Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

[W. K. Lis]

Waiting for word from the Chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences...

From link.

Michael D. Harris
Chair of the Board

Mr. Harris is a senior business advisor at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, a law firm, and was previously a senior business advisor at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and prior to that at Goodmans LLP. Mr. Harris was the Premier of the Province of Ontario from 1995 to 2002. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., FirstService Corporation, Route 1 Inc. (Chair), Element Financial Corporation, and is a former Director and Chair of Magna International Inc. and a former Director of Augen Capital Corporation (former Chair) and EnGlobe Corporation (former Chair). He received his ICD.D designation in April 2005.

Premier Doug Ford has friends to look after, of course. Not bad for a former elementary school teacher (with connections).

 

[Northern Light]

The Star's Robert Benzie has some leaks from tomorrow's budget.

Notably several hundred million to go to rural/remote broadband and cell coverage.

Ontario budget will boost broadband and cell services, increase health spending

Finance Minister Rod Phillips’ budget will include a $680 million investment on broadband and cellular service.

www.thestar.com

 

[afransen]

Buy them all starlink dishes? I think this is a problem that will largely take care of itself over the next couple of years.

 

[lenaitch]

Buy them all starlink dishes? I think this is a problem that will largely take care of itself over the next couple of years.

They're publicly projecting US$80/month. Given Internet costs in Canada compared to most of the rest of the world, it will probably be about C$200 .

 

[afransen]

They're publicly projecting US$80/month. Given Internet costs in Canada compared to most of the rest of the world, it will probably be about C$200 .

It's going to cost the government a lot more to subsidize broadband for these customers.

I would also expect Starlink prices to be quite sensitive to demand. They will modulate prices in each geography to utilize their available capacity (there's a pretty hard upper limit unless they add more and more satellites or more capable satellites). It is currently just a beta test offering--they call it their Better Than Nothing service. But by next year and once they are licensed to operate in Canada they are going to disrupt rural internet service.

 

[Northern Light]

The provincial budget has dropped.

At first blush, there isn't much there, there. in terms of social/health investments.

The clear focus is on reducing business taxes/costs

It should be said, I agree with a couple of these.

I personally support higher, rather than lower corporate tax, as this applies only to profit.

Where I feel the focus should be is on reducing fixed costs incurred by a business irrespective of whether they are profitable.

In credit to this government, they are downward harmonizing the Business Education Tax rate province-wide, which will be a material relief for businesses, especially small businesses in the GTA.

They are also moving to permit a reduced small business property tax rate. I'm less sold on this one, I tend to think inordinate tax burdens on small business are a function of 'highest and best use' assessment and would be
better addressed in that way.

Also coming is a reduction in commercial power rates, funded by transferring the cost of certain high-payment power contracts to the province, from the rate payer.

I'm a bit mixed on this, as I believe in passing on the real cost of power as part of encouraging responsible consumption. That said, our rates had become somewhat excessive.

****

The most notable 'good news' in the budget I've seen is this: The government is also looking to expand the quantity and quality of the Greenbelt for future generations. This includes expanding conservation space by exploring the potential to support a large near-urban provincial park at East Humber Headwaters in King Township.

I will write an email in support of that!

****

More to come as I get into the nitty gritty.

 

[afransen]

Much like the boondoggles of the nuclear program that nearly bankrupted Ontario Hydro, the absurd Feed In Tariff bonanza offered by the McGuinty government is essentially a stranded debt too. I'm not sure ratepayers should be bearing the cost for ill-guided policy.

Note: I am not opposed to renewable energy, but the FIT was structured in almost a criminally negligent way to ensure we paid far too much for renewable energy.

 

[Northern Light]

Much like the boondoggles of the nuclear program that nearly bankrupted Ontario Hydro, the absurd Feed In Tariff bonanza offered by the McGuinty government is essentially a stranded debt too. I'm not sure ratepayers should be bearing the cost for ill-guided policy.

Note: I am not opposed to renewable energy, but the FIT was structured in almost a criminally negligent way to ensure we paid far too much for renewable energy.

It should have been tendered, with no guarantee of a lowest bidder award (that is to say, the FIT rates likely should have been hard caps, with competitive tendering and award at or under said maximum. So a low bid that was too high would not have garnered a contract.)

