Premiership of Doug Ford

Doug Ford is the 26th and current premier of Ontario (French: Premier ministre de l'Ontario), Canada. He won a majority in the June 7, 2018 Ontario general election, as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, (CPC) caucus in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and was sworn in as premier on June 29, 2018.[1]

2018 election

Main article: 2018 Ontario general election

Ford won the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election on March 10, 2018. He represented Etobicoke North.

In the 2018 Ontario general election held on June 7, 2018, Ford won a majority government with 76 of the 124 seats in the legislature[2] with approximately 56.67% of potential voters voting.[3]

Office of the Premier

Premier Ford's advisers include Deputy Premier Christine Elliott, and his principal secretary Amin Massoudi, who was appointed in July 2019.,[4] Steven Davidson was appointed as Secretary of the Cabinet, head of the Ontario Public Service, and clerk of the Executive Council on June 20, 2019.[5] Deputy chief of staff Jamie Wallace replaced Dean French as chief of staff in June 2019.[6]

In a statement to the Globe in June 2018, the Premier's office confirmed that there was an incident the week before in which Premier Ford's chief of staff, Dean French, who was a "powerful player in Mr. Ford's orbit who ha[d] been accused of overstepping his role" had "scolded" an MPP for complaining about communications and later felt that she was "singled out for voicing her opinion".[7] The statement said this was regrettable but that it had been resolved by June 14, when the Globe article was published.[7] A week after the Globe article appeared, Robert Benzie, who is the Queen's Park reporter for the Toronto Star, broke the political patronage scandal that would eventually link French to a number of people with whom he had personal ties and who had received plum positions in the Ford administration.[8][8] By June 28, French was forced to resign.[9][10][11][12][12] In a July 2019 article, the Star said that the "cronyism scandal" had damaged Premier Ford's image and contributed to a loss in his popularity.[13]

Attorney General of Ontario

June 29, 2018, Caroline Mulroney was appointed by Premier Ford as Attorney General of Ontario.[14]

In September 2018, Premier Ford announced that he would use the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' "notwithstanding" clause to override the ruling of a Superior Court judge which said that Ford's legislation, decreasing the size of Toronto City Council just before the municipal election, was unconstitutional.[15] As Ontario's AG, Mulroney voted in support of the Ford government's use of Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. According to the Globe and Mail, "constitutional experts and politicians of all parties" criticized her decision as a violation of the sanctity of the judicial process as Attorney General.[16]

Lindsey Park was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Attorney General in June 2018.[17] In August, Mulroney announced that the Ontario government would be "launching a constitutional challenge" against the federal carbon price, saying that the tax was "unethical and unfair."[15]

In June 2019, Premier Ford named Doug Downey, who was had been appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance in June 2018,[17] to replace Caroline Mulroney as Attorney General.

In the fiscal year 2019, the publicly funded Legal Aid Ontario will receive $133 million less than previously, representing a funding cut of 30 per cent, as part of the Ford government's deficit cutting plan, presented in the April 2019 budget.[18] On September 11, 2019, Chief Justice of Ontario George Strathy said that the "cuts to Legal Aid Ontario will force many people to self-represent...What we judges can say is that reducing legal representation for the most vulnerable members of society does not save money. It increases trial times, places greater demands on public services, and ultimately delays and increases the cost of legal proceedings for everyone."[18]

Treasury Board secretariat

The Treasury Board president, who was appointed in June 2018, is Peter Bethlenfalvy, and his Parliamentary Assistant is MPP Stan Cho, who was also appointed at that time.[17] When MPP Fedeli released the spring 2019 budget, Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy said that cuts to the "unsustainable level of spending" would be made in a "reasonable, pragmatic, sustainable path back to balance" but he declined "to say whether the books would balanced before the 2022 election."[19] The Office of the Provincial Controller Division, provides advice to the Treasury Board Secretariat on financial management and accounting.

Financial Accountability Office (FAO)

Ontario's financial watchdog, the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) is an independent agency that provides fiscal, financial and economic analysis costs and benefits of potential legislation to the Province.[20]

According to CBC News, Ford had been promising in the months just before the June election, to provide a "fully costed campaign platform". On May 30, 2018, just before the election, Ford posted their "final plan" "overnight" on the PC website, "For The People: A Plan for Ontario." CBC said that the platform did not "include a fiscal outlook", nor did it provide details on how Ford would pay for the campaign promises if elected, which included cutting "$6 billion" inefficiencies in the government, cutting taxes for the "middle income bracket and businesses", "reduc[ing] the price of gasoline by 10 cents per litre" while providing "hundreds of millions of dollars for various infrastructure projects.[21]

The Commission of Inquiry report "set a long-term goal of restoring" Ontario's AAA credit rating.[22]^:2 The Financial Post reported that Moodys bond credit rating had downgraded Ontario's credit rating on December 11, 2018 from Aa3 to Aa2 because of Ontario's $14.5-billion deficit in the 2018-2019 fiscal year and "projections that it will continue to post deficits in the coming years."[23] Moody's said that interest rates are projected to increase over the "next three to five years".[23] A lower credit rating results in higher costs for servicing the debt.[23] While Finance Minister Fedeli blamed the previous Wynne Liberal government for the downgrade, "Moody's also said that actions taken by the [Ford] government to reduce revenue levels will add to the budgetary pressures facing the province."[23] The NDP blamed the Ford administration for the downgrade as Premier Ford gave "tax breaks to the richest corporations and cash handouts to polluters."[23]

A report released on April 2, 2019 by Peter Weltman, Ontario's financial accountability officer, compared the NDP's proposed minimum wage $1 increase to the PC's Low-income Individuals and Families Tax (LIFT) credit, which came into effect in 2019. The FAO report "concluding that the credit will only benefit 38 per cent of minimum wage workers since many already pay no provincial income tax." The report said that "The LIFT credit will provide fewer benefits to minimum wage workers than increasing the minimum wage from $14 per hour to $15 per hour."[24] Weltman's report said that under LIFT, 1 million Ontarians will receive about $409 in 2019 compared to 1.3 million Ontarians who would have earned an average of $810 more, if the minimum wage had been raised to $15. Weltman said that the tax credit could cost the Ontario government an estimated "$1.9 billion over five years, from 2018-19 to 2022-23."[24] Minister Fedeli said that the minimum wage freeze helped businesses which results in more jobs. He said that the 132,000 new jobs since June 2018 prove that the strategy of freezing the minimum wage worked.[24] During the previous Liberal government, the FAO September 12, 2017 report said that fast phase-in of the proposed increase in the minimum wage, which represented a 32 per cent increase over an 18-month period—from $11.60 in 2017 to $15 by 2019—could "result in a loss of approximately 50,000 jobs".[25] According to a Global New report, the number of minimum wage workers in Ontario would increase from over 500,000 in 2017—representing 7 percent of the workforce—to 22 percent or 1.6 million in 2019, with the increase in the minimum wage.[25] The FOA analysis does not consider non-economic outcomes, such as the health and well-being of workers.[25]

