Public Service Contract

Thousands of people who work for the Ontario government in Kingston and across the province will be voting on a tentative contract agreement in the near future.  The province and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union have reached a tentative deal.

Details of the deal for the 35-thousand civil servants won’t be made public until its approved…but the province says cost savings in the agreement will offset any wage increase.

Taggart – Big Dig

A construction company that lost a bid on the next Big Dig on Princess Street and the Kingston Construction Association say Kingston’s process for awarding the contract is flawed.

City council approved a $12.9 million with Corcoran Construction last night.

Taggart Construction says it is considering legal action after it underbid Corcoran by $1 million.

Kingston used a request for proposals and then scored the two bids on a list of requirements.  Corcoran came out on top.

But the Kingston Construction Association and Taggart say the project should have been put out to tender.  That would mean the city would have to choose the lowest bid that meets all of the projects requirements.

Turtle Fencing

City council has approved spending an extra $55,000 for turtle fencing.

The cost of the fencing is higher than originally estimated and the money will be taken from reserve funds.

The fencing will be installed on Princess Street from Parkway to John Counter Boulevard to prevent turtles from crossing the busy street.

Economic Development

Kingston City Council has voted unanimously in favour of the Kingston Economic Development Corporations review process.

It will look at everything the agency does and will consider things like whether tourism should continue to be part of its work.

Council approved the process and has asked the Economic Development Corporation to report the results to council by the second quarter of 2016.

Tobacco Seized

The correctional service says staff seized a package containing six bales of tobacco in the medium security unit at Joyceville Institution on Sunday afternoon.

It says the value of the tobacco inside the penitentiary would have been $6,000.

Soldiers Training

The Peace Support Training Centre at CFB Kingston is conducting a military exercise for 15 Canadian and international officers and instructors today and tomorrow.

It says the participants will be dressed in military uniforms but won’t have weapons and will travel in civilian vehicles.

The exercise will be conducted in the Gananoque, Perth, Smiths Falls and Picton areas.

United Way $1 Million Mark

The United Way campaign has reached the $1 million mark.

The goal of the campaign in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington is 3.4 million dollars.

The 2015 Campaign will touchdown on Monday, November 30, 2015.

Collins Bay – Construction Injury

A construction company has been fined 50-thousand dollars after two workers were injured working on the new Collins Bay maximum security facility over two years ago.  Elite Construction of Concord pleaded guilty to a charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in connection with the June 2013 incident in Kingston.

The two temporary workers suffered broken bones when steel sheets that weren’t properly secured to a cart fell on them.

Nobel Physics

The Queen’s University professor emeritus who is co-winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics says researchers had a eureka moment when they made their discovery.

Arthur McDonald and a Japanese scientist won the Nobel for their discovery that neutrinos can change identities.  Neutrinos are particles that whiz through the universe at nearly the speed of light.

McDonald says the eureka moment happened when they saw that neutrinos were able to change from one type to another in travelling from the sun to the Earth.  The Nobel committee says the discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe.