Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

[Northern Light]

In this article from The Narwahl, we learn that Parks Canada has taken aim at the Ford Government's bulldoze the Greenbelt Plan.

They are very specifically going after those proposed removals, including the Agricultural Preserve which abut or are near to Rouge Park.

Rouge National Urban Park at risk of ‘irreversible harm’ | The Narwhal

Rouge National Urban Park’s ecosystems and threatened species would be in danger if Ontario proceeds with Greenbelt changes, Parks Canada warns

thenarwhal.ca

This is somewhat encouraging, though, as yet, changes nothing. But the words used are unusually sharp for a communication between a Federal Agency and a Provincial Ministry and suggest to me, that this was politically approved, or at the very least has high-level ministerial backing. Its causing some hope that the Federal government may intervene with a Federal Environmental Assessment.

An interesting further wrinkle, is that Rouge Park itself and some other lands are the subject of a filed land claim by the Mississaugas of the New Credit. I'm not sure what subtantive chance there is of such a claim going through, which would almost certainly be resolved by a cash payment, but this is now precipitating a possible 'duty to consult'.........

From the article linked above, a few excerpts:

( from the letter sent by Parks Can )

* note from me; when getting promises from anyone worth millions of dollars (or more), always get it in writing!

Again from the article (and letter):

 

[DSC]

Similar info in Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...8859EB1E39E5CAC2627F7BC1D7&utm_campaign=frst_

 

[tiffer24]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is telling the mayor of Mississauga and other municipal leaders who've voiced opposition to new housing legislation to "get on board" and "stop whining."

At an unrelated announcement in neighbouring Brampton today, Ford launched into unprompted criticism of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie's opposition to aspects of his housing plan.

Crombie and other mayors across the province have said that Ontario's new law that eliminates and freezes some developer fees to municipalities will force them to raise property taxes in order to pay for infrastructure that supports new housing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-crombie-housing-bill-23-1.6677302

 

[Admiral Beez]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is telling the mayor of Mississauga and other municipal leaders who've voiced opposition to new housing legislation to "get on board" and "stop whining."

At an unrelated announcement in neighbouring Brampton today, Ford launched into unprompted criticism of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie's opposition to aspects of his housing plan.

Crombie and other mayors across the province have said that Ontario's new law that eliminates and freezes some developer fees to municipalities will force them to raise property taxes in order to pay for infrastructure that supports new housing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-crombie-housing-bill-23-1.6677302

I wish development fees hadn't existed previously, or at least as they exist. Hazel McCallion tore Mississauga apart in her quest for fees, but built only car dependent sprawl and low density housing with these one time fees, leading to insufficient tax bases to maintain and replace the now aging infrastructure. If instead municipalities had to rely on property taxes from the onset of any new houses they'd be encouraged to build denser, to maximize the sustainable revenue.

 

[afransen]

Land value tax would help.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Frontage tax; single detached home surcharge, etc. Not going to happen with this government though.

AoD

 

[Amare]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is telling the mayor of Mississauga and other municipal leaders who've voiced opposition to new housing legislation to "get on board" and "stop whining."

At an unrelated announcement in neighbouring Brampton today, Ford launched into unprompted criticism of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie's opposition to aspects of his housing plan.

Crombie and other mayors across the province have said that Ontario's new law that eliminates and freezes some developer fees to municipalities will force them to raise property taxes in order to pay for infrastructure that supports new housing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-crombie-housing-bill-23-1.6677302

Of course what Doug isnt telling people, is that he plans on screwing every single resident of various municipalities (homeowner or not) by having their services cut, and fees increased dramatically to pay for the free pass he plans on giving developers.

But yes Doug, let's disguise it as "Mississauga is charging residents hundreds of thousands in development fees".

According to Doug this is "simple Economics 101" and all about "supply and demand" which clearly he knows nothing about as he was too busy selling hash in his high school days.

 

[Northern Light]

There are so many reasons to rightly criticize the Ford government in Ontario.

However, in the spirit of fairness, one must recognize when they do something sensible.

A huge expansion of MRI Service across the province has just been announced.

A whopping 27 new MRIs have been approved. This will bring Ontario to a more globally-normative standard for the provision of MRI service.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca

If I take one tiny quibble w/the announcement, thus far, its that it was originally expected before the election; though, at the time, was expected to be smaller.

