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TORONTO - Toronto鱿鱼视频app budget chief says the city will be rethinking proposed cuts that some saw as a threat to the 685 nutrition programs at the city鱿鱼视频app public and Catholic schools.

The committee is 鈥渞ethinking everything,鈥� Councillor Mike Del Grande told The Catholic Register.

And Councillor Doug Ford, in media interviews, reassured students and parents that kids 鈥渁ren鈥檛 going to go hungry.鈥�

TORONTO - After years of free service, churches, shelters, charities and non-profit organizations could be on the hook as the City of Toronto plans to start charging a fee for trash pickup.

The city has said there will be no increase for homeowners in terms of their garbage pickup, but parishioners may be asked to give a little bit to help offset the new fees for churches, said Neil MacCarthy, director of communications for the archdiocese of Toronto.

鈥淪o really, you鈥檙e just going back to the same people to ask for more to support this change,鈥� he said.

The proposal is one of the items on the table as the city works on its 2012 budget. A long list of cuts and increased service fees are on tap as the city struggles to find ways to balance its budget.

MacCarthy said while he understands the city is looking for ways to realize some cost efficiencies, the new proposal is going to have significant implications on the roughly 125 parishes within city limits in the archdiocese of Toronto.

鈥淚t really depends on the frequency of pickup at a church for garbage and鈥� the number of bins they might have at a church,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o if it鱿鱼视频app weekly with a bin, they鈥檙e talking about $800 a year.鈥�

But it鱿鱼视频app difficult to say how many parishes would be affected by this as some use city services while others use private garbage collection, said MacCarthy.

The city wants to start charging a fee for this service 鈥渋n order to make the system fair overall and to prompt those new to the fee system to improve their waste diversion efforts,鈥� according to a document sent to non-residential customers.

For a curbside bin emptied bi-weekly, the cost is $403, weekly is $806 and twice weekly is $1,612.

The changes would be phased in, with a yearly 25-per-cent increase effective July 1, 2012 and full trash pickup fees effective Jan. 1, 2015.

St. Francis Table, a ministry that provides meals for the less fortunate in Parkdale, would be one of the agenices affected by the trash pickup fee. Br. John Frampton, who runs St. Francis Table, said it鱿鱼视频app a crime that charities and church groups are being singled out to pick up the city鱿鱼视频app costs.

鈥淲e try to keep it to a minimum,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e compost, we take care of the paper and plastics. We comply with garbage bag content and I just think it鱿鱼视频app another money grab to pay for services that are costing too much.鈥�

The poor are getting poorer, he said.

鈥淲e are feeding the hungry here six days a week,鈥� said Frampton. 鈥淎nd other groups are doing justice amidst injustice that鱿鱼视频app being done by the government that should be responsible to these people.

鈥淪t. Francis Table is responsible for feeding the hungry of Toronto and this is the appreciation we get.鈥�

The proposal also includes charging transfer station tipping fees of $100 per tonne of waste to previously exempt non-profits, including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

鈥淲ith the collection, we get a lot of really generous donors that are really careful about what they donate, but we also get a lot of stuff that鱿鱼视频app just not usable at all and it has to go to the dump,鈥� said Louise Coutu, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Toronto.

鈥淔or years, the Society has had an arrangement with the city where we don鈥檛 pay tipping fees because it鱿鱼视频app realized that this stuff is our responsibility, but if it weren鈥檛 going to us to be sorted, there would probably be more going directly to the dump,鈥� she said.

Coutu estimates this will cost an additional $20,000 on its annual budget.

鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app not just the tipping fee we鈥檙e paying, it鱿鱼视频app our truck out there, our guys,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o it is expensive for us. We鈥檝e seen it as part of our service. You can鈥檛 look in everyone鱿鱼视频app bag when they鈥檙e donating to you.鈥�

TORONTO - Our Lady of Mercy is back in Toronto, gleaming and armed with the latest technology while making room for families, children and newborn babies.

St. Joseph's Health Centre blessed its new, four-story patient care wing Dec. 5. The new wing carries on the name of the old Our Lady of Mercy Hospital. The original Our Lady of Mercy merged with St. Joseph's in 1980 and finally closed in 1998.

