Union ads attack McGuinty, Hudak for backing tax cuts
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
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’
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
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
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
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
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
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 | 2 Comments »
Ontario seeks bigger bang for charities
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
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
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
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
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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 »
Ontario deficit to last into 2017 [welfare costs]
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Mar 16 2010
[the] budget next week is also expected to close a loophole and curb abuse of a social assistance program that has ballooned to $200 million a year. About one in five people on welfare – some 162,000 Ontarians – receive the monthly extra payments of up to $250. That has led to the program growing to $200 million from $6 million a year in 2003, which the government argues is not sustainable.
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario wants more foreign students
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Mar 08 201
Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to transform Ontario into a beacon for foreign students, allow Crown corporations to compete globally, and sell clean-water expertise to a thirsty world…
“Open Ontario,” detailed in the speech to be read by Lieutenant-Governor David Onley in the Legislature, is a five-year plan that promises to improve access to colleges and universities for Ontarians by subsidizing them with fees from international students.
Posted in Debates, Governance Debates | No Comments »
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