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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

"I'll repeat for the 100th time": Ford defends Ontario not providing paid sick days​

From link.

Premier Doug Ford defended Ontario’s decision, for what he said was the “100th time” to not provide paid sick days, reiterating that the federal program gives enough compensation.

During a press conference on Monday, when asked about not providing paid sick days, he responded, “I don’t know how many times I have to repeat it, but I’ll repeat it for the 100th time.”

“The taxpayers out there, I ask you, would you want the federal and provincial government to double-dip into your pockets when there’s a program already in place?”
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Ford said that “all the way back from September,” he fought to get $1.1 billion from the federal government for paid sick days for the entire country, but they were only given $319 million.

“I asked them to change the program, and they listened to us. The minister of labour asked, they listened to us. I’m very, very grateful to the federal government for actually changing the program, enhancing the program and lengthening the program from two weeks up to four weeks, so again, I think it’s great that the government did it,” Ford said.

“We’re in much better shape than we were before.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) would be extended from two weeks to four.

The program provides support for those who can not work because they are sick, need to self-isolate due to COVID-19, or have an underlying health condition that puts them at greater risk of contracting the virus.
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Those who are eligible can receive $500 each for a one-week period.

Ontario’s Official Opposition has criticized the Ford government for not providing paid sick days at the provincial level.
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Next, Doug Ford will reverse the 1793, Upper Canada's "Act Against Slavery" because it hurts his "friends".
 
The Ford Government today announced it would spend $115,000,000 to offer free Community College tuition to up to 6,000 prospective PSWs.

This is to combat an acute shortage of PSWs owing to the danger, that's it not the most pleasant job anyway, and low pay and precarious hours.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

The free tuition is swell; but doesn't really address the reasons people have left the profession and aren't attracted to it.

***

In a twitter post, Sue Gowans notes:

1614201177476.png


49k a year would be equal to $23.55 per hour, based on a 40-hour work week.

That's considerably more than post PSWs earn in Ontario.
 
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Northern Light said:
The Ford Government today announced it would spend $115,000,000 to offer free Community College tuition to up to 6,000 prospective PSWs.

This is to combat an acute shortage of PSWs owing to the danger, that's it not the most pleasant job anyway, and low pay and precarious hours.

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca news.ontario.ca

The free tuition is well; but doesn't really address the reasons people have left the profession and aren't attracted to it.

***

In a twitter post, Sue Gowans notes:

View attachment 301796

49k a year would be equal to $23.55 per hour, based on a 40-hour work week.

That's considerably more than post PSWs earn in Ontario.
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Took him a year.

Had to protect LTC from lawsuits first. See link.
 
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I'm looking forward to having a nice romantic night out with a glass of Niagara wine, stale hotdogs and the lottery ticket machine music in the background will add to the romance.

7-Eleven Canada preparing to serve beer and wine inside several Ontario stores​

Company says it is planning in-store service of a small selection of Ontario-made beer and wine products​


 

The Provincial Administrative Penalties Act in Alberta is really, really awful - A Lawyer Explains​



Happening in Alberta. Could be copied in Ontario and/or other provinces.

www.facebook.com

Reboot Alberta | IMPORTANT!!!! | Facebook

IMPORTANT!!!! This is a HUGE red flag and I bet most Albertans have no idea this is going on. The UCP is bringing in changes to the Provincial Administrative Penalties Act that turn our judicial...
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
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Without going into the weeds on the Alberta proposal, many of the points are in direct violation of several SCOC rulings under the Charter. If the provincial AG staff are actually earning their keep this information should be available to their legislature. If the proposal does go through, I would imagine it wouldn't survive the first appeal.
 
Here's something interesting.

Ontario's Minister of Long-Term Care, Ms. Fullerton, has generally not been well received in her position.

That was true pre-Covid; but certainly moreso afterwards, given the problems in that sector during the pandemic.

Well, the Minister is testifying to the Commission the government set up on LTC; and offering her various notes that were apparently not the subject of Cabinet confidence (and/or that was waived).

At any rate; the Minister's notes suggest she wanted a much stronger government action on the LTC front, sooner, than was adopted.

I'm not clear if this is revisionist reputational rehab................

Or if she's genuinely throwing her government under the proverbial bus.......

 
Northern Light said:
Here's something interesting.

Ontario's Minister of Long-Term Care, Ms. Fullerton, has generally not been well received in her position.

That was true pre-Covid; but certainly moreso afterwards, given the problems in that sector during the pandemic.

Well, the Minister is testifying to the Commission the government set up on LTC; and offering her various notes that were apparently not the subject of Cabinet confidence (and/or that was waived).

At any rate; the Minister's notes suggest she wanted a much stronger government action on the LTC front, sooner, than was adopted.

I'm not clear if this is revisionist reputational rehab................

Or if she's genuinely throwing her government under the proverbial bus.......

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I suppose if nothing else, she is proven to be alive. He testimony is the first I've seem or heard of her in about a year.
 

