Privatization, Cuts and PC Budgets

After promising no job cuts during the election, only efficiencies and attrition, the Ford government cut 416 health care jobs today.

The Ford government announced Wednesday that 416 layoff notices will be handed out to employees at health agencies across the province.

The agencies include those that will be merged into the health super agency the government is creating, which was announced late last year and is called Ontario Health. The super agency includes the province’s local health integration networks, Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario, the Trillium Gift of Life Network and others. ...

The NDP disagreed with Elliott’s and the government’s announcement and issued a statement saying the cuts will end up affecting patients.

“Patients battling cancer can’t afford to have Cancer Care Ontario operations upended with firings. Those waiting for an organ donor match to be found can’t afford for the Trillium Gift of Life Network’s work to grind to a halt. Those desperately waiting for home care can’t afford for home care coordinators [sic] to be taken away from them,” said NDP MPP Marit Stiles.

“Health care in Ontario was left hanging by a thread by Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals, and Doug Ford is now cutting the thread,” said Stiles. “That leaves us all worried that the hallway medicine crisis, the long waits, and the troubles in Ontario’s health care system are going to go from bad to worse.”

OPSEU President Smokey Thomas said the announcement is just another “promise betrayed. Ford promised no job losses, but it’s becoming clearer by the day that he never had a real plan. He’s running a government by chaos and the people of Ontario are paying the price. Ford won based on lofty promises to reign in the deficit without any consequence for frontline jobs and services – he’s now proven himself incompetent on both ends,” Thomas said in a statement.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5406962/ontaro-health-jobs-layoffs/

The Ford government is making one of the largest cabinet shuffles ever after just one year in power in response to a large drop in the polls. Ford says its a communication problem in that the government has not done a good job of getting all the good news about what his government has done out to the public. If they keep on thinking that way without addressing the many policy issues and cuts that have turned a large part of the public off, their poll numbers will drop even further.

Moving a finance minister out of his portfolio after one year is almost unheard of, as well as the moving of all but seven of the cabinet ministers, reflect how deep the problems are.

Some of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's most high-profile cabinet ministers have been moved out of their posts as part of a major shuffle that came amid slumping poll numbers for the premier and controversies on several important files.

In the day's biggest move, Vic Fedeli lost his job as finance minister. He was demoted to minister of economic development, job creation and trade.

Fedeli's departure from the top cabinet position comes after he oversaw the release of just one provincial budget, an exceedingly rare situation for a finance minister in Ontario.

The decision to move Fedeli was not necessarily surprising to political observers — Ford's government faced weeks of intense criticism and protests after near-daily stories emerged of cuts that came in the aftermath of the April budget. ...

Meanwhile, Rod Phillips, who served as environment minister for the first year of the PCs' mandate and played a key role in the cancellation of Ontario's cap-and-trade program, will take over the finance portfolio. Jeff Yurek will move from transportation to the environment portfolio. 

Lisa Thompson, who had been education minister, and Lisa MacLeod, who was minister of children, community and social services, were both demoted as well. The two files have seen considerable strife recently as the province cut funding to school boards and revamped Ontario's autism program, moves that sparked large protests from parents and educators.  ...

Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith, considered by many to be one of the Ford government's most effective public speakers, will step in to MacLeod's former role. Thompson will now be responsible for government and consumer services, while MacLeod takes over the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

All but seven ministers saw their roles changed Thursday. With the shuffle, the size of Ford's cabinet grows from 21 to a total of 28 ministers and associate ministers, despite Ford saying last year that he intended to keep his cabinet small to save taxpayers' money.

Christine Elliott will remain deputy premier and minister of health, though the portfolio now has two additional cabinet positions. ...

Ford has recently been slipping in public opinion polls, and some suggest he could hurt Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer's chances of winning in Ontario in the October federal election.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-cabinet-shuffle-live-po...

Doug Ford's chief of staff, Dean French, has resigned one day after one of the largest cabinet shuffles in Canadian history was aimed at giving Ford's government a new face following all of the criticism of its cuts.

