Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

[afransen]

Just wait until we have autonomous vehicles to see how much governments will clamp down on 80+ drivers. As it stands now, Service Ontario bends over backwards to keep old people driving. I remember an old man being coached on his test by a Service Ontario worker while I was going my G1 written test a couple decades ago. He didn't know what the hospital sign was, or what a railroad crossing sign was. Nevermind which way to turn your wheels when parking on a hill with or without a curb.

My point about not knowing what a big H on a blue square is on a multiple choice test is that this is indicative of cognitive decline. And yet Service Ontario is keeping these people driving.

 

[lenaitch]

My point about not knowing what a big H on a blue square is on a multiple choice test is that this is indicative of cognitive decline. And yet Service Ontario is keeping these people driving.

I remember the 'sign quiz' on Canada's worst Driver'. They are among us, at all ages.

I see with a lot of boomers;

You do realize that the generations that follow whichever one you are will value judge you as well. 'Darn Gen Qers - insisting on chewing actual food instead of simply swallowing nutrition pills like we do'.

 

[zang]

You do realize that the generations that follow whichever one you are will value judge you as well. 'Darn Gen Qers - insisting on chewing actual food instead of simply swallowing nutrition pills like we do'.

Yes, well, Boomers are also the generation that grew up during the biggest expansion of the highway system, the massive explosion of middle class car-dependent suburbia, cars as a middle-class necessity, the Great Recession of public transit (especially tram systems) and decades of movies glorifying car culture from “Rebel Without a Cause” to “American Graffiti”.

Cars are deeply engrained in Boomer culture more than any other generation, and are seen most as a symbol of freedom amongst them.

Society changes, and hopefully towards the better. I’m not a static person who glorifies my generation, but if I become a relic of the past, I’m okay with that. Especially if it makes my daughter’s future better.

 

[lenaitch]

Yes, well, Boomers are also the generation that grew up during the biggest expansion of the highway system, the massive explosion of middle class car-dependent suburbia, cars as a middle-class necessity, the Great Recession of public transit (especially tram systems) and decades of movies glorifying car culture from “Rebel Without a Cause” to “American Graffiti”.

Cars are deeply engrained in Boomer culture more than any other generation, and are seen most as a symbol of freedom amongst them.

Society changes, and hopefully towards the better. I’m not a static person who glorifies my generation, but if I become a relic of the past, I’m okay with that. Especially if it makes my daughter’s future better.

You must be a hoot at family reunions.

 

[zang]

You must be a hoot at family reunions.

Naw, not my bag. Nostalgia is just a coping mechanism.

 

[DSC]

Ontario ombudsman to investigate Doug Ford’s direct education payments to parents​

Ontario ombudsman to investigate Doug Ford’s direct education payments to parents

The province’s ombudsman will be launching an investigation into Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government decision to give parents money directly to help support their child’s education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.cp24.com

Published Monday, December 11, 2023 10:40AM EST
Last Updated Monday, December 11, 2023 10:40AM EST
The province’s ombudsman will be launching an investigation into Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government decision to give parents money directly to help support their child’s education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a news release issued Monday, the office cited complaints from parents who were denied payments because “someone else had claimed the money first.”
According to the ombudsman, some parents learned that a relative who was not caring for a child had claimed the money, and there was no recourse to get it back.

He probably needs to check that there were no property developers among the false claimants! :->

 

[allengeorge]

It just happened:

Doug Ford scraps plan to break up Peel Region

Ford is reversing course due to concerns taxes might rise, services may suffer and regional jobs would be lost.

www.thestar.com

 

[Northern Light]

It just happened:

Doug Ford scraps plan to break up Peel Region

Ford is reversing course due to concerns taxes might rise, services may suffer and regional jobs would be lost.

www.thestar.com

Good post; I think the Peel/Mississauga decision was largely telegraphed, on that bit alone we learn little here, excepting the Star's desire to harp on death-bed promises that I find a bit much....

****

However, there are two interesting tidbits in the article:

And

 

[ShonTron]

I think that the 1970s-era of regional governance, while a great success in many respects, has not been properly examined lately, and we’ve only had haphazard changes since: the amalgamations in Sudbury, Hamilton-Wentworth and Ottawa-Carleton, the breakup of Haldimand-Norfolk into just two municipalities, and of course, Metro.

Peel was always going to be a bigger nut to crack as it was a dissolution, rather than an amalgamation, and the only other municipality to do that route was Haldimand-Norfolk, a much less integrated regional municipality that was set up for major urban and industrial growth that really didn’t happen. (See Townsend.)

H-N didn’t have integrated water, waste, or police services; the ambulance and public health services remain as leftovers administered by boards covering the same area. Unlike H-N, Peel also has complex social services and housing infrastructure.

So there was no precedent for dissolving a region like Peel, only amalgamation. I think it could be done with much more care, time, and public consultation which this didn’t have at all. Perhaps the GTA needs a fully integrated public water and wastewater system as York is mostly dependent on Peel, Toronto, and Durham anyway for Lake Ontario access. That would solve the biggest issue for dissolving Peel, as you could still have an integrated police board (there are other police services shared by two or more municipalities without a regional government, like Bradford and Innisfil). Health services are another.

But we never really got to discuss these rationally because Doug and Bonnie were both trying to appease a ghost.

 

[lenaitch]

I think that the 1970s-era of regional governance, while a great success in many respects, has not been properly examined lately, and we’ve only had haphazard changes since: the amalgamations in Sudbury, Hamilton-Wentworth and Ottawa-Carleton, the breakup of Haldimand-Norfolk into just two municipalities, and of course, Metro.

