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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

Complaint to Integrity Commissioner- Press Conference on Bill Indemnifying LTC Industry from Neglect

Call for Access to Justice – Watch Today’s Press Conference on Bill 218

From link.

WATCH THE VIDEO OF OUR PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY to stop the Ford government’s new law that indemnifies long-term care homes against lawsuits for negligence resulting in harm and death in COVID-19 pandemic.

It is fundamentally unjust. Families seeking access to justice for their loved ones who have died, many of them in appalling conditions in long-term care homes and retirement homes are now faced with the added injustice of Bill 218. The Bill protects negligent long-term care and retirement homes, and has been forced through legislature at a breakneck pace. Only 15 of 58 people, including families of those who have died, were allowed to appear before the Standing Committee of the Legislature last week. The rest were cut out and the Ford government MPPs refused one more day of hearings to hear from them. More than 2,000 residents in long-term care have died of COVID-19, with more every day. Their families deserve access to justice, at the very least.

In a last ditch effort to get retirement and long-term care homes carved out of the Bill, the Ontario Health Coalition held an online press conference today where Natalie Mehra the executive director, legal experts from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and Will Davidson LLP, and family members of deceased long-term care residents with COVID-19. We can not let this affront to the memory of all the elderly who have suffered needlessly to stand.

Please contact your MPP as soon as possible and tell them to carve out long-term care and retirement homes from Bill 218.

The Bill is going to third and final vote in the Legislature on Tuesday.
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See link.
 
Today's announcement is the set up of a centralized procurement agency for the province.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

Supposedly this will lead to savings; I have more than a few doubts.

I think centralized procurement can make sense in a few select spaces; for example, buying MRI/CT machines can be done more cheaply with a province-wide contract for 15 machines over 3 years issued vs each hospital buying on its own.

However, centralizing many things tends to both reduce flexibility locally but also often raises prices.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it has to do with the fact that large contracts can often only be fulfilled by one or two large players in an industry.

Where a local hospital or school Board can hire a mid-sized company to supply something at a competitive price; a province wide contract at 20x the scale can't be bid on by such a company and you go from 20 possible suppliers to just 2.

Its something you can see with City contracts for supplying trees; there are only 2 or 3 companies large enough to bid; even though there are dozens of nurseries.

But they simply can't swallow a contract to be the sole supplier to Toronto.

The result is fewer bids, more problems with supply (substitutions, species unavailable) and likely higher prices too (difficult to prove).
 
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Northern Light said:
Today's announcement is the set up of a centralized procurement agency for the province.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

Supposedly this will lead to savings; I have more than a few doubts.

I think centralized procurement can make sense in a few select spaces; for example, buying MRI/CT machines can be done more cheaply with a province-wide contract for 15 machines over 3 years is issued vs each hospital buying on its own.

However, centralizing many things tends to both reduce flexibility locally but also often raises prices.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it has to do with the fact that large contracts can often only be fulfilled by one or two large players in an industry.

Where a local hospital or school Board can hire a mid-sized company to supply something at a competitive price; a province wide contract at 20x the scale can't be bid on by such a company and you from 20 possible suppliers to just 2.

Its something you can see with City contracts for supplying trees; there are only 2 or 3 companies large enough to bid; even though there are dozens of nurseries.

But they simply can't swallow a contract to be the sole supplier to Toronto.

The result is fewer bids, more problems with supply (substitutions, species unavailable) and likely higher prices too (difficult to prove).
Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder who will get those contracts...

AoD
 
Northern Light said:
Today's announcement is the set up of a centralized procurement agency for the province.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

Supposedly this will lead to savings; I have more than a few doubts.

I think centralized procurement can make sense in a few select spaces; for example, buying MRI/CT machines can be done more cheaply with a province-wide contract for 15 machines over 3 years is issued vs each hospital buying on its own.

However, centralizing many things tends to both reduce flexibility locally but also often raises prices.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it has to do with the fact that large contracts can often only be fulfilled by one or two large players in an industry.

Where a local hospital or school Board can hire a mid-sized company to supply something at a competitive price; a province wide contract at 20x the scale can't be bid on by such a company and you go from 20 possible suppliers to just 2.

