tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ontario-government-41046/articlesOntario government – The Conversation2023-12-03T13:27:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189002023-12-03T13:27:29Z2023-12-03T13:27:29ZSilencing Sarah Jama diminishes Canadian democracy<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/silencing-sarah-jama-diminishes-canadian-democracy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sarah Jama, the MPP for Hamilton Centre, is <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/sarah-jama-has-filed-suit-against-the-ontario-government-what-are-her-chances-of-success">suing the Ontario government and Legislative Assembly</a> after being censured in the legislature by members of the Progressive Conservative government.</p>
<p>On Oct. 23, the Ontario legislature <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/hamilton-mpp-kicked-out-of-ndp-caucus-censured-by-legislature">passed a motion</a> introduced by the government house leader, Paul Calandra, to censure Jama for <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahJama_/status/1711808190889746854">remarks she made on social media</a> regarding the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Jama called for a ceasefire in Gaza and labelled Israel’s actions as “apartheid.” In its motion, the government said her statements are “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/sarah-jama-censor-1.6997689">antisemitic and discriminatory</a>.” </p>
<p>Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Marit Stiles also <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-mpp-sarah-jama-censured-and-removed-from-ndp-caucus-over-israel-gaza-comments-1.6612602">removed Jama from caucus</a> on the same day. Jama now sits as an independent MPP.</p>
<p>Jama alleges that the censure contravenes her rights to freedom of expression and equality under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She also argues that it is an improper exercise of parliamentary privilege and an <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10120828/sarah-jamas-censure-an-abuse-of-power-ndp-tried-to-muzzle-her-legal-docs/">abuse of power</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/sarah-jamas-censure-making-people-feel-uncomfortable-is-part-of-the-job-216704">Sarah Jama's censure: Making people feel uncomfortable is part of the job</a>
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<p>Calandra’s motion took it one step further by also forbidding the Speaker of the legislature from recognizing Jama in debate until she retracts and apologizes for her remarks. </p>
<p>Calandra claimed the motion was necessary to protect the legitimacy of the legislature. He also argued that the parliamentary powers to discipline members <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/house-documents/parliament-43/session-1/2023-10-18/hansard#P220_12108">maintain institutional respect and dignity</a>. In other words, the motion to discipline Jama was presented to the legislature behind the shield of parliamentary privilege. </p>
<p>While legislators can and should hold elected members accountable for poor conduct, they must not let discipline turn into complete <a href="https://www.aclu.org/documents/what-censorship">censorship</a>.</p>
<p>The motion censures and silences Jama in the legislature. While censure might occasionally be necessary to preserve the integrity of a parliament, using it to punish members who express personal views outside of the legislature threatens the foundations of our democracy.</p>
<h2>Can the courts get involved?</h2>
<p>The Speaker’s authority to not recognize Jama must be based on statutory authority (i.e. legislation) or the constitutional principle of parliamentary privilege. </p>
<p>This potentially leaves two options for Jama. She could challenge the Speaker’s authority through <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90l10">Ontario’s Legislative Assembly Act</a>, or she could challenge the authority of the Speaker as a matter of parliamentary privilege. </p>
<p>If the court accepts the statutory authority argument, then the Charter of Rights and Freedoms would likely apply to Jama’s case. This was articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada in <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1413/index.do"><em>Harvey v. New Brunswick</em></a>. </p>
<p>If Jama is correct on this point and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies, this would mean that the Speaker’s refusal to recognize her is a clear and, quite frankly, inarguable violation of her <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art3.html#:%7E:text=3.,be%20qualified%20for%20membership%20therein.">democratic rights</a>. </p>
<p>The only way the government of Ontario could justify violating the Charter would be to prove that the Speaker’s authorization to preclude Jama is <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art1.html">reasonably justifiable in a free and democratic society</a>. </p>
<h2>Courts and parliamentary privilege</h2>
<p>Parliamentary privilege is a constitutional principle that empowers legislators to fulfil their <a href="https://www.aspg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/05-CoghillThe-functions-of-Parliament.pdf">roles and functions</a>. It also gives the legislature power to hold its elected members accountable for misconduct. And that is the basis of the Ontario government’s legal argument for justifying Jama’s exclusion. </p>
<p>The powers of parliamentary privilege are extremely complicated, especially when courts get involved. As legal expert Warren Newman explained: “<a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2008CanLIIDocs118#!fragment//BQCwhgziBcwMYgK4DsDWszIQewE4BUBTADwBdoByCgSgBpltTCIBFRQ3AT0otokLC4EbDtyp8BQkAGU8pAELcASgFEAMioBqAQQByAYRW1SYAEbRS2ONWpA">Courts in Canada have struggled with the role and place of these privileges in the constitutional system</a>.” Specifically, courts often struggle with determining their own role when reviewing matters that are inherently political — such as the exercise of parliamentary privilege.</p>
<p>Recent decisions by Canadian courts have reinforced the idea that courts should not interfere with the operations of legislative bodies. This was most recently articulated in the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17287/index.do?q=%22parliamentary+privilege%22"><em>Chagnon v. SFPPQ</em></a>. </p>
<p>These judicial decisions, however, should not be interpreted to mean that legislatures can abuse their powers behind the shield of parliamentary privilege. It also does not mean that courts are completely prevented from reviewing how parliamentary privilege is used. </p>
<p>In fact, in Chagnon and <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2231/index.do">other decisions</a>, the Supreme Court confirmed courts can exercise their judicial review powers to determine whether or not legislative actions fall within the scope of parliamentary privileges. This will be an important determining factor for Jama’s case.</p>
<h2>Possible implications for Sarah Jama</h2>
<p>This case is significantly different from most of the published judicial decisions on parliamentary privilege. Previous judicial considerations of legislatures’ privilege powers have arisen within the context of excluding non-members of Parliament. For example, in <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/957/index.do"><em>New Brunswick Broadcasting Co. v. Nova Scotia</em></a> the Supreme Court ruled that the legislature could exercise its parliamentary privilege to prevent an outside company from broadcasting the legislature’s proceedings. </p>
<p>In contrast, Jama’s case pits the parliamentary privilege of an individual member against that of the legislature as a whole. Another significant difference is that this case is about conduct that occurred outside of, and without any impact on, the legislative process. </p>
<p>It is hard to see how comments made outside of the legislature that do not comment on the legislature or <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hillier-expelled-opc-caucus-1.5058281">other legislators</a> can impede the legislative process or bring the assembly into disrepute. </p>
<p>Jama’s actions should be distinguished from instances that clearly bring a legislature in disrepute, such as when <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-house-speaker-quits-what-the-hunka-scandal-reveals-about-second-world-war-complexities-214339">Anthony Rota invited a former Nazi soldier to Canada’s House of Commons</a>. </p>
<p>These important differences may also contribute to how Jama’s legal battle plays out. </p>
<h2>Threatening Canadian democracy</h2>
<p>While disciplining legislators is an established parliamentary privilege, the exact boundaries of what “discipline” means, or when it can be exercised, are also not clear. What is clear is that legislatures do not, as a general rule, prevent elected members from participating in their legislative functions for simply holding opposing views.</p>
<p>To silence a member for their political views — even if it was the wish of the majority — inexcusably violates the principles of parliamentary democracy. The motion to silence Jama and remove her rights to engage in political speech is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-still-be-reading-democracy-in-america-44174">drastic and dangerous step</a>.</p>
<p>Excluding Jama from the legislature prevents her from carrying out her duties and responsibilities as an elected member of the legislature. She is unable to participate in legislative debates, represent her constituents or attempt to hold the government accountable for any of its conduct. This is a violation of her parliamentary privilege.</p>
<p>If this exclusion is permitted to stand, it will set a dangerous precedent: that the legislature can silence democratically elected representatives because a majority of its members disagree with their political views. </p>
<p>This is not about whether we agree with Jama or not. The issue here is the potential for governments to undercut and diminish the principles of democracy. Especially when it comes to a government that has <a href="https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2023/10/what-happened-your-commitment-freedom-expression-premier-ford">frequently defaulted</a> on its commitment to freedom of expression. </p>
<p>As freedom of speech is inevitably at the heart of this political and legal issue, it is useful to recall <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty.html?chapter_num=2#book-reader">John Stuart Mill’s</a> warning: </p>
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<p>“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Censure might occasionally be necessary to preserve the integrity of a parliament, but using it to punish members for their personal views threatens the foundations of democracy.David Said, PhD Candidate/Researcher, Political Science, University of GuelphGreg Flynn, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167042023-11-06T22:23:20Z2023-11-06T22:23:20ZSarah Jama’s censure: Making people feel uncomfortable is part of the job<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/sarah-jamas-censure-making-people-feel-uncomfortable-is-part-of-the-job" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sarah Jama, a member of the Ontario legislature for Hamilton Centre, recently faced <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/hamilton-mpp-kicked-out-of-ndp-caucus-censured-by-legislature">censure</a> from Doug Ford’s Conservative government. She was also <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/what-to-know-about-sarah-jama-s-censure-and-ejection-from-ndp-1.6614953">removed from the Ontario NDP caucus</a> by her own party.</p>
<p>The NDP’s disciplinary response and the removal of her from caucus cannot be separated from the current climate. It is right in the middle of a nationwide <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/combatting-islamophobia-canada/canada-special-representative-combatting-islamophobia/statement-meeting-prime-minister-canada-rise-islamophobia-protecting-civil-liberties.html">Islamophobic backlash</a>, where scores of others are also experiencing a wide range of institutional discipline. </p>
<p>Jama’s <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahJama_/status/1711808190889746854">social media statement, released three days after the Hamas attack on Israel</a>, sparked the disciplinary action. In her statement, she called on Canada to “hold true to its history of peacemaking and refrain from military intervention.” She referred to Israel’s siege of Gaza and subsequent bombardment. She also referred to an analysis by the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories calling Israel’s occupation apartheid. Her statement left out any mention of the Hamas attack on Israeli people on Oct. 7. Jama posted an apology for her omission on social media about 24 hours later and condemned Hamas. </p>
<p>But this wasn’t enough for the Progressive Conservative government, who put forward a motion the next week to censure her.</p>
<h2>Controversy is nothing new</h2>
<p>For Jama, a Black disabled Muslim woman of Somali heritage, controversy is nothing new. </p>
<p>As Jama has said: <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/hamilton-activist-sarah-jama-i-make-people-feel-uncomfortable-sometimes/article_47473f58-3b15-58ea-93ab-d0f1bb916230.html">“Mak[ing] people feel uncomfortable”</a> has always been part of her work.</p>
<p>For example, before her role as a member of provincial parliament (MPP), Jama had been actively organizing in Hamilton, addressing issues of <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/sarah-jama-peter-wiesner-hamilton-byelection-police/">homelessness, racial justice and disability rights</a> where she clearly ruffled more than a few feathers.</p>
<p>On the eve of receiving the <a href="https://twitter.com/YWCA_Hamilton/status/1499558902907736064?lang=en">2022 Woman of Distinction award</a>, Jama was gearing to face a police officer <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/sarah-jama-peter-wiesner-hamilton-byelection-police/">who had charged her with assault — a charge that was later withdrawn</a>. </p>
<h2>Climate of Islamophobia</h2>
<p>But in this case, the issue did not go away. Jama’s current story cannot be separated from the current surge in anti-Muslim racism.</p>
<p>To understand this surge, it’s crucial to recognize the influence of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.13169/islastudj.7.2.0232">“Islamophobia Industry”</a> in Canada. Sociologist Jasmin Zine, a noted authority on Islamophobia, delineates this industry as a conglomerate of media outlets, political figures, far-right, white nationalist groups and Islamophobia influencers and ideologues, among others, fostering an environment where harmful stereotypes of Muslims as innately provocative and violent become commonplace. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119">How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation</a>
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<p>This racialization lumps more than a billion Muslims into an undifferentiated mass, exploited by public discourse that sensationalizes violent narratives, devoid of geopolitical context or history. </p>
<p>This disregard of complexity, diversity and historical context in the operation of anti-Muslim racism means violence perpetuated by the likes of Hamas comes to be conflated with all Palestinians, all Arabs and by extension all Muslims. </p>
<p>This simple racist arithmetic, or Islamophobic math, produces horrific outcomes like the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/us/chicago-muslim-boy-stabbing-investigation/index.html">targeted killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim boy in Illinois</a>.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/more-funding-laws-can-stop-anti-muslim-online-hate-from-causing-violence-senators-1.6628242">according to a Statistics Canada report</a>, hate crimes in general are up. Those against Muslims rose 71 per cent in 2021 from the previous year. And the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), has reported a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CywoRQxIPc9/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==">sharp spike in the number of reports they have received regarding Islamophobic incidents</a> these past few weeks (for example, instead of one report per day as they had previously, they are now receiving 13). </p>
<p>Additionally, Jama is a Black woman and it’s also essential to consider the intersecting and uneven nature of racism. According to the 2023 Black Muslim Initiative (BMI) report, written in collaboration with Toronto Metropolitan University, Black Muslim communities in Canada <a href="https://www.torontomu.ca/diversity/news-events/2023/02/socio-economic-review-of-the-black-muslim-population-in-canada/">consistently endure the highest levels of discrimination and exclusion across various sectors</a>, including employment and housing. </p>
<h2>Examples of anti-Black Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Navigating <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-black-history-month-muslim-canadians-1.5897571">the multiple forms of jeopardy faced by Black Muslim women</a> means simultaneously surviving both interpersonal and structural anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Anti-Black, hate-motivated Islamophobia is often directed at women. Here are some examples: </p>
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<li>Dec. 2021: <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7721850/hate-crime-alberta-attacks-black-muslim-women/">two Black Muslim women wearing hijabs</a> were assaulted while shopping in Edmonton. </li>
<li>Dec. 2021: a young Black Muslim woman was attacked at an Edmonton transit station.</li>
<li>March 2021: A <a href="https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/hate-crime-unit-investigating-attack-on-2-muslim-girls-in-calgary-park-1.5356803">Black Muslim teenage girl in Calgary had her hijab torn off</a>, while suffering a violent physical assault. </li>
<li>June 2023: A <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/olive-garden-attack-winnipeg-muslim-community-1.6909638">Black Muslim woman was stabbed while serving patrons at an Olive Garden</a> in Winnipeg. </li>
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<p>Feminist geographer Délice Mugabo explains: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5749/jcritethnstud.2.2.0159">“anti-Black Islamophobia” is the exclusion of Black people from the category of the human and Muslims from the category of the citizen</a>. Consequently, fidelity to the nation, and constitution as a person is readily up for interrogation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/csis-targeting-of-canadian-muslims-reveals-the-importance-of-addressing-institutional-islamophobia-199559">CSIS targeting of Canadian Muslims reveals the importance of addressing institutional Islamophobia</a>
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<h2>The trouble ‘they’ cause</h2>
<p>The swift dismissal of people like Jama reaffirms the interlocking dimensions of oppression. Jama’s censure reveals how a Black woman’s assertion of self is commonly read as troublesome: <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-angry-black-woman-stereotype-at-work">“hostile, aggressive, overbearing.”</a></p>
<p>In the United States, the only Black Muslim woman in Congress is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/house-republicans-vote-out-ilhan-omar-foreign-affairs-committee">Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, who faced censorship and removal from the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee</a> for her comments on Israel last year.</p>
<p>In practice, this double jeopardy leaves Black Muslim communities suspended, saddled with heightened vulnerabilities, and often erased from dominant discourses surrounding both anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. </p>
<p>And living as a suspended community means being the first to go, the first to be discarded. There are few grounds available to provoke so called “trouble.” Trouble is disorder, disturbance, violation of expectations, norms and values. As a Black Muslim, you’re already seen as trouble incarnated.</p>
<h2>Interconnected liberation</h2>
<p>However, just as oppression is interconnected, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/nov/05/pro-palestine-protests-take-place-in-cities-around-the-world-video">so is liberation</a>. Jama made her <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/independent-mpp-sarah-jama-addresses-massive-pro-palestinian-protest-in-toronto-we-must-put-an/article_0d6fe1fd-9182-54a1-b964-e3636f1bd523.html">first public appearance at a peace protest this past weekend in Toronto</a>. She addressed tens of thousands of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.</p>
<p>The on-going <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/nov/05/pro-palestine-protests-take-place-in-cities-around-the-world-video">global demonstrations</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/grand-central-terminal-gaza-ceasefire-rally/">actions</a> are proving to be the grounds where we can bring our troubles, cries, joy and pain. </p>