"The news comes less than one day after Global News first reported on controversial appointments made by the premier’s office which included people who had personal ties to French." (https://globalnews.ca/news/5419370/ford-chief-of-staff-resigns/)

Two of four appointments to the job of agent-general, a position that has not existed in Ontario since the 1990s, were given to people with connections to French. So the Ford government is not afraid to grow government expenditures in jobs that were deemed surplus for more than 20 years when its their friends that are involved despite all of the cuts elsewhere. One of these people on the gravy train, aka called The Swamp in Trumpspeak, is described in the article below. 

Global News has learned the Ford government is appointing 26-year-old Tyler Albrecht, a friend of Premier Ford’s chief of staff’s son, to an advisor role in New York City.

In a release, the province announced four of eight appointments to the role of agents-general in different cities around the world.

According the government, the new advisors will be responsible for providing expert guidance and helping Ontario businesses attract investment and grow international trade.

Agents-general positions have not existed in Ontario since the 1990s.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5413872/ford-government-appointment-advisor-nyc/

In April the Ford government also cut legal aid by $133 million, a cut of 30%. However, the specific cuts, which vary from one legal aid organization to another, have only become known very recently. This forces these groups to make deeper cuts for the rest of the year, something that Ford was forced to back off on when he tried the same thing with Toronto because of the political backlash.

Many of these cuts have their greatest effect on the racialized poor. For example, in a Power and Politics interview on CBC Shalini Konanur,  Executive Director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, this means severe cutbacks for dealing with cases of forced marriage and people earning as little as $3 an hour in Ontario's South Asian community. 

Ford has also failed to keep his promise to rectify the funding problem when he was pilloried on a radio program in April.

Ontario has made deep cuts to the legal aid system. Deep cuts — to the tune of $133 million — that mean that many impoverished and marginalized Ontarians will now face prosecution, conviction, and the possibility of jail time without the assistance of a lawyer.

They include a 70-year-old woman with no criminal record who lives on a meager pension. She had too much to drink one night and got into a fight with her abusive partner. The police were called and now the Crown wants to brand her a criminal.

And man on disability who only has one lung and uses an oxygen tank. He was charged with failing to provide a breath sample because he could not blow enough air into the breathalyzer. Prosecutors want to give him a criminal record and ban him from driving. ...

This is one fight where there can be no winner. Ford's cuts are not just financially reckless, but will also result in wrongful convictions, as well as serious criminals escaping justice. Ontario will see immigration unfairness, vulnerable tenants left without any meaningful recourse to hold predatory landlords to account, and the shuttering of community legal clinics. ...

So, immigrants and refugees, many of whom have escaped desperate and dangerous circumstances will now face a hopeless situation in Canada. Many refugees don't speak English and don't have a sophisticated understanding of Canada's legal system. Most live in poverty. And now they will not have access to a lawyer through the province's legal aid system.  ...

When the stark reality of his cuts was discussed on talk radio back in April, it seemed to get under Ford's thin skin. After almost "hitting three telephone poles," Ford called in to defend himself. At the end of that impromptu call Ford said that, "if anyone needs support on legal aid, feel free to call my office. I will guarantee you that you will have legal aid."  ...

Ford made his personal guarantee more than 50 days ago. Since then, he has not responded to emails, faxes, or text messages about how people who have been denied legal aid can take him up on his promise. Because he was never serious.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/legal-aid-1.5169428

Here's a summary of all of the cuts the Ford government has made on the anniversary of his first year in office. 

Ontario premier Doug Ford was elected on a platform that promised to find billions of dollars in efficiencies in Ontario’s provincial budget. For a year after he and his majority Conservative government were sworn in, we’ve kept a running tally on what exactly the Ford government has cut (or is intending to cut) and what the consequences might be. June 7 marks the first year of Ford’s premiership—and Queen’s Park is about to go on a 144-day break from passing legislation until after the federal election in October—so take a moment to catch up with all the cuts and changes here. ....

https://www.chatelaine.com/living/politics/doug-ford-cuts/

The Ford government faces another scandal related to the now fired Dean French: French's niece, through marriage, resigned from her appointed position after her connection to French was revealed. This very definition of nepotism further damages the Ford brand of saving taxpayer's money by ending patronage.

Former Chief of Staff to the Premier Dean French’s niece has resigned, hours after it was revealed she had been appointed to the Ontario’s Public Accountants Council back in December.

