2020: Ford government going to court to keep ministers' mandate letters secret.
Province fighting order from commissioner to release letters after CBC News freedom of information request.
Ontario's information and privacy commissioner says the government is going to court to prevent the release of Premier Doug Ford's mandate letters to his cabinet ministers, which outline their key priorities.
Former premier Kathleen Wynne began making those documents public in 2014, but the current government is fighting an order from the commissioner to release them.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/02/24/ford-hires-us-firm-to-push-ontarians-off-welfare.html
The government denied a CBC News freedom of information request for the mandate letters, saying they are cabinet documents and therefore automatically exempt from disclosure.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-going-to-court-to-keep-ministers-mandate-letters-secret-1.5255495
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2020: Ford hires U.S. firm to push Ontarians off welfare.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/02/24/ford-hires-us-firm-to-push-ontarians-off-welfare.html
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2013: Doug Ford accused of 'vote buying' after being filmed handing out $20 bills to public housing residents.
Toronto Councillor Doug Ford is once again under fire for vote buying after he was filmed handing out $20 bills to public housing residents.
https://youtu.be/2ckIcOiJyH4
https://nationalpost.com/news/toronto/doug-ford-hands-out-20-bills-to-public-housing-residents-accused-of-vote-buying
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/doug-ford-defends-himself-after-handing-out-20-bills-to-constituents/article15920479/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-sorry-for-handing-out-cash-will-stick-to-gift-cards-1.2461797
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2020: Proposed changes to Ontario’s class-action laws would make it harder to sue corporations and government, experts say.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-proposed-changes-to-ontarios-class-action-laws-would-make-it-harder/
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2019: Brad Blair makes his call for a public Commission of Inquiry in the wake of the utter failure of public watchdogs to expose corruption and hold public officials to account.
The appointment of Ron Taverner is not an isolated case. The Premier’s Chief of Staff, Dean French, resigned in June amidst other appointment controversies. An internal investigation of Doug Ford and his own people by the Premier himself will not provide the transparency and accountability the public deserves. Nothing less than a public Commission of Inquiry into the actions of corrupt government players and the collapse of our legislative watchdogs will restore public faith in our government and democratic institutions.
https://falconers.ca/call-for-public-inquiry-into-public-appointments-process/
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2019: Fiscal restraint? Doug Ford's Ontario government spent billions more than Wynne had planned in 2018-19.
Opinion: At the current rate of spending, an additional $42 billion will be added to Ontario’s debt from now until a balanced budget in 2023.
https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/doug-fords-ontario-government-spent-billions-more-than-wynne-had-planned-in-2018-19
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SELLING CANADIANS TO THE LOWEST BIDDER...
2020: For-profit welfare scheme draws concerns.
The idea of a welfare system in Ontario run by multinational, for-profit corporations strikes Dr. Gary Bloch as a bit odd.
“Where I get worried about it, is thinking around, really, what are the goals? What are the incentive structures put in place and who will be administering this?” asked the researcher and family physician with St. Michael’s Hospital’s City Health Associates. “We know there will be private companies bidding to help administer this system. That, to me, is extremely concerning.”
https://www.catholicregister.org/item/31137-for-profit-welfare-scheme-draws-concerns
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Corporatism is a political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, scientific, or guild associations on the basis of their common interests.
Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations).[Ontario's children's aid societies] Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labour contracts and the like. It was theorized that this method could result in harmony amongst social classes. However, authors have noted that historically de facto economic corporatism was also used to reduce opposition and reward political loyalty.
In Italy from 1922 until 1943, corporatism became influential amongst Italian nationalists led by Benito Mussolini. The Charter of Carnaro gained much popularity as the prototype of a "corporative state", having displayed much within its tenets as a guild system combining the concepts of autonomy and authority in a special synthesis. Alfredo Rocco spoke of a corporative state and declared corporatist ideology in detail. Rocco would later become a member of the Italian fascist regime.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/corporatism
Corporatism: Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations). Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labor contracts and the like.
Marketization of law making is a process that enables the elites to operate as market oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate in, in the best interest of the child according to a bunch of sociopathic child poaching funding predators...
One of the 14 characteristics of fascism is -
Corporate Power is Protected.
