Ontario

Friday April 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 19, 2019

Historic result for PEI Green Party could mean bigger things coming

For the first time ever, the Green Party has risen to Official Opposition status in a Canadian province.

October 23, 2002

The party, led by Peter Bevan-Baker, won eight seats in Prince Edward Island in a vote that saw the Progressive Conservatives form a minority government under premier-designate Dennis King.  The Tory’s won 12 seats.

“It’s a historic night, and a big breakthrough for the PEI Greens,” says Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, “I think it’s really an indication, the fact increasingly more and more voters want to see a new way of doing politics.”

“I think Greens bring a fresh voice and a new perspective, and really a desire as much as possible to work across party lines to solve some of the big challenges that we face.  And do it in a way that puts people first, that puts good policy ahead of party.”

May 31, 2017

He says in the past, people thought success for the Greens were more of “a west coast thing,” alluding to federal leader Elizabeth May, who is MP for a riding in British Columbia, as well as three MLA’s holding seats in the BC legislature.

And then with members holding three seats in New Brunswick’s provincially, some were thinking it was a west and east coast thing.

But with Tuesday’s vote, along with Schreiner’s own successful election bid in Ontario last October, he says we’re seeing a “green wave starting to build across the country.”

Now, what could this mean for future elections?

October 14, 2015

Schreiner says we could see our first indication of it during the fall federal election, and even in the next Ontario election in 2022.

He indicates there were five “high quality” people seeking the Green Party nomination in Guelph last year, along with contested nominations in Waterloo Region.

And he is already fielding calls from people interested in running in the next provincial election. (Source: Kitchener Today) 

 

Thursday April 18, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 18, 2019

Ontario gas stations could be fined $10,000 a day for missing anti-carbon-tax stickers

Buried in Ontario’s budget bill are fines of up to $10,000 per day for gas station operators who don’t display government-mandated stickers about the price of the carbon tax.

August 17, 2016

The budget contains a new piece of legislation called the Federal Carbon Tax Transparency Act that would require gas stations to display the sticker on each pump. The sticker shows the federal carbon tax adding 4.4 cents per litre to the price of gas now, rising to 11 cents a litre in 2022.

The legislation lets the government send inspectors to see if gas stations are properly displaying the stickers and sets out penalties for non-compliance.

Individuals could be fined up to $500 each day, or up to $1,000 a day for subsequent offences. Corporations could be fined up to $5,000 a day, or up to $10,000 a day for subsequent offences.

Obstructing an inspector would carry a fine of at least $500 and up to $10,000.

December 1, 2018

“This is a new low, even for (Premier) Doug Ford,” NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns said in a statement. “It’s bad enough that he’s wasting public money on partisan promotion, but now he’s threatening private business owners with massive fines for failing to post [Progressive] Conservative Party advertisement.”

Similar critiques came from federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who denounced the fines as “ridiculous.”

“Not only is this a violation of freedom of speech, it will cost small business owners across the province who don’t want to take part in this government propaganda campaign,” McKenna said in a statement.

“This should be denounced by all political parties as a new low for our political discourse.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford is wasting tax dollars and abusing legal tools to bolster his anti-carbon tax campaign.

“This has nothing to do with transparency and everything to do with helping his federal cousins win the election,” Schreiner said in a statement. (CBC News) 

 

Saturday April 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 13, 2019

How Doug Ford’s budget has hurt Trudeau and helped Scheer

The sound coming out of Conservative backrooms on Parliament Hill in the hours following the presentation of this week’s Ontario budget was that of a collective sigh of relief.

April 12, 2019

From Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s perspective, his party dodged a pre-election bullet on Thursday.

By all indications, Premier Doug Ford’s fiscal plan will provide the Trudeau Liberals with less lethal ammunition to use against their Conservative rivals in the upcoming federal campaign than they had hoped for.

Yes, the fact that Ontario will remain in the red beyond Ford’s current term in office is liable to blunt Conservative Party of Canada attacks on the ruling Liberals for accumulating deficit upon deficit since they have taken power.

But it will also make it more difficult for Trudeau to turn the tables on Scheer and predict that the election of a Conservative government would result in a fiscal bloodbath.

November 20, 2018

And yes, the course charted in Thursday’s budget will — over time — impoverish Ontario’s social services. The plan to keep the growth in program spending below the rate of inflation for the next five years cannot but result in a thinner social safety net. The province’s most vulnerable constituencies stand to be the first and the hardest hit.

But the full impact on most Ontarians of the measures sketched out on Thursday will not have been felt by the time Scheer and his Conservatives go door-knocking next fall.

