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Daycare! Why, you're just a latte-sipping elite...
Yeah, miserable Ontarians shouldn't complain about paying $30+ a day for day care when other provinces… I mean, look at Quebec and their $7/day subsidized cost! All that spending and they aren't Ontario yet!
 
Today the Ford government has--without warning or consultation--ordered Ontario's conservation authorities to "wind down" non-essential programs. But no one knows what that means. Is water quality monitoring essential? Are flood programs essential?
 

Cottage owners and people up in that area seem like PC voters.
 
Doug Ford does not care about the environment based on this:

Ontario government urges winding down of conservation programs to conserve cash

From link.

The cash-strapped Progressive Conservative government is hoping to conserve money by winding down some conservation programs.

Conservation Ontario said local municipalities and conservation authorities were been told in a letter last Friday from Premier Doug Ford’s administration to shut down any initiatives that are not related to their “core mandate.”

“This is confusing and extremely disappointing,” said Kim Gavine, general manager of the association representing the province’s 36 conservation authorities that oversee watershed management and other ecological matters.

“We’ve been caught completely by surprise. We’ve been working for months in good faith with the government to make a number of planning and development approvals streamlining changes to support their agenda to eliminate the deficit and implement the housing strategy,” Glavine said.

The changes were first reported Monday by the National Observer, an online news publication.

Environment Minister Jeff Yurek confirmed late Monday night that the letter had been sent to Conservation Ontario.

“Over the years, conservation authorities have expanded past their core mandate into activities such as zip-lining, maple syrup festivals and photography and wedding permits,” he said.

Yurek noted the Tories had signaled the changes in the More Homes, More Choice Act earlier this year, the legislation designed to make it easier to build new homes.

“Bringing conservation authorities back to their core mandate will allow municipalities to better manage conservation authority budgets and programs,” the minister said.

“The legislative changes we’ve made ensure conservation authorities focus on delivering core services and programs that protect communities from natural hazards and flooding while using taxpayer dollars efficiently and effectively,” he said.

But Glavine said the move effectively downloads conservation programs and services to municipalities.

“It was a very pre-emptive move that disregards the process and relationship that conservation authorities and municipalities have together,” she said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner criticized the Tories for being pennywise and pound foolish.

“This move by Ford is fiscally irresponsible,” said Schreiner.

“Going after conservation authorities when the risks of flooding is on the rise will lead to more infrastructure damage from extreme weather, costing us more in the long run,” he said.

Thanks mostly to a controversial accounting change, the Conservatives have ballooned the deficit to $10.3 billion this year from the previous Liberal government’s projected shortfall $6.7 billion in 2018-19.

Unlike the Liberals, the Tories no longer include as assets some $11 billion held in the government co-sponsored Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union Pension Plan and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

Former finance minister Vic Fedeli, who was adamant about excluding the pension holdings even though it put the government in a more challenging fiscal position, has since been demoted to economic development minister.

Rod Phillips is now the finance minister.
 
Doug Ford does not care about the environment based on this:

Ontario government urges winding down of conservation programs to conserve cash

From link.

This a case both of over-reach; and a failure to be persuasive by outlining/discussing real concerns.

Conservation authorities by definition manage large swaths of natural heritage lands (forests/wetlands/waterways etc.)

Those stretched mandates that are directly related to managing said lands, such as invasive species control, promoting biodiversity, conducting/facilitating research on the function and health of said lands, reforestation, recreation of wetlands and the like should absolutely be maintained, made part of core mandates and funded appropriately.

That said, there are some over-reaches that could and probably should be, dialed back.

Looking at the TRCA, it has the Living City program which is about everything from energy conservation to sustainable building materials to green energy which to me really does over-reach their mandate.

It soaks up dollars that could be redirected to naturalization efforts and/or land acquisition

There is some other room for trimming too, though I would favour reinvesting those dollars back into what I see as core mandates rather than assuming a net savings.

Instead of narrowly focusing on promoting some improved efficiency and reprioritization of resources.........they wander off on a seemingly ideological tangent that makes no particular sense. Sigh
 
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The Ontario government will announce tomorrow it is preparing to eliminate OHIP coverage for up to a dozen medical services it considers outdated and “inappropriate."

http://torstar.co/7oTV50vDZUe

You can thank Doctor Doug Ford for that. Practising medicine without a license and after dropping out of post-secondary school, without a degree in anything.
 

So in the end, the PC's just expand on the Liberal's sex-ed program.

NEW:
@TGranicAllen
, whose social conservative supporters delivered Doug Ford the
@OntarioPCParty
leadership 529 days ago, denounces sex-ed changes: "Doug Ford has broken his promise to Ontario parents. Another Doug Ford lie.” #onpoli #onted

I love SoCon tears.
 

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