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Ontario unleashes record spending for COVID-19 pandemic with $17B in emergency measures
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
Finance Minister Rod Phillips on Wednesday injected $3.3 billion more into health plus $3.7 billion for other supports and promised an additional $10 billion in tax deferrals, doubling the deficit to $20.5 billion… “COVID-19 is an extraordinary threat to the health and economy of Ontario…” “We will spend whatever it takes,” Ford told reporters.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Catholic teachers’ contract deal provides $33M for special education
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
The OECTA deal, which ends Aug. 31, 2022, keeps class sizes as they are for kindergarten to Grade 3 and slightly boosts the average size of classes to 24.5 students for Grades 4 to 8. Because some Catholic boards had larger class sizes — and because the tentative deal says exceptions will no longer be allowed — additional teachers will be hired in some areas… As for mandatory e-learning… two credits are still required for graduation but the government also agreed to an opt-out policy.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Ford government axes $1M funding boost for rape crisis centres
Wednesday, March 4th, 2020
The province has axed an additional $1 million in funding for the province’s 42 rape crisis centres, which are now warning that supports for survivors will have to be cut while wait lists for services will grow… Centres across the province will now have to let staff go, and end drop-in or after-hour programs for survivors… News of the funding cancellation came hours after the province’s financial watchdog reported that the government had underspent by $2 billion in the first three quarters of this fiscal year.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, mental Health, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Secret government reports say public doesn’t like Ford’s education plans
Friday, February 28th, 2020
“Do not increase class sizes” — and forget about e-learning. Those were two main messages for the Ford government from more than 7,000 public submissions during last year’s education consultations, according to the province’s own summaries obtained by the Star. The reports — which the government has refused to release — were entered as evidence at an ongoing Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing into allegations by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association that the province engaged in bad-faith bargaining
Tags: budget, ideology, participation
Posted in Education Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario wants to pool public sector benefits, potentially saving millions
Wednesday, October 9th, 2019
… some pooling exists now, but the new plan would end the current patchwork system. The new system is being targeted at the health care sector, as well as colleges and universities… The move is part of the government’s focus on public sector compensation, which represents $72 billion, about one half of government spending.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Strike-averting deal with Ontario education workers includes $20M to bring back laid off support staff
Monday, October 7th, 2019
The provincial government will spend $20 million a year to ensure support staff who were laid off last month return to Ontario schools — and remain there for the next three years — and another $58 million annually to help create more support for special education students… educational assistants, early childhood educators, custodians and office staff — also retained all sick day benefits…
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
New sex-ed curriculum builds on previous Liberal version
Thursday, August 22nd, 2019
The new curriculum modernizes and builds on the one introduced by the Liberals in 2015 and even retains much of the material that originally caused all the controversy. That should allay concerns among educators that social conservatives were going to force changes that could put students — especially LGBT youth — at risk.
Tags: Health, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Ford government to cap pay raises for public servants in bid to control spending
Wednesday, June 5th, 2019
TheStar.com – Politics June 5, 2019. By Robert Benzie, Rob Ferguson, Kristin Rushowy, Queen’s Park Bureau In a bid to rein in spending, Premier Doug Ford is threatening to impose a cap on pay hikes for 1 million public servants. Ford’s Progressive Conservatives on Wednesday tabled legislation that would limit annual wage increases to 1 per cent when […]
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Autism layoffs ‘premature,’ says Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod
Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
Her ministry will hold consultations through the summer to determine how to move forward on more needs-based funding… Taylor accused the Ford government’s plan of putting families “in crisis, and we have a complete disaster of an autism program right now in the province because the minister failed to communicate before she put the policy in place.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Mandatory e-learning announced by Ford government comes under fire from NDP
Tuesday, March 26th, 2019
“this is not about 21st century learning, this is not about technology; this is about making students take courses online that are now mandatory… This is about removing 10,000 teachers from our classrooms.”… student leaders have already asked the province to back off on making such credits necessary for graduation.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | 1 Comment »
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