It was this time last year than the province quietly issued a call to Ontario hospitals asking for submissions on adding MRI service, but at the time, it was only for 15 additional sites.

I don't have the detailed site list, I assume that will be out shortly, but it does including Collingwood.

Most of this will benefit areas beyond the GTA. But there is a benefit to the GTA in that many patients are now transferred to local hospitals from areas lacking MRI service. That shouldn't be as much of an issue on a go-forward basis, and should free up substantial room for shorter waits locally.

One other note, the province is not actually buying the machines, but approving that the hospitals in question do so, by way of guaranteeing operating funds (which can be used for covering the purchase price, in part, over time).

This is the normal way this is done in Ontario, but foolish, as bulk-purchasing by the province would potentially drive down the cost per machine by up to 1/3.

***

Now, to do the same for PET Scanners!

 

[lenaitch]

There are so many reasons to rightly criticize the Ford government in Ontario.

However, in the spirit of fairness, one must recognize when they do something sensible.

A huge expansion of MRI Service across the province has just been announced.

A whopping 27 new MRIs have been approved. This will bring Ontario to more globally-normative standard for the provision of MRI service.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca

If I take one tiny quibble w/the announcement, thus far, its that it was originally expected before the election; though, at the time, was expected to be smaller.

It was this time last year than the province quietly issued a call to Ontario hospitals asking for submissions on adding MRI service, but at the time, it was only for 15 additional sites.

I don't have the detailed site list, I assume that will be out shortly, but it does including Collingwood.

Most of this will benefit areas beyond the GTA. But there is a benefit to the GTA in that many patients are now transferred to local hospitals from areas lacking MRI service. That shouldn't be as much of an issue on a go-forward basis, and should free up substantial room for shorter waits locally.

One other note, the province is not actually buying the machines, but approving that the hospitals in question do so, by way of guaranteeing operating funds (which can be used for covering the purchase price, in part, over time).

This is the normal way this is done in Ontario, but foolish, as bulk-purchasing by the province would potentially drive down the cost per machine by up to 1/3.

***

Now, to do the same for PET Scanners!

This is a good step; imaging (MRI, CT, etc.) is a significant bottleneck in diagnoses and treatment. I also disagree with the hospitals having to but the equipment. In addition to the 'bulk discount' argument, fundraising to the level required is often much more difficult in smaller centres. I suppose it would be less of an issue if they weren't also having to fundraise for beds, crash carts, incubators, and on and on.

I didn't realize that government-provided operating funds could be used against the purchase price. That would assume that (a) sellers are willing to defer to some kind of payment plan and (b) there is sufficient capacity in the payments after providing for salaries, benefits and all the operating costs.

 

[Northern Light]

This is a good step; imaging (MRI, CT, etc.) is a significant bottleneck in diagnoses and treatment. I also disagree with the hospitals having to but the equipment. In addition to the 'bulk discount' argument, fundraising to the level required is often much more difficult in smaller centres. I suppose it would be less of an issue if they weren't also having to fundraise for beds, crash carts, incubators, and on and on.

I didn't realize that government-provided operating funds could be used against the purchase price. That would assume that (a) sellers are willing to defer to some kind of payment plan and (b) there is sufficient capacity in the payments after providing for salaries, benefits and all the operating costs.

I did not mean to suggest that sellers would offer payment plans and collect a portion of billing, that's not how it works.

What I meant is that the hospital can front some of the cost as required (financing or using internal reserves) and recover that by running a marginal surplus on direct operating costs.

Radiologists are fee for service, so far as I know, but the technicians are direct hospital staff, and then there is the electrical power associated w/the unit. In general, my understanding is that the operating funds
cover nearly full 24/7 operation for electricity, but the technician costs are funded based on hours of service (usually in increments of 40 hours). The global number has to account for variable costs based on the unit
purchased, the local electricity cost, and some other variables, as such the payment should exceed what most hospitals directly spend, slightly.

Hospitals do have some wiggle room in how these payments are managed, or at least they did when I had some discussion w/a chief radiologist a few years ago, who noted at the time they ran and staffed the machines beyond their
provincial allocation by shifting some $ from the hospital's base budget.

 

[Northern Light]

@lenaitch

There are some interesting ways one can finagle something from vendors.