In his December 10, 2018 report, FAO Weltman, Ontario's financial watchdog, said unless there were "significant spending cuts or tax increases", Ontario's annual operating deficit would exceed $16 billion in 2022–23.[26]

On October 17, 2019 Weltman told Global News in an interview that, it was "important for people to understand the official deficit was never $15 billion."[27] Ontario's financial watchdog was correcting statements made by Premier Ford after he was elected that said that the Liberal government had left a "staggering $15-billion deficit" through "reckless spending."[27] Weltman said that in 2018-2019 the deficit was $7.4 billion, which is double that of the previous fiscal year.[27] Weltman's report said that the "relatively sharp increase in the deficit was the result of modest revenue growth, combined with a relatively large increase in program spending...Policy decisions by both the current and previous governments contributed to the slow increase in revenues as well as the rise in spending last year...Cap and trade the auctions were supposed to bring in $1.7 billion last year. When the government cancelled the program, they cancelled the auctions — so effectively that revenue was gone. But the spending programs associated with the cap-and-trade program were not all cut so there was some residual spending but there was no offsetting revenue".[27]

Auditor General of Ontario

Main article: Auditor General of Ontario

The Auditor General of Ontario (AGO) is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly responsible for conducting audits of the "provincial government, its ministries and agencies" and "organizations in the broader public sector that receive provincial funding, such as hospitals and long-term-care homes, universities and colleges, and school boards."[28] The current AGO is Bonnie Lysyk (MBA, FCPA, FCA, LPA).[28]

Schedule 15 of the Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018 transferred the responsibilities of the former environmental watchdog agency—the Office of the Environmental Commissioner (ECO)—that reported on the operation of the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993, to the AGO's office, which came into effect on April 1, 2019.[28] On the advice of a recruitment firm that conducted a Canada-wide search for the right candidate, Lysyk selected Jerry DeMarco Ontario's new commissioner of environment.[29]

AGO Lysyk submitted a "scathing" pre-election April 2018 report to the Ontario Legislature[30] criticising the former Liberal government of their accounting methods which she said were "lawful" but not "right". She "calculated that the deficit forecast for [2019] was $12.2 billion—not the $6.6 billion Finance Minister Sousa had predicted."[30]

Ministry of Finance

In June 2019, Rod Phillips, who served as Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, replaced Vic Fedeli as Ontario's finance minister. Andrea Khanjin was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in June 2018.[17] Phillips, who was CEO of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, before entering politics—according to CTV News—will attempt to "soften" the "blow of future budget cuts working towards balancing Ontario's budget in 2023-24.[31]

In April 2018, while Premier Ford and Minister Fedeli were promoting Ontario to investors in New York, there was a particularly "raucous caucus meeting" with some "bloodletting" with "bluntly" with some MPPs complaining "about the lack of information they received following the release of Mr. Fedeli's budget" which had included unpopular "cuts to library services and tree-planting initiatives". The MPPs were concerned that they had not been involved in the discussion on these changes which they would have "advised against" knowing there would be "backlash in their communities", according to the Globe and Mail.[7]

In response to the release of the report by the Independent Financial Commission of Inquiry by commissioners Gordon M. Campbell, Michael Horgan, and L.S. (Al) Rosen on the finances of the previous Liberal government, then Minister Fedeli said that, "The hole is deep and it will require everyone to make sacrifices without exception."[27]

Fedeli and Premier Ford presented the government's "first fall economic outlook" on November 15, 2018.[32]

Starting in January 2019, those who are working full-time and earning less than #30,000 a year would pay no provincial income tax, in the new LIFT program but minimum wage would be frozen at $14 per hour.[32] They eliminated 3 legislative offices including the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), child and youth advocate and French language services commissioner positions. The surtax on the highest earning Ontarians that would have generated about $275 million in revenue, was cancelled. The proposed French language university was cancelled as were three university satellite campuses.[32]

Fedeli served as minister until he was moved to economic development in June 2019 in a major cabinet shuffle.[33] According to CTV News Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Colin D'Mello, Premier Ford removed Fedeli as Finance Minister on June 20, 2019 in the "wake of a disastrous budget rollout that's left the Progressive Conservative government drowning in negative publicity."[31]

Minister Fedeli tabled the Ford government's first budget on April 11, 2019.[34][19] According to the Sault Star, Fedeli was demoted from "highly-touted finance post" and "blamed" for the "failure to sell voters on the $163.4-billion budget and the cost of breaking a 10-year deal that ultimately expands beer and wine sales in grocery stores, costing taxpayers $1 billion."[35] NDP Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP, John Vanthof, said that the 2019 budget failed northern Ontario by not providing funds for Highway 69, the Ring of Fire, expanded broadband access, and cuts to Indigenous Affairs, Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, and more. Vanthof said that there "will be beer in corner stores, drinks at 9 in the morning, tailgate parties, and blue licence plates, but when the fog is cleared, there is also an over $500 million cut to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines."[36]

Doug Downey was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance in June 2018.[17]

The deficit

Main article: Ontario government debt

From about 1989 to 2018, Ontario has reported a deficit almost every year; the province's net debt increased to approximately $311.6 billion (by October 2018); and Ontario's net debt‐to‐GDP ratio grew from 13.4% to about 40.5% in 2018–19.[37]^:139

According to The Star, a 27-page "scathing" pre-election report by Bonnie Lysyk, the Auditor General of Ontario, which was submitted to the Ontario Legislature[30] said that the accounting methods used by Wynne's liberal government were "lawful" but not "right". She was referring to about "$11 billion in the government jointly sponsored pension plans (JSPPs)—Ontario Public Service Employees' Union Pension Plan and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan—that Wynne's government "counted toward the bottom line". Based on Lysyk's revised accounting methods, these funds are not revenue which dramatically increases the annual debt. Using these revised accounting methods, Lysyk "calculated that the deficit forecast for [2019] is $12.2 billion—not the $6.6 billion Finance Minister Sousa had predicted."[30] For 2020-21 it would be "$12.5 billion, not $6.5 billion. She said that, "More money will need to be borrowed to pay for the unrecorded expenses even when the government reports an annual surplus or a balanced budget.[30]

