Carbon taxes

Saturday May 4, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 4, 2019

Province’s funding cuts jeopardize 6,166 subsidized child care spaces in Toronto, staff says

Provincial funding cuts and policy changes could result in 6,166 fewer subsidized child care spaces in Toronto and cost the city more than $80-million this year alone, according to city staff.

In a memo to the mayor and council obtained by CBC Toronto on Thursday, City Manager Chris Murray detailed the potential impacts of a reduction in child care funding that was outlined in the province’s recent 2019 budget. The fallout will be compounded by considerable changes to existing child care-related cost-sharing models, the memo says.

“As with recent changes to the provincial/municipal cost-sharing arrangements for public health, the City was not consulted or provided with any advance warning of these changes,” the memo says.

Murray cautions that city staff are still awaiting precise numbers from the province, but they estimate that, cumulatively, the changes will cost Toronto $84.8 million this year. That figure includes a $28.6-million reduction in direct provincial funding and $56.2-million due to cost-sharing changes, the memo explains. 

“This represents a direct pressure on the 2019 Children’s Services Operating Budget, which city council has already approved and for which the municipal levy bylaw has been passed,” it continues.

The result is the potential loss of 6,166 subsidized child care spaces in Toronto, the memo estimates.

The overall number of child care spaces is not expected to change, but a smaller number will be filled by children who have access to the subsidy, the city says. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Friday July 20, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 20, 2018

Premier Doug Ford says he’ll join Saskatchewan’s lawsuit challenging carbon tax

July 18, 2014

Ontario will join Saskatchewan’s court case challenging the federal government’s right to impose a carbon tax on provinces.

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement Thursday alongside Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe at the Council of the Federation meeting of all 13 provincial and territorial leaders.

After a one-on-one meeting with Moe Wednesday night, Ford said the two premiers are on “exactly the same page.” He said Ontario will use “every tool at our disposal” to support Saskatchewan in its appeal of Ottawa’s carbon plan.

“Our provinces are strongest when we stand together and this will show unity and will send a clear message to the federal government,” said Ford, whose Progressive Conservative government has budgeted $30 million for the legal fight.

Amid growing discontent with the federal government’s plan to impose a carbon tax on provinces that do not come up with a carbon-pricing system it approves of, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet the premiers later this year to discuss the issue, sources told the Star.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Ontario is “willing to spend $30 million of taxpayer money on fighting climate leadership.

“The minister is disappointed to see the new government in Ontario has no plan to help families, schools and businesses reduce emissions, save money and create good jobs. Climate change doesn’t stop with a change in government,” said Caroline Thériault. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Thursday February 15, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 15, 2018

Sex-ed and other social-conservative hot buttons starting to light up Ontario Tory leadership race

For more than two years, the Ontario Tories have managed to skirt around the kind of social-conservative flashpoints that have brought them little but grief in the past. But as the party’s leadership race picks up momentum — and a surprise, potential fourth candidate — that unofficial moratorium appears to be ending.

Two of the three most prominent contenders say they will at least revisit the controversial new sex-education curriculum introduced by the Liberal government, with one charging Monday it is riddled with “Liberal ideology,” the other promising she would allow free votes on questions of conscience. And the newest would-be entrant — Tanya Granic Allen, head of a parents group that opposed the sex-ed revamp — is pledging to make sex-ed and similar issues her prime focus.

Pro-life groups are suddenly energized, and hope the candidates will also debate the Liberal law passed last fall that created “bubble zones” around abortion clinics, rendering pro-life protests illegal within 50 metres.

“We have been crying for three years, unwanted in our party, but now are back in the fold,” said Charles McVety, Ontario’s most prominent evangelical Christian activist.

Allen said she will use her candidacy to “force” those issues to the fore — so long as she raises the $100,000 needed to officially run.

“There are a lot of grass-roots conservatives who feel disenfranchised, who feel shut out of this party,” she said in an interview Friday. “I’m here to be their voice.”

The more mainstream candidates are undoubtedly eager to corral some of those Tories, too. Rreaching out to social conservatives may well be a “shrewd” short-term strategy, says pollster Greg Lyle, head of the Innovative Research Group. (Continued: National Post) 

 

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