FORD’S FIRST 100 DAYS
From Toronto council cuts to repealing sex-ed to buck-a-beer, a look at the hits and misses of . . .
‘We must challenge the status quo, reject the old compromises and embrace change. The road ahead will not be easy, but the path is clear.’ Speech from the throne, July 12
Doug Ford promised dramatic change when his Progressive Conservatives toppled Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.
As the premier marks his 100th day in office today, he has delivered on that pledge.
Since his majority government was sworn in June 29, Ford has moved quickly to dismantle many of the policies implemented by Wynne and her predecessor Dalton McGuinty during their almost 15 years in power.
“We cannot afford to dither or delay,” the Conservatives declared in the July 12 speech from the throne outlining their agenda.
“To overcome these challenges, we must challenge the status quo, reject the old compromises and embrace change,” the Tories emphasized. “The road ahead will not be easy, but the path is clear.”
Clearing that path, like Indiana Jones with a machete in a jungle, is the rookie MPP from Etobicoke North.
His decision, in the middle of the municipal election, to slash Toronto city council from 47 councillors to 25 was never broached during the spring campaign or in the throne speech.
Even though the hitherto unmen- tioned reform preoccupied the fledgling PC government for weeks when his legislation was ruled unconstitutional by an Ontario Superior Court judge, Ford forged ahead.
He threatened to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause for the first time in Ontario history and convened an unprecedented midnight session of the legislature before the Court of Appeal overturned the judge’s ruling.
While some of his advisers privately worried about frittering away political capital on something so parochial, the premier got his way.
Similarly, it was Ford’s idea to scrap the updated 2015 sex education curriculum and revert to the 1998 syllabus, which predates legalized same-sex marriage, LGBT human-rights protections, and social media.
That was to appease social conservatives who helped him win the March 10 PC leadership.
Against the backdrop of court and human-rights challenges, students will learn the outdated curriculum while Education Minister Lisa Thompson consults on an entirely new syllabus for the 2019-20 school year.
Ford has been at his most politically successful and surefooted on pocketbook issues.
The premier eliminated the unpopular Drive Clean emissions-testing program and froze driver’s licence fee renewal rates at $90 when they were scheduled to jump to $97.
By extricating Ontario from its cap-and-trade environmental alliance with Quebec and California, which brought in $1.9 billion annually to bankroll greenhouse-gas reduction initiatives, he should be able to keep his promise to lower gasoline prices by 10 cents a litre.
As well, that should lead to natural gas savings of about $80 a year for the average household and $285 annually for small businesses.
But ending cap-and-trade killed the subsidies of up to $14,000 toward the purchase of electric vehicles and cut $100 million from the schools’ repair budget since environmental retrofits will no longer be offered.
Some $790 million could be saved by cancelling 758 green energy contracts, though costly litigation could still loom. There will be a showdown with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals next year over carbon pricing — the province will spend up to $35 mil- lion challenging the federal measure in court and has joined forces with Saskatchewan to fight it.
While it will have no impact on electricity rates, which are set by the independent Ontario Energy Board, the shakeup at Hydro One and the departure of Ford’s fabled “$6 million man” CEO Mayo Schmidt, played well with PC supporters.
The premier received a lot of media attention during the campaign for pledging to lower the minimum legal price for a bottle of beer to $1 from $1.25.
Even though few companies embraced the change — Labatt, Molson, Sleeman, and nearly every craft brewer passed because it is not affordable — the premier touted his kept “buck-a-beer” promise when Cool Lager began selling fourpacks for $4.40, including deposit.
Beyond beer, Ford has shaken up the provincial cannabis market as Canadians gird for federally legalized recreational weed on Oct. 17.
Wynne’s plan to have the Ontario Cannabis Store, a subsidiary of the LCBO, operate 40 retail outlets across the province has been scrapped. Instead, 500 to 1,000 privately owned marijuana shops will begin opening in April.
The government’s weed company will continue to control the online sales market, though it will no longer be affiliated with the LCBO.
Like all politicians, Ford has already broken some campaign promises.
He cancelled the groundbreaking three-year basic-income pilot, which has been helping 4,000 Ontarians since last year, despite pledging to see it through.
To the dismay of some Muskoka residents and cottagers, Ford reneged on his pledge to kill the Bala Falls hydroelectric project because it could cost $100 million to scuttle the deal.
Despite promising to find $6 billion in savings in the $150 billion provincial budget, the premier has so far been able to keep his promise that no public-service jobs will be cut.
The Tories have artfully — and artificially — inflated the Liberals’ $6.7 billion deficit to a $15 billion shortfall. That was through an accounting change that could end up being temporary and by including $5.7 billion in Wynne’s spending on childcare and other programs that will not be funded.
But it means Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will be able to unveil a much smaller deficit in next month’s fall economic statement.
Still, Ford is proceeding with a select committee of Tory and NDP MPPs to examine how the deficit ballooned to $15 billion.
A report will be completed in time for the premier’s next 100 days.