In May 2018, The Ottawa Citizen reported that the NDP had made an accounting error in their "spending plan." NDP leader Andrea Horwath said that the $700 million reserve fund had been erroneously categorized as revenue instead of deficit—a reserve fund is not "new money" so it is not revenue. The CBC described how, the fund should be counted as a deficit even if the money was not spent. When the error was pointed out to the former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, his office "confirmed there had indeed been an accounting mistake." As a result, the That means $700 million had to be "subtracted twice" adding 1.4 billion to the total deficit.[38]

The Independent Financial Commission of Inquiry August 30, 2018 report was tabled to "establish a budgetary baseline" and to clarify Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards requirements that the Ontario government must follow for the Auditor General of Ontario reports.[22] The Commission recommended revising the Public Accounts of Ontario 2017–2018 to comply with Auditor General's "accounting treatment for any net pension assets of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Ontario Public Service Employees' Union Pension Plan on a provisional basis", which would include "restatement of the prior year's figures for comparative purposes."[22]^:2 The 2018 Budget had forecast a deficit that was 2.9 percentage points lower than the October report. The Commission recommended that the government revise the "accounting treatment for global adjustment refinancing and jointly sponsored pension plans (JSPPs)...[retroactively] from 2001–02 onwards" which added a "cumulative $14.6 billion to net debt."[37]^:139 This represents a revised net debt-to-GDP ratio up from 40.5% to 40.8%.[37]^:139

The Star reported on December 5, 2018, that Cindy Veinot, who was then Ontario's provincial controller, disagreed with Minister Fedeli's $15 billion deficit figure and the "accounting decisions made by the Ford government". Veinot said that, "I believe that the consolidated financial statements of the province of Ontario as issued ... materially overstate the deficit of the province for the year.[39] Veinot resigned in September 2018, "because she refused to sign off on Finance Minister Vic Fedeli's inflated $15 billion deficit", according to The Star.[39] The Star described Veinot, as a "leading expert on pension accounting who finished first among 63,000 candidates in the 1998 certified public accountants exam in the U.S.[39] Veinot contended that the government jointly sponsored pension plans (JSPPs) "holdings are an asset." Until 2015, Auditor General Lysyk and her predecessors considered the JSPPs holdings to be an asset but in 2015, she changed her mind. The previous Liberal government also held that the JSPPs were an asset but Ford's new government administration disagreed.

Table from Commission report[22]^:2

(billions)	Budget plan 2018-9	Revised baseline	Impact on deficit
Revenue	152.5	150.9	(1.5)
Total expenses	158.5	164.9	(6.4)
Surplus (Deficit) Before Reserve	(6.0)	(14.0)	(8.0)
Reserve	0.7	1.0	(0.3)
Surplus / (Deficit)	(6.7)	(15.0)	(8.3)

According to an April 11, 2018 Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) report, which was based on figures provided by the Ford government, the revised estimate of Ontario's deficit was $11.7 billion in 2018-2019 and it was projected to decrease by $1.4 billion in 2019-2020 mainly because of "the removal of the $1 billion contingency reserve." At that time it was projected that the deficit would be "completely eliminated in 2023-2024 with a small surplus of $0.3 billion."[40] By October 2019, the Financial Accountability Officer, Weltman, said that the FAO had been in error when they—and the Ford government—had projected a $11.7-billion deficit that was reported in the spring 2019 budget.[27]

By June 2018, Ontario had "Canada's second-highest public debt per person and a growing budget deficit", according to The Economist.[41]

The Ontario Finance Department reported in October 2018, that Ontario's public debt per person at $23,014, had surpassed that of Quebec at $21,606 in the fiscal year 2017–2018.[37] Newfoundland and Labrador public debt per capita at $27,761, was the highest in Canada.[37]^:141

The RBC said in April 2019, that the Ford government's debt target is soft, aiming to reduce the net debt-to-GDP ratio to "less than the inherited 40.8%" in the early years to "38.6% by 2023-2024."[40]

By 2019, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce reported that Ontario's debt was over $348 billion—representing about 41% of provincial GDP of almost $850 billion. Ontario's GDP is much larger than any of the other provinces and is almost half of Canada's GDP. "When combined with the federal debt (approximately $680 billion), the debt-to-GDP ratio for Ontarians nears 80 percent."[42]

In October 2019, Financial Accountability Office said that the deficit had increased from $3.7-billion deficit in 2017—at the end of the Liberal administration—to $7.4 billion in 2018 under Premier Ford. The deficit had almost doubled partly because of "cancelled climate-change initiatives and subsidizing hydro bills" according to the Hamilton Spectator.[43]

Ministry of Transportation

John Yakabuski served as Minister of Transportation from June 29, 2018[14] to November 5, 2018 when he was moved to the natural resources and forestry file.[44] Yakabuski was succeeded by Jeff Yurek. According to iPolitics, the Ontario Road Builders' Association (ORBA) president is Marlene Yakabuski, the sister of the Transportation Minister. The ORBA, which is "registered to lobby the Ministry of Transportation", represents the "majority of road-building contractors who build and maintain both provincial and municipal roads, bridges, public transit systems, and core civil infrastructure."[44] In a November 2018 article, iPolitics described Yakabuski's move to the natural resources ministry was considered to be a "demotion'.[44] Kinga Surma, who served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation in June 2018,[17] was appointed as Associate Minister of Transportation (GTA) in June 2019.