July 28, 2018

In the immediate, the first batch of post-budget media analysis has left federal Conservative strategists with an embarrassment of riches to counter the Liberals’ post-budget apocalyptic scenarios.

Take this summation by my columnist colleague Martin Regg Cohn: “There are no savage cuts in the first Ford-Fedeli budget, which could easily have been delivered by former premier Dalton McGuinty back when he belatedly discovered austerity.”

Or this one from Globe and Mail columnist Tim Kiladze: “If anything, it looks more like something that would come from the Liberals he replaced — the ones he swore had been reckless with the province’s finances.”

Those comments were not written to complement the Ford Tories but to highlight the gap between their rhetoric and their actual budget. (Source: Chantal Hebert, Toronto Star) 

 

Friday April 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 12, 2019

Ontario tightens purse strings, PCs don’t plan to balance books until 2023-24

May 17, 2018

Ontario’s books won’t be balanced within the Progressive Conservatives’ mandate, but the government’s first budget serves up an era of gradual belt-tightening with a side of booze.

The Tories peg the current deficit at $11.7 billion, and they don’t expect to eliminate the red ink until 2023-24. Drastic and widespread cuts that many had feared did not materialize in this budget, but the path to balance shows that much of the heavy lifting comes at the halfway mark to the next election, and after it.

March 27, 2009

The budget constrains spending growth – and shows cuts in post-secondary and social services – but is still nearly $5 billion larger than the last budget from the previous Liberal government, who the Progressive Conservatives often slam for their spending habits.

“We have developed a reasonable path to balance,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said. “Our path to balance in five years is a thoughtful and a measured approach to take … Our entire premise is to protect what matters most.”

The budget contains no new taxes. In addition to tackling the deficit, the government is also taking aim at the net debt – currently pegged at $343 billion – through ensuring surpluses and unused reserve or contingency funds go to paying it down.

March 20, 2004

As well, planned legislation would require the government to develop a debt burden reduction strategy, and make the premier and finance minister pay 10 per cent of their salaries for each missed reporting deadline for documents such as the budget and quarterly economic accounts. (Source: Global News)  

 

Saturday April 6, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 6, 2019

Balancing Ontario’s budget about to get painful — literally

Some are suggesting the Ford government is playing a little bait and switch with recent announcements.

April 9, 2019

As in, look over here: we’re dumping the licence plate slogan Yours to Discover for something else — maybe even Open for Business. How outrageous is that? (Based on the social media reaction, the answer is: very.)

And, look, look, we’re scrapping the provincial Trillium logo because it looks like three men in a hot tub. Crazy eh?

These would be the bait parts, intended to obscure the much bigger and altogether not humorous changes, like controversial education reforms that will reduce teacher-student interaction and eventually eliminate about 3,500 teaching positions.

Or this one: the province is studying changes to OHIP that would, among other things, drastically reduce the amount of pain-control medication available to chronic pain sufferers. And funding to remove certain types of polyps found during colonoscopies may be eliminated. Diabetes management, echocardiograms and tonsillectomies are also being examined.

Animated!

And, get this, the government may defund the practice of allowing general anesthetic for people undergoing colonoscopy testing.

The potential OHIP changes, which were revealed in an exclusive story by CityNews Toronto, are part of an effort to cut $460 million from the OHIP budget. A group of doctors and government officials are examining best practices to see where medical tests are overused or unnecessary.

Having a hard look at OHIP services makes sense. Health care, overall, is the top budget item for the province ($60 billion last year), with education not far behind. It makes sense to audit what we’re doing and paying for. But going from there to legislating more uncomfortable colonoscopies is a big leap.

With the government’s first budget coming next week, we should prepare ourselves for more news like this. Even though Doug Ford denied that getting Ontario’s books in order would be a painful process, anyone with common sense knew that wasn’t realistic.

It’s all about money. Those education reforms, which the province says will make kids more resilient? How convenient that they also save a few hundred million. Same with reducing OHIP-funded services.

But keep an eye on those OHIP changes. They may also be Ford opening the door to more private health care. Want more anesthetic with that colonoscopy? We can do that for a small fee. Need more pain management drugs? Sign right here.

What about the hidden costs of cuts like these? How many Ontarians who should get colonoscopies won’t? How many pain medication patients will turn to opiates, legal or illegal? How many people with diabetes will get sicker sooner in the absence of ongoing diabetes management programs? If the government cuts psychotherapy funding to 24 hours a year — another proposal — what will happen to patients?

We know the answer. People will get sicker, faster and more seriously. They will require more expensive, intensive intervention from the health and/or social services system. Sadly, the government is probably not studying that aspect of its budget plan. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)