Promises made, promises broken
Six months ago, Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives were elected largely on the basis that he wasn’t Kathleen Wynne and they weren’t the Liberals, and somehow that would add up to them doing the right thing for Ontarians.
Ford’s campaign was light on details but peppered with his folksy promises. And as premier, he’s fond of saying: promises made, promises kept. But much of his record shows something quite different. “I entered politics to help the little guy.” Well, they don’t come any littler than children. Nor more vulnerable. And what has Ford done?
He axed the province’s child advocate, dedicated to protecting and improving the lives of children. He cut $25 million in education funding for programs targeted at the students who struggle the most, and provided jobs for other students. And he introduced legislation to reduce safety standards for babies in unlicensed home daycares. Under the Ford government, sensible restrictions to protect the youngest children are seen as nothing but red tape standing in the way of profits for unlicensed daycare providers. “Ontario: open for business.” His taxpayer-funded highway signs may claim Ontario is open but business people who saw their contracts ripped up under the Ford administration, including German investors 10 years and $100 million into a green energy project, have cause to disagree. As did Tesla, which successfully sued the province for the ham-handed way it cancelled electric-car rebates.
And Ford said “open for business,” not “open for environmental destruction.” But that’s what could come with Bill 66, his ridiculously wide-ranging omnibus bill restoring Ontario’s competitiveness act.
It allows the municipal affairs minister, at the request of municipalities, to exempt commercial developments from a myriad of environmental laws. That includes the Clean Water Act — put in place after the Walkerton tainted-water disaster killed seven people and left thousands sick — the Great Lakes Protection Act and the Greenbelt Act ... Which brings up another promise: “We won’t touch the Greenbelt.” Ford made that vow after getting caught on video promising a group of developers that he’d open the protected Greenbelt around the GTA and Hamilton for new single-family homes.
Yet Bill 66 makes it possible for the municipal affairs minister to approve a municipal proposal under an “open-forbusiness” bylaw to put an office or factory on land within the Greenbelt.
The government says it doesn’t intend to support proposals that infringe on its commitment to protect the Greenbelt, but then why was it included in the legislation? “Clean up the hydro mess.” Ford got rid of Mayo Schmidt, the so-called “six-milliondollar man” who was Hydro One’s CEO, and the entire board — and then Washington state regulators got rid of Hydro One.
The regulators scuttled its multi-billion-dollar takeover of a U.S. energy company, deciding political interference by the Ford government made the deal too risky. That leaves Hydro One, and taxpayers who own half the company, on the hook for well over $100 million in penalties. None of that does a thing to lower electricity bills, which is what Ford claims he’s doing with all his meddling. “Create good jobs.” What Ford has actually done is make a good entry-level job even harder to find.
He revoked important labour reforms designed to protect the most vulnerable workers and cancelled a planned rise in the minimum wage to $15. That was worth $2,000 in full-time wages and now it’s gone.
Ford promised to cut billions through “efficiencies” without losing jobs or services, but that’s not what’s happening. Among other things, he axed planned university campuses and retroactively cut funding for the College of Midwives. And the government has put out a call for voluntary departures to cut the size of the public sector. The government says this will help “address its fiscal challenges... while avoiding involuntary job losses.” “Restore accountability, respect and trust to Queen’s Park.” It’s hard to know where to begin. The premier who promised open and transparent government and an end to political interference in decision-making has axed independent legislative watchdogs, and used his power to settle personal vendettas and elevate his friends. That includes slashing Toronto council in half and yanking the Peel regional chair rug out from under former PC leader Patrick Brown. That’s by no means an exhaustive list.
The premier and his chief of staff, Dean French, have seemingly gone to unprecedented and troubling lengths to manipulate the hiring system and install an old Ford family friend, Ron Taverner, as head of the Ontario Provincial Police.
Then there’s the allegation that French demanded that Ford’s OPP security detail include a modified “camper type vehicle,” the costs of which were to be “kept off the books.” There’s nothing transparent or accountable about that.
The provincial integrity commissioner is investigating. The acting OPP commissioner turned whistleblower is trying to get the ombudsman to launch his own investigation. And the NDP is pushing for a full public inquiry.
None of this matters to Ford, who seems determined to run the province as his personal fiefdom to do with as he wishes and, as such, has already determined the outcome. “This is going to move forward,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Let the review take place, and I can tell you one thing, once it gets done, (Ron Taverner) will be the best commissioner the OPP has ever seen.”
Perhaps Ford made Taverner a promise he truly intends to keep. He’s certainly a long way off that mark when it comes to those who elected him last June.
What Ford has actually done is make a good entry-level job even harder to find.