On April 10, 2019, Premier Ford and Minister Yurek announced Ontario's transit plan for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)—one of the largest metropolitan areas in Canada.[45] The $30 billion dollar project would include the $10.9 billion Ontario Line, the $5.5 billion Scarborough subway, the $5.6 billion Yonge Subway extension to Richmond Hill, and the $4.7 billion Eglinton West extension. The province would provide $11.2 billion in funding and "wants to own the lines but leave the city and TTC to operate the subway system."[45] Premier Ford said, "We are making the biggest and largest investment in new subways in Canadian history."[45] The City of Toronto had already spent $224 million of public money on its own "planning and design of transit infrastructure in Toronto."[45] The City raised concerns about delays considering the city manager—Chris Murray's "sweeping" April 16 transit expansion report, "which also suggests several projects may now be in limbo, including two Scarborough transit lines and Mayor John Tory's signature SmartTrack plan."[46] In a December 13, 2018, City Council meeting, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) CEO Rick Leary, said that he had not had any "direct negotiations or discussion" with the province on what "it would look like if the province uploaded the subway system"—bringing the "TTC's subway system under provincial ownership".[47] While there were clear financial benefits to the city, the council voted to "reaffirm their desire to keep the entire TTC — subways and all" and requested more clarity from the province.[47] CBC News described it as a "political fight" with upcoming transit negotiations becoming "one of the most contentious and complex" issues in 2019 in Toronto's city hall.[47] The studies and plans for the TTC's proposed "desperately needed extension known as the Relief Line", had begun in the late 2010s.[48] By early 2019, the planning for the Relief Line was "well underway and construction was scheduled to begin in 2020, with projected completion in 2029."[48] Ford and his "markedly different vision for transit in the GTA", presented in April, put the Relief Line project on hold.[48] In June, Minister of Transportation Jeff Yurek and Minister of Infrastructure McNaughton held a news conference in which they called on the federal government to support the $10.9 billion Ontario Line.[48] The government responded saying that Ontario had not submitted a "business case with the necessary information to win federal approval."[48] On October 8, 2019, during a GTA campaign stop, Andrew Scheer, leader of the federal PPC, who is running in the October 21 2019 Canadian federal election, made a campaign promise to "help pay for the Ontario Line and another proposed project called the Yonge Subway Extension" if he is elected as Canada's next Prime Minister.[48]

Ministry of Economic Development and Trade

Todd Smith, who was Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade from November 2, 2018 to June 20, 2019, tabled the original version of Bill 66: Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act.[49] Bill 66 would have allowed municipalities to "bypass existing development restrictions to shorten the time it takes to approve and build housing and business projects creating at least 50 jobs."[50] Critics of the Bill said that it "would have put Ontario's Greenbelt and prime farmland around Toronto at greater risk of development."[50] Ontario Federation of Agriculture said that Bill 66 was a "direct attack" on family farms. By January 2019, Ford's government "slammed the brakes" on Bill 66. Minister Clark subsequently announced the reversal of the Bill on Twitter. He said the provincial government had "listened to the concerns raised by MPPs, municipalities, and stakeholders."[50]

Minister Smith tabled Bill 47: Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, which was passed on November 21, 2018.[51] According to the Toronto Sun, Bill 47 strips "part-time workers of two paid sick days a year and prevent[s] a rise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour on January 1, 2019." NDP critic said that this "will incent employers to turn full-time positions into cheaper part-time work".[52]

The Ontario government abruptly cut all its provincial annual funding—representing $5 million—to the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine (OIRM) in May 2019.[53] Minister Smith, said that the "private sector will step up and fund stem-cell research."[53] Scientists told CBC that the private will only invest in the stem-cell field when "their studies reach a late phase", until then "government funding is crucial."[53] OIRM scientists who are "working on treatment of premature babies" said the cuts were "extremely short-sighted and uninformed".[53] The OIRM was formed in 2014 by the Ontario Stem Cell Initiative (OSCI) and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM).[54] The original Ontario Initiative in Personalized Stem Cell Medicine, was established in 2009 by four institutions—including the University of Toronto, SickKids Hospital, and McMaster University—to build on the pioneering work of Shinya Yamanaka in Japan on Induced pluripotent stem cell ( iPS cells)—whose discovery earned him the 2012 Nobel Prize.[55] Yamanaka discovery "opened new frontiers" in regenerative medicine.[56] According to The Star, in 2009 Ontario scientists were already "considered at the top of their game" and the creation of the Ontario Initiative in Personalized Stem Cell Medicine was " another step to cement their role as one of the best stem-cell hubs in the world."[57] By 2019, OIRM was affiliated with at least 11 McMaster University scientists.[56]

In June 2019, Vic Fedeli was appointed as Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Prabmeet Sarkaria is Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction in the economic development ministry. Michael Parsa and Donna Skelly were appointed as Parliamentary Assistants to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade (Trade) in June 2018.[17]

In the fall of 2018, then-Finance Minister said that they were considering including a gambling house as part of the Ontario Place redevelopment—We are "going to look at every single possibility to make that a world-class centre, and I would say nothing is off the table." Under pressure from the mayor of Toronto and others— as "options for redevelopment of the former waterfront amusement park continue to be explored—by May 2019, Premier Ford backtracked. According to The Hamilton Spectator, the "firm rejection of a casino" became clear when Ontario government "issued a formal "call for development" submissions from potential developers of the 155-acre site across from the Canadian National Exhibition grounds by September 3."[50]

Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services

Todd Smith is Minister of Children, Community and Social Services (2019-). MPP Belinda Karahalios was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children, Community, and Social Services (Community and Social Services) in June 2018.[17] MPP Lisa MacLeod served as Minister Children, Community and Social Services until her transfer to Tourism, Culture and Sport in June 2019. In August 2018, she admitted that she had broken the party's election promise by repealing the Ontario Basic Income Pilot Project on July 31, 2018.[58][59]

On November 15, 2018 the government announced that they were eliminating three watchdog legislative offices including the child and youth advocate.[32] Irwin Elman, whose position was established as the first child and youth advocate under the 2007 Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act, has "published a number of landmark reports that have had considerable impact on child welfare policies in the province", learned about the cuts through the media.[32] In 2017, according to official numbers reported by The National Observer, the "office of the child advocate spent $10.6 million in 2017." Minister Fedeli was not able to confirm that eliminating the advocacy office will save money as the responsibilities will be transferred to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and the Office of the Ombudsman.[60] According to the Observer, on the day the advocate's office was eliminated, then-Minister MacLeod "stood in the legislature and promised to be 'the fiercest child advocate in this province.'"[60]

One of the biggest cuts, announced in the 2019 budget, was the $1 billion cut—over a four-year period—to the Ministry of Community and Social Services.[36]

MacLeod and Amy Fee, who had been appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children, Community, and Social Services (Children and Autism) in June 2018,[17] faced province-wide demonstrations in an "immediate backlash" from service providers, parents and their supporters, when MacLeod introduced sweeping changes" to the Ontario Autism Program that redistributed funds for the program without adding any new funds to the program budget.[61][62][63] By June 2019, a treatment centre for children with disabilities had to eliminate 291 full-time positions because of changes to autism funding introduced by the provincial government.[64]

In July 2019, Todd Smith, who replaced MacLeod as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, apologized to the "families of autistic children for a plan that cut thousands of dollars from the money they receive for therapy after outrage from parents. Smith "said the new funding arrangement will not be implemented until the spring of 2020. Smith "acknowledged for the first time" that "changes to the autism program" announced by MacLeod in February 2019 were "poorly conceived."[65]

