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Ford Tracker: PC actions to date web version
Ford Tracker
ACTIONS TO DATE (highlights)
February 2021
• Sat on more than $400M in grants for small businesses despite thousands of applications,
many mired in processing delays or complications
• Refused to allow virtual sittings in new House session
• Continued to deny Ontarians paid sick leave despite growing calls, including an official
recommendation from Toronto City Council – only 10% of low-wage workers have access
to paid sick leave and account for 60% of workplace outbreaks
• Allegedly placed an angry phone call to top hospital brass over Brampton Dr.’s comments;
threatened hospital funding for cancer ward unless he was let go
• Appointed close friend of the PC Party’s Mulroney family as top bureaucrat
• Kept hoarding rapid-tests and sitting idle while workplace outbreaks surged with new U.K.
COVID-19 variant
• Announced $381M in additional funding for schools, failed to mention that it was federal
money
January 2021
• Said schools will reopen when rapid COVID-19 tests are deployed, despite sitting on
millions of rapid tests already procured
• Faced fresh round of criticism over proposed highway through the Western GTA from
multiple parties citing environmental, logistical, and needs-based issues
• Allegedly had another prominent physician fired over comments critical of PC policies
• Attacked the credibility of top epidemiologist who has been critical of government action
• Spent just $612 per Ontarian on the pandemic; less than Quebec, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C, which have each spent more
• Dismissed concerns of outbreaks and deaths at LTC homes, prompting a letter from over
300 doctors and advocates urging action
• Ignored health experts yet again by introducing Autism Program that takes decision making
out of the hands of medical professionals
• Further antagonized U.S./Ontario relations by publicly slamming U.S. President Joe Biden’s
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“Buy American” initiative
• Failed to hold LTC home Roberta Place in Barrie accountable for multiple health and safety
violations identified before their massive outbreak of the U.K. variant of COVID-19
• Hoarded millions of COVID-19 rapid tests, despite potential use by school boards as kids
headed back to class
• Called newly elected U.S. President Joe Biden a “bully” during First Ministers meeting;
urged Prime Minister Trudeau to “go to war” over Keystone Pipeline
• Failed to hold ex-Premier Mike Harris’ company, Chartwell, accountable for the 99 serious
violations received in their LTC homes over the course of 2020
• Hid the names of big box retailers who were found to be in violation of public health
restrictions
• Stripped nurses of isolation pay when forced to stay home after workplace outbreaks
• Said there is “no reason” for the province to mandate paid sick leave
• Abandoned seniors not living in LTC homes under the vaccination strategy, causing many
to live in fear, isolation, resentment
• Violated his own state-of-emergency orders, as well as heritage protocol, by beginning
demolition of Toronto historic buildings without notice or consultation
• Promoted such wildly inconsistent policies that most Ontarians were overwhelmed with
contradictory information, leading to surging case numbers
• Dropped nearly 40% in polling from April 2020 through January 2021 when Ontarians were
asked if Ford is doing a good job on the pandemic
• Continued to ignore calls for paid sick leave, while 58% of workers with no paid sick days
are pressured to work through illness
• Faced criticism from the head of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table for not enacting
tough enough restrictions
• Left emergency services in the dark by failing to give them technical details of new Stay-atHome order
• Implemented Stay-at-Home order and state of emergency with expanded police powers,
but no paid sick leave
• Botched preparations for vaccination roll-out, leading to major ethical violations and
inequitable distribution
• Stoked anxiety by fearmongering the public with hints of devastating modelling, but refused
to release details
• Made a “ghastly” mistake by postponing the lockdown until after Christmas and giving
advance warning, only to have COVID-19 cases surge after holiday season
• Stayed on vacation instead of recalling Legislature, despite lack of paid-sick-leave
legislation
• Refused to denounce the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group associated with the
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terrorist riots in Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021. He has been photographed with their
leaders at parties
• Announced that he will award the Order of Ontario to disgraced ex-Premier Mike Harris,
causing pain and anguish for many, including First Nations
• Allowed his MPP for Thornhill to visit her cottage with a bevy of guests, going against
provincial lockdown rules and angering locals
• Denied extension request from commission on LTC homes, continued to refuse access to
necessary documents
• Botched preparations for administering COVID-19 vaccinations, resulting in Ontario coming
in “dead last” amongst the provinces during initial vaccination campaign
• Refused to recall legislature, and continued the extended holiday break at Queen’s Park
despite record holiday COVID-19 infection rates
• Stood by as the crisis at Tendercare Living Centre worsened, death toll mounted to 60
December 2020
• Covered up his finance minister’s sunny Christmas vacation – in the middle of lockdown –
only apologizing and admitting knowledge of the trip after both were caught
• Ignored protesters calling for urgent support at the LTC home Tendercare Living Centre in
Scarborough, where 48 residents have died
• Spent most of 2020 systematically dismantling Ontario’s school system
• Tried to blame hospitals, front-line staff for decision halt vaccination program over
Christmas
• Ignored calls from legal clinics, housing advocates raising alarm over widespread evictions
• Announced a “hard lockdown” with a five-day delay, despite strong advice from top doctors
to implement measures as soon as possible amidst skyrocketing COVID-19 case numbers
• Chose UniversalCare Canada Inc to takeover Westside LTC home, despite multiple recent
violations of provincial rules designed to protect residents
• Ignored calls from Ontario Hospital Association, hospital CEOs urging an immediate
lockdown amidst 2000+ COVID-19 cases per day
• Announced heavily criticized PSW recruitment program, with most of the results not
expected for years to come
• Failed to renew online learning subscriptions, costing Toronto schools hundreds of
thousands of dollars
• Appointed private company, UniversalCare Canada Inc., to take over Westside LTC home
in Etobicoke – with a history of major donor ties to the PC Party
• Paved the way for an “eviction blitz” caused by Bill 184, forcing thousands of at-risk tenants
out of their homes
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• Lied about research on the financial cost of Ontario’s emissions reduction obligations;
complained that the Federal government’s carbon tax plans is “the worst thing you could
ever see”
• Reappointed ineffectual integrity commissioner J. David Wake, who let 85% of rulebreaking lobbyists off the hook
• Adjourned legislature early for a 2-month winter break without addressing the need for paid
sick days, lack of staff at LTC homes, among other issues
• Claimed small businesses weren’t applying for grants designed to help them through
lockdown, despite many on the verge of bankruptcy
• Hoarded $12B that was supposed to have been spent on pandemic measures
• Failed Indigenous Ontarians, had no knowledge of the vast majority of provinces own
programs to support Indigenous people, nor was checking on efficacy or appropriateness
• Passed Omnibus Budget Bill 229 with controversial Schedule 6 intact, which advocates say
will undermine conservation authorities and put the Greenbelt at risk
