Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report January 28, 2020 Quotation of the day “Problematic structures and dynamics.” The three-person team reviewing anti-Black racism at Peel District School Board says its ongoing probe will help pinpoint systemic problems at the board and establish a new direction, but community members are asking for more. Today at Queen’s Park On the schedule The house will reconvene on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. Committees this week The Standing Committee on Social Policy will hold a public hearing in Sudbury Wednesday to hear from witnesses on Bill 141, PC MPP Robin Martin’s private member’s bill aimed at ​ ​ ​ ​ boosting public access to defibrillators. The committee was granted permission to hold up to three days of public hearings on the bill over the winter break; a meeting scheduled in Ottawa on Thursday has been cancelled. Premier watch Premier Doug Ford met with Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams; ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Health Minister Christine Elliott; and Dr. Barbara Yaffe, director of communicable disease ​ ​ ​ ​ control at Toronto Public Health, for an update on the appearance of the coronavirus in Ontario. The province confirmed a second “presumptive confirmed case” of coronavirus early Monday morning — the wife of the first patient whose diagnosis has now been confirmed by a federal lab. The government says she had been in self-isolation since returning to Canada from China last week, meaning the risk to the public remains low. Nineteen other possible cases are under investigation; the majority of those patients are already in isolation according to health officials. Ford tweeted out condolences to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, whose mother Diane Horwath ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ passed away Monday in Hamilton. Ford lost his own mother, also named Diane, earlier this month. “The loss of a mother is devastating. My heart sincerely goes out to you during this difficult time,” said Ford. The NDP caucus thanked Ontarians for the “outpouring of love and support for Andrea, her son Julian, and the entire Horwath family.” ​ Highlights from pre-budget committee hearings The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs toured the province this month to hear what stakeholders and citizens want to see in the Ford government’s upcoming spring budget. Here are some of the highlights: Health and long-term care stakeholders There’s a “perfect storm” swirling around the nursing care system, according to Donna Duncan, ​ ​ CEO of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association. Duncan said there is a “critical and urgent need” to inject more resources into the sector. Problems she wants addressed in the 2020 financial blueprint include staffing shortages, especially in rural and northern communities, and the currently “unstable” and “unworkable” funding model and capital redevelopment plan. AdvantAge Ontario, the organization representing non-profit and municipal nursing homes, suggests the province redevelop vacant long-term care homes into “campuses of care,” which would combine seniors housing, long-term care and community services in one locale. In order for this to be achieved, AdvantAge Ontario says the government needs to loosen regulations, bolster funding and champion coordination between the ministries of health, housing and long-term care, noting that 300 long-term care homes are slated for redevelopment by 2025. Meanwhile, the Ontario Hospital Association is asking for a nearly $1-billion boost to help deal with overcrowding and the Heart and Stroke Foundation is pushing for a sin tax on vape products to address youth addiction. Unions The common thread among almost all union representatives was a call to walk back even more funding cuts the Ford government made in its first budget last year and to repeal the legislated one-per-cent cap on public-sector wage hikes, which is being challenged in court. Canadian Federation of Independent Business The CFIB, which has awarded Premier Doug Ford and the PC government for red tape ​ ​ reduction, asked that the 2020 budget include measures to tackle the skilled labour shortage. The problem has been raised by 80 per cent of the CFIB’s 42,000 Ontario members, but the organization noted there’s “no silver bullet” solution to address high demand for trades workers and general labour jobs. Another major concern is electricity time-of-use pricing, which disproportionately impacts small businesses. CFIB’s Julie Kwiecinski used a pizza joint to illustrate the point. ​ ​ “If I’m a business owner, what I do is driven by what my customers want. So if a customer wants a pizza at noon, I’m not going to fire up the pizza oven at 3 a.m. to save electricity and then serve my customer at nine-hour-old pizza. Not going to happen,” she said. Ontario Human Rights Commission Chief commissioner Renu Mandhane said there’s a “critical” need for more funding in the ​ ​ corrections system in order to “immediately reduce violence and save lives.” Among other things, the 2020 budget should provide sufficient resources to reduce jail and prison overcrowding