Doug Ford overrode Ontario’s top doctor on COVID-19 tests, overwhelming system​

From link.

Premier Doug Ford overrode the advice of his government’s medical experts in opening up COVID-19 testing to all Ontarians in the spring, a decision that overwhelmed the province’s antiquated lab system and led to critical backlogs in the long-term care sector.

The revelation is contained in Health Minister Christine Elliott’s testimony to an independent commission examining the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Ontario’s long-term care homes.

The experts – Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams; Vanessa Allen, Public Health Ontario’s chief of microbiology and laboratory science; and Jennie Johnstone, chair of the province’s panel on testing strategy – said allowing anyone to get tested for COVID-19 was not advisable because it would add to already lengthy turnaround times for processing results.

Despite the warning, Mr. Ford announced on May 24 that anyone without symptoms who feared they had been exposed to COVID-19 could get a test. Prior to then, only high-risk groups, including health care workers and residents in nursing homes, could get tested.

Ms. Elliott was asked why the government ignored the panel’s advice when, according to her own diary presented at the commission, she was well aware that the province does not have a well-connected lab system that could deal with large volumes of tests.

“How does the science get rejected?” John Callaghan, lawyer for the commission, asked.

“That was very important to the Premier,” Ms. Elliott responded, according to a transcript of her testimony posted Friday evening. “You would really need to speak to him about that.”

Ms. Elliott, who is also Deputy Premier, was the first cabinet minister to testify before the commission last Wednesday. Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton followed two days later; her transcript was posted Sunday evening.

Dr. Fullerton, a former family doctor, described her ministry as the “forgotten partner,” which has long been neglected. The Ministry of Health sent out many directives without input from her office, she said. Correspondence tabled at the commission shows that Dr. Fullerton was worried last February that someone who had no symptoms of the virus could spread it to others. Dr. Williams, by contrast, has testified that he did not believe in asymptomatic spread until last summer.

“You were ahead of the Chief Medical Officer in many respects,” Mr. Callaghan said.

The ministers’ testimony provides a glimpse into why the province was ill-prepared to deal with the coronavirus, which has killed 6,980 Ontarians to date. Just more than half of the deaths have been in long-term care homes.

By 2017, most of the Ministry of Health’s large stockpile of personal protective equipment for medical emergencies had expired, prompting the government to begin destroying it.

Between June, 2018, when the Ford government came to power, and December, 2019, 90 per cent of the stockpile was discarded and not replenished before the pandemic began in March, 2020, the commission has heard.

Ms. Elliott testified that the government’s plan to create a centralized procurement system delayed replenishing the stockpile. She said she was not aware at the time that restocking PPE had been held up by the change in procurement but acknowledged it was her responsibility.

Mr. Callaghan asked if the government is also responsible for people who died in long-term care homes that did not have enough PPE, including face masks, to protect them from COVID-19. “The loss of life here is tragic, and is something that I think everyone in government feels some level of responsibility for,” Ms. Elliott said.

The government also went into the pandemic with outdated systems for routing coronavirus test samples to labs across the province, the commission has heard.

Delays getting test results prevented nursing homes from quickly identifying infected residents and staff, and controlling the spread of the virus. In some instances, it took up to seven days to get results.

The province began building up its testing capacity during the pandemic, which Mr. Callaghan said was, “a bit like building a lifeboat during the storm.”

The commission has heard that Dr. Williams and Public Health Ontario’s Dr. Allen both expressed concerns that opening up testing to everyone would overwhelm the lab system.

People lined up for hours at testing centres so they could go to the cottage with friends and family or visit elderly relatives. The line ups grew even longer in September after schools reopened.

Dr. Johnstone, chair of the panel of medical experts set up by Public Health Ontario last April to advise the government on who should be tested for the virus, told the commission in January that she had “real concerns” with the Premier’s decision because it did not preserve capacity for those who needed it.

“This approach did not jive with any sort of strategy,” said Dr. Johnstone, who is also medical director of infection prevention and control at Sinai Health System in Toronto.

Last October, Mr. Ford announced that the province was reverting to an appointment-only system for testing.

Dr. Fullerton suggested that her concerns about asymptomatic spread of the virus in long-term care homes went largely ignored by her colleagues. On April 2, she wrote to Dr. Williams, saying, “One point that is striking is that the number of instances where infection has been introduced, apparently, through a staff member.” She also raised the issue at a cabinet meeting a couple of days later.

Dr. Fullerton testified that she realizes people can overstep their authority. “I needed to listen to the experts,” she said, adding that she was trying not to wear her doctor or public-health hat, “because that’s not the role I had.”
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Use the free postcard you may have received and send it to:

Premier of Ontario ​
Legislative Building ​
Queen's Park ​
Toronto ON M7A 1A1​

along with a comment of your choosing.

I'm using: "Get your fingers out of your ears, Doug Ford, and actually listen to the people of Ontario!" on my postcard and sending it in.

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