• Spent nearly $9.5M on questionable, self-promoting advertising – on the public’s dime
• Passed Bill 213 despite widespread criticism of its measures to enable homophobia,
transphobia, misogyny and xenophobia
• Prompted the resignation of David Crombie, celebrated former Conservative cabinet
minister and Toronto mayor, plus six other Council members, from Ontario’s Greenbelt
Council over the inclusion of Schedule 6 in the omnibus budget Bill 229
• Amended Bill 213 to appease religious groups worried about same-sex marriage, but kept
provisions to extend degree-granting status to controversial Canada Christian College
• Ignored COVID-19 spread in schools until Thorncliffe Park Public School found 28 cases
through voluntary a-symptomatic testing, prompting the closure of the school
• Ignored his own Made-In-Ontario Climate Plan for more than two years - emissions rose
when they should have been falling
• Issued an MZO in Stratford to help out his backroom buddies, but didn’t make them register
as lobbyists; deflected Ontario’s hospital crisis by claiming Alberta is in worse shape
November 2020
• Expanded police powers and gave wildly inconsistent directives, leading to rampant civil
liberties violations
• Repeatedly ignored his own health experts to implement looser COVID-19 measures,
leading to the 2nd highest COVID infection rates in the country
• Ignored the Ontario Medical Association, representing 43,000 doctors, who raised serious
concerns about the tiered restriction framework
• Released a budget with nearly $100M less in spending on LTC homes than previously
planned
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• Attacked a report by the Financial Accountability Office stating that funding to repair
Ontario’s hospitals is sorely lacking
• Budgeted a 35% ($16.9B) shortfall in repairing Ontario’s aging infrastructure, according to
the Financial Accountability Office
• Publicly lashed out with personal insults at Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk in response to
details in a recent report on Ontario’s COVID-19 response
• Failed spectacularly in its COVID-19 response on multiple levels, as detailed by a recent
Special Report from the Auditor-General, who called Ontario’s responses “slower and more
reactive” than other provinces’
• Revealed that lobbyists for Walmart are former Ford staffers, after criticism that Walmart
and other big box stores were authorized to remain open for all purchases through the
lockdown
• Faced added support of 4 former City Mayors in Supreme Court of Canada challenge by
the City of Toronto over forced ward changes
• Made no move to keep kids home from classrooms despite more than 1 in 3 Toronto-area
schools with active cases of COVID-19
• Decided to pay Ret. Gen. Rick Hillier $20,000 per month, plus expenses, to oversee the
distribution of COVID-19 vaccines
• Contributed to the homelessness crisis by lifting the residential tenant eviction ban,
resulting in mass evictions mid-pandemic
• Initiated a Grey-level lockdown in Toronto and Peel, but allowed big box stores to stay
open, creating an unfair advantage in the pre-Christmas shopping season; small
businesses were “devastated”
• Faced possible investigation from Elections Canada and Elections Ontario over allegations
of illegal donations from Charles McVety, the head of Canada Christian College
• Faces complaint with the Integrity Commissioner over donations from LTC industry to PC
MPPs and recent passage of Bill 218
• Received scathing report from the Auditor General on non-compliance with the
Environmental Bill of Rights
• Faced trial in a constitutional lawsuit launched by youth advocates over the cancelling of
Cap and Trade in Ontario
• Failed to consult with migrant worker groups before developing plan to protect vulnerable
farm workers in advance of next year’s growing season
• Forced Toronto Public Health members to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to
participate in public health measures table discussions
• Fielded heavy criticism from parents, advocates, City of Toronto staff, and City of Toronto
Councillors for proposed amendments to the Child Care and Early Years Act
• Rejected advice from Public Health Ontario when creating the colour-code framework for
COVID-19 restrictions, setting the thresholds 4 times higher than recommended
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• Shot down NDP amendments to controversial Bill 218, which is designed to limit liability for
COVID-19 related negligence claims. The amendments would have removed LTC owners
and the Crown from liability protections
• Spent $1.5M to hire 17 ODSP fraud inspectors, at a salary of ~$1400/wk, targeting
vulnerable Ontarians in the midst of a catastrophic financial crisis
• Tabled a budget that included no additional funding for hiring nurses and PSWs, no
additional money for public health, no additional money for mental health
• Scheduled only 5 hours of public consultations for controversial Bill 218 – leaving dozens
of would-be speakers without a voice
• Had his Education Minister deflect serious concerns from NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles
regarding rising COVID-19 infections in Ontario schools
• Pressured another municipality with MZO powers, this time in Beeton
• Announced PR stunt, setting a goal of 4 hours a day for senior in Long Term Care homes,
to be implemented in 4-5 years by a future government
• Forced another MZO through for another PC donor, this time destroying significant
wetlands in Pickering for a warehouse site and a casino
October 2020
• Stacked Ontario Tribunals with his own cronies
• Brushed off COVID-19 precautions for the OHL – stating he’d like to see hockey return with
bodychecking despite transmission fears
• Refused to approve funding to expand COVID-19 lab testing capacity until well into the
second wave, hoarding the money over the entire summer
• Refused to reprimand MPP who posed mask-less in group photo at restaurant
• Forced Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO) on cities, notably to push through several 50-
storey condo buildings in Toronto’s West Donlands (for a PC donor) despite municipal
planning conflicts
• Bypassed debate of Bill 168 with an Order in Council on the same subject
• Meddled with COVID-19 safety regulations to push his family friend’s business idea
• Expressed sympathy for would-be settlers in Caledonia dispute
• Faced immediate criticism from the Ontario Federation of University Faculty Associations
(as well as 10 other advocacy groups) regarding the attempt to grant university status to
Canada Christian College
• Continued to ignore problematic health care safety standards, resulting in another attack
on a nurse at Southlake Regional Health Centre
• Snuck cronyist appointment into omnibus Bill 213, tabling a proposal to give university
status to controversial Canada Christian College, whose president has a long history of
misogynistic, racist, and homophobic remarks
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• Included measures to make it more difficult to sue LTC homes for negligence in omnibus
Bill 218
• Planned to remove municipalities’ choice to use ranked ballots in local elections; part of the
omnibus Bill 218
• Neglected to hire necessary medical staff, sending Ontario into the second wave of
COVID-19 short 6000 PSWs and 800 nurses
• Introduced omnibus Bill 218 in First Reading
• Fielded heavy criticism from LTC Executives over policies and testing during first wave
• Spread confusion about LTC staffing via his Minister
• Gave another slap-on-the-wrist fine to Southlake Regional Health Centre for failing to
provide reasonable safety precautions, resulting in a violent attack on two workers by a
patient flagged as a “moderate violence risk”
• Botched the implementation of reliable COVID-19 testing protocols, providing instead a
pharmacy testing plan doctors call “remarkable chaos”, considering 6 months of lag time
• Gave a slap-on-the-wrist fine to Windsor-area greenhouse for causing the death of worker
