Dwight Duncan demands Ottawa release censored report showing Ontario is shortchanged by equalization
Jan 26 2012
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is demanding Ottawa release a classified federal report that reveals Ontario gets shortchanged by the national equalization wealth-sharing scheme… “The report makes it increasingly clear that because of the policies of the government of Canada, Ontario families are subsidizing programs and services in other parts of Canada that Ontarians themselves do not enjoy”… “It’s time that the biases against Ontario be removed and that we begin to look at this thing realistically.”
Tags: budget, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
More can be done to combat ‘wage theft,’ labour minister admits
May 12 2011
… a new report that found one-third of low-income workers had their wages withheld or stolen by employers… a Workers’ Action Centre report… concluded that “the lack of protection in Ontario workplaces leaves many of the workers … with little hope of getting the wages they’re owed, resulting in significant economic hardship.”… DiNovo urged the government to follow recommendations such as targeting “industries like cleaning, hospitality, retail and construction, where newcomers to our province have a long, long history of substandard employment practices.”
Tags: crime prevention, economy, immigration, rights
Posted in Employment Delivery System | No Comments »
McGuinty government slashes redundant agencies
Mar 15 2011
The Liberals are scrapping more than a dozen redundant agencies in the wake of a sweeping report urging better governance of provincial organizations… referring to the 258 agencies, boards, commissions, councils, authorities, foundations and trusts overseen by Queen’s Park… Gone are the Toronto Area Transit Operating Agency, the Social Assistance Review Board… {Their] elimination… will save only $200,000 a year. The government will, however, reap $4.2 million from the stadium agency’s bank account for provincial coffers, and any additional assets will be sold off.
Tags: budget, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Union ads attack McGuinty, Hudak for backing tax cuts
Jan 19 2011
OPSEU president Warren Thomas said the union spent $100,000 on the ads because members “want corporate tax cuts to be part of the election campaign. “If it gets people’s attention and gets people thinking and talking about it, that is a good thing,” said Thomas “Humour always paves the way.” The website features a running tally of hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on corporate tax cuts and boasts a shop for gear such as emblazoned boxer shorts, pet bowls, baby jumpers, mugs and T-shirts.
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Ombudsman charges G20 secret law was ‘illegal’
Dec. 7, 2010
It was “illegal” and “likely unconstitutional” for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government to pass a secret regulation that police used to detain people near Toronto’s G20 summit of world leaders last summer, says Ombudsman Andre Marin. In a scorching 125-page report entitled Caught in the Act, Marin said the measure “should never have been enacted” and “was almost certainly beyond the authority of the government to enact.”
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Governor General urges Ontario to act on adoption and infertility
Dec 02 2010
In 2008, the McGuinty Liberals asked Johnston to head the Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption, as part of an election promise. The panel’s August 2009 report “Raising Expectations” recommended Ontario become the best jurisdiction in the world in which to have a family, the Governor General said. To do that, the report called for an overhaul of the province’s adoption bureaucracy, which currently allows thousands of Crown wards to languish in foster care while several thousand families wait years to adopt.
Tags: child care, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Why Ottawa and Queen’s Park embraced the HST
Jun 30 2010
The shocking policy shift, the federal treasurer would confide, was because “Bay St. had gotten to McGuinty and convinced him.” Indeed, a 25-page report, “Time For A Vision Of Ontario’s Economy,” by then TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond was critical to McGuinty’s change of heart. Released on Sept. 29, 2008, the sobering study took a longer term view of Ontario’s economic prospects beyond the usual cyclical ups and downs and concluded trends were heading in a scary direction.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario seeks bigger bang for charities
Apr 22 2010
“We want to build, develop, and enhance the not-for-profit sector by reviewing the structure and legislative framework,” a senior government official said Wednesday… to better coordinate the efforts between government and the various organizations… Trillium chair Helen Burstyn noted… “As a percentage of (gross domestic product), Canada’s not-for-profit sector is the second largest in the world, behind only the Netherlands”.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Premier promises action on youth superjail
Mar 31 2010
“… I know you get just a few opportunities to turn young people around,” McGuinty said. “We want to have the best kinds of programming in there so that it improves them as people,” he said. “And we’re not accomplishing that right now.”…
The plan, released Wednesday, includes phasing in more staff training, anger-management programs for detainees and improving the assessment process that determines to what unit youths are directed on arrival.
Tags: corrections
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Daycare gets budget bailout
March 24, 2010
Insiders say Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will use Thursday’s budget to announce the Liberals will replace the federal funding that runs out on April 1. “This is very much a core value to us,” an official said, noting the government will also start the phase-in of all-day kindergarten for 4- and 5-year-olds this September and does not want to undermine that initiative by curbing daycare funding.
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Recent Posts