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
The people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights and procedural protections can be ignored in certain cases because of special need.
When the people who have power in our society can have an influence in law making, the laws that get created will not maintain the appearance of equality and the elites in society can lobby and eventually criminalize the poor.
The laws will start to benefit the big corporations (elites). This is well illustrated in Stan Cohen’s concept of the moral panic. A moral panic refers to the reaction of a group within society (elite) to the activities of a non elite group. The targeted group is seen as a threat to society also referred to as the folk devil.
Today we can see child welfare law is not applied equally to everyone. In this particular instance the child welfare law is benefiting the people with means.
Comack states; “While the pivotal point in the rule of law is ‘equality of all before the law’, the provision of formal equality in the legal sphere does not extend to the economic sphere. Thus, the law maintains only the appearance of equality because, it never calls into question the unequal and exploitative relationship between capital and labour.” This statement implies that the law is in place to be neutral. Therefore, the law would apply equally to everyone, including both the working and elite class. It can be said that in today’s society we have the marketization of law making.
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2020: 'A recipe for failure:' Ford government moves to contract out employment services.
The Ford government is moving forward with its plans to contract-out employment services in three areas of the province, despite calls from the official opposition that the program will be “a recipe for failure.”
The government made the announcement in a press release on Friday.
Two private companies and a public Ontario college have been awarded contracts to provide services to those seeking employment.
The government said the plan is to unite three previously separate programs: Employment Ontario, Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program.
The three contract-winners (lowest bidders), called “Service System Managers” by the government, will receive payment based on a results-based system.
The government described the plan as being in the “prototype” stage but did say they do plan to roll out this type of service delivery throughout the province by 2022.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/02/19/a-recipe-for-failure-ford-government-moves-to-contract-out-employment-services/
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2018: What will Premier Doug Ford cost Ontario?
Stephen Maher: The lawsuits are piling up after a series of rash decisions and ham-handed moves. Expect plenty more liabilities the province can ill afford.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/what-will-premier-doug-ford-cost-ontario/
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2019: Ontario is using a new law to retroactively dismiss lawsuits it lost: lawyer. A class action lawyer suing the Ontario government over alleged mistreatment of several vulnerable groups says a new law the province is using retroactively to try to shut down those cases is unprecedented and unfair.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.5389171/ontario-is-using-a-new-law-to-retroactively-dismiss-lawsuits-it-lost-lawyer-1.5389627
https://www.theloop.ca/watch/canada/news/new-law-retroactively-ends-lawsuits-lost-by-ontario-government/6117786163001/1653715534829397999/
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2019: Ontario PCs want to make it next to impossible to sue the government
Legislation buried in budget bill would make many government actions immune to civil suits
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/proceedings-against-the-crown-act-repeal-replace-pcs-1.5097205
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2019: Legal critics claim new Ont. law makes it harder to sue provincial government.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/legal-critics-claim-new-ont-law-makes-it-harder-to-sue-provincial-government-1.4742008
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2020: Ontario Moving Ahead with the Reform of Employment Services
February 14, 2020 10:00 A.M.Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
January 2020 - Service System Managers selected
The government evaluated all qualified proposals and selected a Service System Manager for each prototype region that is best positioned to manage the employment system and deliver results:
For Region of Peel: WCG, part of the APM Group.
WCG is a Canadian subsidiary of The International APM Group Pty Ltd (APM), a global human service organization based in Australia. In the last year, APM supported more than 350,000 people across 10 countries by designing and delivering employment, health and rehabilitation services.
For Hamilton-Niagara: A consortium led by Fedcap.
The consortium led by Fedcap includes two current Employment Ontario service providers (Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, Operation Springboard) and two current providers of Ontario Disability Support Program Employment Supports (Corbrook, Community Living Toronto).
For the Muskoka-Kawarthas region: Fleming College.
Fleming College has more than 50 years of experience delivering education, skills training and employment services to students, job seekers and employers. Each year, 3,000 job seekers access Employment Ontario services via Fleming College.
https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2020/02/ontario-moving-ahead-with-the-reform-of-employment-services.html
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2018: Half of Canadian jobs will be impacted by automation in next 10 years.