Joshua Remigio
• Amount of hoarded COVID-19 contingency funds reaches over $9.3B
• Unilaterally revoked Regulation 274, a hiring practices protocol for Ontario teachers, in
violation of collective bargaining rules
• Lagged in publishing new laws, creating a government-by-press-release
• Continued to refuse to provide workplace-related COVID-19 data, prompting the Toronto
Star to scour WSIB claims in an effort to gain clarity
• Hired only 1 nurse per 12 schools in some parts of Ontario, to be responsible for contact
tracing, daily surveillance, and other duties for and average of 2,560 students each
• Handed close to $300M to Ford Motor Company in corporate welfare deal
• Admitted to sending COVID-19 swabs to the US as Ontario’s labs are overwhelmed
• Lagged acting for months after strong recommendations to bolster LTC facilities; advised in
January of deficiencies and waited until April 15 to table a plan
• Allowed education workers to be assigned to multiple schools, leading to at least one
school to close due to positive COVID-19 test
• Pinched pennies over increasing COVID-19 testing capacity, delaying investment for
months despite multiple strong recommendations, only to fall behind once again during
second wave
• Proposed amendments to the Childcare and Early Years Act, greatly reducing the standard
of care in daycares, taxing an already over-burdened workforce and potentially
endangering the health and safety of children
• Continued to dismiss Teachers’ Unions concerns despite OLRB challenge
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September 2020
• Released modeling data showing alarming surges in COVID-19 cases without
corresponding strict measures to stem the spread of the virus
• Released an incomplete and much-delayed Fall Preparedness Plan, lacking data and
COVID-19 testing capacity to accurately track the virus
• Allowed Ontario police access to COVID-19 database illegally for months, leading to
massive privacy breach
• Continued hoarding budget funds – $2.6B in COVID-19 contingency fund remains unspent
• Re-opened Casinos the same day Ontario witnessed record-high COVID-19 infections
• Cost Ontario $1.1B by illegally cancelling the Cap and Trade program
• Deliberately cut inspections of Long-Term Care homes, despite clear evidence that it would
harm residents
• Held back much-touted Fall Preparation Plan for COVID-19 second wave, trickling out
information instead of maintaining transparency
• Shut down testing for Ontarians concerned about asymptomatic COVID-19 infections
• Trumpeted for-profit clinics as a solution to overburdened hospitals and testing centres,
promoting a two-tier health care system in a “free market society”
• Dismissed concerns about price gouging by private companies offering COVID-19 tests at
$400 each
• Refused to name LTC homes at high risk for a COVID-19 outbreak, despite many calls for
transparency
• Allowed Southlake Regional Health Centre to lay of close to 100 Registered Nurses – in
the middle of a pandemic
• Ignored recommendations from infectious disease experts to curb outbreaks in long-term
care homes
• Lagged on preparing for the second wave of COVID-19, prompting health care unions to
raise an alarm over staffing and funding
• Played dumb Feigned ignorance when presented with concerns about students refusing to
wear masks, and being allowed to stay in the classroom
• Capped social gatherings to 10 indoors, but failed to address overcrowding in classrooms
• Ignored pleas from long-term care homes to train new PSWs for months, in spite of severe
staff shortages
• Squashed a motion to cap class sizes at 15 students
• Failed to maintain contract tracing – so more than 50% of all new COVID-19 cases are
untraceable
• Blew off Question Period to tweet about buying a cookie from Tim Horton’s
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• Clawed back pandemic pay from essential hospital workers
• Proposed the elimination of reasoned amendments, which will lessen opportunities to
debate government bills before they can be passed
• Aggravated educational disparity with dangerous re-opening plan, prompting two-tier
schooling based on income
• Botched public recommendations leading to confusion about gathering limits and COVID19 spread
• Passed the buck on quarantine enforcement – Blamed the federal government for the
OPP’s lack of action
• Hoarded $6.7B meant for schools, health care, and jobs
• Despite bragging about employment numbers mildly rebounding, has done nothing to
address disproportionate levels of unemployment, overwork, and depression in Ontario
women due to the pandemic
• Ignored calls to have workplace COVID-19 outbreaks disclosed to the public
• Made xenophobic remarks about “some cultures” bringing family members to Canada for
special events; blamed rising COVID-19 number on “massive weddings”
• Refused to pay for a guaranteed face mask supply for children in Ontario schools
• Illegally forced gas stations to display stickers on pumps later declared unconstitutional
• Hurled insults at teachers’ union leaders for being concerned about back-to-school safety
• Refused to allow school boards to maintain smaller class sizes, resulting in cramped
classrooms and too little physical distancing
August 2020
• Used government funds for a campaign style tour of Ontario, unfairly promoting small
business owners who donated to the PC Party
• Restricted public access to land titles by quietly closing Registry Offices, upping costs and
eliminating some records
• Snubbed a multi-level initiative to address overdose deaths in Ontario, refusing to
participate whatsoever in safe-injection site project
• Presided over a shaky credit rating for Ontario, only ranked 6th amongst the provinces and
in danger of falling without a strong post-pandemic performance
• Stood silent as public sector employers abused Bill 195 loopholes to force unfair treatment
on workers
• Ignored critical recommendations from the Attorney General on emergency preparedness,
leaving Ontario ill-equipped to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic
• Failed to meet minimum legal obligations to prisoners with mental health disabilities with
regards to solitary confinement
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• Kept workplace COVID-19 cases a secret from Ontarians, putting health and safety at risk
• Failed to address overcrowding in classrooms, prompting a strong warning letter from the
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario
• Garnered international condemnation for under-funding the back-to-school plan
• Bungled back-to-school plan - 40% of parents planning to keep kids home out of concern
for their safety
• Broke the dam on a wave of evictions in Ontario, made easier by Bill 184, prompting mass
protests in effort to curb homelessness
• Refused to fund the hiring of custodial staff to maintain COVID-19 level cleaning standards,
forcing some boards to use reserve funds to maintain basic hygiene
• Spent nearly $1M on hospitality fees during negotiations with Teachers’ Unions
• Rejected plans by the TDSB to keep class sizes small for elementary students
• Forced re-zoning on prime Hamilton land with no consultation, endangering education,
affordable housing, and public use in favour of high-density housing
• Flip flopped on funding the Hamilton LRT, a critical infrastructure and transportation
project, citing artificially inflated costs
• Stonewalled funding for optometrists, prompting a province-wide job action that costs the
public purse $250,000 per day
• Faced with lawsuit over alleged illegal breach of protocol when fast-tracking omnibus Bill
197
• Persisted with finalized plans for new Ontario 400-series highway, despite massive
environmental drawbacks and few proposed benefits to commuters
• Delayed functional programming and support to families of children with autism – after
slashing funding to the Ontario Autism Program in 2019; offered little more than vague
advice instead of real services
• Defended controversial back-to-school plan despite concerns from Toronto Public Health
