neighbourhood

Friday May 22, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 22, 2020

We can’t give in to ‘quarantine fatigue’

If you’re driving in the dark down a rough, mountain road, you’d be wise to ease your foot off the accelerator.

May 6, 2020

Your limited vision, not knowing what’s around the corner and the risk of making a fatal wrong turn will be enough to convince you the best way forward is to go slow.

And that should be the motto for every Canadian as the country begins to emerge from the prison of its two-month, COVID-19 lockdown.

Go slow.

It won’t be easy. This is the third day since Ontario allowed stores, parks, campgrounds, golf courses, marinas and construction sites to reopen. Prince Edward Island is preparing to welcome its returning summer residents. In many parts of Quebec, children are back learning in their elementary schools while limited outdoor gatherings are legal again.

April 30, 2020

We can already taste some of the freedoms we took for granted, but have been denied since mid-March. And we yearn for more.

We’re tired of staying alone in our homes and apart when we’re out. We can’t wait to return to our favourite coffee shop or hug an old friend. As for those of us rendered jobless by COVID-19, the day we can get back to work and start paying our bills again can’t come soon enough.

Besides all this, the heartening progress that’s been made — including the flattening of the curve in new COVID-19 cases — will make a lot of us think we’ve got this battle won. That conclusion is grossly premature.

April 25, 2020

According to Dr. Theresa Tam, the nation’s chief public health officer, we’re experiencing “quarantine fatigue.” But we have to resist it, limit our expectations and keep taking all the safety precautions that once seemed extraordinary but are now simply ordinary.

April 14, 2020

“This is quite a difficult period … one of the most difficult periods of time where people have been observing this public health advice,” Dr. Tam said Thursday. “And now, some things are easing up, and there is this exuberance of maybe getting out there. (It) means that people may forget to do all the core public health measures.”

Canadians can’t let this happen. We have to realize it’s not an accident that this country is managing to wrestle the pandemic to the mat. This positive turn of events has been made possible only because of the patience and self-sacrifice demonstrated by the vast majority of Canadians. 

Thanks to their efforts, Canada has avoided the devastation wreaked by COVID-19 in countries such as the United States, where 95,000 people have died from it, or the United Kingdom and Italy. COVID-19 has killed more than 35,000 in both places.

Living in a Pandemic

Of course, it’s been horrible in Canada. The death toll hit 6,145 Thursday and there are still hundreds of people suffering from COVID-19 in hospital intensive care units. But we have averted the worst-cases scenarios in which federal government scientists warned 350,000 Canadians could perish from COVID-19.

So now we have to walk toward the new normal before we run for it. Lack of discipline could result in a devastating second wave of COVID-19 that would force another lockdown and make two months of unprecedented effort seem wasted.

We need to keep abreast with what’s been reopened and what’s still off limits. If we’re not already wearing a face-mask when we can’t physical distance, we should start. We need to keep washing our hands until they’re red, and veering off sidewalks to stay two metres from another pedestrian.

And we shouldn’t need a flashing, yellow light to persuade us to go slow. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday May 9, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 9, 2020

Ontario to reopen some retail stores within days, moving with ‘cautious optimism’ amid COVID-19

Ontario will relax some of its coronavirus restrictions in the days ahead, moving with “cautious optimism” to allow garden centres, nurseries, hardware stores and safety supply stores to reopen so long as they adhere to the same public health measures currently in place at grocery stores, Premier Doug Ford says.

The public will be allowed to shop in these stores as long as physical distancing, contact-less payment and sanitization measures are in place, Ford said at his daily briefing Wednesday.

Select retailers can reopen according to this schedule:

• Friday: Nurseries and garden centres 

• Saturday: Hardware stores and safety supply stores

• Monday: Retail stores with street entrances will be permitted to reopen for curbside pickup.

The province will also expand what counts as essential construction with work allowed on condominiums and apartments, Ford said.

June 26, 2009

“We have seen in other jurisdictions that moving too fast, ignoring the advice given on this virus and even giving it an inch can set us back,” Ford said. “So we will move cautiously.”

