Editorials, Letters & Political Commentary

With Todd Smith’s announcement today, Ontario’s autism community has learned that once again, children will be stuck waiting for needs-based therapy. Despite a committment last year that a needs-based program would be ready and accessible by April 2020, the government continues to stall and delay. As children continue to languish on an ever-increasing waitlist, access to meaningful therapeutic support remains ...

Andrea Horwath, Leader of the Official Opposition New Democrats, released the following statement in response to Premier Doug Ford’s news conference Wednesday, in which he defended his decision to send kids back to school with regular, large class sizes for all primary school students and many high school students. “Like many parents, teachers, educators and health experts, I was horrified ...

NDP Early Learning and Childcare critic Doly Begum responded to the Ford government announcement that child care centres are permitted to open at full capacity as of Sept. 1: “Doug Ford has quietly put out a notice that child care centres can fully re-open on Sept. 1, but child care centres don’t just need permission from the government; they desperately ...

Teresa Armstrong, Long-term Care critic for Ontario’s Official Opposition NDP released the following statement in response to the release of the province’s study on staffing in long-term care: “Today’s report confirms what health care workers, health experts, and families of seniors in long-term care have been saying for literally years. Our province’s long-term care homes are facing a profound staffing ...

The Ford government’s back-to-school scheme stacks kids in overcrowded classrooms, while forcing many high school students to do half their education alone at home with little to no help — putting students’ health and academic success at risk so that Ford can save money on the backs of students, again.   NDP Education critic Marit Stiles said the right solution ...

Gurratan Singh, the NDP critic for the Attorney General, said Premier Doug Ford is not only failing to take immediate action in long-term care, but by establishing a backroom premier’s commission that fails to do what a public inquiry must, he’s allowing long-standing problems to continue indefinitely.   “Over 1,840 people have died in long-term care during this pandemic. Those ...

Monique Taylor, NDP critic for Children and Youth Services, and Sol Mamakwa, NDP critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation released the following statement in response to the Ford government’s announcement on children services on Wednesday.   “We share the desire of Indigenous communities, families and child welfare providers for real transformation of the child welfare system that centres on the ...

NDP Municipal Affairs critic Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre) and NDP Transit critic Jessica Bell (University—Rosedale) are calling on the Ford government to commit to supporting municipalities over the long-term, after the government said Monday it would distribute “up to” $4 billion in one-time funding.   For two years before the pandemic, Doug Ford made deep cuts to municipalities, including cuts to ...

Dear Brenda: I believe all Northern Ontarians owe a debt of gratitude to the publicly-funded Northern Policy Institute (NPI) for that report by a Manitoba academic undermining the case for passenger trains and praising intercity bus transportation as a northern travel alternative.  This landmark report clearly establishes some previously unrecognized points sure to warm the cockles of northern hearts, including: ...

The Ontario NDP has done some research, and say that despite Doug Ford’s claims, the Conservatives have been spending less and less on education infrastructure.   “It’s insulting for Doug Ford and his education minister to claim they’re doing anything to fix our crumbling classrooms and jam-packed schools when they’re actually cutting the budget, year after year,” said Marit Stiles, ...

With one charge now laid in the case of stolen customer data from the 407 ETR, the NDP says Premier Doug Ford still hasn’t answered lingering questions about how that data may have been used.   “We asked during the 2018 election whether the PC Party or any of their candidates used even a single name from that stolen customer ...

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Doug Ford shouldn’t just hope it’ll be safe for students to attend school five days a week in the fall — he should make it safe.   The Official Opposition leader was in Brampton Friday, where she acknowledged the pressure parents are coping with, and the solution she believes the premier should be putting in ...

Governments do not have an unlimited pile of cash. This point often gets missed in the public debate about what government should, or should not, do. Passionate advocates for projects will simply argue that their program is worth it, or that it only costs so many cents per taxpayer. Politicians and public servants on the other hand, face the reality ...

Doug Ford fait encore une fois faux bond aux Franco-Ontarien(ne)s en déposant une loi omnibus qui pose de sérieux risques pour l’intégrité de l’éducation en langue française, ont déclaré la porte-parole de l’opposition officielle en matière d’éducation, Marit Stiles, et le porte-parole de l’opposition officielle en matière d’affaires francophones, Guy Bourgouin.   L’annexe 15 du Projet de loi 197 élargira ...

Doug Ford is failing Franco-Ontarians yet again with omnibus legislation that poses serious risks to the integrity of French language education, said Official Opposition Education Critic, Marit Stiles, and Official Opposition Critic for Francophone Affairs, Guy Bourgouin.   Schedule 15 of Bill 197 will expand the mandate of the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority and further centralize the establishment, administration ...