Ontario

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/5060059

I'm going to be honest, Bonnie Crombie throwing her hat into the ring convinced me to sign up to vote against her. Ontario does not need a Blue Liberal NIMBY today.

At a press conference, Paul Calandra said his ministry would devise a “full, open, and accountable process” for reviewing the entirety of the Greenbelt

Written by TVO Today

Also, testing Mastodon to Lemmy cross-posting.

An Ontario election watchdog is calling for a new investigation into  intrigue surrounding the removal of lands from the province’s protected Greenbelt — this time involving how a company run by the man labelled as “Mr. X” obtained and then donated two $1,500 tickets to a fundraiser for Premier Doug Ford.

Ontario’s ombudsman is calling for an overhaul of the province’s long-term care inspection system after his investigation found it was “completely overwhelmed” during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The damning report from Paul Dube released Thursday morning suggests there was a complete lack of inspections of long-term care homes for seven weeks when COVID-19 arrived. He says no inspection reports were issued over a two-month period.

“The Ministry of Long-Term Care was unprepared and unable to ensure the safety of long-term care residents and staff during the pandemic’s first wave,” says Dube.

The report notes the inspections stopped because the ministry had no plan in place to ensure the safety of inspectors. He says the most egregious finding was a lack of appropriate action to severe cases of outbreak in homes.

“We found it was just not ready,” he says. “It was already strained before the pandemic, but it was not ready, didn’t have a plan and didn’t have sufficient people.”

“People weren’t going into the homes for a long period of time. And then when the inspections did resume, some of the homes were let off quite easily.”

The report cites specific examples of families who were impacted, including one person who notified the ministry four times about “disturbing” conditions in his mother’s home. That home saw 53 residents die during the first wave of COVID and wasn’t inspected until October 2020, months after the complainants mother passed away.

A second person told the ministry the home where both her parents lived was short on staff. The report says the ministry assured her the issue would be dealt with, but then closed the file without taking any action. One of her parents was one of 33 people who died during the first wave at that particular home.

Dube is calling on the Ministry of Long-Term Care to have a new plan in place and act immediately to ensure inspections in the event of any future pandemic. His 76 recommendations include urging the ministry to ensure it always has staff available for in-person inspections.

The ministry told the ombudsman it has already fully or partially implemented more than half of his recommendations.

The investigation was launched in June 2020 after the Canadian military reported on “shocking conditions” inside a number of homes in the province. Dube’s office claims they received more than 250 complaints and inquiries from families of long-term care residents, employees, and other stakeholders.

The investigators conducted more than 90 interviews and in addition to reviewing emails, documents, and other evidence.

"Premier Doug Ford says the province will review and “re-evaluate” all lands in the Greenbelt — including those that are part of controversial land-swap deals that have engulfed the government and forced the resignations of a cabinet minister and his chief of staff."

By KATE HELMORE • The Globe and Mail

MPP Steve Clark has resigned from his position as Ontario’s Housing Minister.

Please consider signing this updated petition which calls on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to stop all plans to remove protected land from the Greenbelt & to protect existing farmland and sensitive wetlands.

#More shoes could drop, says professor

Christopher Cochrane, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, said the integrity commissioner's report settled some issues, like establishing that Clark broke ethics rules, while leaving others unresolved.

Those unresolved issues could keep the controversy alive.

"There are unregistered lobbyists who had contracts with companies that would be in contravention of the [Lobbyists Registration Act]. There are mixed reports about whether, in fact, the chief of staff of the housing minister had been taking orders from others," Cochrane said. "There's certainly plenty of opportunity here for a sequel."

That sequel may even come in the form of another integrity commissioner's report from Wake himself.

Ontario’s education minister said he believes “parents must be fully involved” if their child chooses to use a different pronoun at school.

The comments were made at a news conference on Monday morning, where Stephen Lecce was outlining the changes students and parents can expect at Ontario schools come September.

They also come as Saskatchewan adopts a new gender and pronoun policy, joining New Brunswick in legislating parental consent for students under the age of 16 who want to change their given names and/or pronouns at school.

“I think we understand though that parents must be fully involved and fully aware of what's happening in the life of their children,” Lecce said.

“I mean, often there are health implications, and I think we have to respect the rights of parents and recognize that these can be life-changing decisions, and I think parents want to be involved so that they can support their kids. And I think that's a really important principle that we must uphold.

Lecce prefaced this by saying that schools should be safe for all children. He noted that teachers and school boards take home environments into account “where there are exceptional circumstances” or “situations of potential harm to the child.”

“Educators are well versed on exactly what to do and who to turn to if they believe that child may be harmed for whatever reason, or whatever circumstance,” he said.

“But as I say, as an overarching value system, I really do believe that parents need to be fully aware, fully engaged. And school boards need to be transparent with parents. I mean, they are the legal guardians. They love their kids. They want to be aware of what's happening in the life of their children in their schools.”

The minister would not say if this were something his government would legislate, saying only that this was the “province’s position on the matter.”

A new poll by Angus Reid released Monday, which surveyed 3,016 Canadian adults online, suggests that about 43 per cent of Canadians believe parents should both be informed and give consent if a child wants to change how they are identified within a school setting.

In Ontario, 43 per cent of survey respondents said parents must both be informed and give consent of an identity change, while 34 per cent said parents should simply be informed.

