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Bear sculpture made only from zip-ties (full project in comments) - Imgur

Little Burgundy is offering 15% off on selected shoes right now. They are also offering free shipping on all orders.

The sale is available online and in stores.

Exclusions for the sale include: UGG Australia, Michael Kors, New Balance and DV.

The sale ends September 22nd.

Photo by Still The Oldie, from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Ontario lawmakers are set to vote on a bill that would quash a rule preventing some teens from accessing child welfare support services.

Under current Ontario law, if a 16-year-old comes to the attention of welfare services for the first time at that age, he or she is classified as an adult, and can only access adult benefits.

Bill 88, the Child and Family Services Amendment Act, seeks to change that.

First introduced by Barrie MPP Rod Jackson in June, Bill 88 is due for a second reading at the provincial legislature on Thursday. Campaigners are calling for cross-party support.

Jackson says this is an issue he has been passionate about since attending 2011′s legislative hearings on child welfare, where he listened to youngsters talk about their experiences.

“If kids go into the system at 15, they get child welfare benefits until 20, but if they are 16, it means they’re out of luck,” he said. “The options then are very limited, and often have negative outcomes. It’s just not fair.”

Child welfare provides children who lack parental care with help accessing the necessities of life: money, housing, school, and other things, like counselling. The service is specially tailored to the needs of kids, meaning it’s often more appropriate for teenagers than is adult welfare.

Johanna Macdonald, a lawyer with Justice for Children and Youth (JUST), said many of the young people who seek the assistance of JUST are ineligible for child protection services simply on the basis of their age.

“It means that on a daily basis I am not able to provide legal options for young people,” she said.

“They are often coming from an abusive situation, and we are trying to help them get set up. It’s frustrating not to have access to the child welfare system for these young people.”

Macdonald said that the adult welfare system is geared toward employment, and that 16-year-old homeless youths have very different requirements.

JUST, as an organization, strongly supports Bill 88.

“Ontario remains the only jurisdiction in Canada that limits access to child welfare services for 16- and 17-year-olds in this way,” the group said recently in a statement.

“This bill recognizes Canada’s international obligations to provide care for all Ontario’s youth in need.”

Jackson said he expects the bill to find broad support on Thursday, which would get it through to a third reading. After that, it’s up to the government to get it passed into law.

“This is not something I want credit for. The goal is to get it done,” he said.

“I am not looking to score political points. I think this is something that fell through the cracks, and perhaps needed someone to champion it.”

For those worried about the financial implications, Jackson argues it is not a “money bill” that will further strain the province’s finances.

“These children do end up engaging one type or another of support services; therefore, this bill is more about reallocation of resources.”

There is a new coupon available through the SmartCanucks SmartSource printable coupon portal. Save $5 on the purchase of any Gold BondUltimate product sized 127g, 160g, 368mL, 400mL or 411mL. There is a limit of two prints per computer per coupon for all SmartSource printables. Click here to print yours while it lasts.

Santiago, Chile is one of those destinations that never really seems to go on sale, and most people will usually end up paying at least $1200 after taxes for a round-trip flight from Toronto.

But TAM Airlines just significantly dropped their price between Toronto and Santiago (SCL), undercutting their closest competition by over 25%.

The fares look to be available on a fairly large variety of dates, between October 2013 and December 2013., along with March 2014 and April 2014. January 2014 and February 2014 look to be slightly more expensive (high $800s).

As far as weather in Santiago goes, September to November is a nice time to visit (spring time in the southern hemisphere). Their summer season is December to February.

For the very southern part of Chile, November through March is best. For hiking around Torres del Paine, September through November has the ideal spring weather.

The crowds usually start to ramp up in December and continue through March, as this is their summer season, and when a lot of locals do their traveling, just as we do in our summers here.

So with that in mind, Here are some example searches on Kayak to get you started. You can click through from Kayak to various booking sites to book the tickets.

November 2013
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YYZ-SCL/2013-11-13-flexible/2013-11-27-flexible

December 2013
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YYZ-SCL/2013-12-04-flexible/2013-12-18-flexible

March 2014
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YYZ-SCL/2014-03-12-flexible/2014-03-26-flexible

April 2014
http://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YYZ-SCL/2014-04-16-flexible/2014-04-30-flexible

screenshot of verified price:

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Gap Canada has good offers.

