Bill 33 doesn’t dissolve Ontario’s school boards — but it’s yet another hit to their power
Wednesday, June 4th, 2025
At the point where cabinet is asserting the power to micro-manage the real estate portfolios of boards (and even pick and choose when schools can be renamed) it’s time to ask whether school boards actually serve a purpose anymore, or whether we’d be better off governing public education with more direct and clear lines of accountability to the premier and his cabinet.
Tags: Education, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario will uncrate a statue of Canada’s first prime minister. What took so long?
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025
The statue can acknowledge our first prime minister’s singular contribution to the creation of one of the world’s most successful countries. But the plaque can also acknowledge that Macdonald was flawed, and while some of his views were quite progressive for the time (such as voting rights for women and Indigenous people), other views, such as the worthiness of residential schools, clearly don’t stand the test of time.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
The rise and fall of co-op housing in Ontario
Tuesday, November 5th, 2024
Toward the end of the last century, the construction of co-operative housing — and social housing more broadly — garnered substantial federal and provincial investments: thousands of co-operative units were built every year for a span of nearly three decades. But a nexus of political, economic, and social factors in the late 1990s ground the breakneck pace of construction to a crawl. Today, units in co-operative buildings are coveted by those looking for affordable-housing options in an increasingly unaffordable market.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario taxpayers fork over $4.3 million to settle legal costs in Bill 124 cases
Wednesday, October 16th, 2024
In a 2-1 decision earlier this year, the Appeal Court struck down the law, saying it infringed on workers’ Charter rights. The province accepted defeat and, soon after, repealed the law in its entirety… The province has so far paid out $6.7 billion for retroactive pay increases to broader public-sector workers after the law was struck down. Taxpayers would have been on the hook for those salary bumps either way, but the additional legal costs were a waste of money, leaders of the opposition parties said.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Toronto hospital to open permanent supportive housing apartments for homeless people
Monday, October 7th, 2024
A new housing project for those who live on the streets and frequently end up in the emergency room is set to welcome its first residents in Toronto this month, supported by one of the largest hospital networks in Canada… The hope is that the project will ease pressures on hospitals while also providing stable care for vulnerable individuals… [and] a playbook for other jurisdictions or other partnerships between every level of government, between hospital and community, to try to advance concrete solutions for people
Tags: disabilities, Health, homelessness, housing, mental Health
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario reduces child-care fees, introduces new operator funding formula
Sunday, August 18th, 2024
The new funding structure, which will come into effect January 1, also comes with an announcement that as of the same day the fees parents pay will be further reduced. They have already come down about 50 per cent to an average of $23 a day and next year will fall to an average of $19, and capped at $22. Those will be cut further to an average of $10 a day by March 2026, a date pushed back from an earlier pledge of September 2025.
Tags: budget, child care, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Why you should care about Ontario’s riding boundaries
Thursday, August 8th, 2024
… electoral-riding maps are essential to how our democracy operates, to deciding who is represented by whom and at what ratio of elected representatives to population, to quite literally mapping out who gets heard and by whom and how. The Ford government should at least launch a review of the electoral map and commit to ensuring that every resident has fair, adequate, and near-equal representation. And if it’s not willing to take that on, it should take the federal boundaries and adopt them.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Crown must settle with First Nations for breaching Robinson treaties: Supreme Court
Thursday, August 1st, 2024
The Crown made a mockery of its treaty promise to the Anishinaabe in Ontario by freezing annual payments to First Nations for 150 years, and it now must make things right, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled… The decision noted that the Crown has derived “enormous economic benefit” from the land through mining and other activities over the years, while First Nations communities have suffered with inadequate housing and boil-water advisories. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said people have been living in abject poverty.
Tags: budget, featured, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Ontario considering expanding pharmacists’ powers to treat more common ailments
Thursday, August 1st, 2024
… the province is consulting with the industry on treating 14 more common ailments, such as a sore throat, shingles, and some sleep disorders… the government is also looking at allowing pharmacists to order and perform tests for strep throat and to administer additional vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria, pneumococcal, and shingles… [and] giving pharmacy technicians the power to administer vaccines for hepatitis, rabies, and meningitis.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Is the cap on for-profit centres hampering growth of $10-a-day child care in Ontario?
Wednesday, July 10th, 2024
In the deal with the federal government, Ontario committed… to maintaining a ratio in the $10-a-day system of 70 per cent non-profit spaces and 30 per cent for-profit spaces… while there have been about 51,000 new spaces since 2019 for the kids five and under… only 25,500 of those are within the $10-a-day system… Ontario needs to address its own funding formula and workforce issues before seeking to expand for-profit daycares.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
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