Automation will likely affect over half of Canadian jobs in the next decade, but being human could be the very thing that helps Canadians stay employed, a new RBC report claims.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4105713/automation-workforce-canada-human/
2019: Workers at risk of losing jobs can be retrained for health care, RBC says.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/workers-at-risk-of-losing-jobs-to-ai-can-be-retrained-for-health-care-rbc-says-1.4685009
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The Ontario NDP says a pilot project from the Ford government to contract out employment services in three parts of the province will erode social services and risks turning them into a "cash cow."
A media release from the Ministry of Labour dated Feb. 14 describes the move as a "locally-focused model" that will create a more "seamless and effective" employment service system.
Hamilton-Niagara, Peel and Muskoka-Kawarthas are the three regions where prototypes have been launched.
The idea is to bring together the employment services previously offered separately by Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Employment Ontario.
New service managers have been selected in each of the three regions and will be paid based on their results, according to the government.
"This change to the process will go largely unnoticed by job seekers and employers," said Minister Monte McNaughton in a media release. "At the ground level, things will work better, move faster."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/contract-employment-services-ontario-1.5466860
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ISN'T INVESTING IN EDUCATION THE ONLY WAY TO FIGHT POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE RISING COST OF WELFARE ASSISTANCE IN A HIGH TECH COUNTRY?
2019: Study finds more than half of university students feel they need better basic skills to succeed.
(MAYBE IF THE GOVERNMENT SPENT MORE ON EARLY, SECONDARY AND POST SECONDARY EDUCATION WOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE.)
TORONTO, April 25, 2019 – A survey of students at four Ontario universities has found that more than half feel they lack competence in basic academic skills that would enable them to succeed in university and beyond.
Researchers from York University, Western University, the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto (Scarborough and Mississauga campuses) surveyed 2,230 students at their universities to learn how confident they were with their writing, test taking, analysis, time and group management, research, presentation and numeracy skills.
Based on the students’ responses, an advanced statistical classification algorithm allowed researchers to conclude in their study that only about 44 percent of students felt they had the generic skills needed to do well in their academic studies, 41 percent could be classified as at risk in academic settings because of limited levels of basic skills, and 16 percent lacked almost all of the skills needed for higher learning.
The study team, co-led by York University Department of Sociology Professor J. Paul Grayson and Western University Department of Sociology Professor James Côté, included professors Robert Kenedy of York University, Liang Hsuan Chen of the University of Toronto Scarborough and Sharon Roberts of the University of Waterloo.
Using the results of the student survey, the researchers concluded the skill deficiencies of students at each of the four universities were about the same. Family background had no noticeable influence on the skill level and neither did factors such as being a first-generation university student or an international student.
Not surprisingly, students with inadequate skill levels got relatively low grades, frequently thought of dropping out, and were generally dissatisfied with their university experience. In other words, skill levels as measured in the study were predictive of important university outcomes. Over two-thirds said they would welcome a first-year course in academic skills such as effective studying, critical thinking, writing and university standards.
The researchers point out that Ministry of Education policy documents show that most of the skills in which they are interested are objectives of the secondary school system in Ontario. Still, students can obtain good high school grades and still be deficient in these skills. In other words, high school grades do not reflect the development of many skills embodied in Ministry objectives. Arms length evaluations of students would be one way of ensuring that grades reflected the Ministry’s objectives.
"Students want help. They want to do well in school, future jobs, and in their roles as citizens,” said Grayson. “Students recognize they are lacking sufficient skills including literacy and numeracy, which are part of Ontario’s secondary school curriculum and key factors for academic and job success.”
The researchers surveyed students in humanities, social sciences and professional studies programs.
“The most shocking findings were that many of the students who were surveyed and said they have low levels of academic skills also reported being given very high grades in high school,” said Côté. “Some of the same students apparently can make their way through university without much trouble and without acquiring basic academic skills.”
Student participants with serious skills deficits earned high grades in secondary school, according to the survey. In high school, 63 percent of students classified as functional earned grades of A or A+; however, 56 percent of the at-risk students and 45 percent of the dysfunctional students also made those grades.
The research team also discovered that the skill gaps did not improve with more time spent in university. About the same percentages of students in all year-levels of university were considered deficient in their academic skills.
