Ontario Premier Doug Ford pretends to drink from a beer can after announcing the province is speeding up the expansion of alcohol sales. The May 2024 announcement has raised questions about the government’s financial priorities.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
Amid speculation that Doug Ford may call an early election in Ontario, there are several issues that should amount to a moment of deep political vulnerability for his government.
Sarah Jama at the opening of her Hamilton Centre constituency office, Nov. 14, 2023. Jama opened the office as an Independent MPP after the Ontario NDP kicked her out of caucus for posting a statement in support of Palestinians.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
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.
NDP MPP, Sarah Jama, a Black woman, was censured by the Ontario Legislature for her comments which called on Canada to refrain from military intervention in the Middle East.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power)
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.
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.
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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.
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?
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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.
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.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
CERB was a lifeline but no paradise, highlighting the struggles of social assistance recipients to get by on much less.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott walk to a news conference at Queen’s Park on April 16, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
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?
Digital health technology, such as electronic health records, is believed to enhance patient-centred care, improve integrated care and ensure financially sustainable health care.
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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.
Why has the Doug Ford government been so reluctant to take action amid the second wave of COVID-19?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Is Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s mishandling of the second wave of COVID-19 a byproduct of his pro-business sympathies?
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.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
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.
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.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Cole Burston
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.
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.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Despite the Doug Ford government’s claim that it’s now listening to ‘the people,’ there’s little evidence anything has changed.
Ontario budget provisions aiming to limit Crown liability would also apply retroactively, thereby extinguishing existing lawsuits, including a class action by juvenile inmates who were placed in solitary confinement.
Ye Jinghan/Unsplash
Proposed new legislation in Ontario will make it much harder to sue the provincial government for its negligence or bad faith.
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.
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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.
Doug Ford on the campaign trail in May 2018, promising to “open” Ontario for business. His Bill 47 does nothing of the sort.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tara Walton
Ontario’s Conservative government, despite its “for the people” slogan, is repealing basic protections for the province’s most vulnerable workers.
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.
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It is vital that Ontario’s child-care reforms reach all families, and that the province learns from mistakes made in Quebec.
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.
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.