<p>Hundreds of activists and academics <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/hundreds-of-activists-academics-sign-le%5B%E2%80%A6%5D-sarah-jama/article_20d412e7-30b2-57dc-b468-686137f4eb8d.html">have signed a letter supporting Jama</a> and she has said she will announce her plans to fight her censure on Nov. 14.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadiya Nur Ali has received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is also affiliated with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). </span></em></p>The response to Sarah Jama’s comments on Gaza highlights the anti-Black and Islamophobic sentiments within Canadian politics.Nadiya N. Ali, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071942023-06-13T17:29:47Z2023-06-13T17:29:47ZDoug Ford at 5 years: Selling out Ontario’s future to please the well-connected<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531407/original/file-20230612-63747-qi3v54.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C239%2C4000%2C2413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a conference in May 2023 in Etobicoke, Ont. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The initial political success of the Doug Ford government in Ontario <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2022/doug-ford-political-durability/">has been attributed</a> to its ability to connect with those who have seen themselves as the losers in the province’s economic transition from a manufacturing and resource extraction-based economy to one based on services. </p>
<p>The government’s political survival through last year’s provincial election, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ontario-can-recover-from-doug-fords-covid-19-governance-disaster-159783">its bumbling</a> handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been attributed to a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/06/09/the-inside-story-of-how-doug-ford-beat-the-ndp-and-destroyed-the-liberals-in-the-ontario-election.html">range of factors</a>. They include the inability of the opposition parties to offer compelling alternatives and deeper shifts in the province’s political culture.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ontario-election-doug-fords-victory-shows-hes-not-the-polarizing-figure-he-once-was-183885">Ontario election: Doug Ford's victory shows he's not the polarizing figure he once was</a>
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<p>Ford’s Progressive Conservatives <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/06/03/18-of-ontario-voters-handed-doug-ford-a-majority-government-whether-thats-a-bad-thing-depends-who-you-ask.html">received a thin second electoral mandate, with less than 18 per cent of the ballots of eligible voters</a> and more than 400,000 fewer votes than in 2018. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the government has doubled down on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ontario-election-4-ways-doug-ford-has-changed-the-provinces-politics-182660">key themes</a> that emerged during the pre-pandemic period of its first mandate.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doug-ford-continuing-to-turn-his-back-on-the-people-despite-new-faces-121547">Doug Ford: Continuing to turn his back on 'the people' despite new faces</a>
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<h2>Three pillars</h2>
<p>That pre-pandemic phase was characterized by:</p>
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<li>A deeply reactive, uncritical and, at times, increasingly authoritarian approach to governance.</li>
<li>An agenda that was defined by responsiveness only to certain types of well-established interests.</li>
<li>A casual approach to eliminating provincial revenue streams and embedding long-term costs and liabilities.</li>
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<p>The Ford government’s willingness to use the power of the province <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-developers-at-doug-fords-daughters-wedding-only-deepens-the-trouble/">to benefit those well-connected</a> has been most evident around land-use planning and development. </p>
<p>The province’s land-use planning system, including <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/greenbelt-plan-2017">the Greenbelt</a> <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/place-grow-growth-plan-greater-golden-horseshoe">and growth</a> plans for the Greater Toronto Area, was once the subject of <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/86986/ontario-celebrates-second-major-award-for-growth-plan">international acclaim</a> for its management of intense growth pressures in the region while protecting farmland, housing affordability and natural heritage areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Signs urge Doug Ford to keep his hands off the Greenbelt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531408/original/file-20230612-220125-4wmdp7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signs voicing opposition to the Ontario government’s plans for the province’s Greenbelt are seen outside homes within the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve, part of the Greenbelt area, in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A succession of <a href="https://thepointer.com/article/2023-04-24/experts-say-pcs-proposed-bill-97-is-a-sprawl-inducing-full-frontal-assault-on-ontario-agriculture">housing bills and policy changes proposed and adopted</a> over the past year have completed the system’s transformation into an instrument wielded by the province to overcome any objections to the development industry’s wishes.</p>
<p>Another striking feature of the re-elected Ford government has been its tendency to eliminate provincial revenue streams while entrenching long-term costs. The full impact of this conduct has been masked in the immediate post-pandemic period by <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-budget-2023-ford-1.6788370">buoyant provincial revenues</a> and the extent to which costs and liabilities are being passed along into the future.</p>
<h2>Lost revenues</h2>
<p>The cancellation of the province’s <a href="https://www.fao-on.org/en/blog/publications/cap-and-trade-ending">cap-and-trade system</a> for greenhouse gas emissions, the pre-2022 election termination of vehicle licensing fees and a post-election cut in provincial <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/11/13/doug-ford-extends-57-cents-per-litre-gas-tax-cut-for-another-year.html">gasoline taxes</a> have each cost the provincial treasury approximately $1 billion in lost annual revenues.</p>
<p>Additional drains on provincial resources are happening at the same time. <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-23">Bill 23</a>, the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act, hindered the ability of municipalities to make developers cover the costs of infrastructure needed to support new development. The province then promised <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-bill-23-reaction-1.6669428">to make municipal governments “whole</a>” if they couldn’t afford these costs. </p>
<p>The arrangement seems likely to translate into a <a href="https://www.amo.on.ca/sites/default/files/assets/DOCUMENTS/Submissions/SC_HICP-LTR_AP_AMO_Submission_Bill%2023_More_Homes_Built_Faster_Act_20221116.pdf">$1 billion annual gift</a> to the for-profit development industry on behalf of provincial taxpayers. </p>
<p>This is on top of the nearly <a href="https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/energy-and-electricity-2022">$7 billion a year</a> spent from general revenues to artificially lower hydro rates. These are all resources that could otherwise be going to areas badly in need of investment, like health care and education.</p>
<p>The situation looks even worse going forward. Ontario seems <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2023/ontario-hydro-climate-mess/">on track</a> to embed enormous long-term costs in the electricity system. <a href="https://www.ieso.ca/en/Learn/The-Evolving-Grid/Pathways-to-Decarbonization">A nuclear-heavy plan</a> to decarbonize the electricity grid has an estimated capital cost in the range of $20 billion a year over next two decades.</p>
<p>An increased reliance on natural gas-fired generation will push costs <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/11/30/new-gas-plants-will-cause-ontario-hydro-rates-to-rise-report-says.html">higher still</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1621502531015696386"}"></div></p>
<h2>Public transit, climate action</h2>
<p>Similar problems are emerging in other areas. </p>
<p>In terms of public transit, the estimated cost of the high-profile Ontario line through central Toronto has nearly doubled absent major changes in the province’s approach to <a href="https://marksw.blog.yorku.ca/2023/02/24/has-metrolinx-become-a-law-unto-itself/">project management and oversight</a>. </p>
<p>The price tag is approaching <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/11/23/ontario-line-costs-nearly-double-after-awarding-of-latest-contracts.html">$20 billion</a> even though construction has barely begun. It’s at risk of dwarfing the multi-billion dollar debacles of the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2023/05/18/the-eglinton-lrt-wont-open-this-year-thats-not-the-worst-news-we-heard-about-the-project-this-week.html">Eglinton</a> and <a href="http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/e_records/OLRTPI/documents/final-report/index.html">Ottawa</a> light rapid-transit projects.</p>
<p>What’s more, the province continues to have no meaningful strategy around climate change, despite the growing evidence of its impacts, including <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9747680/ontario-more-forest-fires-unprecedented-season-canada/">this spring’s wildfires</a> in Ontario. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The orange flames of a wildfire and billowing brown smoke are seen from above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531406/original/file-20230612-261256-ohn2oi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sudbury 17 wildfire burns east of Mississagi Provincial Park near Elliot Lake, Ont., on June 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The province’s <a href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/specialreports/specialreports/The_State_Of_The_Environment_EN.pdf">Auditor General and Environmental Commissioner</a> recently highlighted other areas of ongoing environmental challenges, ranging from air and water quality to biodiversity losses. The province has no effective plans to address either.</p>
<p>In fact, it has spent much of the past <a href="https://sei.info.yorku.ca/files/2023/03/The-Environment-Climate-Change-and-Market-Populist-Politics-Working-January-20231.pdf?x60126">five years</a> actively dismantling the agencies, laws and programs developed over the previous seven decades that had delivered improvements in environmental quality. </p>
<p>In doing so, the Ford government is effectively building environmental liabilities that will be borne by generations to come. That point was highlighted by the province’s <a href="https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2023/3/7/more-worse-mining-ontarios-proposed-building-more-mines-act">dramatic weakening</a> of the rules around mine closure this spring.</p>
<h2>Connections are key</h2>
<p>Five years into the Ford era, Ontario finds itself in a precarious moment. </p>
<p>The provincial government’s agenda seems to flow from whatever ideas or proposals happen to come its way from sources with access to the government and who are aligned with its policy priorities, regardless of the costs and coherence of what’s proposed. </p>
<p>Well-established industrial, resource extraction, gas-fired and nuclear energy production interests, along with land developers, have tended to be the big winners in Ford’s Ontario. </p>
<p>But major long-term economic and environmental costs and liabilities are being run up as a result by the Ford government, eroding the province’s capacity to deal with future challenges. </p>
<p>In effect, the province’s future is being mortgaged to serve those well-connected to the government. Few Canadian provinces have had a need for better governance with such a scant short-term prospect of seeing that need met.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Doug Ford’s Ontario government is running up major long-term economic and environmental costs and liabilities, eroding the province’s capacity to deal with future challenges.Mark Winfield, Professor, Environmental and Urban Change, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024372023-03-30T19:28:52Z2023-03-30T19:28:52ZOntario’s new child welfare policy is promising, but youth leaving care need more support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518268/original/file-20230329-14-5u788j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C8%2C5708%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario's moratorium on youth leaving care once they turn 18 expires on March 31, 2023, with a redesigned policy coming into effect on April 1.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services placed a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-youth-in-care-1.5514044">moratorium on its child welfare policy</a> that requires youth to leave foster care and group homes once they turn 18. At the same time, the province committed to a <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-welfare-redesign-strategy">child welfare redesign</a> to strengthen support for youth leaving care. </p>
<p>The moratorium expires on March 31, with a <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-protection-service-directives-forms-and-guidelines/policy-directive-cw-003-23-preparing-youth-successful-transition-care-childrens-aid">redesigned policy</a> coming into effect on April 1. While the new policy appears promising for youth leaving care, there are some important gaps that require the Ontario government’s attention.</p>
<h2>Aging out</h2>
<p>The pandemic illuminated shortcomings in Ontario’s child welfare policy. High numbers of youth aging out of care face <a href="https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/TransitionSupportReport-31082020.pdf">poverty and homelessness</a>, <a href="https://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/en/report-exploring-youth-outcomes.pdf">do not complete high school</a> and have <a href="https://www.stepstonesforyouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Rampersaud-Mussell-2021-22Half-the-time-I-felt-like-nobody-loved-me22-The-Costs-of-Aging-Out-of-State-Guardianship-in-Ontario-25Nov2021.pdf">significant mental and physical health challenges</a>.</p>
<p>Under these circumstances, many experience victimization and <a href="https://youthrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/COYNavigatingQuicksand.pdf">criminalization</a>. It is clear this framework does not effectively support youth leaving care to enter adulthood on a steady footing.</p>
<p>The ministry’s commitment to a child welfare redesign is welcome and timely. The new policy will replace two policy directives: <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-protection-service-directives-forms-and-guidelines/policy-directive-cw-001-18-continued-care-and-support-youth">Continued Care and Support for Youth (CCSY)</a> and <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-protection-service-directives-forms-and-guidelines/policy-directive-cw-001-21-supporting-consistency-care-youth-whose-care-arrangements-are">Supporting Consistency of Care for Youth Whose Arrangements are Scheduled to Expire During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>It also outlines new requirements to prepare youth for a successful transition from care to adulthood. Taking a youth-centred, strengths-based and trauma-informed approach, the policy aims to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“assist youth to achieve physical and emotional well-being, acquire basic life management skills and develop social networks that include connections to caring adults and the community while respecting a child’s identity characteristics and cultural connections.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman facing away from the camera looks out of a window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518040/original/file-20230328-3015-x27jmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ontario’s new policy appears promising for youth leaving care, but there are important gaps that require attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Earlier intervention, extended involvement</h2>
<p>Currently, child protection workers initiate transition planning when youth are still in care. When they turn 18 and leave care, most youth are eligible to access CCSY. Through CCSY, youth receive financial support, health benefits, and may connect with a <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/mccss-service-objectives-child-welfare-protection/services-delivered-youth-transition#section-0">youth-in-transition worker</a>. These supports expire when they turn 21.</p>
<p>Evidence shows that <a href="https://makingtheshiftinc.ca/approach/research-agenda/shifting-to-prevention-through-early-intervention/">early intervention is critical</a> to prepare youth for their transition to adulthood. Youth will now begin transition planning on their 13th birthday. Between the ages of 13 and 18, planning will focus on health, education, identity, family and social relationships, emotional and behavioural development and self-care skills.</p>
<p>At age 18, most youth will still be required to leave their care placements. However, they will be eligible to receive transition supports, like those available under CCSY, until they turn 23. This amounts to at least 10 years of concentrated transition support which will hopefully reduce the likelihood of them facing poor outcomes.</p>
<p>While prioritizing early intervention for youth, the new policy makes no mention of providing early support for families. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1332/204674315X14207948135699">Research suggests</a> that investigations of parental neglect — which comprise a significant proportion of reports for investigation — are often more indicative of structural issues, like poverty. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054151">psychologists</a> add that there is an intergenerational continuity of child welfare system involvement. </p>
<p>Targeted preventive supports for families could address structural issues and prevent youth from being in foster care. It would also support the ministry’s goals of family reunification and minimizing child removals. Not including familial supports is a missed opportunity.</p>
<h2>Building supportive connections</h2>
<p>Both the previous and new policies emphasize the importance of developing youths’ <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-protection-service-directives-forms-and-guidelines/policy-directive-cw-001-21-supporting-consistency-care-youth-whose-care-arrangements-are">social networks, including connections to caring adults and the community</a>. While no age was specified previously, network building is now supposed to begin as early as age 13.</p>
<p>Research emphasizes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340037274_Exploring_the_Tension_Between_Independence_and_Interdependence_among_Former_Youth_in_Foster_Care_who_are_Emerging_Adults">interdependence over independence</a>. Independence is a false construct, as everyone depends on others through their lives. Youth in care need continuous support to achieve interdependence.</p>
<p>Ongoing social support is critically important, however, it is unclear how the new policy will improve where its predecessor fell short.</p>
<p>Community organizations that have developed <a href="https://www.familyfinding.org">family finding</a> programs that emphasize permanency and natural relationships make clear that this work is highly specialized. Helping youth to find meaningful, long-term and natural supports takes time and constant support to build and maintain these relationships.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl sits on a couch talking with a woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518041/original/file-20230328-28-xmiqr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both the previous and new policies emphasize the importance of developing youths’ social networks and community connections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is likely this work will fall to child protection workers who are already overladen with high caseloads. It is difficult to see how they can meaningfully or effectively add this to their existing workload. </p>
<p>It is also important to question the appropriateness of tasking child protection workers with this responsibility when they are often involved in breaking familial bonds, which can both create irreparable harm to the family unit and limit workers’ efficacy when it comes to helping young people develop social networks.</p>