In February, 2019 the government had announced changes to the Ontario Autism Program, which had over 20,000 children on a waiting list.[50] Under Minister MacLeod and Fee, changes were made in "how children qualified, based on age and family income". During the revamping of the Program, support for children already receiving service, was clawed back which meant that families had to pay most of the bills for "very expensive behavioural therapies."[50] This "outraged those in the autism community". The protests included a "huge rally at Queen's Park that could be heard inside the legislature and inundated Tory MPPs and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod with complaints."[50] In response, the Ford government "scrambled to pour more money into the program and in early May [2019] announced consultations that would help shape further reforms to the system, moving toward one based on need."[50] The Hamilton Spectator said that of all the "policy snafus", the funding of services for families of children with autism, was the one that bothered Ford the most.[50]

On August 8, 2019 the Ford administration severed the funding for court-ordered autism services for eight families with adult children with "severe" conditions who are at "serious risk of harm", who had been receiving the funding since 2004.[66] Lawyers Scott Hutchison and Mary Eberts served notice of intent to sue in an 18-page letter to Social Services Minister Smith and Premier Ford "for breach of contract, negligence, and breach of Charter rights." It was formally filed in court on October 1.[66] Those long-standing payments of about $1.7 million annually were the result of litigation against the previous provincial administrations, who had committed to continue the funding "until a co-ordinated transition to other services had been made, in a way that provided alternative services with which the families were satisfied", according to The Star.[66] Faced with a backlash against "a botched revamp of autism services" in February 2019, the government had doubled the annual funding to $600 million for autism services but this did not restore the funding for these eight families.[66]

Ministry of Health

Christine Elliot was named as Health Minister in 2018 and kept her post in the June 2019 cabinet shuffle.

MPP Merrilee Fullerton, was appointed as Minister of Long-Term Care in June 2019. Robin Martin and Effie Triantafilopoulos were appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care (Long-Term Care) on June 29, 2018.[17] Fullerton had previously served as Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities from June 2018 to June 2019.[35]

In July 2018, Premier Ford named Rueben Devlin, an orthopedic surgeon who was CEO of Toronto's Humber River Hospital[67] and a "key Tory adviser"and former Ontario PCs president—to a $348,000 a year three-year appointment on the Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine,[68] to curb hospital overcrowding.[69] Devlin is the Ford family's "closest health-care adviser."[68] Health costs in Ontario were over $60 billion annually, according to TVO's Steve Paikin.[68] Devlin is tasked with the selection of the other Council members, and with "ending hallway medicine, dental care for seniors, improved mental-health services), all while ensuring stable, long-term funding for the system—Premier Ford's election promises.[68]

Since coming into power in June 2018, Premier Ford's government put an approved injection site in Toronto—and several other places—on pause while the new Ontario Health Minister, Christine Elliot, studied the issue.[70] In response, the Canadian AIDS Society, the Canadian Medical Association and 118 other health organizations prepared an open letter to Minister Elliot and Premier Ford urging them "to heed the recommendations of experts in public health, front-line clinicians, harm reduction staff, and people with lived experience of drug use" and to reconsider the "Progressive Conservative government's position on overdose prevention sites".[70] According to a CBC News report, during Ford's campaign in April 2018, he said, "I don't believe in safe-injection areas, as I call them. I believe in supporting people, getting them help....I ask anyone out there, if your son, daughter or loved one ever had an addiction, would you want them to go in a little area and do more drugs? I'm dead against that." The report also said that Ford's late brother Rob Ford struggled with addictions and that Ford said that his government "would create 30,000 long-term care beds over the next 10 years to ease the burden on hospitals and cut wait times."[71]

In February 2019, the NDP said that two sets of leaked documents show that the Ford government was creating a health "super agency" that "would be in charge of managing health services, quality improvement, patient relations, digital health and tissue donation and transplants, among other responsibilities."[72] The documents said that "long-term care inspections" and the Ontario's "air ambulance service" Ornge would be "outsourced". According to a CTV News report, Minister Elliot was "forced to make assurances" that these services would not be "privatized".[72] The first document, which was leaked at the end of January, was a "draft version of the Progressive Conservative government's upcoming health-care transformation legislation."[72] CTV News said "local health integration networks, Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario, the Trillium Gift of Life Network and other government health agencies" would be "rolled into" the super agency.[72] Minister Elliot said that the December 13 assistant deputy ministers workshop document, which made references to outsourcing laboratories, "inspections, licensing, devices" and Ornge, were options and that these services would not be privatized.[72] The NDP said that the super agency was described in the leaked documents as having the "competency and capacity to effectively partner with public and private sector entities." The documents show that MyCare groups is being created as a "new model" of "integrated care delivery" with the goal of providing "patients with seamless, co-ordinated care and a single team of providers for all their care needs."[72]

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot tabled the controversial Bill 74: The People's Health Care Act. Its first reading was on February 26, 2019 and it received Royal Assent on April 18, 2019.[73]

In spite of 2018 election promises that "not a single person will lose their job" under his PC government, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot office announced in June 2019 that 416 workers would be laid off, as 20 health agencies, including 14 local health integration networks (LHINs), Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario[74] were merged into one new super-agency called Ontario Health.[64] With the merger "another 409 vacant positions will be eliminated."[64] These changes are estimated to save "$350 million a year by 2021-22".[64] A CBC News report said that the average wait times in Ontario hospitals set a new June record of an average of 16.3 hours waiting in emergency rooms in 2019, compared to 14.4 hours in June 2018, based on Health Quality Ontario data.[74] More restructuring was announced by the Health ministry in September and no more job losses are anticipated.[74]

Ministry of Education

Lisa Thompson was the Ford administration's first Minister of Education. Sam Oosterhoff was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education in June 2018.[17] Thompson lost her post as minister of education portfolio during the June 2019 cabinet shuffle, one of "two high profile demotions in files that have been stricken with controversy since Ford took office."[31] She was replaced by Stephen Lecce in the "thorny education portfolio".[31] Lecce previously worked as "former staffer in the administration of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Under Ford, he serves as Deputy Government House Leader and Parliamentary Assistant to the minister of Infrastructure and the Premier.[31] According to CTV News, Lecce is faced with upcoming contract negotiation with teacher's unions, ongoing layoffs announcements from school boards and continuing to sell the government's controversial changes to classroom sizes and the introduction of mandatory online courses in Ontario high schools.[31]