that large class sizes and under-staffing will spread transmission of COVID-19
• Fueled housing crisis by allowing evictions to proceed immediately after lifting the state of
emergency, giving tenants no opportunity to pay back rental arrears
• Evaded responsibility for back-to-school plan by blaming “the experts” at Sick Kids Hospital
July 2020
• Sabotaged workplace safety for migrant workers by tipping off employers to inspections
• Announced vastly underfunded return-to-school plan for Ontario kids
• Refused government accountability, transparency, or binding recommendations when
releasing details of commission on long-term effects of COVID policies
• Enshrined invasive new “emergency” powers including police carding, and government
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overruling of collective agreements for public workers after state of emergency declared
over by passing Bill 195
• Revealed that provincial spending was $3.5 billion lower than planned last year, further
starving public services
• Removed $1 billion in planned funding to repair schools
• Revealed that more than 6,000 tenants may face eviction for nonpayment of rent during
COVID-19
• Revealed that the autism services waitlist grew to 27,600 children in 2019-2020
• Confirmed that COVID-19 cases and deaths are far more prevalent at for-profit long-term
care homes than non-profits
• Revealed that 95% of long-term care homes are short staffed
• Failed to legislate permanent paid sick days
• Failed to address demands for long-term care beds, re-announcing a Liberal promise
• Relaxed rules around alcohol, allowing licensed liquor delivery services to contract out
work to freelance drivers prior to launching campaign-style blitz of Ontario
• Spending only 7% per student per day for COVID-19 scenarios, forcing school boards to
prepare for September with possibly no French classes and shortened days
• Introduced Bill 197, COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, which will permanently alter the
required qualifications and oversight of Directors of Education to include noneducators
• Revealed that shareholders at Ontario’s biggest for-profit long-term care homes may take
home $59 million despite numerous COVID-19 deaths
• Forced Sault College to close its $2 million early learning care centre permanently
• Revealed that the cost of asylum seekers crossing the border into Canada from the US
was vastly overstated
• Introduced Bill 195, Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, which will
allow for the extension of some pandemic emergency orders for up to two years, including
redeploying health care staff and infringing on collective agreements
• Announced a partial end to academic streaming in high school – although it is unclear if this
will be accompanied by the needed resources and supports
• Introduced Bill 184, Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, which
provides new avenues for landlords to both evict and collect unpaid rent from current and
past tenants
June 2020
• Denied requests by Toronto-area mayors to make masks mandatory
• Revealed that multiple calls for long-term care funding were rejected prior to COVID
• Introduced a new math curriculum that requires resources to be diverted from schools’
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COVID-19 efforts to meet an unrealistic two-month timeline
• Revealed millions of dollars in COVID-19 fines are disproportionately hurting Black,
Indigenous, marginalized groups
• Planning to reduce the number of statutory holidays for retailer workers from nine to three
(UPDATED: scrapped the legislation after public backlash)
• Revealed that a record number of complaints about jails were received last year, including
overcrowding, poor living conditions, and lack of inmate access to medical care
• Failed to provide protections and stop the spread of COVID-19 among migrant workers
• Being investigated for “neglect” at a Woodbridge nursing home, where an elderly
resident died from a lack of food
• Revealed that more than 150 complaints about long-term care homes were received after
an appeal in April for safety-related complaints
• Failed to reduce tuition fees, particularly as courses move online
• Launched an anti-racism panel targeted at youth – two years after eliminating the previous
Liberal initiative
• Failed to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism in Ontario and Canada
• Failed to take concrete action to reduce auto insurance premiums – with savings yet to be
realized for consumers
• Failed to legislate sufficient health and safety protocols for workers, including those in longterm care homes
May 2020
• Struggling to meet the daily maximum number of tests on COVID-19 – at only 50%
capacity
• Revealed that 2.2 million Ontario workers have been affected by the shutdown (i.e. lost jobs
or hours sharply reduced)
• Revealed that improper care, neglect, poor record keeping, failure to dispense medication
properly, and abuse existed long before COVID-19
• Failed to implement a full public (i.e., independent) inquiry into long-term care
• Revealed that proactive and follow-up inspections of long-term facilities were suspended in
March instead moving to an "outreach" model
• Provided themselves the power to place a temporary manager – a person, corporation, or
hospital – to oversee a long-term care facility
• Failed to collect COVID-19 data on income and race and the depths of these inequities
(UPDATE: appointed a commissioner to begin the data collection)
• Preparing to let businesses do their own COVID-19 testing – instead of publicly funding
universal testing
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• Using a one-size fits all approach to reopening the economy during COVID-19 (UPDATED:
moving ahead with a regional approach)
• Provided $500 million to Ontario Lottery and Gaming to keep the provincial gambling
agency afloat during the COVID-19
• Permitting businesses to do “secret lobbying” by inviting them to ask for temporary law
changes during COVID-19
April 2020
• Excluded temp agency workers from a directive that limited the movement of long-term care
workers between facilities – in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19among residents
and workers
• Announced a $4 an hour pay bump for the next 16 weeks along with a monthly lump sum
payment (UPDATED: failed to deliver the pandemic pay and created divisions among
frontline workers)
• Revealed that the government failed to uphold a single work refusal that has been filed
from workers that fear contracting COVID-19
• Forced workers to stage work stoppages due to a lack of personal protective equipment
• Announced that the government will not be covering prescription co-payments
• Forced the Ontario labour board to order weekly safety inspections at three nursing homes
after COVID-19 deaths
• Forced unions to seek legal recourse to demand that long-term care homes provide front
line workers with personal protective equipment
• Clawing back the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit for social assistance
recipients
• Rejected the call to take over operations at two of the hardest hit long-term care homes in
the province, where at least 54 residents have died and 149 people have contracted
COVID-19
• Underreporting the number of deaths in long-term care and retirement homes
• Deemed funding for mobility and medical devices non-essential, further limiting access for
persons with disabilities
• Revealed that Ontario only had a one-week supply of personal protective equipment due to
global supply and recent restrictions at the US border
• Suspended environmental oversight rules, allowing the government to push forward
projects or laws that can significantly impact the environment without consulting or notifying
the public
• Overrode provisions in collective agreements for public health unit workers (e.g., assigning
non-bargaining unit workers to perform bargaining unit work)
March 2020