<p>Importantly, the policy requiring youth to leave their care placements at 18 remains in place. Many youth experience a loss of their social supports when they age out of care. Around <a href="https://www.stepstonesforyouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Rampersaud-Mussell-2021-22Half-the-time-I-felt-like-nobody-loved-me22-The-Costs-of-Aging-Out-of-State-Guardianship-in-Ontario-25Nov2021.pdf">58 per cent of these youth experience homelessness</a>. It is important to distinguish between being in care (living in foster care or group homes) and simply receiving transition supports without having stable, secure housing and a social network.</p>
<h2>Ready, set, go</h2>
<p>The new policy also includes the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/child-protection-service-directives-forms-and-guidelines/policy-directive-cw-003-23-preparing-youth-successful-transition-care-childrens-aid#section-4">Ready, Set, Go Program</a> which begins targeted transition planning when youth turn 16. The program will help child protection workers to assess <em>with</em> youth their readiness to leave care across nine indicators. Assessment will continue at six month intervals following their 18th birthday.</p>
<p>The program prioritizes youth voices, remains responsive to youths’ needs and connects them with services they will need in the long-run. However, the program does not connect readiness to leave care with being housed. It is difficult to imagine how young people will be able to meet their transition goals without a stable home.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the policy remains silent on what will happen if youth are not ready to leave care. Will youth receive support beyond age 23 if needed? Will anyone monitor their progress after they turn 23? </p>
<p>But really, should anyone be ready to be independent, isolated and alone?</p>
<p>Aspects of the new policy require more refinement and explanation. But as a whole, the spirit of the policy is promising. There is a feeling of hope for the future. The provincial government must now invest in these programs to make good on their promise to deliver for young Ontarians.</p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Heather O’Keefe, Executive Director of StepStones for Youth, which supports youth in and leaving the child welfare system in Ontario. Before founding StepStones, Heather worked as a child protection worker.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marsha Rampersaud receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with StepStones for Youth.</span></em></p>Ontario’s new policy on youth leaving care comes into effect April 1. While the policy provides welcomed support for youth, there are still gaps that need to be addressed.Marsha Rampersaud, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1709412021-11-15T16:03:27Z2021-11-15T16:03:27ZThe right to disconnect: Why legislation doesn’t address the real problems with work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431565/original/file-20211111-15-121t96i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C27%2C4608%2C2662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legislation on the right to disconnect sounds promising. But does it really address why workers are putting in so many hours long after their work day should be done?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Victoria Heath/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1998, an ambulance driver in France failed to answer his employer’s phone calls outside his working hours. He was dismissed, <a href="https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/juri/id/JURITEXT000007473856/">raising questions</a> about the obligation of workers to be available around the clock. </p>
<p>Less than a decade later, <a href="https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000032983213/">France</a> enacted the right to disconnect to protect workers from being penalized for ignoring after-hours work messages. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2017-07-07/italy-provisions-on-self-employed-workers-and-flexible-work-schedules/">Italy</a>, <a href="https://www-boe-es.translate.goog/eli/es/lo/2018/12/05/3?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc">Spain</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/6b64a-tanaiste-signs-code-of-practice-on-right-to-disconnect/">Ireland</a> followed suit and now <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-2/bill-27">Ontario is considering enacting a similar law</a>.</p>
<p>But the right to disconnect, which requires large organizations to formulate policies about digital communication outside work hours, <a href="https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/knowledge-workers/">applies to knowledge workers</a>, who unlike the ambulance driver, may not have a physical separation between work and non-work spheres.</p>
<p>This blurring of boundaries reveals important complexities that affect the enforceability of right to disconnect legislation.</p>
<h2>Work tools not tied to workplaces</h2>
<p>Broadly, the right to disconnect grapples with the physical constraints of traditional work versus today’s digital workplaces. So legislation that makes sense for a factory worker who goes home for the night is applied on the 21st century knowledge worker. </p>
<p>While digital communication and the proliferation of mobile devices can allow workers to extend their work days, they are neither necessary nor sufficient to account for the problem of overwork among knowledge workers. The tools required to perform knowledge work, unlike the physical labour of a factory worker, are not restricted to a physical workspace.</p>
<p>In the absence of actual physical constraints, renegotiating the pace of work and its duration is now a largely cultural exercise. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1120.0806">Digital communication and mobile device use can erode the ability to disconnect from work</a>, but whether <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0787">that actually happens depends on workplace cultures that vary among employers</a>. </p>
<p>Individually, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-who-use-two-cellphones-1396393393">some employees try to regulate boundaries of work and personal life by using separate devices for their jobs</a>, while <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/work-life-balance/590662/">others have resigned to having no work-life separation</a> amid calls to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/work-life-conflict-cant-be-solvedand-thats-a-good-thing-11593230460">find the good in work-life conflict</a>. </p>
<p>There have even been suggestions that due to the failure of institutional structures to protect personal time, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/work-life-balance/590662/">individual workers must manage their own work schedules</a> to forestall overwork and its negative effects.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man photographed from the neck down is seen looking at his phone while he leans against a bicycle outdoors." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431567/original/file-20211111-15-o3v090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Is the work-life balance a thing of the past?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Asking workers to manage their own work schedules assumes that they have control. In fact, control over work varies by job type, seniority and employer policies among other factors. On one end of the spectrum are assembly workers, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20174060">subject to the machine’s pace</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast, knowledge workers can exert more control over their work pace and schedules. Openly or surreptitiously, they shop online, use social media, play games and check on their children, all during work hours. For knowledge workers, work and personal time are thus entangled in ways that eight-hour workday legislation did not anticipate.</p>
<p>As a result, disconnect laws will not necessarily result in a uniform restriction of work to an eight-hour window. Beyond the impracticality of such restrictions in several professions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1050.0124">knowledge workers have varying preferences for how they divide their work and personal time</a>. </p>
<h2>Integrating time on and off the clock</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic forced many workers, especially parents, to integrate work with personal responsibilities. While <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-year-into-remote-work-no-one-knows-when-to-stop-working-anymore-11616751002">some lamented the absence of boundaries</a>, <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/08/dont-force-people-to-come-back-to-the-office-full-time">others enjoyed the benefits</a>.</p>
<p>The right to disconnect also fails to anticipate what Arlie Hochschild, an American sociologist, describes as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/25/books/she-minds-the-child-he-minds-the-dog.html">second shift</a>” — household chores, which are often unpaid and performed by women. </p>
<p>Although eight-hour workday rights were designed to help workers enjoy leisure time, for many women, they’re merely a shift in gears to a different type of work from which there is no right to disconnect.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother sits at a crowded kitchen table in front of a laptop as two children do online schoolwork." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431715/original/file-20211112-23-3q0o4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A mother tries to work from home as her two children do online schooling at the kitchen table in their home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mississauga, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Despite the dubious effectiveness of right to disconnect laws, they raise important questions about the organization of modern work alongside our collective expectations about the kind of work we value as a society and the time it ought to consume. The laws, and the resulting discussions about them, may contribute to a cultural shift away <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-workaholics/201112/understanding-the-dynamics-workaholism">from workaholism</a>, at least around paid work. </p>
<p>Some organizations <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/volkswagen-silences-work-e-mail-after-hours/2011/12/23/gIQAz4HRDP_story.html">like Volkswagen</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/daimlers-german-employees-can-set-emails-to-auto-delete-during-vacation/376068/">and Daimler</a> already introduced restrictions around digital communication several years ago. The right to disconnect may encourage more businesses to take similar measures. </p>
<h2>Expanded worker autonomy</h2>
<p>But given the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1050.0124">variation in worker preferences</a> and implications for job satisfaction, treating the right to disconnect as an authorized refusal to answer emails after 5 p.m. hardly addresses the problem of overwork among knowledge workers. After all, tight deadlines may create the need to work long hours without necessarily communicating with colleagues. </p>
<p>Rather, employers should focus on being flexible and should offer knowledge workers <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/10/forget-flexibility-your-employees-want-autonomy">more autonomy</a> around their availability. This is a significant shift that asks employers to trust their knowledge workers to deliver on their tasks. </p>
<p>The right to disconnect can be the catalyst an organization needs to review its policies. However, a cultural shift that destigmatizes a less frenetic pace of work and allows employees more control over their work boundaries will more directly address the problem of overwork.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ope Akanbi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The right to disconnect can be the catalyst an organization needs to review its workplace policies. But what’s really needed is a cultural shift that gives workers more control over how they work.Ope Akanbi, Assistant Professor, Professional Communication, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1585012021-05-02T12:41:36Z2021-05-02T12:41:36ZCERB was luxurious compared to provincial social assistance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397861/original/file-20210429-22-wlbdcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=398%2C0%2C3131%2C2387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman is pictured at the window of her west Toronto apartment in March 2020 as her landlord issued eviction notices at the start of the pandemic. Secure and affordable housing is a big concern of those collecting social assistance, whether it was CERB or provincial programs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s economic response to COVID-19 included a new income support called <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-ei-benefits-covid19-1.5743537">the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)</a>. What was it like to live on CERB when it was available, and how did it compare to the situations of those who were either still working or receiving provincial social assistance?</p>
<p>Surviving on CERB’s $2,000 per month was certainly a pinch. Given median employment income in Canada was <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110024001">$36,900 in 2019</a>, the CERB only replaced two-thirds of monthly employment income for the average Canadian. Given half of Canadians <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/Canadians-and-Bankruptcy-Oct-2019">are only $200 away from insolvency</a> on a monthly basis, that was a big hit.</p>
<p>Yet for those receiving provincial disability and welfare payments, the CERB was the lap of luxury. Under the Ontario Disability Support Program, people continued to receive only $1,169 per month (<a href="http://www.nlstoronto.org/covid-19-social-assistance.html">with one-time pandemic top-ups</a> of $100 per month until the end of July 2020). This is just two-thirds of the CERB level, but still above the $733 per month provided to Ontario social assistance recipients who did not qualify for CERB.</p>
<h2>Online survey</h2>
<p>To understand what it was like to survive on CERB compared to provincial social assistance programs, we surveyed Ontarians about their employment and income situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We received nearly 800 responses to our <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/methods-and-demographics-march-2021.pdf">online survey</a>, which allowed us to assess the relative experiences of these groups. </p>
<p>A basic goal of CERB was keeping people fed and housed during the lockdown. CERB recipients were similar to people who were still working when it came to feeding themselves, but were closer to those receiving provincial social assistance in their assessment of housing security. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/food-security-and-housing-covid">A third of social assistance recipients often did not have enough to eat; half had days with no food</a>. Sixty-three per cent bought nutritious food less often, and nearly a third made increased use of food charities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ontario Doug Ford puts a box of Frosted Flakes into a plastic bag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivers food at the Salvation Army food bank in October 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>By contrast, recipients of CERB did much better, with only one-tenth going a day without food, and one-quarter buying nutritious food less often. Their rates of distress on these measures were only slightly higher than those receiving neither CERB nor social assistance.</p>
<p>If CERB recipients continued to eat well, this was at the cost of housing security. Over half reported struggling to keep up with rent and mortgages. Compared to working people, CERB recipients were three times more likely to be concerned about being evicted or having to move. Their level of housing worries were close to those of respondents receiving social assistance.</p>
<p>The two solitudes of CERB and social assistance extended to survival strategies. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/financial-well-being-covid">CERB and social assistance recipients were both more likely than those employed to take on debt or fall behind on their debts</a>. Both groups made increased calls on family and friends for help. But where CERB recipients covered shortfalls with lines of credit, social assistance recipients drew more heavily on payday loans and pawnbrokers.</p>
<h2>Economic lifeline</h2>
<p>Despite these hardships, CERB recipients were the group that gave the best rating to the government’s economic response. As respondent comments made clear, the CERB was an economic lifeline when the economy shut down. </p>
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<img alt="People walk past boarded-up storefront" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C84%2C4339%2C2663&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Laid-off workers turned to CERB when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Recipients of social assistance were the least satisfied, with only one in seven approving. While their incomes did not drop during the pandemic, their costs did rise, and survival strategies based on mutual aid became difficult under lockdown. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/factsheet-6-health-and-covid-march-2021.pdf">Eighty per cent claimed they suffered the loss of meaningful relations, compared to only half for CERB recipients</a> and those still working.</p>
<p>What policy lessons did the recipients of CERB and provincial social assistance draw from their experience? Here the solitudes converge. </p>
<p><a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/attitudes-towards-government-covid">Two-thirds of both groups became more favourable of the role of government in supporting society</a>. Asked to name three policy priorities for extending government support, basic income was the most popular, with nine out of 10 social assistance recipients and nearly three-quarters of CERB recipients listing it in their top three choices. This was followed by affordable housing (66 per cent and 51 per cent respectively) and a dental plan (45 per cent and 49 per cent).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-a-better-canada-after-covid-19-transform-cerb-into-a-basic-annual-income-program-140683">How to build a better Canada after COVID-19: Transform CERB into a basic annual income program</a>
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<h2>Proposals to revamp benefits</h2>
<p>These opinions mesh with a number of policy blueprints for renewing social protections for citizens. The <a href="https://maytree.com/publications/towards-a-new-architecture-for-canadas-adult-benefits/">Caledon Institute</a> proposed revamping benefits to provide income, housing, training and disability benefits for all low-income individuals. </p>
<p>Others have argued for an expansion of public services, dental, vision and <a href="https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/mowatcentre/unfilled-prescriptions-the-drug-coverage-gap-in-canadas-health-care-system/">drug benefits</a> to ensure that people can look after their basic health regardless of the quality of their jobs or whether they’re working at any given time. The December 2020 report of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3781825">British Columbia Expert Panel on Basic Income</a> took up many of these ideas.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-should-be-able-to-access-dental-care-with-a-health-card-instead-of-a-credit-card-156823">Canadians should be able to access dental care with a health card instead of a credit card</a>
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<p>The federal government’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-council/campaigns/speech-throne/2020/stronger-resilient-canada.html">September 2020 throne speech</a> acknowledged these blueprints with its promise of a Disability Inclusion Plan, including a benefit that would improve upon existing provincial social assistance. </p>