In early July 2018, then Education Minister, Lisa Thompson, told Queen's Park reporters that starting in September 2018, Ontario schools would no longer be using the sex education curriculum in use since 2015, but would be reverting to the previous curriculum.[75] One of the election campaign promises by the Ford government was to "scrap" the 2015 sex education curriculum.[75] Premier Ford's government said that "it did not order the cancellation."[75] By August 2019, the Ministry of Education, following "widespread consultations" made "only minor tweaks".[50] The "health lesson plan being brought to schools in the fall" of 2019 "is similar to the one Ford crusaded against."[50]

A July 2018 statement from Minister Thompson said that the Department's "bureaucracy" had acted "unilaterally" to cut costs by eliminating "three curriculum writing sessions", including one for American Sign Language and another for Indigenous languages, in kindergarten that were planned for July 2018. A third session that was cancelled was the revision of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) curriculum with elders who were already booked to help in the revisions.[76]

On October 11, 2019 Minister Lecce reached a deal with CUPE school support workers, which has to be ratified by CUPE members and averted a pending strike.[77] Premier Ford had said that he would cap "all public sector wage settlements at one per cent per year". The three-year agreement with CUPE was for a "one per cent wage increase annually for the duration of deal."[77] A clause in the agreement clause in the agreement says that if "higher increases are negotiated by other education unions", their union will be able to increase to more than one percent.[77] CUPE also had $58.3 million restored for the "hiring of educational assistants" with an additional $20 million for hiring "more custodians and clerical workers."[77] As well, CUPE's sick leave provisions remained untouched.[77]

Ministry of Government and Consumer Services

Lisa Thompson was named as Minister of Government and Consumer Services in June 2019, replacing MPP Bill Walker who served from June 29, 2018. MPP Robert Bailey was named as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Government and Consumer Services on in June 2018.[17]

Ministry of Francophone Affairs

June 29, 2018, Caroline Mulroney was appointed by Premier Ford as Attorney General of Ontarioand Minister of Francophone Affairs.[14] Amanda Simard was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs in June 2018.[17]

Mulroney voted in support of the Ford government's September 2018 proposal to use Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, commonly called the "notwithstanding clause", to overrule a judge's decision that legislation intended to shrink the size of Toronto City Council was in fact in violation of Charter rights. For this position, she faced widespread condemnation from constitutional experts and politicians of all parties, particularly with respect to her duty to ensure the sanctity of the judicial process as Attorney General.[15][16]

In November 2018 Ford announced cuts which included cancelling a "French language university and cut the post of provincial commissioner for French language affairs."[78] Ontario's francophone population represents from 550,000 to 744,000 people in a province of 14 million, according to The New York Times with many concentrated in Sudbury, Ontario, in northern Ontario and near the Ontario-Quebec border in eastern Ontario.[78]

Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport

Lisa MacLeod serves as the Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport.[33] Vincent Ke was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport in June 2018.[17]

Ministry of Indigenous Affairs

Greg Rickford was named as Minister of Indigenous Affairs in 2018.

In the April 2019 budget, funding for the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs was cut in half.[36]

Minister Rickford released a May 9, 2019 statement saying that the Ontario Government was "committed to do everything in its authority to support the relocation" of the Kashechewan First Nation.[79] which is located north of Fort Albany, Ontario on the James Bay coast. The community has a flooding and infrastructure problems for many years and in April 2019, had to evacuate 2,500 members by plane when a state of emergency was called again.[80] APTN reported, in the presence of 300 community members, both the federal and provincial governments signed the Framework Agreement with Kashechewan First Nation to commit to moving the reserve. The federal Minister of Indigenous Services Seamus O'Regan said the relocation process would probably take about eight years to complete.[80]

Ministry of Natural Resources

Jeff Yurek, who served as Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry from June to November 2018, was succeeded by John Yakabuski.[81] Yakabuski was elected in the eastern Ontario riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke is a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The April 2019 budget cut "Natural Resources and Forestry by $162 million, and "sliced" $142 million from Emergency Forest Firefighting, which represents almost 70 per cent of its funding.[36][34]^:294

Northern Development and Mines

Greg Rickford is Minister of Northern Development and Mines (2018-), Minister of Energy, and Minister of Indigenous Affairs. MPP Paul Calandra was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (Energy)[17] Ross Romano was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (Northern Development and Mines) and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs in June 2018.[17]

The newly elected leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, Ford, was a keynote speaker at an April 5, 2018 fundraising event hosted by KWG Resources and the Ring of Fire Limited Partnership in Toronto[82][83] for a new Transportation Authority to transport chromite ore from the massive Ring of Fire mining and smelting project "to a proposed KWG Resources processing plant in Sault Ste. Marie."[82] During his electoral campaign Ford said that "he would hop on a bulldozer himself and start building the road to the Ring of Fire."[84]

A July 7, 2018 article in Policy Options said that newly elected Premier Ford, had said that "resource development within northern Ontario's Ring of Fire mining area [would] be a priority for his government."[85]

In Verner, Ontario on September 17, 2019, Premier Ford told the press that the development of the Ring of Fire development "remains a top priority for the Progressive Conservative government."[84] The development project is located in the remote, mineral-rich James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario, in the Kenora District, approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi) northeast of Thunder Bay. In August, Greg Rickford, who is Ontario's Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (MENDM), said that the Ford government was dissolving the 2014 regional framework agreement between the nine Matawa First Nations and the province.[86][87] By September, Rickford said that they were working with individual communities on a transportation corridor that Rickford called a "corridor to prosperity" from the Ring of Fire—Ring of Fire as a "major economic opportunity"—to transportation hubs in the south.[84]

However, the 2019 budget cut more than $500 million to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.[36] The NDP critic representing the North said that "Doug Ford squandered the opportunity to create thousands of family-supporting jobs right across the North by failing to take concrete action on the Ring of Fire with no funding, and no commitment to meaningful consultations with impacted First Nations."[36]

Ministry of Energy

Greg Rickford was appointed as Minister of Energy in June 2018. MPP Paul Calandra and Ross Romano were named as the department's Parliamentary Assistants at the same time.[17] Bill Walker was named as Associate Minister of Energy in June 2019.