Additional quotes from researchers on the study:
"The data regarding student skills is disturbing, even though we suspected this was the case through our anecdotal experiences. We need to make sure student skills courses are available in order to ensure student success and resilience."
– Robert Kenedy, York University, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
“There is a troubling skills deficit - pervasive among domestic, first generation and international students. The need to provide more support to students across the board is clear and urgent.”
– Liang Hsuan Chen, University of Toronto Scarborough, Associate Professor, Department of Management
“These preliminary findings confirm that a significant proportion of our undergraduate students face challenges related to fundamental academic competency skills at all levels of undergraduate study. Our findings suggest that many students need extensive supports in place before and after they enter university.”
– Sharon Roberts, University of Waterloo, Associate Professor, Social Development Studies Department
York University champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. York students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. York U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, York is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
York U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.
Media Contact:
Janice Walls, York University Media Relations, 416 455 4710, wallsj@yorku.ca
https://news.yorku.ca/2019/04/25/study-finds-more-than-half-of-university-students-feel-they-need-better-basic-skills-to-succeed/
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2010: University students can’t spell. Profs say high schools aren’t teaching grammar.
(maybe were there really enough teachers and schools were properly funded this wouldn't be an issue.)
Little or no grammar teaching, cellphone texting, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, are all being blamed for an increasing number of post-secondary students who can’t write properly. For years there’s been a flood of anecdotal complaints from professors about what they say is the wretched state of English grammar coming from some of their students.
Now there seems to be some solid evidence.
The University of Waterloo is one of the few post-secondary institutions in Canada to require students to pass an exam testing their English language skills. Almost a third of those students are failing. “Thirty per cent of students who are admitted are not able to pass at a minimum level,” says Ann Barrett, managing director of the English language proficiency exam at Waterloo. “We would certainly like it to be a lot lower.” Barrett says the failure rate has jumped five percentage points in the past few years, up to 30 per cent from 25 per cent. “What has happened in high school that they cannot pass our simple test of written English, at a minimum?” she asks.
https://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/university-students-cant-spell/
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2018: One in four Ontario postsecondary students lacks basic literacy, numeracy skills, studies say.
(maybe is there were enough teachers and the schools were properly funded this wouldn't be an issue)
About a quarter of graduating students in Ontario’s postsecondary programs lack adequate literacy and numeracy skills, according to new research from the government agency that monitors the system.
The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) completed two large studies of more than 7,500 students at 20 Ontario postsecondary institutions and found that a large number of students achieved scores below the level it considered adequate to succeed in today’s job market. Less than a third of graduating students scored at a superior level.
Harvey Weingarten, president and chief executive of HEQCO, said the research is among the first of its kind to try to measure employment-related skills outcomes in the higher-education system. He said one of the main reasons students pursue postsecondary education is to get a good job. But while universities and colleges say they prepare students for the world of work, employers are frustrated, he said. Many employers say the students they encounter don’t have the communication, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills they’re seeking.
“It troubles us that, in our opinion, too many students are graduating with skills in those two areas that are not as highly developed as we would like,” Dr. Weingarten said. “We need to do better than we’re doing now.”
This work aims to measure student skills and provide a basis for understanding what is valued in the labour market, and how those attributes could be taught.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-one-in-four-ontario-university-students-lack-basic-literacy-numeracy/
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BACK TO THE SOUP KITCHEN LINE ...
Approximately 700,000 students attend more than 850 publicly funded secondary schools in Ontario. Every student is unique, and our high schools are changing to meet students' individual needs.
Innovative programs that help students customize their learning are helping more students graduate. The government's goal is to have 85 percent of students graduating.
85%... WTF IS THAT???
Might just as well just put 15% of them on welfare now...
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/secondary.html
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Concerns have been raised that child welfare systems may inappropriately target poor families for intrusive interventions. The term “neglect” has been critiqued as a class-based label applied disproportionately to poor families WHITE, RED OR BLACK.
The objectives of the study are to identify the nature and frequency of clinical and poverty-related concerns in child neglect investigations and to assess the service referral response to these needs; to examine the contribution of poverty-related need to case decision-making; and to explore whether substantiated cases of neglect can be divided into subtypes based on different constellations of clinical and poverty-related needs.
