5 KEY CAMPAIGN PROMISES
- Put more money in the taxpayers’ pocket by eliminating the cap-and-trade program, reducing gas prices by 10 cents per litre, and cutting taxes for low- and middle-income families in the third year
- Clean up the hydro mess by firing the CEO of Hydro One and lowering hydro bills by 12%
- Create “good jobs” and send the message that Ontario is ‘Open for Business’ by lowering taxes, stabilizing hydro bills, and cutting red tape
- Restore accountability and trust by ordering a line-by-line audit of government spending to find $6 billion in “efficiencies”
- Cut hospital wait times by creating 15,000 new long-term care beds over the next 5 years and adding $3.8 billion in new support for mental health, addictions and housing
IDENTIFIED GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES
- Reducing burden on taxpayers
- Restoring accountability and trust in Ontario’s public finances
- Fostering job creation and economic prosperity
- Maintaining and improving hospitals, schools, and other vital public services
IDENTIFIED GOVERNMENT PLANNING GOALS
- Improving existing programs and services
- Closing out programs and services that are not meeting their intended purpose
- Combining programs and services that do or achieve the same thing
- Exploring the best way to deliver programs and services, including the most appropriate delivery channel
- Increasing public and stakeholder input in decision-making
- Making government spending more transparent
- Paying down the provincial debt
ACTIONS TO DATE (highlights)
June 2018
- Cancelled all of the programs that were funded by the $2.9 billion in revenues amassed through the cap-and-trade program – including school and social housing repairs as well as rebates for green energy retrofits
- Exited the cap-and-trade programand cancelled 758 green energy contracts
- Restricted access to free prescription drugs for Ontarians 24 and under, who currently do not have access to such benefits (i.e., a step backwards from universal pharma care)
- Eliminated key equity ministries, such as the Ministries Responsible for the Anti-Racism Directorate, for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, for Early Years and Child Care, for the Status of Women as well as the Ministries of Citizenship and Immigration, and of Research, Innovation, and Science
- Instituted a hiring freeze across the broader public sector with the exception of “essential frontline workers”
- Instituted a pay freeze across the broader public sector for executives, management, and employees not covered by collective bargaining
July 2018
- Legislated members of CUPE 3903 at York university back to work
- Launched a line-by-line audit of the Liberals’ spending across the broader public sector (i.e., the big kick off to Ford’s promise to find $6 billion in “efficiencies”)
- Reverted to the 1998 sex-ed curriculum until further consultation (i.e., failing to address important topics, such as same-sex relationships, social media, gender identity and expression, as well as consent)
- Halted creating mandatory curriculum for students in elementary and secondary school – on residential schools, Treaties, and Indigenous peoples’ contributions to Canada (i.e., #62 of the Truth and Reconciliation call to actions)
- Withdrew cooperation to help fund the resettlement of asylum seekers
- Forced out the Hydro One CEO and Board, paying the “$6-million-dollar man” at least $9 million upon retirement
- Cut a planned 3 per cent increase to social assistance in half and scrapped the basic income pilot program
- Cut the Liberals’ promised $2.1 billion over four years for new mental health funding with $1.9 billion over 10 years (i.e., $190 million per year instead of $525 million)
August 2018
- Announced intent to privatize the sale of cannabis
- Halted opening of new safe injection, overdose prevention sites
- Introduced a ‘snitch line’ on education workers, targeting those using the updated health curriculum
- Dropped the minimum price of a bottle or can of beer by 25 cents (i.e., ‘buck-a-beer’)
- Ended the practice of releasing Ministers’ mandate letters
- Commenced a value for money audit on all government programs and services (results are expected at the end of September 2018)
- Announced the requirement of post-secondary institutions to introduce a free speech policy by 2019
September 2018
- Intended to invoke the notwithstanding clause and overrode the Human Rights Code to slash the number of Toronto City Council seats
- Slashed the size of the Toronto City Council by nearly 50 per cent during the municipal election period
- Dismantled the subcommittees under the Anti-Racism Directorate purported to combat Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Black racism
- Declared a $15B deficit in a guise to cut and privatize public services
October 2018
- Allotted the sale of recreational cannabis to private retailers – in lieu of the LCBO
- Scrapped a scheduled three-cent-per-litre increase in the provincial beer tax
- Revoked a regulation that would have standardized training for volunteer firefighters across the province
- Paused the allocation of “parent reaching out grants”, which help fund school councils and student events
- Disbanded the expert panel to end violence against women
- Cut $307.3M from post-secondary education, rescinding funding for three university satellite campuses
- Scrapped worker protections in Bill 148 (e.g., minimum wage; equal pay for equal work; access to workplace information)
- Froze proactive workplace inspections
- Withheld $14.8M in promised funding from existing and new sexual assault centres
- Cancelled cannabis sales through the LCBO
November 2018
- Required all provincial agencies, as of 2019, to obtain approval of 1) their bargaining mandates and 2) ratification of collective agreements, potentially expanding this oversight to other areas of the broader public sector
- Passed Bill 57, Restoring Trust, Transparency, and Accountability Act (e.g., delayed the Pay Transparency Act; removed independent officers of the House; cancelled a small increase in taxes for high-income earners; rolled back rent control for existing units)
- Passed a transphobic policy resolution at the PC convention, calling on the government to remove gender identity references from the sexual education curriculum
- Re-announced the creation 6,000 new long-term care beds – more than 80 per cent of which were established under the previous government
- Introduced regressive social assistance reforms (e.g., limiting access for persons with disabilities)
- Lowered the bar to hire Ford-friendly OPP Commissioner, Ron Taverner
December 2018
- Legislated OPG workers back-to-work
- Cut $25M from school board funding, which funds tutors in classrooms and extra services for Indigenous and racialized students
- Revoked current and future funding for the College of Midwives of Ontario
- Slashed $5M in base funding to the Ontario Arts Council and more than $2 million to the Indigenous Culture Fund
- Appointed a new Ford-friendly Pay Equity Commissioner
- Introduced Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act(e.g., loosened home-based child care regulations; reclassified employers to avoid hiring well-trained unionized workers for public infrastructure projects; removed important health & safety regulations to maintain clean drinking water; repealed Employment Standards Actprovisions to protect vulnerable workers)
- Remained unmoved on eliminating street checks, despite the Independent Street Checks Review
January 2019
- [potentially] Dissolved Local Health Integration Networks
- Cut $15M from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which helps fund initiatives like the Coalition for Better Child Care
- Announced removing post-secondary grants for low-income students and reversing recent OSAP changes; reduced post-secondary operating funding through unfunded tuition reductions
- Announced the Student Choice Initiative, which will allow post-secondary students to opt out of union fees outside of “essential campus health and safety initiatives”
- Appointed their principal secretary as a full-time member of the Ontario Energy Board, who will earn $197K
- Compelled Hydro One to Avista Corp USD$103M after failed merger plan (cited Ford’s efforts to force Hydro One CEO to retire as a sign politics)
- [potentially] Removed the cap on class sizes for kindergarten and grades 1 to 3
- “Committed” to full-day kindergarten for this Fall, leaving it uncertain thereafter
- Announced intent to re-examine how and where beer is sold throughout Ontario
- Transitioned health and safety training from in-person to online, affecting 50,000 workplaces
February 2019
- [potentially] Dismantled government agencies such as Cancer Care Ontario and the Trillium Gift of Life Network, folding patient care into a “super agency”
- [potentially] Introduced voucher-based approach to children’s autism services (i.e., taking money away from regional agencies)
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