In July 2018 Minister Rickford tabled Bill 2: Urgent Priorities Act, which received Royal Assent in the same month.[88] The first session of the 42nd Legislature was on July 11 and Bill 2, which passed into law on July 25, was the Ford Government's first piece of legislation.[89] Bill 2—an omnibus bill—was "criticized by both "business groups and unions". It legislated an end to the strike between York University and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), cancelled the White Pines Wind Project wind farm contract, and gave Ontario government "veto power over compensation at Hydro One."[89]

Hydro One

Main article: Hydro One

On July 25, 2018, the Ford government passed Bill 2 which "put a severe dent into the operations of Hydro One", a former Crown corporation which went public in November 2015. The Toronto-based Hydro One is the province's "largest electricity transmission and distribution service provider" with "nearly 1.4 million customers".[90] Hydro One was established under the Business Corporations Act Crown corporation under the Government of Ontario.[91] Bill 2 places a cap on the compensation allowed for executive members of the board of directors,[90] and gave Ford's provincial government a "direct say in the naming of directors" representing a major shift from what was agreed upon between shareholders and the government when Hydro One went public three years earlier.[90] Under Premier Ford, the CEO and the entire board of directors were replaced.[90] The former CEO, Mayo Schmidt was replaced by Tim Hodgson, a Ford appointee, who took on his new position in August 2019 with an annual salary of $120,000.[90] Hydro One was in the process of acquiring American energy firm Avista Inc., when "U.S. regulators scuttled" the purchase "costing the Toronto-based company a $140 million termination penalty."[90] The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission said that they blocked the purchase of Avista because of concerns about the independence of Hydro One from the Ontario provincial government.[92] Reducing Ontario consumer electricity costs by 12% was one of the campaign promises made by the Conservative party. government had promised to cut consumers' electricity prices 12%.[93] By July 2019, this has not happened, according to The Record.[90] Critics raised concerns that Hydro One will not experience stability as Premier Ford's government has a "record of reaching in to exert control."[90] According to a July 3, 2018 Financial Post article, the actions of the Ford government "confused" "bankers, lawyers, investors and analysts", all of whom were "aghast at the intrusion by a government (that in late 2015 agreed to act as an investor and not a manager) into the internal affairs of a company."[93] Former chief economist of TD Bank, Don Drummond, said that the price of electricity will remain high for a long time to come but it cannot be blamed on Ford, who inherited a "multi-decade mess in the making that won't be solved quickly."[93] Drummond said that, the Ford government "managed to confuse everybody" by holding Hydro One "accountable" for the high electricity prices.[93] According to The Post, "Hydro One is essentially a pass through — buying power at one end and selling it at the other — with limited ability, if any, to influence prices."[93]

On March 21, 2019 Minister Rickford, tabled Bill 87, the Fixing the Hydro Mess Act which was given Royal Assent on May 9.[94] Bill 87 overhauled the Ontario Energy Board and eliminated the Liberal's 2017 Fair Hydro Plan which the PC's said would save $442 million.[95] The Liberal Plan "subsidized electricity with borrowed money" in response to a "public outcry over soaring hydro rates, particularly in rural areas."[95][96] The Liberals created the Ontario Power Generation Inc (OPG Trust) as the Financial Services Manager to manage the debt. Bonnie Lysyk, the Auditor General released a special report on October 17, 2017, which said the "structure of the plan" was in violation of the provincial government's accounting rules.[96] She said that the Plan, which committed the government to discount consumer electricity rates for ten years, would cost the province "$21 billion in interest over the next 30 years." The 2017 AG report said that it would cost $4 billion more on the $18.4 billion loan to use the Ontario Power Generation (OPG Trust) than if the province took out the loan because the province would have a lower interest rate than the OPG Trust.[96] The Ford government said that they would maintain [the] 25 per cent time-of-use rates, that was part of the Liberal's Fair Hydro Plan.[96] Under the newly structured Conservative plan, the debt financing "would move onto the government's books" from the OPG trust.[96]

Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Steve Clark is Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (2018-). Christine Hogarth and Jim McDonell were appointed as Parliamentary Assistants to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Housing) in June 2018.[17]

Minister Clark introduced Bill 5, the Better Local Government Act on July 28, 2018. Its first reading was July 30 and it was passed into law on August 14, 2018.[97]

Premier Ford announced the controversial bill on September 27, on the last day for candidate registration for the October 22, 2018 Toronto municipal election, newly elected Premier of Ontario Doug Ford introduced the Better Local Government Act (Bill 5) which requires that Toronto use the same ridings for all its elections—municipal, provincial, and federal—effectively reducing the Toronto City Council from 47 seats to 25.[98] Bill 5 passed on August 14, 2018.[99] Toronto is Ontario's capital city and the largest city in Canada with a population of 2.7 million.[100] The number of Council seats had just been expanded following approximately four years of consultations and debates.[100] Ford said that these reductions would lower the cost to taxpayers by $CDN 25 ($USD19.1) million dollars in Toronto's $CDN11.1 ($USD8.5) billion dollar budget.[100] Bill 5 reset the positions of regional municipality chairs as by appointment not be election in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka.[101][102][99]

Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change

Rod Phillips, served as Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in the first year of the Ford administration. During that time, the Ford government "legislated an end to cap and trade and redesigned the Endangered Species act".[31] Jeff Yurek was appointed as Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in June, 2019.

Carbon tax decals on gas pumps in Ontario, mandated by the Ford government during the 2019 Canadian federal election.

On June 7 after winning the election, Ford said that "very first item" on his agenda would be to cancel the federal carbon tax and provincial cap-and-trade programs in order to prevent motorists from being "gouged at the pumps".[41]

According to a June 28, 2018 article in The Economist, Ontario, with "Canada's second-highest public debt per person and a growing budget deficit", Fords' "poleaxing of cap and trade" would result in C$2.8bn worth of pollution permits owned by companies that could result in lawsuits. The article said that Ontario would lose C$2bn a year from the sale of pollution permits under its cap and trade program, which represents 1.3% of Ontario's revenue.[41]

On October 11, 2019, the Ontario divisional court dismissed a lawsuit by Greenpeace that was filed against the Ontario government for repealing cap-and-trade without public consultation.[103] Justice David Corbett Justice Graeme Mew, two of the three judges on the panel, ruled that public consultations were a requirement under the Ontario's Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), and that the Ford government "did not follow the law by ending the program on the basis of election results."[103] However, once in office the Ford government had introduced new legislation that replaced that of the EBR. Justice Frederick L. Myers said that the new 2018 legislation allowed the Ford government to "lawfully cancel the program" without public consultations. Justice Myers added that, "The regulation whose legality we are asked to consider has been repealed and is no longer in existence."[103]