Asked about when restaurants might reopen, Ford said his hope is that they can do so “sooner than later,” but provided no benchmark on how low Ontario’s daily new case count would have to go before that happens. 

Although the government is allowing some businesses to reopen, the province is not yet technically in the first stage of its reopening framework, and on Wednesday extended its emergency orders until May 19.

Life in a Pandemic

Stage one of the reopening framework would allow workplaces that can modify operations to open their doors, the opening of parks, allowing for more people at certain events such as funerals, and having hospitals resume some non-urgent surgeries.

But before all that can happen, the chief medical officer of health is looking for a consistent, two-to-four week decrease in the number of new cases. So far, the province is in day four of a downward slope. (CBC)


 

Thursday September 26, 2019

September 26, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 26, 2019

Exclusive poll reveals ‘Doug Ford factor’ a big problem for Scheer’s Conservatives in Ontario

June 8, 2019

The “Doug Ford factor” that some federal Conservatives worried would hurt their chances in Ontario this election appears to be very real, and especially significant, suggests a new survey conducted in partnership between the Angus Reid Institute and Postmedia.

The poll shows that half of Ontario’s population sees their federal vote being swayed by the performance of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government in that province — and most are not being influenced in a way that will benefit the federal Tories.

Among those Ontarians who say their federal vote will be affected by their impressions of Ford’s government, a whopping 85 per cent say the “policies and actions” of the provincial PC government will make them less likely to support Andrew Scheer’s federal Conservative party.

July 17, 2019

The “Doug Ford factor” that some federal Conservatives worried would hurt their chances in Ontario this election appears to be very real, and especially significant, suggests a new survey conducted in partnership between the Angus Reid Institute and Postmedia.

The poll shows that half of Ontario’s population sees their federal vote being swayed by the performance of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government in that province — and most are not being influenced in a way that will benefit the federal Tories.

Among those Ontarians who say their federal vote will be affected by their impressions of Ford’s government, a whopping 85 per cent say the “policies and actions” of the provincial PC government will make them less likely to support Andrew Scheer’s federal Conservative party.

Twenty-eight per cent of those Ontarians who claim their vote will be impacted this way qualified the impact of the provincial PC government on their vote as “massive.” The next-highest “massive” impact reported was in Quebec, but with only 12 per cent describing it in such strong terms.

February 13, 2009

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party has clearly sensed an opportunity to exploit the impact Ford is having in Ontario on federal Conservative support. Liberals have tried throughout the campaign to link Scheer to Ford. This week the federal Liberal leader lambasted Ford, calling him “Exhibit A” in Trudeau’s grim description of what he says Canada would look like under Conservative rule. “Families here in Ontario have seen just how far they are willing to go to help the wealthiest few,” he said in Hamilton, Ont. “How quickly they will make cuts to public health and to the services people rely on most.”

Trudeau’s Liberals have been the biggest beneficiaries from the Ford factor: Among Ontarians whose federal voting decisions are being affected by Ford, 71 per cent say they’re likelier to vote Liberal on October 21. But the Liberals would be wrong to assume they have those votes sewn up: 66 per cent of those provincially impacted Ontarians also said they were likelier to vote for the NDP. (National Post) 

 

Thursday May 23, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 23, 2019

Ford offers school boards and municipalities money to hunt for savings

After hitting municipalities with cutbacks in provincial funding, Premier Doug Ford says his government will now spend $7.35 million to help them find savings.

Toronto Mayor John Tory immediately panned the move, calling it a “$7 million public relations exercise by the government of Ontario.”

“It does us no good getting money for a line-by-line audit that we’re already doing without consideration from the province of the fact that these retroactive, mid-year cuts will seriously hurt residents and families,” Tory said in a statement of the estimated $178 million in funding clawbacks the city faces to public health, daycare and transit.

The mayor said he is “committed to finding more and great efficiencies” — but is urging the Ford government to halt the current cuts.