<p>It also promised expanded public investment in housing and a national pharmacare plan. These are not new promises, and they were largely forgotten in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-debate-begins-1.5994282">the recent 2021 federal budget</a>. It is an open question whether the CERB experience can sustain political momentum for renewing income security measures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Graefe is a fellow at the Broadbent Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammad Ferdosi (PhD) does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>CERB was a lifeline but no paradise, highlighting the struggles of social assistance recipients to get by on much less.Peter Graefe, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, McMaster UniversityMohammad Ferdosi (PhD), Political Science PhD candidate, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1597832021-04-27T17:33:00Z2021-04-27T17:33:00ZHow Ontario can recover from Doug Ford’s COVID-19 governance disaster<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397340/original/file-20210427-13-1imr6zm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C68%2C3811%2C2483&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott walk to a news conference at Queen's Park on April 16, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent days have been the bleakest in a dark year for Ontario residents. The variant-driven third, and most serious, wave of COVID-19 has brought the province’s hospital system to the edge of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-doctors-prepare-for-worst-case-covid-19-triage-decisions/">critical breakdowns</a> and claimed the life <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-claims-teenagers-life-1.6002023">of a 13-year-old girl</a> — among Canada’s youngest victims in one of its most pandemic-ravaged communities.</p>
<p>Yet the province’s government, led by Premier Doug Ford, seems incapable of formulating an effective response to the situation. It has again failed to act on clear warnings from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1886237251529">health experts</a>. It has been left to individual local medical officers of health, especially in the hard-hit <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/toronto-and-peel-expected-to-name-businesses-shut-down-by-new-workplace-outbreak-rules-today-1.5402110">City of Toronto and Peel Region</a>, to take direct action against key sources of outbreaks of the virus, like industrial and warehousing and distribution facilities.</p>
<p>The government seems <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2021/04/23/a-risk-averse-premier-an-epic-cabinet-meeting-a-wave-of-anger-the-inside-story-of-doug-fords-disastrous-announcement.html">unable to act</a> on the consistent advice of its own science advisory table, preferring instead to avoid offending the industrial and business stakeholders to which the government <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/19/ontario-planning-on-a-freer-hand-for-business.html">consistently listens</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, when confronted with the worst <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7808100/covid-19-ontario-coronavirus-cases-april-26/">public health disaster</a> in the province’s modern history, the government’s de facto <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/12/15/ford-struggles-on-the-environment-pandemic-reflect-a-failing-approach-to-governance.html">governance model</a> of trying to run a province of 14 million people by the seat of its pants has, predictably, led to disaster.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the situation has fuelled calls for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/18/ontario-covid-lockdown-doug-ford-canada/">Ford’s resignation</a>, even in a large American newspaper. Whether such a step would really help the situation, particularly in the absence of an obvious competent successor within the governing party, is unknown. An election at the current stage of the pandemic seems almost unimaginable, diverting energy and attention from the immediate crisis at hand, further disabling decision-making. </p>
<p>The more critical issue at this point is what to do to bring an effective governance structure to the province’s response to the crisis.</p>
<h2>Coalition government</h2>
<p>At the political level, one option might be to move to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/19/defeating-covid-19-crisis-wartime-coalition-government">wartime-like coalition government</a>. Among other things, that would mean opposition party representation in cabinet. </p>
<p>Such an approach could have considerable advantages. It might strengthen the legitimacy of the provincial government’s leadership in the crisis, while widening the range of perspectives and pool of talent available at the political level. The Liberal and NDP caucuses include individuals with previous government experience and in-depth understandings of government operations.</p>
<p>At the same time, whatever form of government emerges, the cabinet needs to step back from the day-to-day management of the pandemic. A new chief medical officer of health needs to be appointed. </p>
<p>This needs to be someone more engaged, energetic and willing and able to stand up to politicians — publicly, if necessary — than the position’s current occupant, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-82-here-and-now-toronto/clip/15795785-the-increasing-calls-dr.-david-williams-resign.">Dr. David Williams</a>. The role also needs an individual better able to understand, integrate and act on the scientific advice being provided to the province. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="David Williams looks up at the ceiling while wearing a mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397343/original/file-20210427-19-13gouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Williams sits by himself before officially releasing Ontario’s COVID-19 modelling at Queen’s Park on April 1, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cabinet needs to give a new medical officer of health a mandate and the backing to do what is necessary to get the situation under control, including providing support to local medical officers in the most affected areas. That’s what the chief medical officer of health is supposed to do in situations like the one the province faces, but Williams is not.</p>
<h2>Paid sick days</h2>
<p><a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/fighting-covid-19-in-ontario-the-way-forward/">The basic menu of other actions is well-known</a> — paid sick leave for workers; a serious re-examination of what are truly essential workplaces, particularly in hard-hit areas; vigorous enforcement of the rules around personal protective equipment, physical distancing, outbreaks and other critical practices in the workplaces that are deemed essential; better targeting of vaccine rollout to vulnerable populations and locations; limiting mobility while allowing safe outdoor activities to occur; and doing whatever is necessary to support local health units and hospitals through what’s hopefully the last, most disastrous phase of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Under mounting pressure, the government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-paid-sick-leave-covid-19-april-28-2021-1.6005192">announced a plan to provide three paid sick days</a> through a temporary program ending in September.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-of-covid-19-has-illuminated-the-urgent-need-for-paid-sick-days-154224">A year of COVID-19 has illuminated the urgent need for paid sick days</a>
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<p>Beyond the province’s own incompetence, other factors have contributed to the current disaster and need to be addressed. </p>
<p>The federal government’s failure to impose and enforce <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7614338/canada-covid-19-travel-rules/">serious travel restrictions</a> — even to and from high-risk locations like Brazil, India and Pakistan — until far too late has been a significant contributor to the current, variant-driven COVID-19 wave in Ontario. Steps need to be taken to address that situation immediately. </p>
<p>Better income support from the federal government is going to be needed for those whose jobs are affected by tighter definitions of what constitutes essential workplaces.</p>
<h2>Where’s the Ontario Medical Association?</h2>
<p>A final, largely unnoticed but significant factor in the circumstance in which Ontario finds itself as been the absence of a consistent voice from the province’s medical professionals. In the past, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), aside from its role as an advocate for the province’s doctors, has been a powerful and highly influential voice around public health matters.</p>
<p>The OMA has played a major role in advancing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ban-public-and-workplace-smoking-ontario-medical-association-1.369044">anti-smoking policies</a>. It was deeply involved in drinking water safety issues <a href="https://www.kidney-international.org/article/S0085-2538(15)53612-0/fulltext">in the aftermath of the E. coli disaster in Walkerton, Ont</a>. And the association’s interventions around the health impacts of smog and air pollution were instrumental to the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/end-coal">implementation of the phase-out</a> of coal-fired electricity in the province. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Six photos show the demolition of a coal-fired electricity station." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397349/original/file-20210427-19-1r9515o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A composite image of six photographs shows the stacks at the former Nanticoke Generating Station coming down during demolition in Nanticoke, Ont., in February 2018. The station stopped using coal as fuel in 2013 and was no longer in operation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The OMA’s relative silence through the pandemic has left a serious gap. The association could play a role as a consistent voice on the pandemic from the medical profession, and provide political support to the front-line medical officers of health. These functions have instead fallen to other organizations, notably the Ontario Hospital Association and Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, and ultimately individual, front-line physicians and academic researchers.</p>
<p>COVID’s third wave has brought Ontario to the brink of catastrophe. The best options for controlling the situation are well understood, but whether the provincial government can or will implement them remains an open question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>The pandemic’s third wave has brought Ontario to the brink of catastrophe. The best options for controlling the situation are well understood, so why won’t the provincial government implement them?Mark Winfield, Professor of Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1535392021-03-01T20:01:36Z2021-03-01T20:01:36ZOntario’s digital health program has a data quality problem, despite billions in spending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386757/original/file-20210226-13-12g63gf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=395%2C12%2C6851%2C5039&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital health technology, such as electronic health records, is believed to enhance patient-centred care, improve integrated care and ensure financially sustainable health care.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital health is about applying advanced information technologies to enable free flow of patient information across the circle of care. For patients, that means every health-care provider they see at different locations should be able to access relevant health record information quickly and efficiently. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/component/edocman/supporting-documents/partnership/3198-keynote-ontario-s-digital-health-strategy">Digital health technology</a>, such as electronic health records, is believed to enhance patient-centred care, improve integrated care and ensure financial sustainability of our health-care system. However, Ontarians are facing the tough reality that their health data are still fragmented, despite <a href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/news/16_newsreleases/2016news_3.03.pdf">billions of dollars spent over the last two decades</a> to enable fast and secure exchange of health information. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light even more data quality issues. </p>
<p>As noted in a recent <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canadas-public-data-on-covid-19-is-mostly-a-mess-heres-how-to-find-the-useful-info"><em>National Post</em> article</a>, much of the public data on COVID-19 is a mess. Not only are data on infected cases and deaths delayed, they are also incomplete. Ontario reportedly offered inconsistent counts between provincial medical officials and local public health units. No wonder the Ministry of Health admits that “<a href="http://health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/connectedcare/oht/docs/dig_health_playbook_en.pdf">consistent standards are lacking across sectors — making it extremely difficult to integrate patient records or to integrate local systems with provincial ones</a>.” </p>
<p>It is a tough pill to swallow <a href="https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/what-we-do/news-events/newsroom/2011-news-releases/137-infoway-invests-380-million-to-help-physicians-and-nurse-practitioners-implement-electronic-medical-record-emr-systems">after years of investment</a> aimed at enabling fast and secure health data exchange.</p>
<h2>Neither sustainable nor effective</h2>
<p>The Ontario government is taking two approaches to improving data quality, examples of which include accuracy and timeliness of data reported across different service providers. The first approach centres on improving health data exchange across heterogeneous systems (systems developed by different vendors and requiring different hardware and software configurations to operate) by using <a href="https://infocentral.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/standards/canadian/fhir">common communication standards</a>. </p>
<p>However, this approach is neither scalable nor sustainable as communications across these systems become increasingly complex, time-consuming and error-prone when more systems are added to the mix of systems. Inconsistent counts of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths provided by different levels of governments is a case in point. Not to mention that these standards evolve rapidly and <a href="https://orionhealth.com/media/4894/orion-health-interoperability-high-level-report-final-1.pdf">even previous versions of the same standard cannot be easily mapped and migrated to current ones</a>. </p>
<p>The second approach relies on the minimum common data set proposed in the <a href="http://health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/connectedcare/oht/docs/dig_health_playbook_en.pdf">Digital Health Playbook</a>, a resource intended to guide health-care organizations to build their digital systems. The minimum data set contains data classes (such as individual patients) and their corresponding elements (such as date of birth) for clinical notes, laboratory information, medications, vital signs, patient demographics and procedures, to name a few uses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of a tablet showing patient information" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386758/original/file-20210226-15-m13tol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health-care providers need fast, secure access to medical records, including clinical notes, lab information, medications, vital signs, patient demographics and procedures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These data sets, while appropriate for the requirements of family physicians whose main responsibility is disease control and prevention, are not sufficient for treating complex patients who suffer from multiple health issues, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-governance-is-the-missing-prescription-for-better-digital-health-care-128375">demand a vast amount of health data from various health-care providers</a>. </p>
<p>These two approaches adopted by the Ontario government to address data quality issues are <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/06/19/ontario-health-system-will-continue-to-fail-us-if-new-data-efforts-dont-translate-to-changes-for-patients-philpott/">neither sustainable nor effective</a>, so can hardly serve as a strategy guiding health digitalization. </p>
<p>As researchers focusing on IT in health governance, we propose that a data strategy encompass four pillars: </p>
<h2>1. Data quality standards</h2>
<p>First, data quality is an umbrella term that encompasses <a href="https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/iqf-summary-july-26-2017-en-web_0.pdf">multiple dimensions</a> that include things like accuracy, accessibility and timeliness. And there are trade-offs among these dimensions. For example, increasing timely data reports may affect data comprehensiveness, which demands time to cover all the required data. </p>
<p>While “fit for use” (meaning the quality of data fits the requirements of their intended users) is considered appropriate and pragmatic, it needs to be clearly spelled out what quality standards need to be reinforced. Given the limited resources and increasing pressures to curb health-care costs, it becomes increasingly urgent to decide which data quality standards should be the focus. </p>
<h2>2. Sustainable, scalable, patient-centric platform</h2>
<p>Second, the health-care sector is not alone in dealing with decades-old systems and the low-quality data — such as <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/06/19/ontario-health-system-will-continue-to-fail-us-if-new-data-efforts-dont-translate-to-changes-for-patients-philpott/">inaccurate COVID-19 case counts</a> — generated by these systems. Drawing on experiences from banks and other organizations, the health-care sector could <a href="https://www.himss.org/resources/electronic-health-record-data-governance-and-data-quality-real-world">create an open data platform</a> that enables data sharing across health-care providers and allows patients to share data from their social media and mobile and wearable devices. Countries such as <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_gl/health/how-will-you-design-information-architecture-to-unlock-the-power">the United Kingdom and Germany have started implementing the open data platform idea</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Measurable indicators of improvement</h2>
<p>Third, measurable outcomes pertaining to data quality improvement efforts need to be defined. Improvement efforts could include <a href="https://www.himss.org/resources/electronic-health-record-data-governance-and-data-quality-real-world">training programs on best practices</a> related to data entry, and introducing system features that enable data quality checking (for example, completeness or consistency). Measurable outcomes would ensure accountability and the achievement of the intended objectives, and inform future funding decisions. </p>
<h2>4. Improvement process adopted by providers</h2>
<p>Lastly, a data strategy needs to clearly define a data quality improvement and monitoring process where the quality of the data is continuously monitored and assessed to ensure that data support patient care and research. Data quality <a href="https://www.healthit.gov/playbook/pddq-framework/data-quality/data-quality-planning/">is a shared responsibility</a>, so the quality assurance process needs to take place collectively across providers but also within each provider. </p>
<p>To define and implement the data strategy, meaningful engagement with all stakeholders is key. For example, patients and providers need to be involved to identify the data required to treat the diseases that claim the most of our health-care budget, define quality dimensions of the data, and specify roles and responsibilities of maintaining the quality of data.</p>
<p>In contrast to the Band-Aid approach adopted by the Ontario government, the four-pillar data strategy is long-term, focused and holistic. It would ensure that data quality is placed at the front and centre of Ontario’s effort in health digitization. Following the strategy, our health-care system would develop a sustainable mechanism and a scalable capability to continuously improve data quality. </p>
<p>Without such a data strategy, Ontarians will stand to lose another decade and billions more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linying Dong is affiliated with Ryerson University, and volunteers at the Board of Directors of Carefirst.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karim Keshavjee is the CEO and majority shareholder of InfoClin Inc, an organization that provides consulting on data extraction, data quality and data analytics. He has received funding from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Diabetes Action Canada, the University of Calgary, Ryerson University and McMaster University. </span></em></p>Digital health can improve care, but in Ontario, health data are still fragmented, despite billions of dollars spent over the last two decades to enable fast and secure exchange of health information.Linying Dong, Professor, Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityKarim Keshavjee, Assistant Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1503252020-11-18T19:04:57Z2020-11-18T19:04:57ZWhy Doug Ford is stumbling during COVID-19’s second wave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369913/original/file-20201117-15-n8dumz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C5526%2C3450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why has the Doug Ford government been so reluctant to take action amid the second wave of COVID-19?