 

[jayme2016]

Much like the boondoggles of the nuclear program that nearly bankrupted Ontario Hydro, the absurd Feed In Tariff bonanza offered by the McGuinty government is essentially a stranded debt too. I'm not sure ratepayers should be bearing the cost for ill-guided policy.

Note: I am not opposed to renewable energy, but the FIT was structured in almost a criminally negligent way to ensure we paid far too much for renewable energy.

I am not sure if Ford has much of choice.

 

[jayme2016]

While minor the 12 million for the sewage covid research is a really good move.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Doug Ford welcomes Joe Biden’s election after souring on Donald Trump

From link.

Doug Ford was once one of the more prominent backers of Donald Trump in Canadian politics.

Now, the Ontario premier can’t wait to see the back of the defeated U.S. president, who lost last week’s election to former vice-president Joe Biden.

“I want to congratulate president-elect Biden and I look forward to working with anyone who has the best interests of Canadians and Ontarians at heart,” Ford told reporters Monday in Woodbridge.

“It was a real slap in the face when President Trump cut us off to the PPEs,” the premier said of a threatened embargo last April on key personal protective equipment, like 3M N95 masks, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat. We expect a good relationship and really focus on the economics. Ontario alone is United States’ third-largest trading partner in the world,” said Ford, who also railed against Trump’s trade-war salvos last summer.

“We need to be treated like the third-largest trading partner in the world. I don’t expect any tariffs and aluminum tariffs and anything else. Let’s work together.”

Trump’s July warning that he was considering levies on Canadian aluminum would have hurt Ontario companies.

“Full disclosure: I love the people in the U.S. We’re very fortunate to have a great country beside us and I just want the people of Canada, Ontario, to get the same respect from American leadership that we give,” said Ford, who ran a division of his family’s label business in Chicago for many years.

“If someone comes after our country, someone comes after our province, I’m going to go after them like a lion. What I want is a mutually rewarding relationship between ourselves and the U.S.”

Ford has had a decided change of heart on Trump since his Progressive Conservatives took office in June 2018.

In November 2016, he told Toronto Life there was “not a doubt in my mind” he would voted for Trump, whose sloganeering populism echoed the rhetoric of his so-called Ford Nation base.

Less than a year and a half later, in April 2018, Ford suggested Trump’s shtick may have been inspired by his family, including his late brother, Rob Ford, the controversial former Toronto mayor.

“We were around a lot longer than Donald Trump. And as much as the media’s trying to play on this, people realize the Fords have been in public service for 25 years helping people and ... there’s not even a comparison,” he said.

But Trump’s erratic response to the pandemic finally soured the premier on the president.

In September, during a wide-ranging discussion at the Ryerson Democracy Forum hosted by Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn, Ford reminded the audience how Canadians rallied to help Americans after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“I still can’t get over it. Yes, he’s not on my Christmas card list. I’m ticked off at him,” he said of the president.

When a Ryerson student suggested Ford was like Trump, the premier snickered.

“Boy, that was a real slap calling me Donald Trump. I’m anything but Donald Trump,” he said.

On Monday, Ford — who has worked closely with Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican predecessor, Rick Snyder, both of whom endorsed Biden — said he is hopeful relations with the U.S. improve under the new president.

“Let’s work together. It’s going to be beneficial for all sides of the border.”

 

[lenaitch]

I'm not sure ratepayers should be bearing the cost for ill-guided policy.

Ratepayer or taxpayer - take your pick I suppose.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

On top of Starlink there is a partially Canadian possibility - the Telesat LEO constellation.

Telesat Lightspeed LEO Network | Telesat

Telesat has developed the most advanced global network composed of 198 state-of-the-art Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, seamlessly integrated with on-ground data networks.

www.telesat.com

Given recent geopolitical developments maybe we need to take telecom sovereignty a bit more seriously.

AoD

 

[afransen]

It is rather impractical for each country to fly its own LEO constellation for internet. Canada is 2% of the planet's surface, so a Canada-only LEO constellation would have <2% utilization. And we most certainly don't have the launch capability to fly it so are dependent on foreign countries anyway.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ford government to take powers away from conservation authorities

From link.

The Doug Ford government is rewriting the rules for agencies that protect Ontario watersheds, undermining their powers and allowing developers to skip checks and balances, environmental advocates say.

In Ontario, 36 conservation authorities manage hazards like flood control and water quality, issue permits for construction in areas near crucial waterways and oversee conservation lands.

