Cut now, pay later
Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod pulled the plug last week on the Roundtable on Violence Against Women, a panel of experts that advised the government on measures it could take to help women flee domestic violence.
In another worrisome move, her cabinet colleague, Attorney General Caroline Mulroney, acknowledged she has delayed delivering critically needed, already-budgeted funding to sexual-assault crisis centres across the province.
It’s bad enough that the Ford government doesn’t appear to see helping Ontario’s most vulnerable women as a significant priority.
But more than that, these moves are further evidence of a troubling trend by the Ford government to cut first, think later and damn the consequences.
Indeed, axing programs without researching their merits or having readied anything with which to replace them has proven to be not just unwise, but potentially costly and dangerous. The government should be asking itself “If not this, than what?” before it pulls the plug on any programming.
Consider the roundtable. The panel of volunteers wasn’t costing the government anything but a minor stipend for its two chairs. What the government received in return was valuable advice that it used to help women and their children flee domestic violence. That’s a social ill that costs this country $1.16 billion a year in lost productivity and added expenses to the health, justice and child welfare systems.
Is a program that helps women escape violence a cost — or a cost-saving measure? There’s no evidence the government asked this question before axing the roundtable.
Similarly, it’s fine for Mulroney to study programs and services for sexual assault victims to ensure they are delivered in an “effective and efficient way,” as she says she is doing. But she should not imperil women and risk higher mental health care and social services costs down the road while she conducts her research.
Just as ill thought-out was Ford’s first act as premier to end the cap-and-trade system. He did so with the promise that he would announce a new climate change action plan in the near future. But months later nothing is in sight to address the environmental and economic costs of climate change, which are greater and coming faster than expected, as outlined earlier this month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Shortly after that, the government scrapped the province’s two-year-old sex education curriculum before it had begun consultations on a new syllabus, never mind finished them. As a result, students are being taught from course materials that were created back in 1998 when gay marriage was still not legal, there were no smartphones, the word “sexting” hadn’t been invented, and the important debate around consent had not yet gone mainstream. That puts them at risk of assaults and bullying.
If that wasn’t enough of a backward step for students, Education Minister Lisa Thompson last week “paused” annual grants that parent councils and other community groups rely on for activities such as math nights and cyberbullying talks. The Parent Reaching Out grants were created as a way to boost family engagement in schools, something that is key to student success. How much will that cost down the road?
Troubling, too, was Health Minister Christine Elliott’s decision to freeze funding for three already-approved overdose prevention sites in the province while she completed her long and ongoing review of them. By cutting one proven program before she had a backup plan in place, she has likely increased health care costs for overdose victims, and possibly even put lives at risk.
Finding efficiencies in government is always a good thing. But cutting much-needed programs without evidence that they aren’t working or having a better plan to replace them is a dangerous recipe that risks costing Ontarians even more down the road