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• Released the Fiscal Update based on optimistic assumptions that COVID-19 will have
minimal effect on government revenues
• Overrode provisions in collective agreements for long-term care workers and hospital
workers (e.g., assigning non-bargaining unit workers to perform bargaining unit work)
• Introduced the Employment Standards Amendment Act (Infectious Disease Emergencies)
Act, which provides some workers with temporary, unpaid job-protected leaves of absence
due to reasons related to COVID-19
• Planning to eliminate secure jobs for special educators through the ‘Supports for Students’
plan
• Forced Lanark County to eliminate mobile mental health crisis response teams
• Average home sale price in the GTA is above $910,000, shutting out a significant portion of
the population
• Revealed that the average patient waited more than 18 hours to get a hospital bed in
January 2020
• Forced Peel region’s childcare fee reduction initiative, which had been running since 2018,
is ending on April 30
• Revealed that Toronto is home to the highest median child care fees in the country at
$21,000 a year for infants
February 2020
• Introduced Bill 175, Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, which dismantles
all remaining public governance, public control, and public interest protections of Ontario’s
home and community care system [see OFL submission]
• Forecasted that electricity emissions to triple by 2030 based on current policies
• Forced the Kingston Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association to close at the end
of March
• Changing the way judges and justices of the peace are appointed, including giving
themselves more control over the committee that recommends judges
• Forcing young women to go through their parents if they need birth control (as well as other
prescription drugs if they have access to private insurance) as of April 1
• Forcing municipalities to brace for layoffs as control of employment services is given to a
private company, a non-profit, and a college
• Forcing sexual-assault centres to plead for more funding to help survivors of domestic and
sexual violence (UPDATED: committed $2 million in annual funding in addition to ongoing
baseline funding)
• Jeopardized accountability among drivers with the creation of unreadable license plates
(UPDATED: scrapped the plan for redesigned license plates – the cost of which is
protected by a nondisclosure agreement)
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• Revealed by the FAO that tax expenditures in Ontario are largely benefiting the top 20%
• Failed to fill the patient ombudsman post since taking office in June 2018, leaving patients
without recourse
• Forcing MPPs to sing God Save the Queen in the legislature, which is seen as a step
backwards from modern reconciliation by Indigenous peoples and allies
• Revealed through internal government consultations that 70% of parents felt an increase in
class sizes would negatively impact students’ learning
• Introduced Bill 171, Building Transit Faster Act, which expands the Province’s powerto
reduce requirements for environmental approvals
• Launched the privatization of employment services for social assistance recipients with
pilot programs in Peel, Muskoka-Kawarthas, and Hamilton-Niagara
• Failed to guarantee full-day kindergarten for the next school year
• Looking for private companies to test Ontario teachers’ grade 3 math skills
January 2020
• Jeopardizing the ability of Hope 24/7, Peel region’s designated sexual assault crisis
centre, to provide psychotherapy services
• Forced a health care emergency to be declared in Brampton
• Forced Hamilton General Hospital to exceed its total capacity almost every single day for
acute care within the first 6 months of 2019
• Forced Peterborough Regional Health Centre to claim the title of second most
overcrowded hospital in Ontario
• Forced small hospitals across Southwest Ontario to struggle with overcapacity
• Forcing Ottawa’s children’s hospital, CHEO, the region’s only children’s hospital to operate
at overcapacity 2 out of every 3 days
• Forcing Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket to deal with being filled beyond
capacity almost every day
• Forced Sudbury, Temiskaming, and Timmins to top the list of overcapacity hospitals in the
northeast
• Forced Guelph General Hospital to spend most of the first half of 2019 with more patients
than acute care beds
• Forced the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries to shut down in April
2020
• Considering taking more control over who gets chosen as a provincial court judge
• Revealed by Children’s Mental Health Ontario that child and youth mental health service
wait lists in Ontario have doubled to 28,000
• Bypassed the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s application process to self appoint two
17
people known to the Premier
• Considering changes that could see developers hire their own building inspectors
• Revealed that for the first time in the TDSB’s history, teachers who were teaching in the
previous year do not have a contract this year – despite enrolment being on the upswing
• Revealed by a People for Education report that arts education is being squeezed out and
inequitably funded
• Weakened the powers of the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority, an
independent recycling regulator that holds producers of electronics or household
hazardous waste accountable
• Failed to fill 20 vacant adjudicator positions at the Landlord and Tenant Board, contributing
to delays and potentially making it easier to evict tenants without a hearing
• Considered keeping online learning optional until 2024 and planned to slash school board
funding while creating courses to sell to other jurisdictions at a profit
• Forced all of Ontario’s education unions to partake in job action for the first time in more than
two decades
• Prioritized spending up to $48 million per day in lieu of investing that money into
students and Ontario’s education sector
• Forced Grand River Hospital to deal with about 20% more patients per day than the
emergency room can handle
• Forced the loss of up to 180 jobs in June 2020, the majority of which are unionized, at
Weston Foods’ Cobourg facility
December 2019
• Delayed the full implementation of the new autism program to 2021
• Passed a law to retroactively dismiss cases – against the government -- that have already
been brought in the courts
• Dodged responsibility for ensuring pharmacies are “adhering to standards of practice for the
profession and that patients are receiving safe and competent care”
• Revealed by the Ontario Hospitals Association that further budget cuts to frontline care will
only make hallway medicine worse
• Forced women fleeing domestic and/or sexual violence to seek refuge outside of their
communities due to overcapacity in shelters
• Revealed by the FAO that by 2021-22, demand for public services in Ontario will exceed the
Ford government’s planned spending by nearly $5 billion
• Forced the TDSB to introduce thousands of dollars in fees for students enrolling in
specialized International Baccalaureate programs
• Overhauling Employment Ontario, disrupting services for workers and potentially
introducing a role for American for-profit organizations
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• Cancelled the Hamilton LRT
• Revealed by the Auditor General that the Ford government spent $4 million on anti- carbon
tax ads; the Ford government is not using sound evidence in climate change plan; wait
times for addiction treatments, hospital admissions, and deaths related to opiates are on
the rise
• Planning to scrap environmental standards for some large water polluters
November 2019
• Revealed that the Ford government’s cancellation of almost 800 renewable energy projects
will cost Ontarians at least $231 million
• Forced the TDSB to eliminate the Kindergarten Intervention Program, which supports
kindergarten students with special needs
• Stopped measuring homelessness in Ontario, pausing a program that made the count