NDP MPP Taras Natyshak said in a statement, “This reeks of nepotism, with paycheques, power and favours for Ford’s inner circle, while everyday Ontarians get nothing but cuts.”

It’s not clear whether Premier Doug Ford was aware of the familial relationship between Dean French and Pal when she was appointed.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/06/25/dean-frenchs-niece-resigns-from-o...

The Ford government cuts to municipalities leaves them with $2 billion less in funding to deal with over the next decade. 

Ontario municipalities should brace for a $2-billion shock in the decade ahead, as cuts in provincial transfers sink in, according to the credit rating service Moody's. The warning comes in a report released last week, and set to be presented at Peel Region's council meeting Thursday.

Peel and the other three Greater Toronto regional councils — Halton, York and Durham — are well-positioned to weather the storm, the report says, because they have the healthiest reserve funds.

But several other jurisdictions with smaller reserve funds, including Toronto, will be especially hard hit, according to Moody's vice president Adam Hardi. "Raising taxes is not a very popular choice among municipalities," Hardi told CBC Toronto Tuesday. "But we have heard already that some municipalities may be looking at least to fund some of the funding shortfalls through higher taxes."

In 2020, when all the reductions and cost-share adjustments are in place, Moody's says Ontario municipalities will face a total of about $300 million in added costs  and another $2 billion — minimum — in the subsequent 10 years. ...

Moody's also expects municipalities to rely on their reserve funds to help weather the coming financial storm. That's where some municipalities, like Toronto, could find themselves struggling, the report says.

Toronto has estimated it'll cost about $178 million a year to cover the cuts once they're in place. The province has disputed that figure, pegging it at about $130 million.

That's because Toronto's reserve funds are especially weak — second lowest of the 10 Ontario municipalities that Moody's tracks. Only Waterloo's are lower. Coun. Gary Crawford, Toronto's budget chief, acknowledged that the city needs to find more sustainable ways to operate, rather than drawing on reserves to balance the budget. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-cuts-will-blow-2-...

A leaked government document prepared by one of Ford's own MPPs, Roman Baber, reveals that the government lied about there being a waiting list of 23,000 for autism funding, even though there was no waiting list. This was the excuse used to greatly reduce autism funding. 

The document addressed to Premier Ford and his former Chief of Staff Dean French was prepared by Toronto-area MPP Roman Baber on June 13. ...

Baber also says the government’s claims that the new funding structure would clear a treatment wait list of 23 000 children with autism was “inaccuarate” and that there was no waitlist to begin with. He later recommends a full reset of the program to a needs-based format.

https://www.chch.com/leaked-autism-file-leaves-families-complaining-abou...

The Ford government is not only scandal-ridden it is disorganized and ineffective. It is already a month late in laying out its plans for its $28.5 billion transit expansion project, at a time when it is most likely to get financial support from the federal Liberals because we are on the eve of an election. Of course, many also do not see this expenisve proposal as anywhere near meeting the needs of commuters effectively. 

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/18/weeks-after-its-own-deadline...

The Ford government is also planning to cut payments for out-of-country health care, which would violate the Health Act, according to the federal government. 

Ontario is moving ahead with a plan to scrap a provincial program that offers basic out-of-country travel insurance.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says the Progressive Conservative government has decided to make the change after holding a six-day public consultation that ended Tuesday. ...

The program currently covers out-of-country inpatient services to a maximum of $400 per day for a higher level of care, such as intensive care, as well up to $50 per day for emergency outpatient services, and doctor services.

Elliott says the program’s administrative costs are too high and the level of coverage too low to help travellers who already largely depend on private travel insurance. ...

Opposition politicians have said ending the program will hurt snowbirds and frequent travellers.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5226830/ontario-scrap-ohip-travel-insurance-a...

The Ford Cons are now looking to sell off anything they can to private interests, including Ontarians data.

Ontario is considering the sale of naming rights for GO Transit stations, parking lots and even washrooms in a bid to find new revenue sources for its regional transit network in the Greater Toronto Area.

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said Thursday that the government believes the move will increase income for provincial transit operator Metrolinx, and help keep fares low. 