This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS‑2008), a nationally representative dataset. A selected subsample of neglect investigations from the CIS‑2008 (N = 4,489) is examined through descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and two-step cluster analysis in order to explore each research objective.
Children and caregivers investigated for neglect presented with a range of clinical and poverty related difficulties. Contrary to some previous research, the existence of poverty-related needs did not influence case dispositions after controlling for other relevant risk factors. However, some variables that should be, in theory, extraneous to case decision-making emerged as significant in the multivariate models, most notably Aboriginal status, with Aboriginal children having increased odds of substantiation, ongoing service provision and placement. Cluster analyses revealed that cases of neglect could be partitioned into three clusters, with no cluster emerging characterized by poverty alone.
The majority of children investigated for neglect live in families experiencing poverty-related needs, and with caregivers struggling with clinical difficulties. While poverty-related need on its own does not explain the high proportion of poor families reported to the child welfare system, nor does it account for significant variance in case decision making, cluster analysis suggests that there exists a subgroup of “neglected” children living in families perhaps best characterized by the broader notion of social disadvantage. These families may be better served through an orientation of family support/family welfare rather than through the current residual child protection paradigm.
PUBLICATION DATE: 2012
https://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/exploration-relationship-between-poverty-and-child-neglect-canadian-child-welfare
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Is the high cost of clean water and hydro putting your family at risk of CAS involvement?
The effect of provincial policies on struggling families was especially apparent in the late 1990s, when the Conservative government slashed welfare payments and social service funding while at the same time, it introduced in child protection the notion of maltreatment by “omission,” including not having enough food in the home and this after giving the society what amounted to an unlimited funding scheme. The number of children taken into care spiked as did their funding.
“The ministry has been pretty clear with us that advocacy is not part of our mandate,” Goodman said speaking for the society. “It’s not like they’re asking for the (poverty) data. They’re not.” Goodman then when on to suggest the silence suited the government more than the silence suited the society's funding goals.
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/08/15/report-shines-light-on-povertys-role-on-kids-in-cas-system.html
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2019: Provincial memo lays out plan to cut 3,475 Ontario teaching positions in 4 years. CBC News ·
A provincial memo obtained by CBC Toronto lays out the Ford government's plans to cut thousands of full-time teaching positions in Ontario beginning this fall.
In the 2019-2020 school year, the memo says, there will be 1,558 fewer full-time teachers in Ontario. By the 2022-2023 school year, that number will be 3,475 — about three per cent of Ontario's current teacher workforce.
The total savings for removing those full-time positions would be $851 million.
The memo, which was sent by the Ministry of Education to school board administrators, also clarifies that the positions will be shed through attrition — meaning teachers that quit or retire and are not replaced — as well as changing student enrolment numbers and bumped-up class sizes.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/provincial-memo-teacher-cuts-1.5085851
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2019: Fiscal restraint? Doug Ford's Ontario government spent billions more than Wynne had planned in 2018-19.
Opinion: At the current rate of spending, an additional $42 billion will be added to Ontario’s debt from now until a balanced budget in 2023.
https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/doug-fords-ontario-government-spent-billions-more-than-wynne-had-planned-in-2018-19
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Are Ford's alleged net gains greater than the net losses?
2019: Canada’s jobs market suffered its single-worst month since 2009, shedding 71,200 jobs in November, according to Statistics Canada. The Financial Post dug into the numbers and asked some of the country’s top economists whether this is a blip, or a sign of something more ominous.
By Victor Ferreira, Financial Post.
THE DEEPEST JOB LOSSES — 27,500 — CAME IN MANUFACTURING
ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD/RETAIL LOST A COMBINED 14,300 JOBS
Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at Capital Economics: “It’s pretty clear the slowdown in GDP growth, both at home and globally is weighing on the labour market and you can see that in the manufacturing figure.
https://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/canada-just-had-its-worst-month-for-job-losses-in-a-decade-so-just-how-bad-was-it
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2018: 'Wacky' Canadian economy lost 51,600 jobs, led by Ontario plunge. By Theophilos Argitis, Bloomberg News.