mandatory for municipal housing service managers
• Paying up to $1 million for an outside contractor to make service delivery cuts for adults
living with developmental disabilities
• Created new powers that allow the government to push legislation through multiple stages
in one day and pass it more quickly
• Produced upheaval in the non-profit sector with 30% of agencies facing funding cuts due to
Ontario budget
• Forced the Windsor Essex County Health Unit to lay off nine registered nurses from the
Healthy Families and Schools program
October 2019
• Gifted Deputy Ministers with a 14% raise, now earning between $234,080 and $320,130
• Slashed the Parents Reaching Out grants in half, which is used for school councils to host
speakers and information nights for parents
• Failed to act with the impending loss of 450 more jobs at the Oakville Ford plant, starting in
February 2020
• Proposing to eliminate limits on class sizes for high school students
• Forced the closure of Theatre Ontario, an organization that has a 48-year history of
supporting the theatre and arts communities of Ontario
• Changed the responsibilities of three cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Labour,
without transparency
• Revealed that long delays to off-load patients at Ottawa hospitals left the city with no
paramedics available to respond to urgent calls on 329 occasions between January and
August 2019
19
September 2019
• Forced London Transit to raise fares by up to 17%
• Forcing the City of Peterborough to close two child care centres, 209 before-and-after
school program spaces, and eliminate 30 staff positions
• Issued a 90-day notice to Matawa chiefs that the Ring of Fire regional-framework
agreement will be dissolved
• Produced upwards of a 300% spike in public school gym rental costs for youth sports clubs
as a result of cuts to the Priority Schools Initiative
• Jeopardized the creation of more than 100 affordable apartments in Scarborough
• Closed the Ontario Film Authority — a non-profit corporation in charge of the Ontario Film
Review Board
• Revealed by the FAO that by 2023-24, there will be 10,054 fewer teachers in the education
system
• Revealed by the FAO that about two-thirds of the total benefit from the CARE tax credit will
go to families with above-median incomes
• Prompted Blyth Education – a private, for-profit education company – to target high school
students who are worried about class cancellations
• Forced Humber College to close its Orangeville Campus in 2021
• Eliminated the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, a tribunal that accepts applications
from victims of violent crimes and determines if they should receive financial compensation
for their injuries
• Cut WSIB premiums by an additional 17%, leaving less money in the system for injured
workers
• Forced Child and Community Resources – which offers autism therapy and behaviour
analysis in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kenora, and Algoma – to lay off nearly 90 employees
and to stop providing fee-for-service options for families
• Revealed that Ford spent nearly one-third of his first year as Premier filming Ontario News
Now – partisan, taxpayer-funded videos
• Cut an additional $2.4 billion from public services with unspent monies under the guise of a
$15 billion deficit – which turned out to be $7.4 billion
• Failed to act as the number of seniors waiting to move into long-term care homes in
Ontario has hit a record high
• Hit a record high this year for hospital overcrowding – worst June on record since data
collecting began in 2008
• Denied access to the public on the class size consultation results
• Opened Niagara University, a private American institute, while cutting funding for public
post-secondary education
20
• Disclosed that the government held talks with PC donors on removing Greenbelt land
• Lost $42 million through the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, which has been tasked
with the online sales and wholesale distribution of cannabis, over the last year
• Sued for $15 million by Brad Blair, an ex-OPP officer, who revealed that the government
spent more than $50,000 on a customized van
• Produced the lay-off of four unionized staff at Brant Family and Children’s Services;
another seven people resigned, retired, or were laid off
August 2019
• Forced the TDSB to eliminate at least 296 full-time positions ahead of the new school year
• Changed appointment rules to fast-track an appointee to the Local Planning Appeals
Tribunal, an agency that mediates disputes between developers and municipalities
• Ordered the authorities that protect Ontario’s watersheds to “wind down” unnecessary
programs – without warning or consultation
• Suing the office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to block the release of
ministries’ mandate letters
• Delayed funding to several non-profit organizations that provide services for people
requiring accommodation
• Failed to act with the increasing demand for supportive housing for adults with
developmental disabilities
• Delisted 11 health services from OHIP coverage, including certain infertility and preoperative tests
• Failed to overturn a hospital board’s decision and save existing pediatric and obstetric
services at a Scarborough hospital
• Cut $34 million in Hamilton, eliminating two long-term care funding programs – one that gave
renovation money to homes and another that helped maintain staffing levels and a living
wage – as well as raised residents’ co-payments by 2.3%, translating to about $500 more
per year for a middle class senior
• Downloaded costs onto municipalities, including 30% of public health care costs and 20%
of new child care space costs as well as increased land ambulance funding by $26 million
• Phasing child care funding over a three-year period starting in January 2020 —with the
changes that will require the most lead time coming into effect last
• Mandated that all new teachers – regardless of their teachables – will be required to pass a
math test with at least a 70% score
• Delayed teaching gender identity to grade 8 with the option of parents opting out of these
classes in the 2019 Health and Physical Education curriculum
• Cancelled funding for a cultural community hub in the Brant Avenue neighbourhood by
withholding money from the partnering non-profit
21
• Considering cancelling Ontario’s Blue Box recycling program
• Prompted TeachON, an American lobbying organization that advocates for government
funding for private schools, to open an Ontario division
• Cancelled funding for a cultural community hub in Lawrence Heights
July 2019
• Spent public monies to promote several companies, whose execs have donated to the PC
Party, through the partisan “news” channel Ontario News Now
• Forced the City of Windsor to cut homeless assistance programs after deferring a
$537,000 provincial funding increase
• Failed to provide provincial funding this year for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s role in
health care delivery and programs
• Halted the creation of new child care spaces – including 3,049 spaces in Toronto
• Eliminated the Addiction Services Initiative, which helps people on Ontario Works access
treatment and other supports
• Producing an absolute cut of 22 hospital beds and 176 staff at Health Sciences North over
five years in Sudbury as a result of inadequate health care funding
• Forced Ottawa’s four municipal long-term care homes to experience a $500,000 shortfall this
year
• Produced a shortfall of $68,000 for the City of Kawartha Lakes’ long-term care facilities as
well as the cancellation of their structural compliance program and the high-wage transition
fund
• Forced Legal Aid Ontario to cancel a $100,000 grant aimed at preventing the expulsion of
racialized students from Ottawa public schools
• Forced longer hearings, more postponements and adjournments, and more missed
deadlines for unrepresented individuals at the Immigration and Refugee Board – as a result