In November 2018, the Ford government announced that it was eliminating three provincial watchdog groups including the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO) to cut costs. Then Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), Dianne Saxe, had just submitted her 4-volume 339 page 2018 Environmental Protection Report, entitled "Back to Basics, to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.[104] Saxe was a "vocal critic" of the Ford government's "actions on climate change"—"their vow to fight a federal carbon tax, pulling out of more than 700 renewable energy contracts and moving to end the Ontario Green Energy Act."[32]

Bill 57, also known as the Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act transferred the Environmental Commissioner Officer's duties to the Auditor General of Ontario.[105][106][107]

Ford's government withdrew the province from the Western Climate Initiative emissions trading system, which had been implemented by the previous Liberal government.[108]

Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

In June 2019 MPP Ross Romano was named as Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, replacing MPP Merrilee Fullerton, who had served since June 2018.[35] and was appointed Minister of Long-Term Care. David Piccini was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities in June 2018.[17]

In August 2018, in response to "incidents on campuses across North America where speakers faced protests",[109] then Minister Fullerton announced that all "publicly-assisted" colleges and universities were required to "develop and publicly post its own free speech policy by January 1, 2019". The policy must meet a "minimum standard specified by the government."[110] These standards must include the Chicago principles. Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) has the authority to gather the mandatory self-reporting by colleges and universities and to monitor colleges and institutions on compliance.[110] An article in The Hamilton Spectator cited examples of protests against controversial speakers in Ontario, such as Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto professor and Lindsay Shepherd, who was disciplined after showing a Peterson video to her students at Wilfrid Laurier University.[109] Fullerton said that free speech had become a campaign issue.[109] She said the government was "constantly" hearing from students and faculty "that free speech was being stifled on Ontario campuses."[109]

Minister Fullerton had initially announced that students "could opt-out of ancillary fees that can add as much as $2,000 a year in costs". She later clarified that some fees—athletics, transit, those related to safety, health, and wellness—would remain mandatory. Funding for student governments—described as "havens" for "crazy Marxist nonsense"—were optional.[50]

Ministry of Infrastructure

Laurie Scott was appointed as Minister of Infrastructure in 2019 to replace Monte McNaughton who served as minister from June 2018. Stephen Lecce was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure in June 2018.[17]

As Minister, McNaughton introduced Bill 32, the Access to Natural Gas Act in the fall of 2018. It was passed into law that December. Bill 32 was intended to make it possible to expand access to natural gas expand access to natural gas throughout rural and Northern Ontario including to First Nations communities.[111]

Premier Ford said in a statement released on September 17, 2018 that "cancelling the cap-and-trade carbon tax" had caused the price of natural gas to decrease in Ontario. Premier Ford announced the new legislation and explained how it differed from the previous government's 2017 taxpayer-funded $100 million Natural Gas Grant Program—through which—according to Premier Ford, "private sector companies were limited from participating in natural gas expansion, portions of which were instead managed by the [Natural Gas Grant Program]." Bill 32, The Access to Natural Gas Act passed into law in 2018, to "encourage more private gas distributors to partner with communities to develop projects that expand access to affordable and efficient natural gas."[112]

On September 18, 2018, the city of North Bay learned that the Natural Gas Grant Program funding of over $8.6 million had been cancelled for a natural gas project that would have extended "services to as many as 350 homes in the north shore area of Trout Lake."[113]

In January 2019, Minister McNaughton announced that the Ford government would provide $27 million to Northeast Midstream towards the construction of their Nipigon LNG gas plant. The plant would be capable of converting natural gas into a liquid form, that can be trucked to consumers. The project will create between 700 and 2,800 jobs in the region.[114][115]

In May 2019, Minister McNaughton announced that the Ontario's Government "committed up to $63.7 million" to Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) with support from other levels of government.[116] The not-for-profit, publicly-funded SWIFT project to develop a regional fibre optic network, has been one of the key initiatives of the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus (WOWC) representing upper-tier municipalities in southern Ontario from Dufferin to Windsor.[117] The 2013 WOWC Broadband Feasibility Study "identified lack of choice, high prices, poor service and little competition as problems across the region, and recommended construction of the SWIFT network as a solution."[118] Through SWIFT, federal, provincial and local municipalities "subsidize the construction of an open-access, high-speed broadband network in Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and the Niagara Region."[119] In 2014, the subsidies to cover the total cost then "estimated at $243.5 million" would be $20 million from the municipalities, $61 million from private partners, $81 million from both the province and the federal government.[118]

International media response

The Economist said that the province of Ontario, with a population of 14 million compared to Canada's 37 million, has tended to align its interests with those of the federal government. Ontario's capital city, Toronto, which is "Canada's main financial centre", normally "gets along" with Canada's national capital, Ottawa.[41] Disputes between the Ford government and the Trudeau government include the carbon tax, "corporate taxes, business regulation and social spending", with Premier Ford's supporting "small-government and low-taxes."[41] These differences may dominate political discussions in Canada until the 2019 Canadian federal election[41] on October 21, according to The Economist.

One of Ford's campaign promises was to "reduce the size and cost of government."[100]

Polls

By early June, the polls showed that the Ford government was not "as popular as they were when they first got elected" following budget cut backs and unpopular policies.[50] Laurentian University's political science professor, Nadia Verrelli, said the Ford government's "about-faces" in May 2019, were "directly a result of its plunging popularity in the polls."[50] Verrelli said that it was likely that "Ford didn't expect these issues to impact the PC poll numbers."[50] In response, Premier Ford, cancelled the "retroactive funding cuts to municipalities that adversely affected public health, child care and paramedic services, which Toronto Mayor John Tory claimed would cost the city $177 million annually."[50]

According to Abacus Data, by June 5, 2019, "about 15 per cent of those who voted Progressive Conservative last year now say they would vote for another party".[120] CBC called it "voters 'buyer remorse'" after seeing the effects of the Premier's 'lightening speed', 'whirlwind' first year in office.[120]

According to the Toronto Star's July 9 and 10 Corbett Communications survey, 67 percent of Ontarians said they do not "believe he cares about people like them."[13] The Star said that the "cronyism scandal" that "engulfed Ford's office" seems to have damaged Premier Ford's "carefully constructed image as a champion for the little guy."[13]

In a survey conducted in partnership between the Angus Reid Institute and Postmedia and reported in The National Post on September 25, 2019, a "whopping 85 per cent" of Ontarians said that the Ford government's "policies and actions" would "make them less likely to support Andrew Scheer's federal Conservative party in the upcoming federal election.[121]

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External links

• Premier of Ontario Official Site

1. https://www.ola.org/en/members/current/opposition-critics