This is a story from London, Ontario, where both local health systems have interesting, exclusive, medium-term deals w/vendors that include the vendors becoming 'research partners'; among other unique facets of those deals:

London hospitals to acquire new MRIs and angio suites | Canadian Healthcare Technology

LONDON, ONT. – Hospitals in London, Ont. have partnered with Siemens Healthineers to refresh and modernize the city’s stock of MRIs and angiography devices. In December, London Health Sciences Centre […]

www.canhealth.com

 

[lenaitch]

I did not mean to suggest that sellers would offer payment plans and collect a portion of billing, that's not how it works.

What I meant is that the hospital can front some of the cost as required (financing or using internal reserves) and recover that by running a marginal surplus on direct operating costs.

Radiologists are fee for service, so far as I know, but the technicians are direct hospital staff, and then there is the electrical power associated w/the unit. In general, my understanding is that the operating funds
cover nearly full 24/7 operation for electricity, but the technician costs are funded based on hours of service (usually in increments of 40 hours). The global number has to account for variable costs based on the unit
purchased, the local electricity cost, and some other variables, as such the payment should exceed what most hospitals directly spend, slightly.

Hospitals do have some wiggle room in how these payments are managed, or at least they did when I had some discussion w/a chief radiologist a few years ago, who noted at the time they ran and staffed the machines beyond their
provincial allocation by shifting some $ from the hospital's base budget.

I suppose at the end of the day, I would prefer hospitals wouldn't have to use 'creative bookkeeping' to provide medical service.

Years ago, when 'imaging' beyond x-rays was in its infancy, most were not 24-hour shops. Rumours abounded that, if you had an early imaging appointment, if you looked around carefully, you might find pet hair. We had a neighbour who was head of imaging at the local hospital and he never really denied it.

 

[kamira51]

There are so many reasons to rightly criticize the Ford government in Ontario.

However, in the spirit of fairness, one must recognize when they do something sensible.

A huge expansion of MRI Service across the province has just been announced.

A whopping 27 new MRIs have been approved. This will bring Ontario to a more globally-normative standard for the provision of MRI service.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca

If I take one tiny quibble w/the announcement, thus far, its that it was originally expected before the election; though, at the time, was expected to be smaller.

It was this time last year than the province quietly issued a call to Ontario hospitals asking for submissions on adding MRI service, but at the time, it was only for 15 additional sites.

I don't have the detailed site list, I assume that will be out shortly, but it does including Collingwood.

Most of this will benefit areas beyond the GTA. But there is a benefit to the GTA in that many patients are now transferred to local hospitals from areas lacking MRI service. That shouldn't be as much of an issue on a go-forward basis, and should free up substantial room for shorter waits locally.

One other note, the province is not actually buying the machines, but approving that the hospitals in question do so, by way of guaranteeing operating funds (which can be used for covering the purchase price, in part, over time).

This is the normal way this is done in Ontario, but foolish, as bulk-purchasing by the province would potentially drive down the cost per machine by up to 1/3.

***

Now, to do the same for PET Scanners!

@lenaitch

There are some interesting ways one can finagle something from vendors.

This is a story from London, Ontario, where both local health systems have interesting, exclusive, medium-term deals w/vendors that include the vendors becoming 'research partners'; among other unique facets of those deals:

London hospitals to acquire new MRIs and angio suites | Canadian Healthcare Technology

LONDON, ONT. – Hospitals in London, Ont. have partnered with Siemens Healthineers to refresh and modernize the city’s stock of MRIs and angiography devices. In December, London Health Sciences Centre […]

www.canhealth.com

As someone who actually installs these machines, its fantastic to see that more hospitals are getting imaging equipment(it possibly gives me more work) and our company recently installed a new PETCT in London about one month ago, before that, london only had one PETCT in london at St.joesph hospital and it's extremely old.

 

[Northern Light]

As someone who actually installs these machines, its fantastic to see that more hospitals are getting imaging equipment(it possibly gives me more work) and our company recently installed a new PETCT in London about one month ago, before that, london only had one PETCT in london at St.joesph hospital and it's extremely old.

Ontario needs another 20+ new Pet Scanners, in addition to replacement of several older ones.

Barrie is set to get one.

There is still no PET Scanner in K-W, which is absurd.

There's also none in Scarborough, none in Durham Region, none in York Region, none in Kingston either.

Far too many gaps. And more are needed in Toronto too.

 

[W. K. Lis]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1602695941819088902