Whooping cranes, a critically endangered species, breed in one location, a wetland in Wood Buffalo National Park. Yet a federal-provincial review panel has approved an oilsands mine that could kill some of the birds.
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Are our brains wired to favour growth over environmentally rational decisions?
Doug Ford’s government is weakening environmental laws in Ontario — leaving wildlife and environments with no protections.
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Doug Ford’s government is undercutting the environment by giving business and development the upper hand.
Ontario budget provisions aiming to limit Crown liability would also apply retroactively, thereby extinguishing existing lawsuits, including a class action by juvenile inmates who were placed in solitary confinement.
Ye Jinghan/Unsplash
Proposed new legislation in Ontario will make it much harder to sue the provincial government for its negligence or bad faith.
A man injects drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Feb. 6, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
In the midst of a public health crisis, with increasing rates of death from opioid overdose, the Ontario government is clawing back life-saving measures.
A nurse wears protective clothing during the SARS outbreak at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto in 2003. This outbreak was the impetus for establishing the Public Health Agency of Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer
From tackling the opioid crisis to preventing pandemic flu, a strong public health infrastructure is essential. Proposed cuts in Ontario will be disastrous.
Stories foremothers keep and pass on may be aimed at enabling future generations to leverage experience for growth and learning. This image, circa 1899, shows the Grey County, Ont. farm of the author’s ancestors.
(Tracy Penny Light)
A historian reflects on the meaning of an aunt’s rural and war-time memoir, flagged for her attention when she was aged 13 by the then-81-year-old elder.
The Trudeau government’s federal price on carbon survived Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s challenge.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Matt Smith
A ruling by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal recognizes the threat of climate change, but its approach is too narrow.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford laughs as Finance Minister Vic Fedeli presents the 2019 budget at the legislature in Toronto in April 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
There’s an apparent emerging Doug Ford doctrine in Ontario of short-term gain for long-term pain. It threatens to embed long-term structural costs for the province and its taxpayers.
In a political dispute with Ottawa, Doug Ford’s Ontario government has stopped funding legal aid for refugee claimants. This 2017 photo shows a young asylum seeker being held by an RCMP officer and her father after crossing the border into Canada from the United States.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
The recent decision by the Ontario government to drastically cut funds for legal aid will cause hardship for many low-income residents of Ontario and for refugees claimants.
Carbon taxes on fossil fuels such as gasoline help lower greenhouse gas emissions.
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Environmental taxes encourage consumers to conserve energy or switch to less carbon-intensive fuels.
There are lots of losers in Doug Ford’s Ontario. Who are the winners?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The very short list of winners, and a growing list of losers, in Doug Ford’s Ontario does not bode well for the government’s political future – or the province.
In 2016, parents protested the previous Ontario Liberal government’s decision to cut therapy for autistic children aged five and older. Moves by Ontario’s Conservative government have also raised concerns.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
An autism policy researcher and the mother of an affected child weighs in on the recent changes announced to the Ontario Autism Program.
Toronto school board data reveals that Black, racialized and lower-income students face significant gaps in student outcomes.
Nik Shuliahin /Unsplash
In examining and addressing opportunity gaps for racialized students in schools, school boards must learn to account for present-day and historical inequities.
Researchers collect samples from the abandoned tailings that flow into Long Lake, near Sudbury, Ont.
John Gunn
Bankrupt oil and gas companies must clean up old wells, yet taxpayers are still stuck with the bill for abandoned mines.
In 2017, Saskatchewan’s auditor general showed that a private pay MRI program actually increased wait times for scans rather than the promised reduction. Here, an MRI machine is prepared at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital on May 1, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
A two-tier, for-profit health-care system will not end “hallway medicine” in Ontario or elsewhere; evidence from around the world shows that private payment increases wait times for the majority.
Areas with greater opposition to wind energy development may be more likely to experience negative impacts on property values.
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Research has found that wind turbines decrease property values in Ontario, but only when the community is opposed to their presence.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks about the federal government’s newly imposed carbon tax at an event in Toronto in October 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Canada’s top-down approach to designing its climate policy has failed. It needs to find ways to engage with individuals.
The Ontario government is proposing more than a 30 per cent pay cut for doctors working in new primary care models.
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The Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association are currently engaged in arbitration to determine how family doctors will be paid.
Steel mills, like this one in Hamilton, Ont. emit greenhouse gases. Ontario must reduce its emissions from 161 megatonnes to 143 megatonnes by 2030.
haglundc/flickr
Ontario’s new environment plan scores poorly on conservative ethos.
Ontario Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe released her annual environmental report on Nov. 13, 2018.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn)
Premier Doug Ford’s proposal to downgrade Ontario’s environmental watchdog is bad news for the environment, public health and safety, and evidence-based decision-making.