Ontario

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/34012957

— Brampton has become the first city in Ontario to endorse the Plant Based Treaty and make “a plant based approach as a part of the city’s climate plan.” The move means they join 33 towns and citiesworldwide, including Rainbow Lake in Alberta, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Edinburgh, in calling for a global Plant Based Treaty to be added to the Paris Agreement.

snips from the news bit:

Total of 1,484 residential homes will be built on a former commuter parking lot

The development will include 444 condos and a mix of one- to three-bedroom rental homes that will be available to residents of various income levels.

Green said the four-block community that will be created will include a childcare centre, community space, retail space and public park.

In a news release on Tuesday, the city said crews have already begun to remove parking infrastructure to prepare the site for development. Construction is set to begin in the spring, with occupancy expected in early 2029.

Ford has really ramped up the showmanship lately, calling for a bike lane witch hunt and making magical announcements about beer, highway tunnels and $200 cheques. Much of it, it seems, is being done in the service of getting us to look away from the reality of how things are going in Ford’s Ontario.

In particular, he’d really like us to pay no attention to the housing policy failure behind the curtain. But by the numbers, Ford’s failure on housing should be way too big to hide.

A report released last week by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation revealed that housing starts in Ontario are down 18 per cent so far this year. That stat, which measures the number of new housing units that saw construction get started, should set off loud alarm bells. Because housing, more than any other issue, has been Ford’s signature issue — the subject of lots of legislation. He’s styled himself as a builder-in-chief who will “get it done.”

This isn’t a case of Ontario’s large population skewing the numbers, either. For his excellent Data Shows newsletter, analyst Tom Parkin recently crunched the per-capita numbers for housing starts and found Ontario ranked eighth out of Canada’s 10 provinces. According to Parkin’s numbers, with just 34 new starts for every 100,000 people, Ontario’s rate of per-capita building was well below that of provincial peers like Manitoba (47), Quebec (47.8), B.C. (58.8) and Alberta (89.9).

With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that the province has dim hopes of hitting its much-ballyhooed goal of building 1.5 million homes by the end of 2031.

DOFO on his way to build another expensive highway that moves less people than trains, busses, and bike lanes, while forcing more people into car traffic.

#DOFO @ontario #DougFord #ThugFord #ONPoli

This is malice. Thug Ford continues to ruin the health of Ontarians.

@ontario #ThugFord #ONPoli

Hey Ontario, are you doing OK?

#ONPoli #TOPoli #NotOneSeat #ThugFord #ONPoli @ontario

Tell your friends. Inbe4 someone spends 5min discussing the effecacy of a petition that takes 2min to read and sign.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/13377479

Someone I know (nickname: Jane Doe) was a victim of sexual violence in Toronto. Could you please provide all (ideally the most effective and best) organization contacts (e.g. police, gender-based violence (GVB) against women entities/orgs) to report the event, support and effectively and fast catch the perpetrator (both for Jane Doe's safety and of other people), and provide me with information, protocols, resources, apps, psychological support, risk assessment and creating a safety plan against GVB and re-victimization, etc.

Also, please provide me with links to laws on gender-based violence, and more specifically sexual violence and harassment against women to make us aware of what exactly constitutes his crimes and to hopefully put the perpetrator on jail. Let's do this, Toronto. Of course I'm providing Jane Doe's with support and help as long as Jane Doe's is comfortable with.

If anyone here has gone through this process, please share the details and insights and how to best and most effectively handle the situation in all its processes, for example with reporting to the police and how do you protect yourselves from re-victimization.

I compiled and sent this file to Jane Doe for now specifically with Toronto/Ontario/Canada resources: https://oshi.at/GePn

A Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.

Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.

Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma's role in boosting local vaccination rates.

About a year later, the doctor said she received notice from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) seeking to recoup the money she had billed for the shots — approximately $600,000, plus around $35,000 in interest.

A Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.

Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.

Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma's role in boosting local vaccination rates.

About a year later, the doctor said she received notice from the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) seeking to recoup the money she had billed for the shots — approximately $600,000, plus around $35,000 in interest.

I love these nerds

Ontario grocery stores — particularly smaller, independent shops — say new bottle return requirements that were sprung on them a week before they're set to take effect may make it impossible to participate in Premier Doug Ford's expansion of alcohol sales. [...]

Grocery stores [...] that sell alcohol will also have to accept empties.

Having the smell of stale beer mingling with the smell of fresh food — and having to put not-quite-entirely-empty bottles that become fruit-fly magnets near produce sections — would not be good for business, they said.

But with new and detailed requirements communicated to them this week by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario just days before they begin, retailers say they don't know how they will make it work, and some are planning to hand back their licences.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/31690088

Global News recently reported that the Progressive Conservative Party will begin nominating candidates this month, the latest sign that Premier Doug Ford is considering a snap vote.

In 2022, the PCs formed a second “false majority” government after winning just 41% of the vote. Given that progressive parties—the OLP, ONDP, and GPO—received a combined 54% of the vote, it seems Ontario’s democratic majority was once again denied its right to govern.

What made the situation even more dire, however, was the historically low voter turnout of 43%, which meant Ford was handed a majority government by a meagre 18% of eligible voters. These results spell a crisis of legitimacy for our democracy, especially when it comes to the legislation passed by such a government.

For instance, in 2019, the PCs passed Bill 124, which capped salary increases for broader public sector workers (including teachers and nurses) to 1% per year for three years. It was later deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which ruled that it violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with respect to unionized employees.

Here is a list of other legislation passed by the PCs that might not have come into force under PR:

1. Bill 60: Your Health Act (May 2023) allowed private clinics to conduct more OHIP-covered surgeries despite critics warning that it would lead to a two-tiered system. At the time, the NDP said it presented 74 amendments to the Your Health Act to the committee, but none were accepted or even considered by the PCs.
2. Bill 3: Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act (Sept 22) gave mayors more power by allowing them a veto on bylaws passed by council, the ability to hire and dismiss senior managers, and stewardship over the city budget. While municipal powers are determined by the provincial government, the bill is widely seen as a continuation of the erosion of municipal powers and councillors, who are elected by citizens to exercise their democratic will.
3. Bill 39: Better Municipal Governance Act (2023) extended “strong mayor” powers to other municipalities. Opposition parties were critical of how it allowed mayors to pass certain bylaws with just one-third of council support.
4. Bill 23: More Homes Built Faster Act (2022) reduced development fees (to boost construction) despite significant opposition from environmental groups, municipal governments, and Indigenous communities.
5. Bill 7: More Beds, Better Care Act (2022) allowed hospitals to free up hospital beds by discharging elderly patients to long-term care homes without their consent. The bill faced backlash for infringing on patient rights.

Finally, while not a legislative bill, the Greenbelt land swap scandal raised significant issues in 2023 when the Ford government came under scrutiny for opening up previously protected Greenbelt land for development against the will of elected municipal councillors. The Auditor General’s report revealed that the process disproportionately favoured certain developers...

I'm sure most people here would recognise this as fishy but I'm sharing anyway. Warn your more trusting friends and family!