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News Roundup for December 2, 2024
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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

www.thestar.com

Could this GTA mayor be the leader Ontario’s Liberals need to defeat Doug Ford?

Ontario Liberals are abuzz over the prospect of popular Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie running for the party leadership, sources told the Star.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

... a high-ranking Progressive Conservative official, who also spoke confidentially to reveal private conversations, confirmed Crombie is the one potential Liberal candidate who concerns the premier.

“She’s the only one who gets inside his head,” said a PC insider, conceding Crombie is effective at pushing Ford’s buttons on issues like municipal development charges and Mississauga’s bid to break away from Peel Region.
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Doug Ford’s campaign finance law struck down by court​

The Ontario Court of Appeal has struck down Premier Doug Ford’s controversial campaign finance law that limits spending by unions and other third parties.​

From link.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has struck down Premier Doug Ford’s controversial campaign finance law that limits spending by unions and other third parties.

In a significant legal victory Monday for labour unions and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the court has given Ford’s government “12 months to allow Ontario to fashion Charter-compliant legislation.”

“The challenged spending restrictions infringe the informational component of the voter’s (Charter) right to meaningful participation in the electoral process, as set out by the Supreme Court,” the court ruled.

In 2021, Ford invoked the Charter of Rights’ “notwithstanding” clause to overturn a judge’s ruling that his legislation limiting election spending by third-party groups was unconstitutional.

While the court of appeal found “the notwithstanding clause was properly invoked,” it concluded the Progressive Conservatives still infringed upon Charter rights.

The legislation, which Ford rushed through before the June 2022 election, disallows third-party political action committees from spending more than $600,000 on advertising and other activities in the 12 months before a vote.

It was challenged by the Working Families coalition of unions, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, among others.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the government would “review” the decision and “we’ll have more to say later.”

“It never feels good to lose,” said Bethlenfalvy.

The Tories still have the option of appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Cara Zwibel, director of fundamental freedoms for the civil liberties association, said it was “encouraging that the court has found the overly broad third-party spending limits unconstitutional.”

“But (it is) concerning that the lower court’s error (in finding no violation of the right to vote) had potential to impact the last election,” said Zwibel.

“The Ontario government tried to insulate its unconstitutional legislation by invoking the notwithstanding clause. The court of appeal’s finding that the right to vote was unreasonably infringed, making the notwithstanding clause irrelevant to the analysis, is therefore a very important victory,” she said.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles — whose party, like the Liberals and the Greens, had opposed Ford’s restrictions — said “it’s just yet another example of how wrong this government is getting it when they trample on the democratic rights of Ontarians.

“We will continue … to stand up against them and for the democratic rights of all Ontarians,” said Stiles.

Liberal MPP Stephen Blais (Orleans) noted it was another example of the Tories losing in court.

“The premier likes to position himself as a fighter — someone who’s going to fight for Ontarians. When I look at a fighter, I want someone who’s going to win one every once in a while,” said Blais.

“This government has a track record of going into the big fight and losing,” he said.

“When you’re spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars trying to change critical pieces of legislation — trying to use the notwithstanding clause to subvert people’s rights — I think Ontarians would prefer that that money be invested into health care and education.”
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Ontario to ban TikTok from government devices​

From link.

The Ontario government announced Thursday it will ban the social media app TikTok from all government-issued devices.

Effective immediately, all PC party caucus members will also begin the removal of the application from all personal mobile devices, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, President of Ontario's Treasury Board announced Thursday.

“The decision to block the TikTok application from government-issued and personal devices is a proactive and precautionary approach to ensuring the protection of government data and networks,” Sarkaria said in a written statement.

“While no data breaches have occurred, our government takes all allegations and concerns about data integrity incredibly seriously," the statement continued.
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As part of this ban, government advertising campaigns will also be removed from TikTok.

The move comes a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the app would be removed from all federally-issued government devices in an effort to mitigate cybersecurity risks.

The Ontario government is urging residents to “review the terms and conditions of any application they use to ensure they are making an informed decision about how those tools use information.”

The move comes a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the app would be removed from all federally-issued government devices in an effort to mitigate cybersecurity risks.

The Ontario government is urged residents in its statement to “review the terms and conditions of any application they use to ensure they are making an informed decision about how those tools use information.”
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Ontario considers expanding scope of practice for nurses, pharmacists, and more​

From link.