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has come to be defined by two things: its hesitant responses to the emerging second wave of COVID-19 and its relentlessly pro-business approach to virtually all other matters. </p>
<p>The situation invites the question of whether the government’s stumbling reluctance to impose more restrictive measures to head off the growing numbers of COVID-19 infections, as recommended by <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/epidemiologists-call-ontario-s-new-covid-19-restrictions-gibberish-and-scientifically-illiterate-1.5177630">medical experts</a> from across the province, is a product of its pro-business orientation.</p>
<p>On the COVID-19 front, recent days have been defined by some deeply disturbing trends: record <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/data-and-analysis/infectious-disease/covid-19-data-surveillance/covid-19-data-tool">daily rates</a> of new infections; an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-rockcliffe-care-community-1.5802395">already fatal</a> reappearance of the virus in long-term care facilities; and projections of uncontrolled infection rates <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-coronavirus-modelling-1.5799394">exceeding 6,500</a> cases per day, which will overwhelm hospital and intensive care unit capacity. Although the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54949799">news of potentially effective vaccines</a> is encouraging, their widespread availability seems many months off.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Christine Elliott with Doug Ford in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369921/original/file-20201117-23-1ti434z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford watches as Health Minister Christine Elliott walks to the podium to answer questions at Queen’s Park on Nov. 16, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
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<p>The provincial government’s responses to the situation have been surprisingly feeble. The province was actually <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/11/03/ontario-unveils-new-covid-19-restriction-guidelines-as-cases-hit-a-record-1050.html">moving in the direction of easing</a> restrictions, particularly around public gathering spaces like restaurants, bars, gyms and places of worship, despite warnings that these could be key points of transmission.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/11/12/ontario-showed-local-medical-officers-of-health-its-new-colour-coded-covid-framework-then-it-changed-the-numbers.html">It was then revealed</a> that the province had ignored the advice of its own public health agency in terms of the infection rates needed to trigger further restrictions. The recommended thresholds for restrictions were reportedly increased by a factor of four relative to the advice received by the province from its own public health agency.</p>
<h2>Taking the fall?</h2>
<p>The imposition of further restrictions has been left in the hands of local <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/peel-public-health-orders-stricter-restrictions-as-region-moves-to-red-zone-1.5179683">medical officers of health</a> despite the limited legal authority available to them. The province, it seemed, was prepared to let them take the political fall for the imposition of potentially unpopular restrictions.</p>
<p>The catastrophic projections released on Nov. 13 brought a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/11/13/doug-fords-climbdown-on-ontarios-covid-19-framework-shows-how-grimly-unscientific-the-plan-was.html">partial turnaround</a> by the province in terms of the thresholds for additional restrictions. But the government’s approach is still falling well short of what health authorities and experts are saying is needed to prevent disaster.</p>
<p>As if to add insult to injury, Ontario is poised <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bill218-liability-ontario-long-term-care-1.5798256">to pass legislation</a> that would effectively grant long-term care home owners and operators immunity from liability for the more than 1,800 resident deaths that occurred in their facilities during the first COVID-19 wave.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-shouldnt-shield-essential-workers-from-covid-19-lawsuits-146514">Governments shouldn't shield essential workers from COVID-19 lawsuits</a>
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<p>There is strong evidence that a significant portion of those fatalities <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/canada-care-homes-military-report-coronavirus">were the result of neglect</a> and poor care, rather than COVID-19 itself.</p>
<p>The province has extensive authority over public health matters, as well as a range of other legal and policy tools at its disposal to combat the virus. And on the surface, the government has consistently <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/randall-denley-doug-ford-left-to-answer-for-horrific-nursing-homes-that-nobody-noticed-until-now">expressed concern and distress</a> over the impacts of COVID-19 on its victims. Yet it had to be pushed into partial action by the recent outcry from the media and health experts over its failing responses.</p>
<h2>Pro-business arguments</h2>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>The answer may lie with Ford’s stance on issues beyond the pandemic. The essential feature of the Ford government has been its striking responsiveness to any argument presented to it from pro-business advocates and framed in terms of economic development.</p>
<p>The government’s record on the environment in this context <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-and-improved-doug-ford-doesnt-extend-to-the-environment-128432">is well-known</a>: the shredding of Ontario’s climate change strategy; the elimination of the independent office of the environmental commissioner; the weakening or elimination of regulations on endangered species, forestry and toxic chemicals; and the evisceration of longstanding rules on industrial water pollution and <a href="https://ecojustice.ca/ontario-proposes-sweeping-changes-to-environmental-assessment/">environmental assessment</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-and-improved-doug-ford-doesnt-extend-to-the-environment-128432">'New and improved' Doug Ford doesn't extend to the environment</a>
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<p>Most striking of these tendencies has been the government’s willingness to acquiesce to the demands presented to it by the land development industry. <a href="https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2019/01/ontarios-growth-plan-changes-end-smart-growth">Planning rules</a> intended to curb urban sprawl in the Greater Toronto Area have been gutted. </p>
<p>The province has made unprecedented moves to reach deep into local municipal plans on behalf of development interests to eliminate constraints and permit ever greater development in areas like <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/planning-studies-initiatives/midtown-in-focus/">midtown Toronto</a> that are already subject to intensive development pressures.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/10/09/ontario-government-ramps-up-use-of-special-orders-to-rezone-land-without-appeals.html">Ministerial zoning orders</a> have been used with unprecedented frequency to override municipal and provincial rules on specific sites, most recently permitting a warehouse development in an environmentally significant wetland on <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7438427/zoning-order-wetlands-durham-region/">Pickering’s</a> Lake Ontario shoreline. </p>
<p>Provisions buried in the government’s November 2020 budget bill <a href="https://cela.ca/action-alert-ontarios-conservation-authorities-act-at-risk/">would undermine</a> the role of local conservation authorities in controlling development for lands that are at risk of flooding and other hazards — significant considerations in the age of climate change — as well as for wetlands and shorelines.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men fish from a boat as the sun rises." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369978/original/file-20201118-21-1ljhhml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Early morning fishermen take advantage of warm weather on Pigeon Lake near Bobcaygeon, Ont., on Nov. 7, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill</span></span>
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<h2>Sympathetic to business owners</h2>
<p>The same unapologetic <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-budget-doug-ford-covid-19-business-tax-cuts-1.5792489">pro-business orientation</a> seems to lie at the heart of the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.</p>
<p>The government has seemed <a href="https://twitter.com/cbctoronto/status/1327359591030644737?s=21">particularly sympathetic</a> to the pleas of small business owners, such as restaurants, bars and gyms, that would be affected by further shutdowns, despite the potentially significant roles these types of facilities could play in the spread of COVID-19. </p>
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<img alt="A woman wearing a mask sits at a bar while a bartender stands behind it. Both look at a TV set." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369979/original/file-20201118-15-lqjhdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A bartender and restaurant manager watch the news on television in the Port Credit neighbourhood of Mississauga, Ont., on Oct. 9, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<p>That’s profoundly short-sighted, laying the groundwork for disastrous runaway outbreaks like those occurring in the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-coronavirus-cases-1.5790582">United States</a>. Those types of outbreaks may only be able to be controlled, if at all, through the types of draconian and long-term lockdowns seen in places <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54654646">like Melbourne</a>, Australia. The impact would be far more damaging to businesses than additional short-term restrictions.</p>
<p>A more effective and balanced approach would recognize the need for far greater restrictions in the short term, while working with the federal government to provide support to affected employees and helping businesses move their operations to take-out, delivery, curbside pickup and online services wherever possible.</p>
<p>Events in the U.S. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-19-europe-lessons-canada-1.5784500">and Europe</a> are demonstrating just how bad a second COVID-19 wave could be. If the Ford government acts decisively, it may still be able to avoid the same fate, but time is running out quickly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>Is Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s mishandling of the second wave of COVID-19 a byproduct of his pro-business sympathies?Mark Winfield, Professor of Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442752020-08-25T15:55:59Z2020-08-25T15:55:59ZEmpathetic incompetence? Ontario’s Doug Ford government at 2 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354289/original/file-20200824-14-yoz52k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C91%2C3600%2C2565&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces the government's plan for reopening schools at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School in Whitby, Ont., on July 30, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Now into the third year of its mandate, the Ontario government under Premier Doug Ford is being assessed for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis. The impressions are mixed. </p>
<p>On a personal level, the premier’s responses to the pandemic have generally been regarded <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2020/04/22/doug-ford-has-found-his-voice-in-the-pandemic-why-has-andrea-horwath-lost-her-way.html">favourably</a>. He has at times conveyed deep personal empathy <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/randall-denley-doug-ford-left-to-answer-for-horrific-nursing-homes-that-nobody-noticed-until-now">for those affected</a> by COVID-19 and their families. </p>
<p>At the same time, the province has struggled to provide effective responses to the COVID-19 crisis, seemingly uncertain of what direction to take or of the scope of its own authority and capacity. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/parents-dont-expect-miracles-from-their-government-they-expect-effort">Controversies</a> over the government’s plans to reopen elementary schools without reducing class sizes are the latest in series of stumbles in managing the crisis.</p>
<h2>‘Have fun’</h2>
<p>The Ontario government was initially slow to recognize the scope of the pandemic and the risks it posed. COVID-19’s global spread was apparent by early March, yet the premier <a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/6668414/coronavirus-outbreak-doug-ford-tells-families-to-have-fun-and-travel-during-march-break">confidently advised</a> Ontarians to “go away” and “have fun” over the March break holiday. </p>
<p>By the time a provincial lockdown was imposed on March 18, most of those travellers were already back in Ontario. Some brought the virus with them, where it began to spread into the community, most critically to long-term care facilities. </p>
<p>The disaster that ensued in long-term care centres has been <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/2020/06/covid-19-epi-ltch-residents.pdf?la=en">well-documented</a>. More than <a href="https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/33/E946">1,450</a> long-term care residents have died of COVID-19. More may have perished due to neglect as portions of the care system, particularly in for-profit facilities, <a href="https://www.folio.ca/how-covid-19-overwhelmed-canadas-long-term-care-system/">effectively collapsed</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-exposes-the-perils-of-profit-in-seniors-housing-141915">The coronavirus exposes the perils of profit in seniors' housing</a>
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<p>The province was again slow to respond, <a href="https://reltc.apps01.yorku.ca/">despite well-known risks</a> in the sector, especially its increasing reliance on part-time itinerant staff, and more general concerns over the quality and level of care being provided in long-term care facilities. Many of these issues had been highlighted less than a year earlier in the July 2019 <a href="https://longtermcareinquiry.ca/en/">report of the inquiry</a> into the murders of nursing home residents by nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in glasses and handcuffs is led to a police cruiser." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354291/original/file-20200824-20-u8ab8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Elizabeth Wettlaufer is escorted by police from the courthouse in Woodstock, Ont., in June 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley</span></span>
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<p>The province’s promise of an “<a href="https://www.insauga.com/ontario-increasing-protection-for-long-term-care-residents">iron ring of protection</a>” for care facility residents failed. The government then studiously avoided a formal judicial inquiry into the COVID-19 care home disaster, opting for a <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/23/heres-why-a-commission-into-ontarios-long-term-care-system-isnt-good-enough.html">less formal commission</a>, which will lack public testimony, under oath, by key officials in system.</p>
<h2>Seasonal workers</h2>
<p>Early warning bells <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/covid-19-southwestern-ontario-outbreak-puts-migrant-farm-workers-in-spotlight">were also sounded</a> around the potential risks to large numbers of temporary foreign farm workers employed in Ontario. Crowded, unsanitary living conditions, as well as the vulnerability to deportation for workers who lack permanent resident status if fired by their employers, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/20/canada-migrant-farm-workers-coronavirus">were again well-known</a> long before the arrival of COVID-19. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-workers-face-further-social-isolation-and-mental-health-challenges-during-coronavirus-pandemic-134324">Migrant workers face further social isolation and mental health challenges during coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>Yet the province failed to take proactive action, despite having substantial legal authority to set and enforce standards and practices for farm operators under <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/pistes/3844?lang=en">occupational health and safety</a>, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h07">public health</a> and <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/covid-19-really-has-changed-everything-an-ontario-premier-just-laid-into-farmers">agricultural</a> legislation. </p>
<p>Those responsibilities were left to the ad hoc efforts of local health units, most notably in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7162580/windsor-essex-asks-ontario-federal-government-help-covid19-farm-outbreaks/">Windsor-Essex</a>. The result was more than <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/advocates-demand-ontario-shut-down-farms-as-covid-19-cases-soar-among-workers-1.5004897">1,000 cases</a> of COVID-19 among temporary farm workers and at least three deaths.</p>
<h2>School reopenings</h2>
<p>The government’s latest missteps have been around the reopening of schools in September. <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/a-bargain-basement-scheme-ontarios-back-to-school-plan-under-scrutiny">Major concerns</a> are being raised by health experts, school boards, teachers and parents about the government’s approach to opening elementary schools.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-outbreaks-are-inevitable-as-ontario-plans-to-reopen-schools-142975">Coronavirus outbreaks are inevitable as Ontario plans to reopen schools</a>
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<p>The government <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/guide-reopening-ontarios-schools">seems to be proceeding</a> on a largely business-as-usual model with normal, pre-pandemic class sizes. Personal protective equipment will be provided for teachers, and masks are required for students in grades 4 to 8, and are recommended for younger children. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81407-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School-Reopening-SickKids.pdf">health experts</a> and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7257001/toronto-public-health-criticizes-tdsb-school-reopening/">public health authorities</a> have highlighted the need to reduce class sizes to control COVID-19 in schools. With smaller classes, any outbreak would be limited to a smaller group. Teachers are also far more likely to be able to manage the behaviour of their students in smaller classes. </p>
<p>The Ford government, overall, has presented an image of deep concern and empathy for the victims of the pandemic. But it’s flailing when it comes to delivering the kinds of concrete, proactive measures that COVID-19 requires. The premier’s own management style remains more like that of a city councillor — someone who is genuinely trying to help his constituents, but suggests he’s up against forces beyond his control. </p>
<h2>‘Final sign-off’</h2>
<p>This is an odd stance for a premier who once declared that he had “<a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2018/12/04/ford-recuse-appoint-friend-opp-commissioner/">final sign-off on everything in this province</a>.” At times the government has seemed unable to grasp the scope of the many tools at its disposal to deal with the pandemic.</p>
<p>The province is spending nearly <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-hydro-rates-spending-1.5446353">$6 billion annually</a> to keep hydro rates artificially low. In that context, it should be able to find the means to implement a safer and more effective plan for reopening public schools, where there are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-canada-schools-covid19-asymptomatic-1.5687487">significant risks</a> of triggering a second wave of COVID-19.</p>
<p>Despite its challenges in dealing with COVID-19, the province has been quietly efficient in the ongoing pursuit <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/19/ontario-planning-on-a-freer-hand-for-business.html">of its pro-business</a> agenda. In fact, in many ways, that agenda has accelerated under the cover of the pandemic. </p>