"We are looking to maximize the value of Metrolinx assets, properties, and services to increase non-fare revenue while improving services for our customers," she said in a statement. 

The province estimates it can make between $50,000 to $500,000 a year on rights for some stations, which would retain their original names while also featuring a sponsor's name and branding. ...

The agreements — which could range between five and 10 years — would also provide sponsors with ridership data, although Mulroney noted that it would be stripped of personally identifying information. ...

The agreements — which could range between five and 10 years — would also provide sponsors with ridership data, although Mulroney noted that it would be stripped of personally identifying information.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/metrolinx-naming-rights-1.5233131

At the end of August news reports announced the Toronto District School Board was facing 300 job cuts because of the Ford government's funding cuts.

Nearly 300 full-time jobs are on the chopping block at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) as they look to save millions of dollars following cuts by the provincial government.

A report, which you can read below, will go before the TDSB board on Wednesday — combining both layoffs and attrition to appease budget restrictions.

Staff reductions include learning coaches, guidance counsellors, principals, custodians, student support services and 36 teaching jobs.

The TDSB said many of the jobs have already been eliminated in preparation for the new school year.

Reductions are also being made to the number of students eligible to receive TTC tokens if they live far away from a specialized school.

The report also looks at increasing fees for extra-curricular programs.

The board is looking to cut $46.8 million from the budget.

When asked previously about the cuts needed to be made by school boards to meet the provincial budget, Premier Doug Ford said they would amount to attrition.

However, both the teachers’ union and government opposition have said this isn’t true. It’s estimated that as many as 3,500 teaching jobs will be lost across the province because of these cuts.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/08/28/tdsb-job-cuts-budget/

The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario projects that increasing student-teacher ratios and mandatory online courses and associated funding cuts will result in the loss of more than 10,000 teaching jobs in the next five years. 

Ontario will have 10,000 fewer teaching positions over the next five years as the Ford government boosts class sizes and introduces mandatory online courses, says the legislature’s independent financial watchdog. 

Some 994 elementary and 9,060 secondary positions will be gone from the system based on the previous student-teacher ratios, the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario said in an explosive report — one that landed in the midst of contract negotiations and just days before the high school teachers’ union is set to sit down at the bargaining table with the government and school boards. ...

https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/09/26/ontario-to-lose-m...

Educational custodians, clerical workers and early childhood educators, who are members of CUPE, have begun work-to-rule in Ontario schools.

Tens of thousands of education workers across the province began a work-to-rule campaign on Monday as confusion mounted about when their union and the government would return to the bargaining table.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said CUPE, which represents 55,000 custodians, clerical workers and early childhood educators, had accepted a government offer of new mediation dates and talks could resume as early as this week. ...

“I’m grateful for the union accepting those days,” he told a morning news conference at a school in Nobleton, Ont. “I hope that that can be a legitimate, bona fide, constructive dialogue that actually leads to a deal.”

But hours later, the president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, refuted Lecce’s statement, saying no dates were offered and that the parties remained too far apart to return to the table.

“There’s a clear disconnect between what we hear from the minister and what we hear at the table and this would be another really good example of that,” Laura Walton said.

During the work-to-rule campaign, education workers will stop working overtime and won’t perform extra duties. ...

Walton said the union is willing to return to talks if there is a prospect of meaningful progress.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5967841/ontario-education-workers-work-to-rule/

Social activists have played a major role in causing the Ford government to not implement child benefit and some other social assistance cuts. 

Doug Ford's PC government is scrapping planned cuts to social assistance programs, including the Transition Child Benefit — which helps families in the most need — following an outcry from across the province.

Earlier this year, the province announced changes to Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Program and the child benefit. The Transition Child Benefit (TCB) was slated to end on Nov. 1.

In the wake of that announcement, municipalities and social justice advocates said losing the benefit, which amounts to a maximum of $230 per child per month, would leave low-income families — in particular refugee claimants, who are not eligible for other child benefit payments — in a budget shortfall.

The money is designed to supplement Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

"After careful consideration, these programs will continue in their current form to all recipients in accordance with existing policies," Christine Wood, a spokesperson for Children, Community and Social Services Minister Todd Smith, told CBC Toronto Thursday in an emailed statement.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-government-rolls-back-s...