On Tuesday, Ford — repeating the “four cents on the dollar” mantra he used on the election campaign trail a year ago — said in a lunchtime speech in Ajax that the province will provide the money for cities and school boards to conduct in-depth financial audits to identify where they can trim budgets by 4 per cent.

Later, speaking to reporters, Ford said it’s not unfair for the province to impose clawbacks on the city well into its fiscal year.

“We’re asking to work with him as a partner,” Ford said. “We are working collaboratively with any municipality that wants to take us up on the offer.”

The premier noted that more than 90 per cent of provincial funding “goes to municipal partners and hospitals and universities. They’re our partners. We don’t have like Fort Knox sitting down at Queen’s Park, a whole bunch of gold sitting there. Ninety two per cent of our money goes to municipalities and other partners, so we’re asking them to work with us. And we’ll work with them and support them.”

Ford made the $7.35 million announcement speaking to members of the chambers of commerce in Whitby and Greater Oshawa, as well as the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade.

Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, said boards “already operate very efficiently, because we’ve had to.”

She said it will be up to individual boards to take the province up on its offer, “but they’ll be hard-pressed to find 4 per cent in efficiencies” given about 80 per cent of funding is in staffing and contracts, and other pockets of money are “sweatered,” meaning they can only be spent on the programs they are intended for, said Abraham, of the Kawartha Pine Ridge public board.

But Ford said cities and school boards must do their part as the province tightens its fiscal belt.

“Our government was elected to fix 15 years of Liberal mismanagement, put the province on a path to balance and protect services like health care and education,” Ford said. (Toronto Star) 

 

Wednesday October 12, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday October 12, 2016 Liberal governmentÕs carbon tax plan provokes anger from provinces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an ultimatum to the provinces on Monday, announcing his governmentÕs plan to set a minimum carbon tax even as environment ministers were meeting in Montreal to discuss options for carbon pricing. Several provinces and territories reacted angrily Ð three environment ministers walked out of the federal-provincial climate talks Ð after Mr. TrudeauÕs unilateral announcement in the House of Commons. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said the decision is a ÒbetrayalÓ of the co-operative approach the Prime Minister had promised and that the tax would devastate his provinceÕs economy. Mr. Trudeau essentially told premiers to adopt a carbon tax or cap-and-trade plan or Ottawa will impose its own levy Ð a minimum of $50 a tonne by 2022 Ð and return the revenue the provinces. It comes as the Liberal government is embroiled in a dispute with the provinces over health-care funding, and signals the Prime MinisterÕs determination to exert federal leadership in areas where the premiers largely had free rein for the past decade under the Conservatives. Saskatchewan Environment Minister Scott Moe left the Montreal environment ministersÕ meeting before it concluded, as did Nova ScotiaÕs Margaret Miller, and Perry Trimper, Minister of Environment and Conservation for Newfoundland and Labrador. ÒToday is not a good day for federal-provincial relations,Ó Mr. Moe said. ÒWeÕre struggling a little bit to understand where the Prime MinisterÕs message came from today, and whatÕs going to happen moving forward,Ó Ms. Miller said. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says his province is leading the country in reduction of greenhouse gases by cutting emissions in the electricity sector, but does not want to impose higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels. Mr. Trudeau has long promised that Ottawa would

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 12, 2016

Liberal government’s carbon tax plan provokes anger from provinces

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an ultimatum to the provinces on Monday, announcing his government’s plan to set a minimum carbon tax even as environment ministers were meeting in Montreal to discuss options for carbon pricing.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday March 4, 2016 Ottawa willing to impose carbon price if impasse drags on The federal government is prepared to impose a national price on carbon if Canada's premiers fail to come to an agreement on their own, CBC News has learned. Putting a price tag on pollution would pit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government against some provincial premiers who see the move as another blow to an enfeebled economy. Trudeau is meeting with premiers and territorial leaders today in Vancouver. A senior official close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Liberal government campaigned on environmental change and won a majority. "We feel that we've got a mandate to do it. And we want to do it in co-operation with the provinces," the official said. "But at the end of the day we are going to do it." Federal action isn't imminent, but Ottawa won't allow carbon price talks to drag on indefinitely. "This should be a conversation about how we are going to price carbon, not whether," said the source. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has been the loudest critic of a carbon tax, saying it will only hammer an already sluggish energy sector. Wall told reporters on Wednesday that he wasn't alone in his position, and that's been backed up in public and private statements by officials from other provinces here in Vancouver. "You're going to hear a lot more about carbon management than carbon pricing," said one premier in explaining the view in their private meetings. Five provinces already have a price on carbon. Penalizing polluters financially is aimed at curbing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. (Source: CBC News) http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carbon-price-cap-and-trade-first-ministers-meeting-vancouver-1.3473524 Canada, provinces, Christy Clark, Phillippe Couilliard, Kathleen Wynne, Rachel Notley, Justin Trudeau, Brad Wall, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, carbon, tax, environment, climate change

