Editorials, Letters & Political Commentary

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 ...

NDP MPP Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain) tabled a motion in the Ontario legislature Tuesday urging the Ford government to implement a plan to meet the needs of children with special needs and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.   “For months, families have been struggling to support their children with special needs and parents are feeling isolated and burnt out.” ...

Ontario’s Auditor General has confirmed that Doug Ford ignored her warnings and broke Ontario’s environmental laws yet again, this time by ramming through major environmental changes without public consultation on its omnibus Bill 197.   After concerns raised by NDP Environment critic Ian Arthur, and in an interview with the National Observer, Bonnie Lysyk, Ontario’s Auditor General, confirmed that the government ...

The Ontario NDP’s Long-term Care critic, Teresa Armstrong, released the following statement in response to an Ontario Health Coalition  (OHC) survey that shows 95 per cent of long-term care staff report seniors’ basic needs continue to go unmet due to staffing shortages:   “Thousands of families are grieving the loss of a loved one in long-term care, and countless more ...

After the Doug Ford government abruptly shut down the Ontario legislature Tuesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the entire sitting was a lost opportunity to help people make it through COVID-19. “We could have used this session to make seniors safer in long-term care, including adding more workers for every shift, and making their jobs full-time and better paid,” said ...

Tom Rakocevic, Ontario NDP Auto Insurance critic, is calling on the Ford government to stop letting auto insurers gouge Ontarians, as drivers get handed huge rate increases mid-pandemic.   The Ford government has refused to require auto insurers to provide discounts during the pandemic as accidents and driving plunged. Now the quarterly update on auto insurance rates is overdue and ...

NDP Official Opposition House Leader Gilles Bisson (Timmins) has issued the following statement:   “Doug Ford has abruptly shut down the Ontario legislature for the summer after ramming through legislation that will do nothing to help Ontarians dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 health and economic crisis people across the province are still dealing with. Andrea Horwath and the NDP wanted ...

Dear Brenda,   The Northern Policy Institute (NPI) recently published a report titled “The Thin Case for Passenger Rail in Ontario’s Northern Regions” which has left me in a state a profound dismay and disappointment. It contains some very misleading information and does little to improve sustainable transportation options desired by Northerners.   The document in question attempts to undermine ...