<p>The land development industry continues to be a favourite of the government. <a href="https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-1680">Proposed revisions</a> to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe region released in June would compel municipalities to make land available to developers to accommodate doubtful projections of population growth <a href="https://sei.info.yorku.ca/files/2020/07/Growth-plan-land-assessment-July-2020-mark-winfield-1.pdf?x46177">to 2051</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Two men wearing masks wave at one another on a street in a town." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354636/original/file-20200825-21-15r13cy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Migrant workers in Leamington, Ont., wave hello at one another. The Ford government has failed to ensure temporary foreign farm workers were safe from COVID-19 duing the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The same proposed amendments would permit aggregate extraction operations (for example, gravel pits and quarries) <a href="https://www.osler.com/en/resources/regulations/2020/province-releases-proposed-growth-plan-amendments">in the habitat</a> of endangered and threatened species. The province’s environmental assessment process, in place since the mid-1970s, was <a href="https://cela.ca/ea-is-not-red-tape-the-case-against-ontario-bill-197/">largely dismantled</a> through the government’s omnibus “<a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-197">Economic Recovery Act</a>” pushed through the legislature in July. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-erosion-of-ontarios-endangered-species-act-threatens-iconic-algonquin-wolf-142805">The erosion of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act threatens iconic Algonquin wolf</a>
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<p>Where the government’s combination of empathy, administrative ineptitude and responsiveness to whatever developers and other industries seem to ask of it will lead is unknown. But that doesn’t serve the interests of Ontario residents very well. Nor does it provide a very strong basis on which to head into an election less than two years away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada </span></em></p>Ontario Premier Doug Ford has presented an image of deep concern and empathy for the victims of COVID-19. But he’s flailing when it comes to delivering proactive measures to fight the pandemic.Mark Winfield, Professor of Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1280312019-12-04T20:04:50Z2019-12-04T20:04:50ZBullying won’t be curbed until we figure out what fuels it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304813/original/file-20191202-66982-1ukx6e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C0%2C6579%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A sign and stuffed animal lay at the entrance to Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School ahead of a vigil for murdered 14-year-old Devan Bracci-Selvey, at his high school in Hamilton, Ont., in October 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Cole Burston</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In October 2019, a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old were charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/bracci-selvey-stabbing-court-accused-1.5328849">Devan Bracci-Selvey</a>, who died in his mother’s arms outside his southern Ontario high school. In response, provincial Education Minister Stephen Lecce <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2019/11/ontario-takes-new-actions-to-combat-bullying-in-schools.html">announced “new actions”</a> to tackle bullying, notably without any new funding. </p>
<p>These strategies include consulting with students, parents, teachers and others to advise the ministry on bullying prevention, overseen by Christina Mitas, a member of provincial parliament and former schoolteacher. The province says it will also survey students about their experiences with bullying, train educators on “de-escalation techniques” and assess incident reporting procedures. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304812/original/file-20191202-66982-1ixl4j0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protesting teachers gather around Lecce’s car as he is driven from a Toronto school after making the anti-bullying announcement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The school where Lecce made the announcement became a <a href="https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ontario-introduces-measures-to-target-bullying-in-schools">site of protest</a>. </p>
<p>It was the second day of action by teachers against Premier Doug Ford’s <a href="https://www.chatelaine.com/news/doug-ford-education-changes-ontario-cuts/">budget cuts to education</a> that will result in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-class-size-change-could-lead-to-layoffs-1.5060829">larger class sizes and fewer teachers</a>. When teachers might have time to undergo training to de-escalate bullying incidents is an open question. </p>
<h2>Political platitudes</h2>
<p>Lecce’s strategies seem appropriate and effective. The minister offered words that sounded responsive and reassuring, saying: “We are taking action to root out bullying.” </p>
<p>Mitas described making schools “safe and inclusive places” an “obligation.”</p>
<p>I have been examining policies and responses to bullying since I began my doctoral studies in 2001. At that time, and still, hopeful phrases such as “root out bullying” and providing “safe and inclusive spaces” were predictable buzzwords that highlighted the <a href="https://www.managementstudyguide.com/how-perception-management-and-optics-are-new-normal-in-life-and-business.htm">need to manage political optics</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is not plausible to “root out bullying.” <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/735397">According to a study</a> of 7,000 students across 195 schools, students who attended schools with anti-bullying programs actually experienced higher rates of bullying than those in schools without. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304814/original/file-20191202-66986-g5swx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lecce is seen during an October 2019 news conference at the Ontario legislature.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span>
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<p>It’s common knowledge that bullying is about power, mostly exercised through physical size and other differences. Perhaps those who bully understand the benefits of the power they wield, explaining why they would resist giving them up. Bullying persists for good reason. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/brick-brick/201405/knowing-why-bullies-bully-is-key-stopping-the-trend">social status rewards</a> perspective — meaning there might be significant social and personal benefits to bullying — might also help to explain why bullying behaviours are so tenacious in schools and elsewhere. </p>
<p>Research in neuroscience should also be considered. <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/brain-scans-reveal-that-teen-bullies-get-pleasure-from-5079234">Brain scan analyses</a> indicate that the pleasure centres in the brains of those who bully are stimulated through the exercise of power. <a href="http://www.ednewsdaily.com/the-science-of-bullying/">Other evidence suggests</a> that the areas of the brain that control self-regulation are inhibited. </p>
<h2>A toxic mix of motivations</h2>
<p>The result, then, is a toxic mix of pleasure, impulsivity and cunning. Bullying behaviours seem stoked by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1348/026151099165384">Machiavellian motivations</a>. As <a href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/lev-novak/2014/03/bullying-is-cool-thats-the-point/">blogger Lev Novak</a> writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“That’s the whole point of bullying; to show that you are cooler than someone, to assert some form of dominance. … let me tell you; bullying is fun. You are cool and the other kid is not. What a rush, what validation!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children and youth can plainly see that adults who bully others largely get away with it and are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/opinion/why-reward-bullies.html">rewarded for it</a>. <a href="https://www.kidsinthehouse.com/blogs/jenmfrasershawca/rewarding-adults-who-bully">Sports coaches</a> like <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2019/11/29/bill-peters-fired-calgary-flames-coach-akim-aliu-racial-slur/4309546002/">the disgraced Bill Peters</a> of the Calgary Flames are a case in point, even if they are fired or their contracts are not renewed.</p>
<p>Business and political leaders are also rewarded and admired for behaving like bullies through tyranny, force and humiliation. In <em>The Allure of Toxic Leaders</em>, organizational behaviour expert <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX2s3uXNnCk">Jean Lipman-Blumen</a> argues that such leaders attract others through their charisma and narcissism. According to her, media glorify such leaders and are “charmed” by them. </p>
<p>A related factor is that people who bully are validated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_3wWTvWF0">by bystanders</a>, also known as an audience. The ongoing emphasis to encourage <a href="https://www.stopbullying.gov/research-resources/bystanders-are-essential/index.html">bystanders to intervene</a> overlooks the fact that <a href="https://www.verywellfamily.com/recognizing-connection-narcissism-bullying-460525">narcissism depends on an audience</a>. </p>
<h2>New perspectives</h2>
<p>There is no “holy grail” to eliminate bullying. The supposed “new actions” are nothing new. However, there may be one hopeful note in Lecce’s announcement. </p>
<p>A fifth strategy will be a review the “definition of bullying in ministry policies to ensure it reflects the realities of today.” The <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/extra/eng/ppm/144.pdf">definition that the Ministry of Education offers</a> is one in which power imbalances can be channelled through the marginalization of various forms of perceived or real social differences, including religion, race, sexual orientation and gender identity. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quebecs-bill-21-may-embolden-religious-bullying-in-schools-120934">Québec's Bill 21 may embolden religious bullying in schools</a>
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<p>As I have <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Bullying-and-the-philosophy-of-shooting-freaks-Walton/369d4a2ebdd007a76b22c47ed1517b4751d8ef13">long argued</a>, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201301/are-you-easy-target-bullies">social differences are implicated</a> in power and dominance. </p>
<p>However, the “realities of today” should not be limited to social differences or to <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/family/what-you-need-to-know-about-cyberbullying-1.717929">cyberbullying as a scourge</a> in the Wild West of the internet. A truly new approach would also investigate the factors that make bullying attractive, rewarding and legitimized in the first place, both in schools and beyond.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cyberbullying-help-children-build-empathy-and-resilience-as-their-identity-develops-125211">Cyberbullying: Help children build empathy and resilience as their identity develops</a>
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<p>Such an approach would turn over new and largely overlooked stones instead of the same hackneyed, simplistic and politically expedient ones that have been around for decades. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the last thing that teachers, parents, and students need is to be subjected to yet more consultations and surveys. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald Walton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A truly new approach to combating bullying would investigate the factors that make bullying attractive, rewarding and legitimized in the first place, both in schools and beyond.Gerald Walton, Professor in Education of Gender, Sexuality and Identity, Lakehead UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215472019-08-12T22:22:25Z2019-08-12T22:22:25ZDoug Ford: Continuing to turn his back on ‘the people’ despite new faces<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287522/original/file-20190809-144855-j1qix2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3600%2C2398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford faces the Toronto skyline as he attends a recent event. Ford's campaign slogan was 'for the people,' but his first year in office suggests he's not paying attention to their anger about his government's cuts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The famous physicist Sir Issac Newton’s <a href="https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/Lesson-1/Newton-s-First-Law">first law of motion</a> states that objects in motion will continue in motion at the same speed and direction, unless some external force is applied to change their trajectory. The same principle is often true of government policies as well. These continue in the direction in which they were initially set, until there is a specific intervention to change them. </p>
<p>There are few places in recent memory where this principle is truer than Ontario under Doug Ford, whose campaign slogan was “For the People.”</p>
<p>Despite the chaos of the past few months, featuring a major <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-cabinet-shuffle-live-polling-1.5182720">cabinet shuffle</a> that included the dumping of Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, the demise of the premier’s controversial chief of staff <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/dean-french-resigns-1.5186053">Dean French</a> and statements that Ford’s administration is now <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5320417/premier-ford-municipal-cuts-queens-park/">“a government that listens</a>,” remarkably little has actually changed.</p>
<p>Several high-profile <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/06/25/dean-french-relative-quits-provincial-appointment.html">political appointments</a> attributed to French have been scrapped and others are now under review. The question of how these appointments, which by statute were subject to cabinet approval, occurred in the first place remains unanswered.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287527/original/file-20190809-144888-hvy3dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ford, centre, is flanked by Fedeli, right, and French in May 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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<p>The government also backed down on current in-year <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5320417/premier-ford-municipal-cuts-queens-park/">funding cuts</a> to municipalities, particularly for public health services, in the face of an outcry from local governments, health professionals and others. A reversal on the funding of services for children with autism seems to be underway as well, along with <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-says-out-of-country-dialysis-treatment-will-still-be-covered-by-ohip-1.4541751">a retreat</a> on cancelling OHIP funding for out-of-country dialysis treatments. </p>
<p>Beyond these specific steps however, the provisions of the province’s <a href="http://budget.ontario.ca/2019/contents.html">April 2019 budget</a>, sweeping omnibus bills pushed through the legislature and a wide array of administrative decisions remain very much intact and in motion.</p>
<h2>Major reductions remain in place</h2>
<p>The major reductions in provincial funding in health, education and social services, along with everything from tree-planting to small business start-up and training support, set in motion via Fedeli’s budget remain in place. </p>
<p>Even deeper cuts are scheduled for future years — a point highlighted again by recent protests over the government’s 30 per cent cut to the province’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/legal-aid-clinic-cuts-protests-1.5230291">legal aid</a> system. </p>
<p>The changes in <a href="https://environmentaldefence.ca/2019/05/31/analysis-shows-that-ontarios-bill-108-gives-the-development-industry-most-of-what-it-asked-for/">Bill 108</a> to the province’s planning legislation favouring developers remain very much on the books, as do more specific developer-friendly changes made to the province’s planning policies. </p>
<p>These moves have included unprecedented interventions in neighbourhood-specific plans, like the city of Toronto’s <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/planning-studies-initiatives/midtown-in-focus/">Midtown in Focus</a> and <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/planning-studies-initiatives/tocore-planning-torontos-downtown/">TO Core</a> initiatives, to systemically <a href="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/412612039/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-14x2zy69z8ecwa0wzhbu&show_recommendations=true">eliminate height limits</a> on new developments and remove references to the nature of public spaces in these areas.</p>
<p>The dismantling of programs ranging from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ford-government-cancels-energy-electricity-efficient-programs-centralizing-1.5069318">energy efficiency</a> to the prevention of <a href="https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=28207">toxic pollution</a> also continues apace.</p>
<p>The radical changes made to provincial and municipal institutions similarly persist. The Ontario Child Advocate and the Office of the Environmental Commissioner <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/province-cuts-three-offices-created-to-act-as-watchdogs-for-the-environment-youth-and-francophone-services">have been eliminated as independent entities</a>. Toronto City Council stands at half of its pre-election size and the province’s moves to take control of the city’s subway system continue to advance. </p>
<h2>No news on climate plan progress</h2>
<p>Amid all of this, there has been one notable exception to the province’s policy inertia. Last December, the Ford government introduced a high-profile “made in Ontario” environment and <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/made-in-ontario-environment-plan">climate plan</a>. </p>
<p>But since then, there’s been little information about the plan’s climate change provisions, including a carbon trust fund and some form of carbon pricing for industry. This even as parts of the Muskoka River watershed and the Ottawa River valley disappeared under unprecedented spring floods and storms, and the premier <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ford-links-floods-to-climate-change-says-situation-just-rips-your-heart-out-1.4396432">himself acknowledged</a> that climate change partly caused the disasters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287528/original/file-20190809-144892-1bbpypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ford surveys flooded areas in Ottawa in April 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
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<p>Instead, despite a widely expected defeat of its challenge to the federal government’s backstop carbon pricing system in the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-court-appeal-carbon-tax-ruling-1.5192914">Ontario Court of Appeal </a> in June, the government stated its intention to take its quixotic fight to the Supreme Court of Canada. </p>
<p>The implementation of the federal carbon pricing and rebate system in Ontario was triggered by the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-officially-ends-cap-and-trade-1.4885872">province’s termination</a> of its cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions almost immediately following the June 7, 2018 election. The legal challenges were accompanied by a widely ridiculed requirement that gas stations <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/anti-carbon-tax-gas-pump-stickers-ontario-1.5170622">attach stickers</a> to their pumps, blaming the federal carbon pricing system for higher gas prices. </p>
<p>All of this begs questions about how much the government has actually “listened” and reconsidered its directions. Its internal interpretation of the dramatic decline of its <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/poll-suggests-support-for-pcs-has-collapsed-ford-now-less-popular-than-wynne-1.4435061">public approval</a> ratings following the tabling of its first budget was that it was facing a “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-premier-cabinet-shuffle-analysis-1.5184337">communications</a>” problem, as opposed to the public objecting to the actual contents of the budget. </p>
<p>Senior ministers were shuffled out of their portfolios on the basis that they had been poor communicators of the government’s message, rather than an acknowledgement that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the message that was being delivered to “the people” Ford claims to champion.</p>
<h2>Improving communications</h2>
<p>The implication is that the government can stay on the same track in terms of the substantive content of its policies. It just needs to improve its communications strategy. </p>
<p>The problem with this approach is that public’s objections to the government seem far more rooted in the increasingly apparent impacts of its actions on health care, education, land-use planning, social services and other areas affecting the everyday lives of Ontario residents than failures to communicate effectively. </p>
