Ontario restored standardized testing in 2021-22 after missing a year due to the pandemic, but it’s going to be difficult to analyze results without consistent baseline data.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
When political candidates talk about their long-term care proposals, let’s remember there isn’t much point unless we recruit and adequately compensate enough workers to care for our loved ones.
Flowers sit on a bench in front of a for-profit long-term care home in Pickering, Ont., where dozen of seniors died of COVID-19, in April 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Ontario voters can bring about change by prioritizing people over profits and casting our ballots for those committed to transforming long-term care into a non-profit model focused on care.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a photo opportunity on a construction site in Brampton as he kicks off his re-election campaign on May 4, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Looking back on Ford’s four years in power reveals four themes in his approach to governance — and what the next four years might have in store if he wins again.
Transportation planning includes highways, public transit, automobile infrastructure and the movement of people and goods.
(Shutterstock)
The Ontario Progressive Conservative party’s 2022 platform now bases its appeal in the claim that it can effectively get results and most competently manage the affairs of the province.
Since he was elected in 2018, Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives have made big changes to the province’s environmental policy, which some say are are harmful to endangered species and aren’t aligned with the fight against climate change.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Geoff Robins
The 2022 election looms as the most important for Ontario’s environment in the modern era, and its impact may echo for generations to come.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is seen before his government delivered the provincial 2022 budget at the Ontario legislature.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Ontario goes to the polls in a month, and Doug Ford will likely win again. Why? Because the Liberal and NDP leaders have failed to connect with the people of Ontario the way Ford has.
Ontario is creating far below the 200,000 to 300,000 early learning and care spaces needed to address the demand that will arise as parent fees decline.
(Benson Low/Unsplash)
Among provinces, Ontario is the least generous supporter of its childhood educator workforce. Parents pay the price in available child-care spaces if a staffing recruitment crisis does not improve.
An Instacart worker loads groceries into her car for home delivery. There is a strong argument to be made that gig work is false self-employment, meaning that workers are not actually freelance.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Feudalism has been replaced by capitalism, and the new villeiny — or neo-villeiny — has emerged to reflect a relationship between a worker and an organization.
A worker is seen cleaning surfaces inside a long-term care home.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Residents of group homes and long-term care are at high risk for COVID-19. But an important aspect has been left out of Public Health Ontario’s guidance for these facilities: indoor air quality.
An Ontario Provincial Police tactical officer looks on from the top hatch of an armoured vehicle at the Ambassador Bridge.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Affordable housing has become a middle-class problem, and Ontario’s latest housing report reflects an approach that continues to marginalize those with the greatest need.
Housing affordability remains a challenge in Toronto and surrounding areas, despite an increasing number of developments.
(Shutterstock)
The Ontario government has, under Doug Ford, revised policies and approaches in favour of developers. Policy reform is essential to address the growing problem of unaffordable housing.
The boreal forests in the James Bay Lowlands are part of an ecosystem relied upon by Indigenous communities for their survival.
(Shutterstock)
The Ring of Fire Regional Assessment is Canada’s first opportunity to apply new legislative tools to co-operating with Indigenous jurisdictions. But the government is messing up.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford gives a press conference at Queen’s Park regarding the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
After Premier Doug Ford announced “positive news,” I think about the widening inequality in our province, who the news is “positive” for and the death of caremongering.
Social isolation can be hard for people living in long-term care homes, make sure to schedule window visits while lockdowns are in place.
(Shutterstock)
As people living in long-term care homes brave another lockdown, communication is key and the presence of family members (virtually or through the window) is needed.
Reinvesting some of the $2 billion Ontario is spending could keep more families together.
(Shutterstock)
For youth under state guardianship the state has assumed the role of the parent. But state parenting falls short of how most people would treat their children.
People wait in line — some for over two hours — at a PCR COVID-19 test site in Toronto.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)
Increased motorboat activity has resulted in an alarming increase in turtle injuries. Northern map turtles are an at-risk species, and boat collisions threaten their survival.