Canada’s economy unexpectedly lost 51,600 jobs, with wage gains slowing and Ontario recording its biggest employment drop in nearly a decade, removing any urgency for the central bank to accelerate rate hikes.
The nation’s largest province lost 80,100 jobs in August, all part-time, the biggest decline for Ontario since 2009. Nationally, the economy lost 92,000 part-time workers, though a 40,400 gain in full-time employment is one sign the labour market is firmer than the headline number suggests.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canada-s-economy-lost-51-600-jobs-in-august-1.1134558
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2019: Doug Ford hedges on promise that 'no one' will lose their job.
Ontario to lose more than 10,000 teaching positions over five years under Ford government changes: watchdog.
Nurses and education staff among those facing layoffs despite PC campaign pledge.
Premier Doug Ford and his PCs are backing away from his campaign promise that no one in the public sector will lose their job under his government.
As the Ford government prepares to deliver its first budget on April 11, the PCs are signalling that their promise only applies to undefined "front-line" workers.
"Under Premier Doug Ford and the Government for the People not a single front-line worker will lose their job," Ford's press secretary said Friday in a statement emailed to CBC News.
However, Ford clearly promised on several occasions during the election campaign that no public sector jobs would be cut by the PCs.
"Under our government, I'm going to reinforce this, not one single person will lose their job." Ford said during the televised leaders debate on May 27.
"I say it every night and I'm going to say it again and again. No one, no one will lose their job," he said at a rally in Windsor on May 31.
"Don't listen to the scare tactics," he said at a rally in Nepean on June 2. "No one will lose their job, absolutely no one."
"I want to assure our public sector workers, to our nurses, to our teachers and to our doctors, that no one, and I repeat no one, will lose their job," Ford said at a news conference in Burlington on June 6, the day before the election.
Despite all those statements, there is now a significant change in wording from Ford and his finance minister.
"You're going to see our promises kept, and one of the promises that the premier made is that no front-line workers will be cut," Finance Minister Vic Fedeli told a news conference Thursday to announce the budget date.
Neither Fedeli nor Ford has defined what they mean by front-line workers.
There is evidence that some front-line workers are being laid off anyway.
The Grand River Hospital in Kitchener is laying off 40 nurses.
The closure of the Thunder Bay office of the Child and Youth Advocate will result in an undetermined number of job losses.
Scrapping $25 million in specialized education program funding is forcing school boards across the province to lay off staff
"They can mince words all they want, but ... the PC party promise during the campaign that no jobs will be lost is absolutely unbelievable," Horwath told reporters at the legislature this week. "Jobs are being lost as we speak."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-no-job-cuts-layoffs-public-sector-1.5048662
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2019: Workers at risk of losing jobs can be retrained for health care, RBC says.
OTTAWA -- A new report says some of the more than one million Canadian workers who could lose their jobs could fill growing gaps in the nation's health-care system with the right training now.
The issue is time and money for a sector that previous research suggests doesn't invest as much as other industries do in skills training.
Health-services jobs account for 13 per cent of the country's workforce and federal projections estimate the rapid pace of growth seen over the last decade will continue over the next.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/workers-at-risk-of-losing-jobs-to-ai-can-be-retrained-for-health-care-rbc-says-1.4685009
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2019: Doug Ford’s cancellation of green energy deals costs Ontario taxpayers $231 million.
The government cancelled the contracts last July, saying the move would save ratepayers $790 million — a figure industry officials have disputed.
https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/doug-fords-cancellation-of-green-energy-deals-costs-ontario-taxpayers-231m
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2019: Ontario to lose more than 10,000 teaching positions over five years under Ford government changes: watchdog.
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's Park Bureau
Ontario will have 10,000 fewer teaching positions over the next five years as the Ford government boosts class sizes and introduces mandatory online courses, says the legislature’s independent financial watchdog.
Some 994 elementary and 9,060 secondary positions will be gone from the system based on the previous student-teacher ratios, the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario said in an explosive report — one that landed in the midst of contract negotiations and just days before the high school teachers’ union is set to sit down at the bargaining table with the government and school boards.
https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/09/26/ontario-to-lose-more-than-10000-teaching-positions-over-5-years-under-ford-government-changes-watchdog.html
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2020: Province’s tough stance on teacher contract negotiations.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2020/01/16/provinces-tough-stance-on-teacher-contract-negotiations/
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2007: Has Ontario taught its high-school students not to think?