of cuts to Legal Aid Ontario
• Forced Legal Aid Ontario to cut Guelph and Wellington family law clinics for domestic
violence survivors
• Forcing Parkdale Community Legal Services’ clinic to consider cutting upwards of 10 staff
positions
• Failed to remove barriers and delays in receiving access to abortion services
• Slashed $3.8 billion from the Capital Priorities program, forcing Ontario school boards to
save on construction costs and build pre-fabricated schools
• Cut $6.2 million in funding for the Ontario Seniors’ Transit Tax Credit program
• Failed to act with the loss of 200 auto jobs at the Oakville Ford plant
• Failed to act with the loss of 500 auto jobs – about 50% of the workers at the Thunder Bay
22
Bombardier plant
• Eliminated the Mobile Cancer Screening Coach, which travels through Hamilton,
Burlington, and Niagara to bring cancer screening and stop-smoking supports for residents
• Forced school boards to reduce the number of STEM classes as a result of larger class
sizes and fewer teachers
• Eliminating the Discounted Double Fare in March 2020 (i.e., a subsidy that provides
discounted fares for riders using GO Transit and Toronto’s transit system in the same trip)
• Cancelled 227 clean energy projects, including commuter cycling programs, green social
housing programs, improvement or retrofit projects for social housing apartments, electric
vehicle charging stations, and an electric-bus pilot
• Scrapped a plan to building affordable housing units in Etobicoke
• Forced the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Waterloo think-tank, to lay off
more than 25% of staff
• Failed to host the annual and mandatory anti-racism conference
• Forced the Brant Family and Children’s Services Board of Directors to quit over funding
cuts
• Forced to close down the $2.2 million Strategic Transformation Office after another
patronage scandal and lack of clarity around its value
• Gifted patronage appointments to other insiders, including French’s niece and the Chair of
the Justices of the Peace Appointments Advisory Committee; appointees were forced to
resign as a result of intense media and opposition scrutiny
June 2019
• Gifted $165,000 appointments to insiders and a lacrosse player connected to the chief of
staff (UPDATED: rescinded patronage appointments and will examine all upcoming
appointments)
• Laid off 416 workers at Ontario health agencies
• Forced the ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development, which services children
with autism and their families, to eliminate 291 full-time positions
• Forced two injured workers’ legal clinics to stop taking on new cases – one of which laid off
40% of its staff and the other has staff taking a 20% pay cut
• Forced the Upper Canada District School Board to slash 160 jobs
• Forced the Halton District School Board to slash 189 jobs, to increase class sizes, and to
potentially eliminate courses
• Forced the Waterloo Catholic School Board to cut 5 jobs, disproportionately affecting
students with special needs
• Shuffled cabinet ministers, appointing a Minister of Labour who has expressedapproval for
anti-worker legislation
23
• Cancelled Canada Day celebrations at Queen’s Park
• Cut all provincial funding for Futurpreneur Canada, a national non-profit that supports
young entrepreneurs
• Forced the London Health Sciences Centre to reduce staffing hours, equating to a loss of
165 full-time positions
• Introduced Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act,
which caps improvements to public sector workers’ wages and overall compensation at 1%
per year for 3 years [see OFL submission]
• Aiming to reduce the number of inspectors tasked with investigating workplace abuses to
pre-Bill 148 levels
• Forced Legal Aid Ontario to cut funding for the Canadian Environmental Law Association by
37%, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario by 25%, and the Income Security Advocacy
Centre by 25% over 2 years; to slash $14 million in funding Toronto-based clinics (which
will be disproportionately affected); and to no longer pay lawyers to do bail hearings for
most accused
• Forced the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to cut 173 courses – in addition to
laying off 99 teachers earlier this year
May 2019
• Slashed funding for Leave the Pack Behind, an Ontario agency that helps young people
quit smoking, triggering the loss of 27 jobs
• Forced “bumping” of high school teachers and may lead to lay offs at the TDSB
• Slashed $84.5 million funding for children and youth at risk including children’s aid
societies
• Eliminating the Transition Child Benefit in November 2019 (i.e., for parents, including
refugee claimants, on OW or ODSP who are ineligible for the Ontario Child Benefit)
(UPDATED: reversed the cut)
• Appointed Special Advisors to conduct a review of the WSIB
• Announced the termination of the Beer Store contract, jeopardizing 7000 decent jobs
• Ended a $50 million fund to help control child care costs for families
• Asked municipalities and school boards to find 4% in “efficiencies” (i.e., cuts) to services
• Cut funding to various ministerial programs and services (e.g., $16 million cut from the
Occupational Health and Safety Program’s Prevention Office; 50% of funding cut from the
Poverty Reduction Strategy) (UPDATED: paused a $28-million budget cut to children’s aid
societies)
• Produced the cut of over 300 elective courses in high schools across Toronto
• Slashed the TDSB budget further, jeopardizing French immersion, learning centres,and
transportation services
24
• Cut the number of northern public health units from 9 to 2
• Considering privatizing the LCBO’s distribution business
• Scrapped funding for stem cell research (i.e., the Ontario Institute for Regenerative
Medicine)
• Produced the shutdown of public policy think-tanks, the Mowat Centre and the Institute for
Competitiveness and Prosperity
• Invested $100,000 in hats for hunters
• Raised highway speed limits on three provincial highways (400-series)
• Froze funding for land ambulance services
• Eliminated funding for Gambling Research Exchange Ontario, which researches problem
gambling research
• Cut $9.5 million from Tourism Toronto (25% of funding) and $3.4 million from Ottawa
Tourism
• Produced the loss of 44 jobs (i.e., 15% of staff) at Ontario Telemedecine Network, a
non-profit that helps Ontario patients access health care through videoconferencing
• Produced the loss of 3 million trees from Ontario tree nursery
• Introduced Bill 107, Getting Ontario Moving Act, which takes control of transit planning in
Toronto and opens the door to transit privatization
April 2019
• Slashed the Ontario Music Fund by more than half
• Forced Hands, The Family Help Network in North Bay – which provides autism services for
northern Ontario families – to lay off 10 full-time employees
• Eliminated the 50 Million Tree Program
• Considering ending OHIP coverage for travel outside Canada
• Cut $1 billion over 10 years from Toronto Public Health, putting school breakfast programs,
daycare inspections, and emergency responses to disease outbreaks at risk (UPDATED:
reversed retroactive cuts; future cuts remain)
• Slashed 50% of funding from public libraries (i.e., Ontario Library Service)
• Allow community housing providers to deny tenants who have previously been evicted for
criminal activity
• Considering merging ambulance services across Ontario, shrinking the number of regional
ambulance providers from 59 to 10
• Dropped their first budget, cutting spending in nearly every ministry (e.g., health care,
education, legal aid, social services) and gifting corporations with $3.8 billion in tax relief [see
OFL Budget Note] (UPDATED: shelved planned cuts to legal aid funding – although the 30-
per-cent budget cut in 2019 will remain)
25
• Introduced Bill 100, Protecting What Matters Most (e.g., introduced age discrimination in
postsecondary institutions; made it harder to sue the government; introduced regressive
CARE tax credit) [see OFL submission]
• Froze Special Services at Home funding for children with disabilities; current waitlist of