The changes to the rules governing them undermine the agencies’ ability to ensure development in flood-plains is done safely, said Conservation Ontario, a non-profit representing the 36 conservation authorities.


“It just reduces our ability to protect Ontario’s environment,” said Kim Gavine, the general manager of Conservation Ontario.

“It’s almost like death by a thousand cuts.”

The changes were nestled inside Bill 229, a bill introduced Thursday to enact measures the government outlined in its 2020 budget.

Ontario first created conservation authorities in 1946 after the province found that decades of poor planning had led to drought, deforestation, erosion and increased flooding. The current system was designed based on lessons learned in the wake of hurricane Hazel, which struck southern Ontario in 1954, killing 81 people and destroying homes that had been built on flood-plains. After the disaster, Ontario put conservation authorities in charge of flood forecasting and making sure development near waterways was done safely.

“It’s really about protecting people and property,” said Laurie Nelson, director of policy planning at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), referring to the current conservation authority rules.

The Ford government’s rewrite of those rules would chip away at conservation authorities’ power, allowing the minister of natural resources to take over some decision-making on developments. It would also allow developers to appeal conservation authorities’ decisions directly to the minister, who could then overturn them. And it would take away the agencies’ ability to appeal municipal planning decisions they believe could be harmful for conservation.

“It is a problem because it politicizes a process that is not political,” said Ontario NDP environment critic Ian Arthur.

“I think that the more that we politicize this, the more that we add in ministerial discretion or discretion on a municipal level, the less it does what it’s supposed to do.”

The changes put the interests of developers ahead of science-based decision-making, said Ontario Green party Leader Mike Schreiner.

“The climate crisis is only going to worsen flooding,” he said. “It’s just so short-sighted and reckless.”

Reduced flood protections could also be a “huge liability and safety risk,” said Tim Gray, the executive director of the non-profit Environmental Defence.

“Anything that removes oversight from an ecological or flood hazard perspective has the ability to increase risk,” he added.

Andrew Buttigieg, a spokesperson for Ontario Environment Minister Jeff Yurek, didn’t directly answer when asked about concerns around flood mitigation and safety. But he said the new rules would “increase accountability, consistency and transparency by streamlining the land use planning process,” and that improving the governance of conservation authorities is part of the province’s flood mitigation strategy.

“These changes would improve the governance, oversight and accountability of conservation authorities, while respecting taxpayer dollars by giving municipalities more say over the conservation authority services they pay for,” Buttigieg said in an email.

New rules would let government approve controversial development

Conservation authorities are governed by provincial rules, though municipal governments are also heavily involved.

They have a special role in development: While a municipal government might be concerned about economic issues or the environmental impact within its boundaries, a conservation authority looks at the cumulative effects on entire watersheds, which can span hundreds of square kilometres. The authorities employ scientists who assess the impact of each project.

The new rules, if passed, would theoretically allow the province to overrule concerns raised by those scientists.

One example is a controversial development in Pickering, Ont., that would pave over a protected wetland. Though the TRCA hasn’t officially decided whether to issue a permit or not, it has said it doesn’t generally support projects on protected wetlands ⁠— if the TRCA decided to deny the permit, the new legislation would allow the Ford government to overrule it.

“There will never be an answer of no,” Gray said.

The TRCA is also concerned about the changes, and in a statement Friday called on “partner municipalities, residents throughout our jurisdiction, and our network of supporters” to reach out to the province on its behalf.

“We really want to be able to protect our watersheds,” Nelson said. “And being a major landowner in the GTA, we want to ensure that our public lands are also protected.”

The government announced plans to change the rules for conservation authorities in 2019. That year, it also cut their funding for mitigating natural hazards like floods by 50 per cent and ordered conservation authorities to shut down programs the province deemed unnecessary.

Conservation authorities had been working with the province in good faith to streamline their permitting processes and tell the government what types of changes could be helpful, Gavine said.

“We’ve made great strides in improving turnaround times,” she added. “I believe that the changes that are being presented in the (new legislation) are not necessary in light of this improved work that we’ve seen.”

The legislation is likely to pass, since the Progressive Conservative government holds a majority.

It’s not clear what the full impact of the changes could be because the province has said it’s also writing a new set of regulations to go with the new rules, said Gavine. (Buttigieg didn’t answer when asked when the regulations would be finished.)
“I believe there’s other ways we could work co-operatively,” Gavine said.

“We fear that it’s going to impact our ability to look at the health of Ontario’s environment.”