Elementary and high schools spend so much time on the content-laden curriculum that students are unprepared for the analytic and conceptual thinking they'll need at university.
Has Ontario’s educational system taught a decade of students not to think? There is growing evidence that the combination of standardized testing with a content-intensive curriculum that’s too advanced – both introduced by the Conservative government between 1997 and 1999 – has done exactly that.
A dramatic indication that there could be a serious problem was the performance of my introductory physics class on their November test last year. It was identical to one given in 1996, but the class average over this 10-year period had plummeted from 66 to 50 percent. There is about a five-percent fluctuation in this test grade from year to year due to variation in student ability and the difficulty of the questions but, when I looked at the class average over the many times I have taught the course since 1981, I found that four of the five lowest grades have occurred in the last four years, with the lowest this year. When I enquired elsewhere at Trent University, I found the same pattern in the mathematics department, where the first test in linear algebra was down some 15 percent from its historic mean, and the calculus average had dropped nine percent from the year before.
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/has-ontario-taught-its-high-school-students-not-to-think/
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FACT-CHECKING THE FORD GOVERNMENT
https://www.knowmore.ca/government-misinformation
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Making the Grade? Troubling Trends in Postsecondary Student Literacy.
While the benefits of strong literacy skills are well established, there is growing concern that Canadians’ literacy skills, including those of students attending postsecondary institutions in Ontario, are not meeting expectations. The timing is especially problematic given that strong literacy skills are critical to students as
they graduate into a highly competitive and increasingly globalized labour market.
A review of literacy data from Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including results from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), point to some troubling trends in literacy achievement and a lack of consistency in expectations for high school students who go on to postsecondary education.
According to IALS, not even a quarter of respondents aged 18 to 65 scored above level 3 – the minimum level of proficiency. The results from ALL, which was carried out several years later to follow up on IALS findings, found no substantial improvement in Canadians’ literacy skills in this same age group. The most recent literacy results from PIAAC also registered no improvement but rather a slight deterioration in Canadians’ scores at both ends of the literacy spectrum, with a greater number of Canadians scoring at level 1 and below and fewer Canadians scoring at levels 4 and 5.
The pressing question for Ontario is whether students entering postsecondary education have the literacy skills required to succeed. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests students’ abilities in reading, science and math, suggest that while students who score highest on the reading assessment at age 15 are more likely to attend university, a considerable percentage of students scoring below level 3 will also attend. Results also underscore that colleges are attracting individuals with a much wider range of language abilities, with fewer students from the upper end of the proficiency scale and more students from the lower-mid range.
Research also reveals the existence of several conflicting literacy standards for students entering postsecondary education. On the one hand, the OECD establishes level 3 as the minimum proficiency level for high school graduation. Yet Ontario’s high schools operate with yet another standard, and the expectations of faculty members for high school graduates set yet another standard. This lack of clarity in expectations is problematic both for students and for institutions.
http://www.heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/HEQCO%20Literacy%20ENG.pdf
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ONTARIO FAMILIES SIDE WITH EDUCATION AND THEIR CHILDREN'S FUTURES.
2020: TORONTO — Nearly twice as many Ontarians side with teachers’ unions as those who side with Premier Doug The Slug Ford’s government in the ongoing labour dispute, including 22 percent of Progressive Conservative voters.
“By a margin of nearly two-to-one (57 per cent versus 30 per cent), the public are siding with the unions, not the Ontario government,” pollster EKOS Politics said as part of new research released Thursday.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/ontarians-side-teachers-ford-government_ca_5e2a0c3ac5b6779e9c2fc0b9
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/how-ontarios-teachers-strikes-could-end_ca_5e2b6314c5b67d8874b1b9a4
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Will Ontario students ever forget or forgive the conservative party when it's their turn to vote? Doug Ford provides students with a teachable moment.
This week, Doug Ford did what no parent or politician should ever do to students who look to adults for leadership: He diminished and disrespected them.