About 16 per cent of respondents said it should solely be up to the child.

The Toronto District School Board currently has a policy that protects the privacy of transgender and gender non-conforming students, recognizing that some children may not be open about their identity at home.

It notes that a school “should never disclose a student’s gender non-conformity or transgender status to the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s)/caregiver(s) without the student’s explicit prior consent.”

“This is true regardless of the age of the student.”

The policy says that school staff should consult the student as to how to identify them when communicating with their guardian.

School boards in Saskatchewan have asked the province to pause its gender and pronoun policy in order to allow for a “complete review and report” prior to implementation, arguing it could have safety risks and could violate charter rights.

As of last week, the Saskatchewan government has not backtracked on its position.

Still no real answers or accountability though.

Premier Doug Ford got testy with reporters on Thursday morning while fielding questions on the damning report about the province’s Greenbelt land swap.

Ford held a news conference in Etobicoke with his labour and education ministers, but the availability was overshadowed by the integrity commissioner’s findings and the growing calls for the province’s housing minister to resign.

Calls are growing louder for Steve Clark’s resignation after the integrity commissioner found Wednesday that he violated two sections of the Members’ Integrity Act that governs politicians’ ethics, conflict of interest rules and insider information rules, when the province removed land from the protected Greenbelt for development.

The premier doubled down in his defence of the embattled Clark, saying “we’re going to work with Minister Clark like we work with the other ministers to fulfil our mandate. Our mandate is to build homes”

He then went on the offensive against a reporter when he asked if he would take personal responsibility for the matter.

“I’m sure you just walked down the street from your home,” Ford snapped back instead of answering the question. “You have a home, do you know how many people don’t have a home? There are hundreds of thousands of people who don’t have homes.”

When asked about getting personal with a reporter, the premier responded “you don’t attack me, I don’t attack you.”

Clark is scheduled to address the media in his own news conference from Queen’s Park at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

J. David Wake’s scathing report found the housing minister failed to oversee the land selection process, which led to the private interests of certain developers being furthered improperly. The developers stand to make $8.3 billion as a result of the deal.

The report concluded that Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato, was the “driving force” behind the lands that were selected to be developed. Amato has denied any wrongdoing but did resign from his position earlier this month after the auditor general found the Ford government gave preferential treatment to developers.

Wake recommended “that Minister Clark be reprimanded for his failure to comply with the Act” and the opposition continues to demand the housing minister’s resignation.

Clark released his own statement saying he accepts the integrity commissioner’s findings. Both Clark and Ford have denied any wrongdoing but have previously admitted the selection process was flawed.

Late Wednesday, the province confirmed it was beginning the process of returning two parcels of land slated for development in Ajax back to the Greenbelt after the owner listed them for sale.

“On the Greenbelt lands, I have a message for developers, get the shovels in the ground“ said Ford on Thursday. “Try me.”

Ontario created the Greenbelt in 2005 to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area from development. Last year, the province took 7,400 acres of land out of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes and replaced it with about 9,400 acres elsewhere.

By Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.

This explainer article was published in 2021, and it’s contents have only become more relevant as the median rent in Ontario continues to increase unabated

Ontario's Integrity Commissioner is recommending that Housing Minister Steve Clark be reprimanded for his role in the province's contentious Greenbelt land swap, calling it a "rushed and flawed process" marred by a "lack of oversight."

In a report issued Wednesday, David Wake said Clark failed to properly oversee the process that led to protected Greenbelt lands being selected for housing development, "leading to the private interests of certain developers being furthered improperly.

Ford expressed concern Tuesday that a company called Buena Vista Development is trying to sell 765 and 775 Kingston Road East in Ajax.

Those are two of the “sites that were selected as part of the land swap to build at least 50,000 new homes and grow the size of the Greenbelt,” the premier said in a statement.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday the government is "exploring" putting environmental protections back on two parts of the Greenbelt in Ajax, Ont., which had been slated for development.

Ontario’s integrity commissioner will first complete his investigation of Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark before turning his attention to ex-aide Ryan Amato’s Greenbelt actions.

That could further drag out a land swap debacle that has left Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives reeling.

J. David Wake is currently looking into whether Clark contravened the Members’ Integrity Act “with respect to the decision to allow development on lands in the Greenbelt.”

...

Against the backdrop of Wake’s investigations, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has taken over a preliminary review of the Greenbelt matter from the Ontario Provincial Police.

The RCMP branch that probes corruption and political crimes is checking Greenbelt “irregularities” related to the land deal and will decide if a criminal case should be launched.

When the Ford government issued a special zoning order to allow construction on farmland north of Toronto, it was expected to help the developer quickly build 600 “desperately needed new homes.”

But before building a single home, the firm run by Shakir Rehmatullah, one of the developers who attended Premier Doug Ford’s daughter’s wedding, divided the land into parts and sold some for what appears to be a significant profit.

Property records obtained by the Star show that Rehmatullah’s company Flato Upper Markham Village Inc. recently sold a large chunk for $62 million — four times what he originally paid in 2017 for the entire 102-acre property. Representatives of Flato have insisted that the company retains ownership of the lands and will be involved in its development, but have refused to provide details regarding the interest it currently holds in them.