While the government problems in Ontario continue t0 escalate exponentially, Ford has been Missing In Action for almost a month. What a way to solve problems! On the other hand maybe the province would be better if he went on an extended holiday in Costa Rica à la Pallister in Manitoba. 

In the midst of a heated labour dispute with 55,000 educational workers, the threat of schools across the province shutting down Monday, and the backdrop of a federal election campaign, Premier Doug Ford remains tight lipped and out of the media spotlight.

The last time the premier spoke to press was on Sept. 17 in North Bay.

Since then, Ford has ducked media when attending cabinet meetings, opting to enter the executive council chamber though back hallways at Queen’s Park. ...

The premier’s office declined to disclose Ford’s calendar for the past two weeks; an interview request with Global News was also denied and the office would not answer questions on when the premier would hold his next media availability. ...

When asked about the premier’s current whereabouts, Yelich said, “The premier is in Ontario.” She did not provide further details.

Government sources not authorized to speak publicly say advisors are telling the premier to stay out of the news until the federal election campaign is over.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5989758/where-is-doug-ford/

Ontario government cuts to Toronto city council size the day after Ford won the election despite the fact the Cons never discussed doing this during the election.  

Ontario government bureaucrats began working on reducing the size of Toronto City Council less than 24 hours after Premier Doug Ford won the provincial election last year, despite his Progressive Conservative Party not raising the idea during the campaign.

Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal that bureaucrats quickly started researching cutting the number of Toronto city councillors – timing that suggests the move was an undisclosed top priority for the newly elected Premier.

Mr. Ford made the bombshell announcement that the province was halving the number of Toronto’s wards in the middle of the subsequent municipal election campaign in late July, 2018. Toronto launched a legal challenge, which it lost on appeal last month but plans to ask the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to appeal the decision. ...

Julie O’Driscoll, a spokeswoman for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, did not address questions related to the timing of work to cut Toronto city council.

“We were elected on a promise to reduce the size and cost of government and to end the culture of waste and mismanagement; we acted quickly to do just that,” Ms. O’Driscoll said in an e-mail. ...

Mr. Ford’s surprise move to cut Toronto city council to 25 wards from the planned 47, which was not part of the PCs’ election platform and did not come up on the campaign trail, was widely criticized as overstepping. Mr. Ford, a one-term former Toronto city councillor who has railed about political gridlock at city hall, lost the 2014 mayoral race to Mr. Tory.

"I think this timing only reinforces the fact that the move to slash city council in half in the middle of an election was a political decision,” said Michal Hay, executive director of Progress Toronto, an activist group.

An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that the government’s intervention was unconstitutional in September, 2018, but the Court of Appeal granted the province’s request to put the ruling on hold pending a final decision. The municipal election proceeded with Mr. Ford’s 25-ward map last October.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-doug-ford-government-star...

Guess what! The new Ford government that was promised after five months of reflections is the old Ford government, with a small change in tone, but all the old policies. Their first piece of legislation reflects that as 'modernizing regulations' becomes a slogan for attacking environmental and other protections. 

The Ford government's first new legislation after a long summer break is aimed at reducing red tape and modernizing regulations, but there are worries that some of the proposed changes could weaken environmental protections.

The bill, called the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, was introduced on Monday at Queen's Park.

If passed, the legislation would result in regulatory changes across a wide variety of areas, including the environment, agriculture, food safety, alcohol, mining, post-secondary education, insurance, and many others. ...

But some environmentalists are worried about changes in the bill that would remove provisions around environmental protection.

"It's not terribly promising," said Keith Brooks, a program manager at the advocacy group Environmental Defence. ...

The new legislation will also repeal certain sections of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), including rules around collecting penalties from companies that contravene the act.

In some instances, companies found in violation of the EPA may be subject to a lower penalty, capped to a maximum of $200,000. Those penalties currently reach up to $100,000 per day in some cases.

Other provisions in the existing act are being repealed, including some in the EPA that govern emissions from motor vehicles.  ...

Brooks said environmental groups were still parsing the dense language and complex changes proposed in the new legislation. Some groups said they expect to discover more damaging changes in the coming days.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/red-tape-legislation-ontario-1.53...