Boosting booze availability. Hindering safe cycling. Ignoring the environment. Underfunding essentials. The PC leader is posing as something he is not.
Protect Ontario. That’s Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s election slogan. It’s a laudable goal, to be the main protector of the people of Ontario. Ford is running a well-coordinated election operation, with our $200. cheques arriving mid-campaign. Let’s have a look at his record of protecting us since he took office in 2018.
When I leave Ottawa and drive along Highway 401, I am now bombarded by gigantic billboards outside all the ON Route stops, proclaiming that “Beer is Sold Here.” Once inside, there are more signs reminding me that beer is sold here. Is blatant beer promotion offering me and my fellow drivers protection, as we make our way among thousands of cars and trucks along Canada’s busiest highway?
Ford thinks that easy access to alcohol is a priority. Soon we’ll be able to buy beer and wine at corner stores across the province. It is estimated that it will cost the province another $600 million to break current contracts with LCBO. This accelerated access to corner store liquor coincides with this unnecessary election. Is providing easier access to booze the best way to protect us?
During the pandemic, Ontario established a program of wastewater surveillance. These infectious disease wastewater testing facilities were extremely effective for the detection of several diseases and relied on by health-care professionals in Ottawa and across the province. However, the province cancelled funding for all these facilities last summer. As University of Ottawa Prof. Raywat Deonandan wrote, “Wastewater levels have been perhaps the best metric for informing the general public about current infection risk. And that information is critical for those who need to make daily exposure and socialization decisions to protect themselves and others from infection.” There’s that word again: protect.
Is blatant beer promotion offering me and my fellow drivers protection, as we make our way among thousands of cars and trucks along Canada’s busiest highway?
How is Ford’s record on protecting the environment? Let’s start with the LCBO paper bags issue. The LCBO decided to gradually phase out its free paper bags. The agency estimated this move would save 188,000 trees annually and divert 2,600 tonnes of waste from landfill. Remembering to bring bags to the LCBO is an easy, environmentally friendly action for us to take. But no, when Ford received complaints from LCBO patrons about the lack of free bags, he ordered the LCBO to reverse its decision and spend millions on a new contract to supply us with bags again. So much for environmental protection.
It’s taken many years, but Ottawa has seen a real increase in safe cycling infrastructure. As the network of bike lanes has expanded, so has the number of cyclists. If you build it … However, now Ford wants to rip up bike lanes and curtail cities’ powers to establish new ones. As Ottawa city Coun. Jeff Leiper wrote, “For each bike lane that’s blocked, more cyclists will be hurt and die on our streets.” This dictatorial action is not protecting the province’s cyclists, who are trying to protect the environment.
The young, the elderly, the sick and disabled are in greatest need of protection. Much has been written about the inadequate state of our hospitals and seniors’ homes. Those institutions suffer critical shortages of doctors, nurses and support staff. Many Ottawa families attempt to keep their loved ones at home as long as possible, but that requires the services of personal support workers (PSWs). Until your family is in the situation, you have no idea how important these roles are. These workers, often immigrant women, are overburdened and underpaid. All our families would be better protected if there were a dramatic increase in provincial funding for home health care.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have our young students. Teachers here in Ottawa and across the province continue to lament the lack of resources available to assist struggling students. In 2019, the Ontario Human Right’s Commission launched the Right to Read enquiry. Its 2022 report concluded that Ontario is failing its learning disabled students. Ontario students deserve smaller classes so that teachers can give students the attention they need. Our schools need to have funds to hire more specialists such as social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists, educational assistants (EAs) and special education teachers. EAs are among our most important school staff members as they assist our needy students. However, like PSWs, they are overburdened and underpaid. Our students with various exceptionalities need their assistance and protection to succeed at school, ensuring they will thrive in the workplace.
Ottawa high school students contemplating post-secondary plans received bad news recently. Their options may be seriously limited because Algonquin College announced the probable suspension of 37 academic programs next year. Some of the college’s financial shortfall is because of the new limits on international students. However, in a CBC interview, Prof. James Hayes stated that a large part of the problem is the Ontario government’s weak financial support. “The province of Ontario funds our colleges and universities at the lowest level, compared to the nine other provinces.” Would the current PC government ever think of protecting our post-secondary education system?
Last July, there was a strike at the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa because the province was cutting 20 of the 320 jobs. These child protection workers were already overburdened, yet the province thought it best to decrease their numbers. If Ford were truly interested in the protection of vulnerable children, his government would be hiring more, not fewer CAS workers.
So, I’d have to give Doug Ford a failing grade on his record of protecting Ontario’s child welfare, the environment, health care, home health care and education. We need a new protector.
Mary Ellen Kot is an Ottawa writer and former teacher.