and support corrections officers while ensuring inmates have access to health care and rehabilitation programs, Mandhane said. The commissioner stressed the importance of tailoring programs to Indigenous prisoners and the need to enhance oversight and accountability. Chiefs of Ontario In the spirit of establishing a new relationship with the government “based on the original spirit of peace and friendship,” Ontario Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald proposed a “prosperity ​ ​ table.” The “mechanism will allow us to discuss our shared priorities and will assist this government to move forward with (its) strong agenda on economic growth,” Archibald told MPPs on the committee. “Specifically, we are asking this government to continue and to enhance investments into the Indigenous economic fund.” Archibald also criticized last year’s elimination of the Indigenous Culture Fund. “Without this fund, the First Nation communities lost their capacity to establish programs to assist in transmitting traditional knowledge, language and land-based activities, all of which are vital to healing for First Nations people. These programs and funds were essential in our ongoing health and our ongoing healing from intergenerational trauma,” she said. As for fiscal 2020, Archibald said the government must restore that funding and expand the envelope for mental health and social programs geared towards First Nations. Today’s events January 28 at 9 a.m. – Scarborough ​ Seniors and Accessibility Minister Raymond Cho will make an announcement at the Toronto ​ ​ Pan Am Sports Centre. January 28 at 9 a.m. – Toronto ​ Toronto Mayor John Tory will hold a regional meeting on gun violence at City Hall. Solicitor ​ ​ General Sylvia Jones and Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders will attend, as will the mayors ​ ​ ​ ​ of Pickering, Brampton, Mississauga and Markham, and the regional chairs and police chiefs of Peel, Durham and York. Joël Lightbound, the federal government’s parliamentary secretary to ​ ​ the minister of public safety, will also be there. January 28 at 10 a.m. – Georgetown ​ Stan Cho, parliamentary assistant to the minister of finance, will hold a pre-budget consultation ​ at the Town of Halton Hills Gellert Community Centre. January 28 at 10 a.m. – Windsor ​ Labour Minister Monte McNaughton will make an announcement about “supporting careers in ​ ​ the auto sector” at Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing Ltd. January 28 at 3:30 p.m. – Brampton ​ Liberal leadership candidate Steven Del Duca will be at Brampton City Hall to meet with Mayor ​ ​ Patrick Brown to discuss the city’s health-care crisis. ​ Topics of conversation ● The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario announced it will “escalate” its strike action beginning next week if a central agreement is not reached by the end of January. This would include rotating walkouts everyday next week, as well as a one-day provincewide walkout next Thursday, meaning all boards will be shut down for two of the five school days. ○ The union’s head, Sam Hammond, “challenged” Education Minister Stephen ​ ​ ​ Lecce to send negotiators back to the table to discuss issues such as special ​ education, classroom violence, fair hiring practices, class sizes and salary increases, saying the government didn’t give them the mandate to do so during talks held between August and December last year. ○ Lecce said the government “continue[s] to stand ready to negotiate” and accused union leaders of “breaking their promise to parents” by withdrawing services. ○ ETFO members were on the picket lines yesterday, including in Waterloo region. One-day walkouts today will target school boards in the Kawarthas, Prince Edward County, Guelph and the north. More walkouts are scheduled for Wednesday if a deal is not reached. ○ French teachers kick off their second phase of work-to-rule today, which adds to the list of administrative duties they will no longer partake in. AEFO, the union representing francophone teachers, is scheduled to go back to the bargaining table with government and school board representatives tomorrow and Thursday — a Ministry of Labour-appointed mediator will be on hand. ● Meanwhile, CUPE says $78 million in funding it negotiated in its recent collective agreement with the government has not flowed to jobs or student services. The union called out Education Minister Stephen Lecce and the Council of Trustees’ Associations ​ ​ for “rank hypocrisy” and said it never would have signed the deal if the government had not promised the cash — meant to restore the Local Priorities Fund and the Education Workers Protection Fund — and the 1,300 jobs that came with it. ○ Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, ​ said Lecce continues to hold up the collective bargaining agreement with CUPE as a model for teachers’ unions to follow, but her organization’s experience “shows that neither the province nor the schools boards can be trusted to do the right thing by students and workers.” ○ A spokesperson for Lecce said the money will flow once CUPE and school ​ boards ratify the collective agreement at the local level and urged the two groups to expedite that process.