuming it doesn’t get turned into a dump).

Pile it on: A mountain garbage continues to grow at the Christie Pits dumping site (Photo by Martin Reis)

Restaurant owners aren’t exactly singing “Solidarity Forever” these days. With such services as garbage collection and permit processing halted during the city worker strike, restaurateurs are getting increasingly frustrated. Carmine Accogli, chef-owner of The Big Ragu, is fuming after contending with lineups at temporary garbage transfer stations. “Other than the city worker’s contentious behaviour regarding what’s right for them and disregarding the rights of everyone else, they’re not offering us much—except filth in the streets,” he says. “Summerlicious this year is going to stink.” And he means that literally.

Big players, such as the Royal York Hotel and the Oliver and Bonacini restaurants, regularly use private garbage contractors, and are thus untouched by the strike. However, it’s affecting small business operators like Greg Bolton of Pantry. “It’s a lot of extra work to do this myself, and if I’m not mistaken, I’ve already paid for it,” he says. “Or wait, are we getting a rebate on our taxes for the duration of the strike?”

Garbage collection isn’t the only issue. New restaurant permits aren’t being processed, which has delayed the opening of a few establishments. Michael Sangregorio was hoping his new Local Kitchen and Wine Bar in Parkdale would be up and running, but he filed his application the day of the walkout. “The strike is hindering small business,” he says. “Our city is already broke, we’re knee-deep in a recession, property taxes are rising, and thousands of Torontonians have lost their jobs. At a time like this, our city should be encouraging small businesses to open.”

Not all small businesses are suffering. As in any crisis, there are those who have found a silver lining. Bill Hennessey sees opportunity amid the trash. “When I heard of the strike, I asked: how can I capitalize off this? I had recently looked at acquiring a recycling business, so I had a bit of background on how disposal works,” explains Hennessey. He and his brother Bobby got to work and rapidly opened Strike Garbage, offering restaurant owners and residents same-day garbage pickup for $10 a bag (with a $50 minimum). “We legally dispose of all garbage,” he says, pointing out that “customers could choose the other option: wait hours at a transfer station where they let one customer dispose a maximum of four bags every 15 minutes.”

Locavores can satisfy their craving for Ontario’s bounty at the following previously closed farmer’s markets:

• Metro Hall: Thursdays, 8 to 2, resuming today
• North York Civic Centre: Thursdays 8 to 2, resuming today
• Etobicoke Civic Centre: Saturdays 8 to 2, resuming July 4
• East York Civic Centre: Tuesdays 8 to 2, resuming July 7
• Scarborough Civic Centre: Tuesdays 8 to 2:30, resuming July 7
• Nathan Phillips Square: Wednesdays 8 to 2:30, resuming July 8

There is only one other small change: Riverdale Farmer’s Market has been moved to the boulevard along Winchester St. All other markets in the city have continued throughout the strike, with some minor inconveniences, including no on-site cooking or public washrooms.