More than a teachable moment, Ford gave high-school students a life lesson in how Ontario’s “Government for the People” treats young people.
By Martin Regg Cohn Ontario Politics Columnist Fri., April 5, 2019
https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/04/05/doug-ford-provides-students-with-a-teachable-moment.html
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When Doug Ford attacks student life, he’s attacking Guelph.
The Ontario government's Student Choice Initiative is a threat to local institutions, writes Vish Khanna
OPINION Mar 20, 2019 by Vish Khanna Guelph Mercury
https://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion-story/9231224-when-doug-ford-attacks-student-life-he-s-attacking-guelph/
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2019: In Doug Ford’s e-learning gamble, high school students will lose.
Next school year, Ontario plans to launch a massive learning experiment with high school students that seems set to increase inequality and compound failure for students already struggling in face-to-face classes.
The Ministry of Education, under Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party, plans to require students to take a minimum of four e-learning credits to graduate. This announcement came this past March. The province also plans to “centralize the delivery of all e-learning courses.” This means school boards will have less control over how e-learning is administered locally.
There’s been little detail about how the province will oversee or run e-learning, beyond a 2020-21 phase-in. If Ontario indeed introduces e-learning with no in-person class hours — what’s called “supplemental e-learning” — each student will lose 440 hours of face-to-face class time.
Questioned in the legislature about the plan, Lisa Thompson, then the minister of education, asked:
“What is wrong with making sure that our students, at minimum, once a year, embrace technology for good?”
The fantasy of progress reflected in this statement — that technology can determine educational outcomes — suggests that technology offers simple solutions to complex problems.
I am part of a chorus of voices critical of Ontario’s proposal. My perspective is informed by my doctoral research in the department of geography at the University of Toronto on e-learning in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and my extensive background teaching e-learning as a secondary school teacher in the same board.
Bad policy
Forcing high school students to take e-learning courses when they get more support in face-to-face classes is bad policy. Advancing mandatory e-learning risks diverting resources and energy away from young people who have a right to a robust and culturally responsive education right where they live. In this way, advocating mandatory e-learning for high school students risks contributing to inequitable public policy.
Research by education researcher Carl James at York University has shown that inequitable public policy impacts Black students disproportionately; scholars Anita Olsen Harper and Shirley Thompson at the University of Manitoba highlight that the lower graduation rate for Indigenous students is due to the many structural oppressions that Indigenous people experience including schooling that doesn’t address the realities of racism or provide support for students to enhance their traditional practices.
http://theconversation.com/in-doug-fords-e-learning-gamble-high-school-students-will-lose-122826
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Editorial: Doug Ford is reckless, and the law agrees
https://westerngazette.ca/opinion/editorial-doug-ford-is-reckless-and-the-law-agrees/article_d13d3d3a-109b-11ea-86bf-6f83a7dac390.html
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2019: Resetting Social Assistance Reform. Summary of Recommendations.
Reduce unnecessary reporting and monitoring – complicated definitions, red tape, and other reporting and monitoring burdens produce inefficiencies for individuals and the government and do not contribute to the overall goal of helping people transition into work
Improve the adequacy of benefits – enhancing benefits could come in different forms including increasing base benefits, adding additional cash benefits tailored to specific needs and circumstances or providing other assistance with costs or services in the broader social safety net
Reduce the cost of working while on social assistance – smoothing out clawback thresholds and rates is critical to incentivizing participation in the workforce
Expand transitional health benefits beyond the social assistance system – pilot an extended, auto-enrolled programs for clients exiting Ontario Works to continue receiving access to health benefits in order to see how it affects attachment to the workforce
Respond to housing cost differences in different parts of the province – use the new Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to provide place-based housing supports that recognize costs difference in different parts of the province
Use digital and streamlined services to make it easier to access support – digital options for accessing client information and delivering benefits can reduce red tape for individuals and produce efficiencies for government.
Outcomes-based funding that focuses on people’s success – the social assistance system must focus resources on outcome-based metrics including for employment supports and broader support programming
Noah Zon and Thomas Granofsky on resetting social assistance reform.
https://on360.ca/policy-papers/resetting-social-assistance-reform/
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