The new $73-million, 130,000-square-foot wing adds a neonatal intensive care unit, a family birthing centre, a pediatric unit with six surgical day care beds and six medical day care beds, 92 more adult inpatient beds and a child and adolescent mental health unit which includes a full-time classroom.

TORONTO - Fr. Frank Portelli is embracing a new challenge in his priestly life, taking the reins as the director of the archdiocese of Toronto鱿鱼视频app Office of Catholic Youth.

鈥淪uccessful youth ministry is when you鈥檝e engaged the young person,鈥� Portelli told The Catholic Register. 鈥淣ot imposing something but finding out what their desire is, what their questions are and trying to meet that need.鈥�

Portelli was assigned as director of the OCY Nov. 1 and is currently in a transition period as he works between his new post and as associate pastor at St. Luke鱿鱼视频app parish in Thornhill. As of January, he will be able to focus his efforts solely on his new ministry. Replacing Christian Elia, his posting is for three years.

TORONTO - Ales Michalevic wants people to know that torture still exists in 21st-century Europe. A candidate in the 2010 presidential election in Belarus, he knows from firsthand experience.

"Just one year ago, I was in prison," he told an audience of about 20 people at the University of Toronto Nov. 24. "And we had hot water and showers once a week."

TORONTO - The concept of being open rather than closed to people of different faiths and backgrounds is in some ways more important than traditional left-right political distinctions, former British prime minister Tony Blair told an audience at the University of Toronto Nov. 17.

Standing alongside six young people of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Bah谩鈥櫭� faiths who are the Faiths Act "fellows" stationed in Toronto, Blair said he couldn't think of a better place to do interfaith work than in Toronto. Faiths Act is the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's multi-faith social action program with 34 fellows stationed in five countries around the world.

TORONTO - Over its 10-year history, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has developed into a particular kind of voice in the Catholic world, said the institute's founding director, Dr. Bill Sullivan.

As a serious, scholarly and multidisciplinary enterprise, the University of Toronto-based think tank has the potential to engage debate at the leading edge of medical science on the highest levels, Sullivan told the audience attending the institute's 10th anniversary lecture Nov. 16 at Toronto's University of St. Michael's College. Constitutional lawyer Iain Benson delivered the lecture on diversity, accommodation and the law.

But the future depends on the CCBI deepening and broadening its contacts and collaborators, said Sullivan. Housed inside St. Michael's faculty of theology, the CCBI has plenty of philosophers and theologians contributing to its conferences and publications. Sullivan would like to see more scientists and doctors.

Toronto's St. Michael鱿鱼视频app College School remembered the soldiers who died protecting Canada with a ceremony, Nov 11.

After a procession in which the Canadian flag, a book of remembrance, and wreaths were carried to the front of the gymnasium, students watched video clips of veterans as they reflected on their experiences and observed a moment of silence. Captain Frank Lamie 鈥�98 of the 48th Highlanders of Canada addressed the students at 11:00 a.m., discussing his experiences in Afghanistan, and the importance of gratitude for Canada鱿鱼视频app men and women in uniform.

Following the ceremony, students carried the images of the 158 soldiers who died in the Afghanistan war to the school鱿鱼视频app front lawn.

You can view pictures from the morning's events in the slideshow below.

TORONTO - They won鈥檛 all agree, but they will acknowledge the common ground, if only because they鈥檝e walked it together.

Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Damian MacPherson, Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton and Imam Abdul Hai Patel travelled together with an interfaith band of pilgrims to the Holy Land in September. Now they鈥檙e ready to report back.

The four leaders will present a panel discussion called 鈥淲alking the Path of Abraham鈥� at the Scarboro Missions headquarters, 2685 Kingston Rd., in Toronto Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. 

TORONTO - Perhaps they weren't all saints. But they're all together in Toronto's historic St. Michael's Cemetery.

A touring Irish choir from County Galway got a glimpse at Toronto's Irish history touring the monuments at the mid-town cemetery on All Saints Day, Nov. 1. The Dunmore Church Choir was in Toronto to perform a benefit concert for L'Arche Toronto and a concert at St. Paul's Basilica. But time out to investigate the part of Irish history that had reached across the ocean in the 19th century was welcome, said tenor Martin Silke.

"We survived. They were the pioneers," said Silke. "They must have been horrendously brave people, if you can imagine crossing the ocean in a 20-metre boat into the unknown. It's important to remember."