Ontario is considering expanding the scope of what certain health professionals, such as nurses, can do in periods of "high patient volumes."

A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones says it's part of a large health bill currently before the legislature and is intended to help with staffing levels on a short-term basis during those surge periods.

A key aim of the legislation is to allow more private clinics to offer certain publicly funded surgeries and procedures, in a bid to lower wait times, though critics are concerned about the expansion of private delivery of public health care.


Jones' spokesperson, Hannah Jensen, says the ministry is looking at giving registered nurses prescribing powers, allowing nurse practitioners to order and apply defibrillation and apply ECGs, and allowing pharmacists to administer "certain substances" by injection or inhalation, among other expansions.
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It comes as the NDP and the Ontario Health Coalition advocacy group are raising concerns about language in the health bill they say could deregulate certain health professions and allow people to call themselves doctors and nurses, even if not necessarily qualified.

But Jones says that section of the bill is intended to allow for new "as of right" rules, which would let health professionals work in Ontario without having to immediately register with the regulatory colleges in this province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2023.
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What about paying them what they are worth?

Kill Bill 124.
 

Ottawa claws back $82M from health transfers to 8 provinces charging private fees​

From link.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says he is clawing $82 million in federal health transfers to the provinces for charging patients for services that should have been covered by the public purse.

Eight provinces will see reductions in their next health transfer from the federal government over fees charged to patients in 2020 and 2021.

Most of the deductions are related to fees for diagnostic services such as MRIs and CT scans.
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health-deductions-chart-1024x373.jpg

Chart showing clawbacks in federal health transfers to the provinces.
“There should be no fees for medically necessary healthcare services wherever people may live in this country,” said Duclos.

Duclos says concerns are being raised about more fees for patients, particularly around virtual healthcare and other changes that were forced on by the pandemic.

“Working together I believe we can all better address those challenges and ensure that in Canada for the years to come, despite the changes that we’ll see in technology and delivery of healthcare, we will make sure that Canadians get access to free medically necessary services.”

The federal Liberal government enacted a new policy on diagnostic services in 2020 ensuring fees for such tests were covered by the Canada Health Act’s single-payer policy.

The Canada Health Act allows the federal government to reduce health transfers when provinces charge user fees for medically necessary health services.

Duclos has also written to every province and territory to warn them about an increase in private fees being charged for other services, including virtual patient visits.
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tiffer24 said:
Oops.

PC Ontario provincial parliament member Vincent Ke, an ally of Premier Doug Ford, is suspected as having served as an intermediary in a Chinese government plot to interfere in Canadian elections in a January 2022 report by the Privy Council Office.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9430612/chinese-government-canada-election-interference/
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And now he's quickly resigned from the PC's to sit independent.
In a statement to CTV News Toronto on Friday night, Premier Doug Ford’s office confirmed that Ke, who represents Don Valley North at Queen’s Park offered to depart the PC caucus “out of an abundance of caution.”
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Confirmation of what I've been hearing about for sometime; Volkswagen's first overseas giga-factory, for EV batteries is coming to Ontario.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

Volkswagen to establish EV battery plant in Ontario - BNN Bloomberg

Volkswagen announced plans on Monday to establish an electric vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas, Ont.
www.bnnbloomberg.ca www.bnnbloomberg.ca

This was hinted at with a shift of municipal boundaries ordered by the province a short while ago to create a 1,500 acre mega-site entirely within one municipality.
 

Federal government steps into Greenbelt debate, launching study that could delay some development​

The federal government will study Rouge National Urban Park to better understand the impacts of housing developments planned by the Ontario government.​


www.thestar.com

Federal government steps into Greenbelt debate, launching study that could delay some development

The federal government will study Rouge National Urban Park to better understand the impacts of housing developments planned by the Ontario government.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
 
DSC said:

Federal government steps into Greenbelt debate, launching study that could delay some development​

The federal government will study Rouge National Urban Park to better understand the impacts of housing developments planned by the Ontario government.​


www.thestar.com

Federal government steps into Greenbelt debate, launching study that could delay some development

The federal government will study Rouge National Urban Park to better understand the impacts of housing developments planned by the Ontario government.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
Click to expand...
Good, it was utterly stupid of the provincial government to even dare touch Rouge Park. I personally don't care much about the other parts he's touching, but touching the park? Big fat no no.
 
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