• Get up to 40% off selected styles. This offer is available online and in store and ends today Monday, September 2, 2013.
• Get 20% off your purchase online only. This offer ends tonight Monday, September 2, 2013 at 11:59 PM ET. To get your discount online enter the promo code GAPCNEW at checkout.

Click here to get Gap Canada offers.

Flights from Toronto to Beijing and Shanghai, China just experienced a 25-30% price drop below their usual bottom price.

Shanghai ($798) looks to be slightly cheaper than Beijing ($828). The cheap fares to China look to be available on a large variety of dates between September 2013 and March 2014.

I've found that the easiest way to explore these fares is to try a flexible date search on Kayak. Here's an example for late October, early November...

http://www.kayak.com/flights/#/YYZ-PVG/2013-10-27-flexible/2013-11-06-flexible

Look for the flights on United with 1 stop each way in Chicago or Newark. The total travel time should be around 16-17 hours each way.

To book, you can click through from Kayak to United.com - If you have any trouble using your Canadian credit card on United.com, take your same dates, and try searching on www.United.ca. You can also try Orbitz.

Here's a screenshot of the verified price from United:

Hit Like if you like this deal! Click Share to show your friends on Facebook.

The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema is winding down the summer in style by screening eight audience favourite films for an encore presentation and we want to hook you up with ticket packages to check them out.

View our contest page for full details on how to enter.

Today is National Gummi Worm Day and Bulk Barn Canada is celebrating by offering 30% off gummi worms and gummi bears from now until Monday, July the 15th. To receive your 30% off, Bulk Barn asks that you like them on Facebook, and wish your cashier a “Happy Gummi Day” when making your purchase. Click here to visit the Bulk Barn Canada Facebook page.

That frozen look of fear while driving with a woman… - Imgur

Photo by George Hornaday in the blogTO Flickr pool

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One per household, allow 8-10 weeks for delivery.

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Every Torontonian has a TTC horror story: trapped on an overflowing platform unable to board an already full train, packed tight in a stationary car for a delay to clear, paying a fare only to find the line is out. I could go on, but you already know how it goes.

After finally getting released from a queue behind a disabled train only to be stymied a few moments later by a passenger assistance alarm, I thought it worthwhile to dig into the TTC's official records on outages - technical faults, track fires, belligerent riders, weather, the whole lot - in the hope of getting a bigger picture of what a year of problems looks like on paper.

It turns out, maybe not surprisingly, that passenger assistance alarms were most common type of stoppage. The yellow buttons inside the cars were pressed 1,459 times in 2012, an average of almost 4 per day. The lost time over the course of the year added up to 118 hours and 14 minutes. Each time TTC staff were forced to respond it took an average of 4 minutes 51 seconds to get things moving again.

The TTC counts incidents that involve the police separately, labeling them "security incidents."

Just behind passenger alerts was the TTC's own train problems. The rolling stock - a technical name for the trains - needed emergency repairs 1,323 times in 2012, causing 109 hours and 49 minutes of delays.

Frustratingly, the problem that created the worst wait times is almost entirely preventable. 330 small fires, litter problems, and unauthorized people at track level stopped the subway for a total of 106 hours and 37 minutes in 2012. Each incident took an average of 19 minutes to resolve - longer than breakdowns and assistance alarms.

In total there were 4,842 outages on the subway in 2012 that caused more than three weeks of delays (509 hours and 35 minutes to be precise.) The average delay across all types took 6 minutes and 31 seconds to clear, which is longer than the 4-minute average headway between trains. Normal scheduled service often takes longer to resume.

Are you surprised by these figures or do they match your experience of using the subway? Could the TTC do more to prevent track fires or is it up to the rider to use the garbage cans? Sound off below.

Note: The average wait time listed in the last chart was calculated across all lines from the most recent service summary report between March 31 and May 11, 2013. The delay data is from 2012.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: tapesonthefloor/blogTO Flickr pool.

Get a $10 Starbucks Gift Card for $5 with this deal from Groupon. There is a limit of one offer per person, and the gift card expires December 31st 2013. Click here to get this deal.