Its something you can see with City contracts for supplying trees; there are only 2 or 3 companies large enough to bid; even though there are dozens of nurseries.

But they simply can't swallow a contract to be the sole supplier to Toronto.

The result is fewer bids, more problems with supply (substitutions, species unavailable) and likely higher prices too (difficult to prove).
Click to expand...
Surely the huge advantage for Mr Ford and Company is that it will centralise where you can go to look for 'back-handers"?
 
Northern Light said:
Today's announcement is the set up of a centralized procurement agency for the province.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

Supposedly this will lead to savings; I have more than a few doubts.

I think centralized procurement can make sense in a few select spaces; for example, buying MRI/CT machines can be done more cheaply with a province-wide contract for 15 machines over 3 years issued vs each hospital buying on its own.

However, centralizing many things tends to both reduce flexibility locally but also often raises prices.

This may seem counter-intuitive, but it has to do with the fact that large contracts can often only be fulfilled by one or two large players in an industry.

Where a local hospital or school Board can hire a mid-sized company to supply something at a competitive price; a province wide contract at 20x the scale can't be bid on by such a company and you go from 20 possible suppliers to just 2.

Its something you can see with City contracts for supplying trees; there are only 2 or 3 companies large enough to bid; even though there are dozens of nurseries.

But they simply can't swallow a contract to be the sole supplier to Toronto.

The result is fewer bids, more problems with supply (substitutions, species unavailable) and likely higher prices too (difficult to prove).
Click to expand...

I lived through this on a smaller scale as a government employee, primarily 'office supplies' and IT. Any division that has somewhat unique requirements have to either work twice as hard to try and convince 'the centre', fail, or give up and accept the generic standard. Accredited suppliers, usually based in urban areas, generally can neither spell, find on a map nor care about government offices in the boonies. They tried it with building custodial service in small communities as well; crash and burn. Substitution, as you mention, can be a huge problem. 'That's not what we ordered and it doesn't work for us' - That's what we are supplying under the terms of contract (clause 102, sub-paragraph z, font 1).

I sometimes wonder why government requires managers to develop operating budgets - they don't trust them to manage it. I remember a colleague at his retirement function saying that when he was a first line supervisor 25 years earlier he had more authority than when her retired in charge of a region.
 
Doug Ford has a bit of an obsession with Procurement, and thinks streamlining it somehow cures all ills.

'"The difference between myself and John Tory is that I can hit the ground running; he doesn't understand City Hall," said Ford. "He doesn't even understand what the procurement department does."'

I can't find it, but during his term as councillor, he harped on how all the different departments of the city were purchasing their pencils from different places and how purchasing needed to be centralized.

He's still convinced that government can be run like a business.
 
zang said:
Doug Ford has a bit of an obsession with Procurement, and thinks streamlining it somehow cures all ills.

'"The difference between myself and John Tory is that I can hit the ground running; he doesn't understand City Hall," said Ford. "He doesn't even understand what the procurement department does."'

I can't find it, but during his term as councillor, he harped on how all the different departments of the city were purchasing their pencils from different places and how purchasing needed to be centralized.

He's still convinced that government can be run like a business.
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Several months ago I was talking to someone at the procurement department at city hall, and they were happy things had somewhat returned to normal since the Ford Bros, had left city hall. It was their streamlining and tenders for the cheapest bids that drove them crazy when materials had to be collected for repairs that could be done by inside staff. It was not unusual that staff had to pick up supplies outside of town because they were the cheapest.
 
Thinker said:
Wishful thinking. Infection rates are up and as long as we have people not following the clear rules, rates will go up. Time to enforce and fine those who don't.
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I mean, theoretically he's right. If we locked everyone inside for a month, no one else would get sick. The reality is something completely different. The near-two months of lockdown we had from mid-March to Stage 1 at May 19 took us down to ~1000 cases a day provincially.
 
zang said:
I mean, theoretically he's right. If we locked everyone inside for a month, no one else would get sick. The reality is something completely different. The near-two months of lockdown we had from mid-March to Stage 1 at May 19 took us down to ~1000 cases a day provincially.
Click to expand...

We only hit 1000 cases in October.
 
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