<p>These impacts have become all too real as, for example, as teachers <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/teacher-cuts-1.5118053">get laid off across the province.</a> Individuals with complex out-of-hospital health-care needs have seen their arrangements thrown into turmoil with the dismantling of the <a href="https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/category/key-issues/local-health-integration-networks/">Local Health Integration Networks</a>. </p>
<p>If the government continues on the fiscal and legislative trajectory set in motion over its chaotic first year, those impacts can only become more severe and widespread. </p>
<p>A failure to change direction more substantively than the marginal shifts seen so far could be a fatal and unrecoverable error on the government’s part. </p>
<p>Unless the Ford government can demonstrate that it can truly listen to the people, adjust its trajectory, consider real evidence regarding the consequences of its choices and demonstrate some administrative competence, Ford Nation’s rule will be a one-term phenomenon deflected, like Newton’s law, by the external force of an angry electorate. </p>
<p>The only remaining question will be how much damage will be done to the infrastructure and services on which the province’s residents depend in the meantime. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Winfield receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Resources and Engineering Research Council and the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation </span></em></p>Despite the Doug Ford government’s claim that it’s now listening to ‘the people,’ there’s little evidence anything has changed.Mark Winfield, Professor of Environmental Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1170842019-05-27T20:52:30Z2019-05-27T20:52:30ZOntario government seeking to insulate itself from lawsuits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276244/original/file-20190523-187176-lqh8wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=387%2C423%2C3367%2C2156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">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.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ye Jinghan/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Buried within the Ontario government’s <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-100">April budget</a> is a new <em>Crown Liability and Proceedings Act</em> that threatens to severely restrict our ability to sue the provincial government. </p>
<p>It will roll back Crown liability by more than 70 years. </p>
<p>Not only that, but changes will be applied retroactively as to extinguish existing lawsuits, like a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/class-action-certification-youth-solitary-confinement-ontario-government-1.4976256">class action by juvenile inmates who were placed in solitary confinement</a>. In some cases, plaintiffs and their lawyers will have already invested years in litigation.</p>
<h2>Historical context</h2>
<p>The historical common law rule that “the King can do no wrong” meant that the government was immune from civil liability. Beginning with Great Britain’s <em><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/44/contents">Crown Proceedings Act</a></em> in 1947, various Commonwealth jurisdictions introduced legislation that permitted governments to be sued in the same way as private citizens. The government was no longer “above the law.”</p>
<p>The growth of the administrative state in the second half of the 20th century meant that government activity could harm citizens in new ways. And with their deep pockets, governments became an increasingly attractive target of lawsuits. In Ontario, this included <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2009/2009onca378/2009onca378.html?autocompleteStr=williams%20v%20canada&autocompletePos=2">class action suits for their mishandling of the SARS crisis</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2008/2008onca446/2008onca446.html?resultIndex=1">claims against licensing officials</a> and <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2009/2009onca594/2009onca594.html?autocompleteStr=heasli&autocompletePos=3">ambulance authorities</a>.</p>
<p>But not every government act could be subject to a lawsuit. Over time, the courts have extended immunity to government officials for lawsuits based on their <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1970/1970canlii1/1970canlii1.html?autocompleteStr=welbridge&autocompletePos=1">legislative actions</a>, <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/1997/1997canlii2339/1997canlii2339.html?autocompleteStr=al%27s%20ste&autocompletePos=1">quasi-judicial decisions</a> and <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/7957/index.do?q=r+v+imperial+tobacco">matters of policy</a>. This immunity reflects the separation of powers between courts, the legislature and the executive, and prevents the courts from second-guessing the decisions of elected officials.</p>
<p>The Ontario government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/proceedings-against-the-crown-act-repeal-replace-pcs-1.5097205">has claimed</a> that its new legislation merely codifies these common law rules. In fact, it goes much further to restrict Crown liability, and will also impose substantial procedural hurdles for potential plaintiffs.</p>
<h2>Proposed restrictions</h2>
<p>The proposed new act restricts Crown liability in three main ways.</p>
<p>First, it prohibits lawsuits based on government policy decisions. Although this is based on an <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/7957/index.do?q=r+v+imperial+tobacco">existing common law principle</a>, the new act extends policy immunity by defining “policy” in a very broad way. </p>
<p>For example, it includes not just the creation or funding of government programs, but also the way that those programs are carried out. Under the common law, the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/550/index.do">implementation of programs</a> is subject to potential tort liability. In other words, once the government decides to do something, it must use reasonable care not to harm people in the process.</p>
<p>The proposed act therefore extends well beyond the common law.</p>
<p>Second, the act prohibits lawsuits based on “regulatory” acts or omissions that are made in good faith. This means that, no matter how incompetent government officials are, they cannot be sued. For example, if an official negligently inspected a licensed establishment, resulting in licence restrictions that caused a loss of revenue, the establishment would have no civil recourse. </p>
<p>Such regulatory actions can only be the subject of lawsuits if the government official acted in bad faith. </p>
<p>But in lawsuits involving bad faith, plaintiffs must now get permission from a court before they can sue, and show that their claim has a reasonable possibility of success. During this process, the Crown can examine the plaintiff, but need not produce any documents or witnesses itself. </p>
<p>This puts plaintiffs in a tough position. Bad faith is essentially a state of mind, so it’s typically difficult to prove without at least some evidence from the defendant. For instance, it may require disclosure of internal communications showing that an official was acting for an improper purpose or with bias against the plaintiff. </p>
<p>Without disclosure of these documents or the ability to question government officers, plaintiffs will only be able to speculate that bad faith was involved. This may not be sufficient to get a court’s permission to proceed.</p>
<h2>Avoiding scrutiny</h2>
<p>Although it’s not uncommon for governments to include legislative reforms within budget bills, it leaves the impression that the government is trying to hide the change from the scrutiny it might otherwise attract. </p>
<p>The Ontario Attorney General’s office described the legislation as “housekeeping,” but comments by Premier Doug Ford suggest that it was at least partly motivated by a desire to eliminate what he described as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-lawyers-sound-alarm-over-new-law-that-could-limit-lawsuits-against/">“nonsense” lawsuits</a>. </p>
<p>Lawsuits are an important measure by which citizens can hold the government accountable for its negligence or abuse of power. They can be used to bring systemic injustice to the public eye, or just to make sure that public decision-makers act fairly.</p>
<p>For instance, one federal inmate <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2008/2008fc1158/2008fc1158.html?resultIndex=1">successfully sued</a> for abuse of office because prison authorities refused to provide him with shoes that fit his extra wide feet. He only obtained $6,000, but the lawsuit was necessary to make authorities comply. </p>
<p>A government whose election promises include to <a href="https://www.ontariopc.ca/plan_for_the_people">“restore accountability and trust”</a> should not be seeking to avoid liability when its officers cause harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erika Chamberlain has received funding from SSHRC to support research into government liability for abuse of office. </span></em></p>Proposed new legislation in Ontario will make it much harder to sue the provincial government for its negligence or bad faith.Erika Chamberlain, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1089532018-12-18T22:00:13Z2018-12-18T22:00:13ZThe Ontario government’s plan to loosen child-care rules is dangerous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251324/original/file-20181218-27758-1n49gz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Ontario government tabled legislation Dec.6 which would increase the number of young children who can be cared for at once by home child care providers. The proposed legislation is as part of larger reform measures introduced under the Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act that the province says will cut red tape for businesses. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Ontario government’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-childcare-business-bill-1.4934815">proposed changes to home child-care legislation</a> would loosen the number and ages of children that providers can care for at any one time. This is dangerous and troubling.</p>
<p>These changes would impact the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society. The new proposed rules were recently introduced when Todd Smith, the province’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade, tabled <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-66">Bill 66</a>, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act. </p>
<p>The <em>Toronto Star</em> reported that in a note to care operators, Education Minister Lisa Thompson described the proposed changes as being part of a mandate to “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2018/12/06/ontario-government-loosens-child-care-rules-raising-safety-concerns.html">make life easier for all families</a>” across Ontario. </p>
<p>The view that child-care regulations are unnecessary restrictions, however, is wrongheaded. The primary purpose of regulations is to protect children. There is no way that care provided under the proposed circumstances will provide children with the safe, responsive and enriching care they deserve.</p>
<p>Instead of the proposed reforms, we suggest a different model: Replace the existing system with one where where every home that regularly cares for unrelated children for a fee must be licensed. </p>
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<h2>Will children really be safe?</h2>
<p>Right now in Ontario, home child care (HCC) is either delivered by providers associated with a licensed agency or by unlicensed individual providers who can legally operate as long as they adhere to number and age restrictions in the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/S14011">Child Care Modernization Act, 2014</a>. The proposed legislative change would apply to both the licensed and unlicensed settings.</p>
<p>Licensed home child care is heavily regulated, but our research shows licensed agencies run only a small proportion of total home child care. </p>
<p>Under the proposed changes, care providers would be allowed to care for three children instead of two children under age two, and up to six children under the age of 13 (or up to five children in the case of unlicensed providers). </p>
<p>Rules around the age of a care provider’s own children would also change: right now, the provider’s children are not counted towards the maximum number of children allowed in the home if they are aged six or older. </p>
<p>But under proposed changes, any children of providers aged <em>four</em> and older would not be included in the count of total children in care. The new legislation also allows two caregivers to work together to care for double the number of children. </p>
<p>The resulting prospective care scenarios have left many advocates stunned.</p>
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<h2>Why regulations are needed</h2>
<p>The purpose of child-care regulations in Ontario and elsewhere is to ensure that children are cared for in safe and healthy environments that promote their well-being and development. More regulation and support for providers is necessary to achieve this, not less.</p>
<p>As recent research documents, unlike licensed home child care, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13669877.2017.1422786">unlicensed providers aren’t required to pass fire inspections or health inspections</a>. Unlicensed providers are not monitored or supported. Under the current act, regulations are enforced only as a result of specific complaints. And as recent history proves, the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/daycare-death-1.4056033">results can be tragic</a>. </p>
<p>While the previous Liberal government was reviewing child rules leading up to the passage of the Child Care Modernization Act, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/02/26/baby_found_dead_in_unlicensed_daycare.html">four infants and toddlers died in unlicensed child care in the Greater Toronto Area over a seven-month period</a>.</p>
<h2>Non-standard work, non-standard care</h2>
<p>To try to understand this sector better, we used parent surveys from the General Social Survey of Canada (2011). We found that <a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/atkinson/UserFiles/File/Events/20170602_Summer_Institute_2017/SI_2017_Presentations/Understanding_usage_patterns_and_oversight_of_unlicenced_family_child_care_in_Canada.pdf">only about 12 per cent of children who attend home child care are with licensed care providers</a>.</p>
<p>We also found that parents using unlicensed home child care tend to be lower-income, less-educated and have non-standard work schedules. At least one parent, if not both, work evenings and/or weekends, making finding regulated care difficult. </p>
<p>Thus children from less enriched backgrounds who could benefit the most from high-quality care are most likely to find themselves in unlicensed HCC.</p>
<p>When we analyzed data from the General Social Survey and the Ontario government, we found many more parents report that their children are in licensed home child care than is possible given data on the number of licensed spaces. </p>
<p>This finding is consistent with showing that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476718X12466214">parents have important gaps in their knowledge of their child’s early childhood education and care services</a>. </p>
<p>Parents’ lack of knowledge is not surprising given the complexity of the child-care landscape and the fact that parents are already tasked with the challenge of finding care when it is often scarce. </p>
<p>Thus, the burden of quality assurance belongs with government, not parents. Appropriate regulations and their enforcement are necessary. </p>
<h2>License everyone, strengthen services</h2>
<p>A system that establishes standards and supports that allow all home child-care providers to be licensed individually would serve Ontario’s children and families far better than what we now have and what the government proposes.</p>
<p>Such a system would take into account the circumstances under which the care is being delivered: For example, circumstances of providing care in rural or northern regions are very different from circumstances in the large urban areas.</p>
<p>We propose that to be eligible for a licence, the home must: have appropriate, up-to-date First Aid training; provide a developmentally appropriate child-care setting including regular access to an outdoor play area; undergo annual health and safety checks conducted by Public Health and Fire Prevention officials; and undergo annual in-home quality assessment conducted by independent, trained observers.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10409289.2017.1324243">licensing of individual homes alone is not enough</a>. </p>
<p>We propose that, whenever practical, all home child-care providers must participate in regular visits to community-based <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/plan_report.html">early years sites</a> (hubs) dedicated to supporting HCC providers. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10409289.2016.1256720">Support would be given through</a>: professional development; registry and referral services; equipment loans; back-up service arrangements; administrative support including, potentially, fee collection. Scheduled and unscheduled home visits would also be required. </p>
<p>We estimate that, depending on the actual program configuration, the per child cost of our entire proposal would be between 30 and 40 per cent of the cost under the current licensed HCC agency system. </p>
<p>Given how little is known about home child care, licensed and unlicensed, as it’s delivered in Ontario, it is time to find out the facts, learn from them and use them to guide future decisions. </p>
<p>It is not the time to relax the very limited regulations that are in place to protect our youngest citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Petr Varmuza provided consulting services for the Atkinson Foundation, City of Toronto, Child Care Human Resources Sector Council and Toronto Educational Workers . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda A. White has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund, and the McCain Foundation in the past five years.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michal Perlman receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The City of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund and the Lawson, McCain and Bernard van Leer Foundations in the last five years.</span></em></p>Low-income, less-educated parents with non-standard work schedules rely most on home child-care providers whose rules would be relaxed under proposed legislation.Petr Varmuza, PhD Candidate, University of TorontoLinda A. White, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of TorontoMichal Perlman, Associate Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1056032018-11-06T23:09:25Z2018-11-06T23:09:25ZOntario’s ‘Open for Business’ law will erode workplace rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243483/original/file-20181101-83632-xifvk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Doug Ford on the campaign trail in May 2018, promising to "open" Ontario for business. His Bill 47 does nothing of the sort.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ontario’s Conservative government recently tabled the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-open-for-business-bill-148-repeal-1.4874351"><em>Open for Business Act</em> (Bill 47)</a>. Bill 47 proposes to repeal the changes to Ontario’s workplace laws introduced by the previous Liberal government under Bill 148.</p>
<p>The purpose of Bill 148 was to increase fairness for workers, particularly those precariously employed, while balancing the interests of employers.</p>
<p>It was three years in the making and informed by a panel of two workplace law experts, which twice toured the province to hear from hundreds of witnesses before tabling its 419-page <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/changing-workplaces-review-final-report">final report.</a> By contrast, Premier Doug Ford’s government claims to have spoken with “dozens” of employers and unions prior to introducing Bill 47. </p>
<p>The purpose of Bill 47 is to <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2018/10/open-for-business-removing-burdens-while-protecting-workers.html">“bring jobs and investment back to our province” and to increase “opportunities” for workers.</a> One needs to look harder for any mention of fairness for workers or the creation of decent jobs, although the government claims to wish to “protect” workers. At the end of the day, however, Bill 47 will do none of the above.</p>
<h2>The economic sky isn’t falling</h2>
<p>By far, the most controversial aspect of Bill 148 was the increase in the minimum wage, from $11.60 to $14 in January 2018, with another scheduled increase to $15 set for January 2019. Bill 47 freezes the rate at $14, with an “annual inflation adjustment” as of October 2020.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/democracy-freedom-and-cheap-stuff-can-we-pay-more-for-our-coffee-90621">Democracy, freedom and cheap stuff: Can we pay more for our coffee?</a>
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<p>Notably, the Ontario Conservatives have opposed every raise in the minimum wage since at least 1995, <a href="https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/mwap/section_02.php">when they froze wages for eight years</a>. They opposed this one as well, predicting rampant job loss. They were wrong. </p>
