Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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Provincial legal aid cuts are senseless economic and social policy

Friday, April 19th, 2019

Defending the cuts, the attorney general states “there are two stakeholders that must always be front-of-mind: the clients LAO serves and the taxpayers who pay the bills.” But neither stakeholder is served by the cuts. The cuts certainly do not serve legal aid clients… The cuts also do not serve taxpayers… The court system will be further weighed down with subsequent appeals in these matters to fix the damage caused by initial subpar representation.

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Province pledges $1 billion for social housing, plans to restrict access to wait-lists

Wednesday, April 17th, 2019

Ontario has pledged to invest $1 billion to help repair social housing and reduce homelessness and plans to propose new rules restricting access to housing wait-lists, including a cap on how much potential tenants can be worth financially… Housing providers will also be empowered to “turn away tenants” who have been evicted for criminal activity… to reduce crime and gang-related violence in community housing so that all residents feel safer in their home,”

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NDP revives Tory bill curbing taxpayer-funded partisan ads in bid to embarrass Ford’s government

Wednesday, April 17th, 2019

NDP MPP Taras Natyshak is tabling private member’s legislation identical to a bill introduced by Tory MPP Sylvia Jones two years ago that would revive the auditor general’s powers to veto commercials deemed to be politically partisan… “Voting against this bill would be the height of hypocrisy,” he said, noting Jones and much of Ford’s cabinet strongly endorsed the measures in 2017.

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The Ford government is trying to make itself less accountable

Tuesday, April 16th, 2019

… this is the government that made itself less accountable to the public by firing the independent watchdogs for children, francophones and the environment. Now it appears to be cutting off another avenue of accountability by introducing legislation that critics say would make it harder to take legal action against the government by increasing the threshold necessary to proceed with litigation… there’s one legal challenge the government can’t avoid. That’s the one coming from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association if the legislation is passed.

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Ontario faculty alarmed by proposal to overhaul university funding in provincial budget

Monday, April 15th, 2019

The government’s proposal is especially alarming as it promises to tie university funding to 10 unannounced metrics and ignores the reality that Ontario’s universities already receive the lowest per-student funding in Canada… “The government should be helping to create good jobs for faculty forced to work short-term precarious contracts and support students by reversing their decision to cut OSAP grants and attack student democracy.”

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Time to reveal individual MD’s OHIP billings

Sunday, April 14th, 2019

The fact is, releasing physician-identified billings is hardly groundbreaking. It already occurs in British Columbia, Manitoba and New Brunswick and in the United States. But in Ontario, taxpayers have been left in the dark, wondering what to make of a health ministry audit conducted five years ago that raised some troubling questions… Allowing questionable billings to go unchallenged only serves to unfairly tarnish the reputations of all doctors.

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“Revolutionary” new funding to shake up Ontario’s colleges and universities

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

Performance funding is popular in the United States, where about 29 states used it last year… The primary motivation was to increase graduation rates, the report said. “Colleges would readily accept state funding based on ‘seats in the classroom,’ but faced no consequences if students failed or withdrew from the class or dropped out completely.” … while research is mixed, performance funding generally has not improved graduation rates… performance funding can also have unintended consequences.

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Lawyers condemn Doug Ford government cuts to legal-aid funding

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

A large cut to legal-aid funding from Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government will leave some of the province’s most vulnerable and impoverished people without proper representation in court, lawyers warn, while also slashing Legal Aid Ontario’s budget for refugee and immigration cases by two-thirds… the cuts will mean more courtroom delays and a lack of legal help for people fleeing oppressive regimes, fighting for the custody of their kids or facing other court proceedings.

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A forensic accountant’s take on the Ontario budget

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

Ontario taxes more and spends more, per capita, than Ottawa… Before annual debt costs, both Ontario and Ottawa are just treading water… Ontario has a $4.1 billion operating surplus ($280 per person). Ottawa’s operating surplus is $9.4 billion ($252 per Canadian)… Ontario — spending cuts for many, more money for a few… Among the 19 losing ministries are: … Children and Community Services… Environment… Indigenous Affairs… Training, Colleges and Universities

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That unexpected taste in Ontario’s budget? It’s austerity-lite

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

… even before Doug Ford was elected Premier, already had the lowest per-capita spending of any Canadian province. Tenth out of 10… Spending on… health, which claims roughly 40 cents on every government dollar, is budgeted to rise by just 1.6 per cent a year over the next three years. That’s less than the rate of inflation, and only about half the rate of inflation plus population growth… The government also plans to increase education spending by just 1.2 per cent a year over the next three years – while cutting post-secondary spending by 1 per cent a year and lowering spending on children and social services by 2.1 per cent a year.

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