Milton NDP Blog

 In a recent letter from the Ontario office of CCPA I learned a new term for, what to me, is an old idea. Starve the beast is a term used to describe how conservative governments reduce spending on social services by first cutting taxes. The idea is to starve the public purse so that less money is available for spending. Randy Robinson from CCPA figures that tax cuts, fee reductions and poorly done tax credits have reduced the Ontario purse by some $7.5 billion in 2022 alone. It's what Conservatives do. They create a crisis and then ram through their solution - privatization. We can see the desired outcome start to bloom in the healthcare sector where the "innovation" is to privatize healthcare options. Of course, the math doesn't add up. If $100 buys me $100 of socialized healthcare and I give that $100 to a private enterprise then, of course, the shareholders are going to take their $10 or $15 and leave me with $85 of healthcare. They say that private companies ca

This week I was fascinated, but not surprised to learn that extra government oversight (aka Red Tape) helped prevent thousands of opioid overdose deaths in several US states. The In Triplicate episode of the Revisionist History podcast explained how the use of special government issued prescription pads helped doctors in some states "think twice" about prescribing opioids. The podcast provided a very clear example of how government oversight (aka Red Tape) actually works. The nefarious drug manufacturer took this into account and spent more money marketing opioids in states that did not use the government issued serialized pads! Reducing red tape, reducing government oversight and management is not a "progressive" ideal. The definition for Progressivism from Wikipedia states " In the 21st century, a movement that identifies as progressive is "a social or political movement that aims to represent the interests of ordinary people through political change an

In response to Parm Gill's Milton Champion opinion piece dated July 14, 2022 titled Plenty of work ahead for provincial government I would like to point out that despite spending $250 million on new schools and $28 million on school expansions almost every school in Milton is overflowing with some wondering where they will put the next portable classroom because they already have 10, 20, 30 or more portables. In fact, in 4 years Mr Gill has done nothing to address the overcrowding in Milton schools. New school building is not keeping pace with Milton's growth. The post secondary campuses promised by Mr Gill were first nixed by his government and only came back when a long-term care home was included – a home run by a private, for profit company with one of the worst Covid death records in Ontario. He refers to Long Term Care spots as “beds” like he is building hospital wards. Long Term Care is more than just a “bed” Mr Gill. We need more in-home care and assisted living accommo

This came across my desk today from Charlie Angus. Pharmacare and Dental Care are huge but there is much more in the agreement. ... from Charlie Angus   Here are some of the other elements that we put in place: A three-year rollout for national dental care for families earning less than $90,000 Passing the Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023 Bringing forward legislation on long-term care standards for seniors Extending the rapid housing initiative Re-focusing the Rental Construction Financing Initiative on affordable units (under 80% AMR) and using 80% AMR or below as definition of affordable housing Moving forward on launching a Housing Accelerator Fund Implementing a Homebuyer’s Bill of Rights and tackling the financialization of the housing market by the end of 2023 Including a $500 one-time top-up to Canada Housing Benefit in 2022, which would renew in coming years if the cost of living challenges remain Through introducing an Early Learning and Child Care Act by the end of 20

Horwath will force a vote in the legislature on her plan to hire hundreds of health workers for the North “At the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre you typically have to wait a whopping 19 long hours to be admitted." The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre alone currently has over 25 vacancies for full time doctors. Thunder Bay paramedics say code black events, where there are no ambulances available, are now a regular occurrence, as the short-staff ambulances encounter short staffing at the hospital, which can leave paramedics sitting with a patient in the ambulance bay for hours at a time. The pandemic has revealed how stretched thin the system has become over many years. The Liberal government of Steven Del Duca and Kathleen Wynne froze hospital funding for years and cut 1,600 nurses. On top of cuts and underspending, Doug Ford has made the staffing shortage worse with a low-wage policy, driving staff away. Horwath and the NDP will force a vote in the legislat

  The number of hospital beds in Ontario remained unchanged for the last 20 years (through Liberal and Conservative governments) but Ontario’s population grew by 3 million. Now Ford plans to cut the extra beds put in place for the Pandemic despite Ontario Hospital Association recommendations to keep them. A million Ontario residents are waiting for surgery but Ford is only addressing the delays that exceed medical guidelines! So if you are waiting for surgery the government isn’t going to do a thing about it until your situation becomes critical. Here are the OHA Recommendations for budget 2022. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, annual year-over-year base operating pressure:  3.5% ($735 million)  Dedicated funding to reduce the massive backlog of procedures and services.  Continued reimbursement for COVID-related expenses and lost revenues   2022/23 to be a “learning year” to determine which of the COVID-related expenses and lost revenues plus inflationary cost pressures, should be rolled