5,700 families will not be able to access funds
• Produced the loss of 52 jobs with the closure of the Child Advocate and French Language
Services Commissioner offices
• Considering freezing wages for public sector workers [see OFL submission]
• Considering removing seniority-based hiring for teachers (Regulation 274) andviolating
collective agreements
• Considering implementing mandatory annual math testing for all teachers in Ontario,
including retroactively
• Produced school boards across Ontario to issue more teacher surplus notices than usual
this year (e.g., North Bay, Peel)
• Considering cutting $500 million from OHIP services, including tests and procedures
ranging from diabetes and pain management to colonoscopies
• Failed to increase transit funding to more than 100 Ontario municipalities, including
implementing a $1.1 billion cut to Toronto transit over the next 10 years
March 2019
• Recommended that Ontario school boards implement a hiring freeze
• Accused of interfering with the OPP (i.e., appointing a close friend and firing a veteran
officer)
• Produced the shutdown of Harmony Movement, which provides diversity, equity, and
inclusion education
• Produced the lay-off of nearly 10 staff at KidsAbility, an organization that provides various
forms of therapy for children with autism (UPDATED: laying off upwards of 25 more staff)
• Announced a 10% cut to the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, which provides free
legal services to people who have experienced human rights violations at work and in their
communities
• Announced changes to the education system (e.g., increasing class size averages in
Grades 4 through 12 to reduce the number of teachers; pushing back gender identity and
expression teaching to Grade 8)
• Appointed Ken Hughes – who will earn $1000 per day – to lead a review of alcohol sales
in Ontario to give “consumers more choice and convenience”
• Considering lifting the ban that prevents major pharmacies from selling private-label
generic drugs
• Considering allowing Infrastructure Ontario to further open the door to public-private
partnerships with foreign investors
26
• Failed to act with the loss of 1500 direct jobs at the Windsor Assembly Plant
• Moved ESA-related inspections online from in-person audits conducted by Employment
Standards Officers
• Closed 3 overdose prevention sites and 3 others remain under review
February 2019
• Introduced Bill 74, the People’s Health Care Act, which privatizes health care services;
dismantles government agencies such as LHINs, Cancer Care Ontario, and the Trillium
Gift of Life Network; and folds patient care into a “super agency” [see OFL’s submission]
• Introduced voucher-based approach to children’s autism services (i.e., taking money
away from regional agencies)
• Considering making it easier for landlords to evict tenants by slashing the waiting periods for
eviction notices and allowing private bailiffs to remove renters
• Inked a deal with the City of Toronto that outlines the framework for uploading the subway
to Queen’s Park
• Considering slashing the number of regional school boards, particularly in smaller
communities
• Introduced the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, drastically altering how policer
officers are governed and treated
• Turned a $3,600 part-time EQAO position into a $140,000-a-year patronage job for a
defeated PC candidate
• Forced Service Ontario to delay providing birth, marriage, and death certificates, likely due
to lack of resources
• Announced a one-time $1 million budget increase for rape crisis centres for the next fiscal
year (in lieu of the Liberal’s promised nearly $8 million over two years)
• Produced the lay-off of 25 full-time and 15 part-time registered nursing positions at Grand
River Hospital
January 2019
• Cut $15 million from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which helps fund initiatives like the
Ontario 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 now earn $197,000
27
• Compelled Hydro One to pay Avista Corp USD$103 million after a failed merger plan (cited
Ford’s efforts to force Hydro One CEO to retire as political interference)
• Failed to fill vacant adjudicator positions at the Human Rights Tribunal, undermining cases
and discouraging vulnerable people from seeking relief and justice
• Considering removing 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
• Transitioning health and safety training from in-person to online, affecting 50,000
workplaces
December 2018
• Legislated OPG workers back-to-work
• Cut $25 million 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 $5 million in base funding to the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) and more than $2
million to the Indigenous Culture Fund (UPDATED: eliminated the Indigenous Culture
Fund, suspended five OAC programs)
• Appointed a new Ford-friendly Pay Equity Commissioner
• Introduced Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s CompetitivenessAct(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 Act provisions to protect vulnerable
workers) [see OFL submission]
• Remained unmoved on eliminating street checks, despite the recommendations of the
Independent Street Checks Review
November 2018
• Failed to act with the closure of the GM plant and the loss of 5000 direct jobs
• 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
• Introduced 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) [see
OFL submission]
• Passed a transphobic policy resolution at the PC convention, calling on the government to
remove gender identity references from the sexual education curriculum
28
• Re-announced the creation 6,000 new long-term care beds – more than 80% of which
were established under the previous government
• Introduced regressive social assistance reforms (e.g., limiting access for persons with
disabilities) (UPDATED: paused for the time being)
• Lowered the bar to hire Ford-friendly OPP Commissioner, Ron Taverner (UPDATED: paid
$40,000 for the search that led to his hiring – which was later aborted)
October 2018
• Introduced Bill 36, Cannabis Statute Law Amendment, allotting the sale of recreational
cannabis to private retailers in lieu of the LCBO and forfeiting 10,000 public sector decent
jobs [see OFL submission]
• Scrapped a scheduled 3% 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 $307.3 million from post-secondary education, rescinding funding for three university
satellite campuses
• Introduced Bill 47, Making Ontario Open for Business Act (e.g., scrapped the $15 minimum
wage, paid sick days, equal pay for equal work, access to workplace information) [see OFL
submission]
• Froze proactive workplace inspections
• Withheld $14.8 million in promised funding from existing and new sexual assault centres
September 2018
• Intended to invoke the notwithstanding clause and overrode the Human Rights Codeto
slash the number of Toronto City Council seats
• Dismantled the subcommittees under the Anti-Racism Directorate purported to combat
Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Black racism
• Declared a $15 billion deficit in a guise to cut and privatize public services
• Cut WSIB premiums by nearly 30%, leaving less money in the system for injured workers
August 2018
• Halted opening of new safe injection, overdose prevention sites
• Introduced a ‘snitch line’ on education workers, targeting those using the updated health
curriculum
29
• 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
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% 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)
• Slashed the size of the Toronto City Council by nearly 50% during the municipal election
period
June 2018
• Cancelled all of the programs that were funded by the $2.9 billion in revenuesamassed
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 program and 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
30
• 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
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