Peel was always going to be a bigger nut to crack as it was a dissolution, rather than an amalgamation, and the only other municipality to do that route was Haldimand-Norfolk, a much less integrated regional municipality that was set up for major urban and industrial growth that really didn’t happen. (See Townsend.)

H-N didn’t have integrated water, waste, or police services; the ambulance and public health services remain as leftovers administered by boards covering the same area. Unlike H-N, Peel also has complex social services and housing infrastructure.

So there was no precedent for dissolving a region like Peel, only amalgamation. I think it could be done with much more care, time, and public consultation which this didn’t have at all. Perhaps the GTA needs a fully integrated public water and wastewater system as York is mostly dependent on Peel, Toronto, and Durham anyway for Lake Ontario access. That would solve the biggest issue for dissolving Peel, as you could still have an integrated police board (there are other police services shared by two or more municipalities without a regional government, like Bradford and Innisfil). Health services are another.

But we never really got to discuss these rationally because Doug and Bonnie were both trying to appease a ghost.

Changing governance is always going to be costly, at least in the short term, and I have to believe dissolution is going to be more expensive, but we have virtually no history on it. It's hard to think of dissolving Peel as 'going back' since the before times is half a century ago and there have been massive changes since then.

As you say, the raison d'etre for creating Haldimand-Norfolk Region never really materialized and little had changed in the intervening 25-ish years, so the 'journey back' was relatively painless. On a point of order, there actually was a Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Police Service, but they never policed the entire Region. They never progressed past the stage of putting all of the pre-existing municipal police services in the same shirts.

Even in place like Chatham-Kent or the City of Kawartha Lakes (an absolutely dumb name), there were grassroots movements to deamalgamate not long after their creation but there was no political will and nobody wanted the cost to change shortly on the heels of the cost to change.

Large single or two tier municipalities make some sense when there is a need for large-scale planning. Most of the GTA regions were largely fairly prescient given the growth they have seen but, even at that, I doubt the residents of Brock or even northern Uxbridge townships have seen much benefit to their regional tax dollars.

 

[adma]

Remember that the other thing that made the dissolution of H-N easy is that it was a simple matter of reinstating the former constituent counties (albeit now as single-tier municipalities). Whereas Peel was always a single county, so what'd you dissolve it into?

 

[ShonTron]

Changing governance is always going to be costly, at least in the short term, and I have to believe dissolution is going to be more expensive, but we have virtually no history on it. It's hard to think of dissolving Peel as 'going back' since the before times is half a century ago and there have been massive changes since then.

As you say, the raison d'etre for creating Haldimand-Norfolk Region never really materialized and little had changed in the intervening 25-ish years, so the 'journey back' was relatively painless. On a point of order, there actually was a Haldimand-Norfolk Regional Police Service, but they never policed the entire Region. They never progressed past the stage of putting all of the pre-existing municipal police services in the same shirts.

Even in place like Chatham-Kent or the City of Kawartha Lakes (an absolutely dumb name), there were grassroots movements to deamalgamate not long after their creation but there was no political will and nobody wanted the cost to change shortly on the heels of the cost to change.

Large single or two tier municipalities make some sense when there is a need for large-scale planning. Most of the GTA regions were largely fairly prescient given the growth they have seen but, even at that, I doubt the residents of Brock or even northern Uxbridge townships have seen much benefit to their regional tax dollars.

I had no idea there was a HNRPS. The town of any significant size was Simcoe, and today, it's policed by the OPP. I guess Caledonia and Dunnville could have had their own police (there are a few surprisingly small towns that have their own police services) but that's surprising.

 

[lenaitch]

I had no idea there was a HNRPS. The town of any significant size was Simcoe, and today, it's policed by the OPP. I guess Caledonia and Dunnville could have had their own police (there are a few surprisingly small towns that have their own police services) but that's surprising.

I have no recollection which municipalities in the old counties had police services pre-amalgamation, but best I can find out the service peaked at about 80 members. It was formed in 1974 and disbanded in 1998. It was apparently a close vote, but it didn't matter much since the whole region was disbanded in 2001.

There are very few small town services remaining in Ontario. Off the top of my head, Gananoque and Deep River are probably the smallest.

(I believe the final version)

 

[Dan416]

I think there is duplication between the region and the cities that could be eliminated. For example, let the cities deal with the roads. There's no need for Regional Roads in Mississauga and Brampton. Caledon is different, and Caledon always throws things out of whack in Peel. I still think Caledon should be put under Dufferin County instead. Mississauga and Brampton are more similar and could each deal with their own roads, and then the regional roads in Caledon could be handled by Simcoe County.

For planning, I suppose they could do the same. Let Mississauga and Brampton do their own planning. Peel doesn't need to be involved in that per se, other than to deal with garbage and water and police.

 

[ShonTron]

I think there is duplication between the region and the cities that could be eliminated. For example, let the cities deal with the roads. There's no need for Regional Roads in Mississauga and Brampton. Caledon is different, and Caledon always throws things out of whack in Peel. I still think Caledon should be put under Dufferin County instead. Mississauga and Brampton are more similar and could each deal with their own roads, and then the regional roads in Caledon could be handled by Simcoe County.

For planning, I suppose they could do the same. Let Mississauga and Brampton do their own planning. Peel doesn't need to be involved in that per se, other than to deal with garbage and water and police.

I agree with you on roads. There’s no logical pattern to which roads are local and regional, especially in Mississauga. But I disagree on Caledon, because of how its growing. Bolton is quite urbanized these days, and the strip lining Mayfield Road is practically an extension of Brampton. If Brampton took over everything south of King Street, including all of Bolton, it might make sense to send the rural and exurban remainder to Dufferin County.