Ontario politicians to return to Queen's Park for budget debate
CBC
Members of provincial parliament will be in their seats at Queen's Park on Monday for the first time since the Ontario PCs landed themselves another majority government in the June election.
The rare summer session will provide Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government the chance to lay out its agenda, in a speech from the throne on Tuesday and presentation of a budget.
So far, Ford isn't showing signs of veering much from what he set out in the budget his government tabled in April –– a budget which did not have a chance to pass due to the timing of the election.
But his critics say staying the course ignores deteriorating situations the province is facing.
"Now is the time for a new budget to deal with the new realities," interim opposition and Ontario NDP leader Peter Tabuns said at a press conference at the legislature Friday.
Affordability, health care and education are three issues expected to dominate debates. The Ontario NDP and various groups are already calling for immediate action as Ontarians struggle to put food on the table and hospital units are forced to temporarily close due to staffing shortages.
"Their honeymoon is over. Sixty per cent of the people in the province weren't thrilled with them on June 2," Tabuns said.
"And again, with the ER crisis, the cost of living crisis...the love is getting ever thinner"
Government officials were tight-lipped Friday about if any tweaks would be made to address increasing pressures in light of the health-care and affordability crisis, pointing instead to money the government has already committed to the health-care sector.
"I can't imagine how they can keep dodging the problems with the health-care system," said Henry Jacek, professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University.
"They have to show they're going to do something that's going to work," he said, but he doubts it will be something big enough to make a dent in the crisis, given little relief brought on my attempts thus far.
More than a dozen hospital units temporarily closed or reduced service ahead of the August long weekend due to a lack of hospital staff, many in critical or emergency care.
"There could come a point with the health-care system, that literally the number of people dying is something he can't ignore," says Laura Stephenson, a political scientist at Western University.
Unions representing health-care workers such as CUPE are calling for the repeal of Bill 124 that capped salaries for health-care workers, who are leaving the profession in droves with pay often blamed as a reason.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.