<p>In July, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/jobs/article-ontario-unemployment-rate-hits-18-year-low-six-months-after-minimum/">Ontario’s unemployment rate hit an 18-year low</a>, with notable jobs gains in the hospitality sector, an industry among those most affected by Bill 148. Bank of Canada economists have said no evidence indicates that Bill 148 caused any general economic downturn.</p>
<p>The reality is that <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/dispelling-minimum-wage-mythology">raising the minimum wage on its own has no net effect upon employment figures.</a> The reason is simple: There are too many other factors at play. But that hasn’t stopped the government’s wrongful claim that Bill 148 has crippled the economy.</p>
<h2>Bill 47 decreases fairness at work</h2>
<p>While doing virtually nothing for job creation, Bill 47 will decrease fairness for workers. </p>
<p>For instance, Bill 47 repeals the provision giving workers the right to refuse work with less than 96 hours’ notice. Such notice is important for those with child/elder care issues, or indeed other jobs, to make appropriate arrangements. </p>
<p>Bill 47 retains the provision to pay workers for three hours if they are required to show up to work but are then not required to work for three hours. However, workers who are on call but are then not required to work will no longer have the same right to three hours pay. It also repeals the right to three hours pay if a scheduled shift is cancelled within 48 hours. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243480/original/file-20181101-83654-qiq4si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to members of his caucus in September 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the name of “flexibility,” employers retain the authority to make scheduling decisions that they believe best suit their bottom lines, while virtually all the risk for such decisions flows to workers. </p>
<p>Employers are not encouraged to make careful scheduling decisions, since they will no longer bear even the minimal responsibility of guaranteeing three hours pay in most instances. Meanwhile, last-minute scheduling changes wreak havoc on the lives of workers and their families.</p>
<p>Even the tepid provision requiring employers to consider requests for a change in schedule or work location in good faith, by providing reasons for a refusal of any such request, is now gone. </p>
<h2>Precarious workers and temp agencies</h2>
<p>What’s more, Bill 47 reintroduces an incentive to create piecemeal, precarious work. The proliferation of employment agencies — many fly-by-night — and the intense vulnerability of those employed through them <a href="http://projects.thestar.com/temp-employment-agencies/.">has been well-documented.</a> So too have the health impacts of precarious work for certain demographics that make up a large percentage of the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7HYn4lq0ns4RlNiZHJGYjhKaXc/view">precarious workforce.</a> </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243489/original/file-20181101-83654-yfbeyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A part-time shift worker at a Toronto grocery store who wished to remain anonymous is pictured in August 2015. The rise of precarious employment in Canada has brought with it some questionable employer practices addressed by the previous Ontario Liberal government’s Bill 148.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Liberals’ Bill 148 made it less attractive for employers to rely upon a casual, precarious workforce by removing distinctions in pay that were based upon “employment status.” The fact that a worker was hired through a temp agency or worked part-time hours could not be the basis for differential pay.</p>
<p>Because precarious work is often gendered and racialized, this provision had the added effect of reducing distinctions <em>indirectly</em> related to gender and race as well. </p>
<p>Bill 47 reintroduces pay distinctions based upon employment status. </p>
<h2>What about balance?</h2>
<p>The government claimed it was introducing Bill 47 to repeal those parts of Bill 148 <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2018/10/open-for-business-removing-burdens-while-protecting-workers.html">“that are causing employers the most concern and unnecessary burden.”</a> Evidently, this government suffers from an inability to prioritize since virtually all of Bill 148’s numerous changes are on the chopping block. </p>
<p>Undoubtedly, the various political parties will adopt various stances on policy issues. What is lacking from Bill 47 is any semblance of balance. Rather than use a scalpel to excise those aspects causing “the most concern,” the government used a fish-hook to gut the bill almost entirely. What little is left provides fewer benefits to workers.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Bill 47 was the manner in which the Conservatives greeted its introduction in the legislature: standing and clapping while proposing to repeal basic protections for the most vulnerable workers. </p>
<p>Such displays transform the slogan of a government <a href="https://www.ontariopc.ca/plan_for_the_people">“for the people”</a> into Orwellian doublespeak.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Braley-Rattai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ontario’s Conservative government, despite its “for the people” slogan, is repealing basic protections for the province’s most vulnerable workers.Alison Braley-Rattai, Assistant Professor, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947162018-04-26T22:16:04Z2018-04-26T22:16:04ZWhy free preschool makes the most sense for families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216575/original/file-20180426-175054-2dl6hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making preschool free will dramatically improve affordability for families across Ontario, Canada, and lead to a predicted increase of 40,000 parents in full-time employment. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.childcarecanada.org/documents/child-care-news/18/03/more-child-care-more-choice-providing-free-preschool-child-care-chil">The Ontario Liberals recently announced</a> a plan to offer free child care for preschoolers — from the age of 2.5 years until they start kindergarten — to every family that wants it by 2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2018/04/more-than-3100-new-child-care-spaces-for-families-across-ontario.html">Premier Kathleen Wynne also announced Thursday funding for new licensed child-care spaces in community locations</a> — such as community centres, places of worship and Indigenous friendship centres — in support of this goal.</p>
<p>Many people find this approach surprising because child care for infants and toddlers is much more expensive than care for preschoolers. They question how tackling preschool spaces first makes sense as the best way to improve child-care affordability. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/04/02/ndp-vows-to-do-better-on-child-care-than-free-preschool-care.html">Ontario’s NDP has vowed they will “do better” and make child care affordable and accessible to children of all ages, all at once</a>. </p>
<p>I am an economist at the University of Toronto who has <a href="http://www.childcarepolicy.net/publications/">researched child-care policy</a> for the last 30 years. As the main author of the new study, <a href="http://www.childcarepolicy.net/">“Affordable For All: Making Licensed Child Care Affordable in Ontario,”</a> which was commissioned by the government of Ontario, let me try to explain why free preschool really does make the most economic and social sense.</p>
<h2>A burden on mothers</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/17/12/time-out-child-care-fees-canada-2017">Child care is very expensive</a> across Canada. A typical Ontario family could expect to pay at least $15,000 annually for an infant’s care, $13,000 for a toddler and $10,000 for a preschooler. If the family lives in Toronto or some other cities, fees can be considerably higher. </p>
<p>Our study, which the Ontario Liberals’ plan is based upon, found that more than 80 per cent of Ontario families with children of up to four years of age cannot afford the cost of licensed child care. </p>
<p>Many of those who can currently afford it are lower-income families lucky enough to obtain scarce subsidized spots. </p>
<p>On average, Ontario families spend over 23 per cent of their after-tax household income on licensed child-care services. On average, it amounts to 67 per cent of a mother’s take-home pay. </p>
<p>This is enough of a barrier to keep many mothers out of the labour force, and to compel others to cobble together part-time work or self-employment with unpaid care arrangements. </p>
<p>In other words, the child-care affordability crisis puts a real burden on families, especially on mothers. </p>
<h2>Helping more families</h2>
<p>Since nearly all families cannot afford child care, the solutions need to be comprehensive, not targeted. </p>
<p>It’s not enough to provide assistance only to low-income families; Ontario already has a child-care subsidy system that does that, and it only helps a small minority of families. </p>
<p>If the government puts money into preschool child care, it improves affordability for a very large number of Ontario families. </p>
<p>There are more than 100,000 Ontario children currently using preschool child care. There are another 60,000 to 100,000 likely to use it when it is made free. Licensed child care is very well accepted as <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1968100">positive for children and families once children reach 2.5 or three years of age</a>. And far fewer families use infant or toddler care. </p>
<p>So if you want to make child care affordable for the maximum number of Ontario families, starting with children at preschool age is the way to go. </p>
<p>Think of it as moving the child-care affordability finish line. Right now, a child has to reach kindergarten before the crushing affordability burden diminishes. Making preschool child care free moves the finish line back to 2.5 years. For every child in Ontario.</p>
<h2>Avoiding Quebec’s mistakes</h2>
<p>Another key factor stems from the experience in Quebec. Quebec started its child-care reforms in the 1990s with great plans to build a high-quality system, with most children using high-quality community-based child-care centres called CPEs (Centres de la petite enfance) at $5 per day. </p>
<p>But the province made the mistake of offering these widely affordable child-care services before they had capacity to serve the explosion of demand. </p>
<p>The Quebec government then had to allow <a href="http://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/17/04/twelve-flawed-statements-fraser-institute-quebec%E2%80%99s-childcar">lower-quality, for-profit child-care centres</a> to provide many services. They also had to dramatically expand home child care, a sector that often uses caregivers with little training or supervision. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/statistiques/education/milieu-garde/qualite-cpe-milieu-familial_an.pdf">Research studies found this child care to be of relatively low quality</a>. This created several problems for children and families. On top of all this, middle- and higher-income families got a disproportionate share of the good quality CPE places.</p>
<p>So child care is very affordable in Quebec, but not of great quality. And the highest quality services are not fairly distributed among income groups. </p>
<p>It’s crucial for Ontario to avoid these missteps. </p>
<h2>More parents in employment</h2>
<p>At present, Ontario has only 14,000 infant spaces, about 45,000 toddler spaces and 110,000 preschool spaces. In other words, there is only capacity for about seven per cent of Ontario’s infants and about 32 per cent of toddlers but as much as 67 per cent of preschoolers. </p>
<p>If infant and toddler child care were made affordable tomorrow, there would be an instant Quebec-style crisis of too much demand and too little supply. </p>
<p>By channelling the new funding towards preschool-age children, Ontario has a much better chance of building a well-managed, publicly funded system of child-care services. </p>
<p>Making preschool child care free will dramatically improve affordability for Ontario families. </p>
<p>It will lead to a predicted increase of 40,000 parents in full-time employment. And it will increase net tax revenues and economic well-being.</p>
<p>There will still be child-care affordability problems at infant and toddler ages. However, as licensed capacity is built for preschoolers, the government can require complementary increases in infant and toddler capacity. As this capacity increases, additional improvements to affordability should be made.</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to clarify that the author’s report — “Affordable For All: Making Licensed Child Care Affordable in Ontario” — was commissioned by the government of Ontario.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94716/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Cleveland has received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education.</span></em></p>It is vital that Ontario’s child-care reforms reach all families, and that the province learns from mistakes made in Quebec.Gordon Cleveland, Associate Professor Emeritus, Economics, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810752017-07-23T22:37:14Z2017-07-23T22:37:14ZFinanciers are now controlling public works, much to the public’s confusion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179098/original/file-20170720-23983-414x4m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontarians got a taste of privatization in the 1990s, when the Conservative government of Mike Harris handed over the lucrative Highway 407 toll road in a 99-year lease for a fraction of its value.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 1990s the large, nationally owned British Railways was split off into dysfunctionally separate entities and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/982037.stm">sold off to private owners</a> in a world-famous example of complete privatization. </p>
<p>During the recent British election, polls revealed that most citizens now support the Labour Party’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/10/labour-party-manifesto-pledges-to-end-tuition-fees-and-nationalise-railways">promise to renationalize the system.</a> </p>
<p>This may not seem very relevant to Canadians, because we never went through wholesale privatization — in part because we never had the wholesale nationalizations that Britain had in the 1950s. </p>
<p>But suddenly these international debates have indeed become relevant to Canada, although the issues here are being obscured by the downright Orwellian terminology used by infrastructure insiders.</p>
<p>In Canada, outright privatization was promoted in the mid-1990s by the neoconservative government of Ontario Premier Mike Harris. But one of the first instances of infrastructure privatization, southern Ontario’s 407 toll highway, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/03/30/pc-blunder-over-highway-407-looms-over-liberals-on-hydro-cohn.html">proved to be a disaster</a> and so enthusiasm quickly faded.</p>
<p>But while they may have shied away from completely selling off major public works, Canadian governments at all levels have still found ways to go along with the global trend of giving private capital a bigger role in public works. </p>
<h2>Not really partnerships</h2>
<p>As I’ve learned as an academic researching infrastructure governance, what’s emerged as the main Canadian model goes by the name of “public-private partnerships.” <a href="http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg/research/data-visualizations/infrastructure/">Ontario</a> and British Columbia are its key promoters, though the Ontario government prefers to use the obscure term “Alternative Finance and Procurement,” which does not contain the politically sensitive word “private.”</p>
<p>If George Orwell, that foe of euphemistic <a href="http://www.vqronline.org/essay/musing-about-orwell%E2%80%99s-politics-and-english-language%E2%80%9450-years-later">government-speak</a>, was still with us, he’d likely point out that “partnership” is a highly misleading term. Major provincial infrastructure projects like hospitals, bridges and transit lines do bring public and private sector “partners” together, but they’re not partnerships.</p>
<p>A legal partnership is a long-term agreement to join forces and share financial risks over time — such as a law firm with partners.</p>
<p>But today’s public-private partnerships are actually arrangements whereby corporations provide financing, engineering, construction and design services for projects chosen by governments and ultimately funded by governments. The construction folks do their work and leave. The lenders stick around to be repaid over a long period. And any project that cannot be made attractive to the big financial players simply does not get built.</p>
<p>Infrastructure financiers, including pension funds, make big profits. But in Canada, public-private projects have so far remained publicly owned. Some of these will generate revenue — like transit lines via passenger fares — but many will not, since in Canada road and <a href="http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2017/06/22/bc-liberals-vow-to-end-bridge-tolls-credit-downgrade.html">bridge tolls are politically unpopular</a>. That’s one major reason why the financiers don’t really want to own the assets.</p>
<h2>The bill isn’t due for decades</h2>
<p>Why do governments continue to overpay for private finance, as Ontario’s auditor general <a href="http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en15/3.07en15.pdf">pointed out in 2015?</a> </p>
<p>Because of the time frame. Infrastructure investors, especially pension funds, want to secure revenue streams 30 and 40 years in the future. Even youthful Justin Trudeau will have long retired when the private finance credit-card bill comes due.</p>
<p>Another reason for the popularity and success of the Ontario/B.C. model is that governments are happy to use big contractors who hire union labour. And hospitals and prisons built through private finance and private procurement are staffed by the same public sector union workers as older facilities. So opposition from labour and NDP opposition is muted.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the infrastructure model used for the past decade, in which major infrastructure projects continue to be publicly owned and union labour is protected, is now in danger. </p>
<p>The federal government is making noises that it will fund the new “Infrastructure Bank” — which is not actually a bank but an infrastructure agency, to confuse Canadians even further — by <a href="https://www.spacing.ca/.../06/.../op-ed-does-canada-need-federal-infrastructure-agency/">selling off the few major assets that Ottawa owns</a>, mainly airports.</p>
<p>The Liberals’ Infrastructure Bank might not ever do much; its predecessor from the Stephen Harper era, Public-Private Partnerships Canada, hardly made a dent. </p>
<h2>It sounds virtuous – but isn’t</h2>
<p>But a very real danger lies in what insiders call “asset recycling,” an approach <a href="https://mowatcentre.ca/recycling-ontarios-assets/">heavily promoted by infrastructure guru Michael Fenn.</a> The term sounds vaguely ecological, but it means selling off choice public assets to raise funds for infrastructure capital costs, as Ontario did with 51 per cent of Hydro One. That selloff netted the province $9 billion.</p>
<p>The Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure’s 2017 update states that in addition to Infrastructure Ontario’s public-private projects, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/buildon-2017-infrastructure-update">the province is also</a> “unlocking the value of existing assets …all net revenue gains from the sale of designated assets are to be credited… to support the province’s key infrastructure priorities.” </p>
<p>If you did this at home, you’d essentially be selling your backyard to pay for a new summer cottage. You can make it sound somewhat virtuous by calling it “asset recycling,” but that’s what it is.</p>
<p>And we won’t see governments selling off dilapidated public housing, which could actually use new investment. Instead, they’ll sell well-maintained, revenue-generating assets — those that would, if they remained in public hands, provide steady revenues into the future. </p>
<p>So the privatizations that Ontario’s neocon Mike Harris dreamed of in the 1990s? </p>
<p>They may be at long last be successfully implemented by a host of Liberals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariana Valverde has received funding for research on infrastucture governance from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is not associated with any of the organizations and businesses involved in the field.</span></em></p>Canadian governments aren’t completely selling off major public works, but their embrace of public-private “partnerships” is giving private financiers control of major infrastructure projects.Mariana Valverde, Urban law and governance, infrastructure researcher; professor of criminology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.