Friday June 24, 2022
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 24, 2022
What Doug Ford’s new cabinet faces: inflation, housing crisis, union talks
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will unveil his new cabinet on Friday morning in what is forecast to be glorious sunshine outside of Queen’s Park.
But after that, stormy economic and political weather looms for Ford’s second-term government.
Ontario confronts the highest rate of inflation in nearly 40 years, an economic reality that will have a strong influence on everything from the amount of tax revenue the government brings in to the amount of pressure public sector unions exert for higher wage increases.
The new cabinet also faces a housing affordability crisis that has spread to all corners of the province, an overburdened health-care system weakened by more than two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and a long list of promises to be kept.
Ford and his newly appointed ministers are scheduled to be sworn in at 11:15 a.m. in an outdoor ceremony in front of the legislature.