March 4, 2016

Several provinces and territories reacted angrily – three environment ministers walked out of the federal-provincial climate talks – after Mr. Trudeau’s unilateral announcement in the House of Commons. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said the decision is a “betrayal” of the co-operative approach the Prime Minister had promised and that the tax would devastate his province’s economy.

Mr. Trudeau essentially told premiers to adopt a carbon tax or cap-and-trade plan or Ottawa will impose its own levy – a minimum of $50 a tonne by 2022 – and return the revenue the provinces. It comes as the Liberal government is embroiled in a dispute with the provinces over health-care funding, and signals the Prime Minister’s determination to exert federal leadership in areas where the premiers largely had free rein for the past decade under the Conservatives.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday September 20, 2016 Trudeau's challenge is to lead on pricing carbon and building pipelines Canada's first commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was made by Brian Mulroney in 1988, at an international conference on the "changing atmosphere" in Toronto. It was pledged then that Canada would seek a 20-per-cent reduction in its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2005. Two years later, that target was adjusted to merely stabilizing GHGs at 1990 levels by 2005. Still, that would have kept emissions to 613 megatonnes per year. Instead, in 2014, the last full year for which data is available, Canada emitted a total of 732 megatonnes of greenhouse gases, a 20-per-cent increase since 2005. If Mulroney had put Canada on a path to achieving that target of 1990, if Jean ChrŽtien or Paul Martin or Stephen Harper had set Canada on its way to achieving any of the targets they subsequently set, Justin Trudeau would now be heading into a merely interesting fall, the biggest issue of which would be the negotiation of new health accords with the provinces or the consideration of a new electoral system. In November, he is due to meet the premiers to finalize a national plan on climate change, or at least the makings thereof. By Dec. 19, his cabinet must decide whether to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline proposal that would transfer oil from Alberta to the port of Vancouver. And between those two, Trudeau gets to wrestle with questions of federalism, the national economy and the future of humanity on a warming planet. The climate change plan seems likely to include some kind of mechanism for pricing carbon.ÊÊAnd while putting a price on carbon has become the focal point of debate about what to do about climate change, pipelines have, fairly or not, become a focus of attention for those who worry about the impact of GHGs on the planet. The prime minister has, either explicitly or implicitly, committed

September 20, 2016

Saskatchewan Environment Minister Scott Moe left the Montreal environment ministers’ meeting before it concluded, as did Nova Scotia’s Margaret Miller, and Perry Trimper, Minister of Environment and Conservation for Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Today is not a good day for federal-provincial relations,” Mr. Moe said.

“We’re struggling a little bit to understand where the Prime Minister’s message came from today, and what’s going to happen moving forward,” Ms. Miller said. Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says his province is leading the country in reduction of greenhouse gases by cutting emissions in the electricity sector, but does not want to impose higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels.

Wednesday April 15, 2015Mr. Trudeau has long promised that Ottawa would impose a minimum carbon price on provinces unwilling to adopt their own system, but on Monday, he seized the leadership from premiers, who have insisted on the right to regulate carbon emissions as they see fit.

The Prime Minister said he will convene a first ministers’ meeting on Dec. 8 with the aim of concluding a pan-Canadian climate plan, which would include carbon pricing and other measures. (Source: Globe & Mail)