Milton NDP Blog

  Late last week we heard the Ontario Science Table state that now is the time to start asymptomatic self-testing for Covid using something called a rapid test kit. Some jurisdictions like the UK have been handing out these rapid tests for free for some time now. The kits are 95% accurate. It would seem, however, that the test kits that Ottawa gave to Ontario to give out for free have mostly been just sitting around on shelves somewhere. Ford says Ontario has given out more free kits than any other province but that’s a meaningless statement since Ontario is Canada’s most populous province. He said that school age kids would get to take some home to use over the Christmas break and that other kits have been given to businesses to test employees. We’ll see. But for most of us a Covid test means a trip to the pharmacy where a kit costs $40. Now that a high percentage of the population is vaccinated and the latest variant is more virulent (spreads quicker) the chances that we have t...

Ford finally put the minimum wage up to $15 per hour. That’s after the Conservatives cancelled the increase 3 years ago. Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP are saying “Not good enough.” The minimum wage in Ontario should be $20 an hour. What’s going on? The Ontario Living Wage Network in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives have done the research. They found that a Living Wage in Halton is $20.75 per hour. A “Living Wage” includes food, clothing, shelter, childcare, transportation, medical expenses, recreation and a modest vacation based on a family of 4 with 2 working adults. It does not include “Anything other than the smallest cushion for emergencies or hard times.” Clearly then, $15 is not good enough. An Ontario NDP government would see the minimum wage catch up to $20 per hour by 2026 with a special fund set up for local small and medium businesses that struggle with the transition to a Living Wage. In the long run business will benefit from having a ...

Here is the low-down on how Ontario reports on the environment. It doesn’t! There is no regular reporting on the overall state of the environment. Numerous separate Ministry reports make any determination by the public difficult. Water quality reports stopped in 2016. Again, different smaller focus reports make an overall understanding difficult and less effective. The Ministry of Natural Resources has been working on an overall report on the state of natural resources since 2017 but has no date set to release the report Ontario has no comprehensive wild pollinator monitoring program. Ontario can’t monitor soil health, it relies on the Feds to do this. Ontario has no idea when and where pesticides are used. There are no reports on waste diversion or greenhouse gas reduction progress. Conserving wetlands, adapting to climate change, preventing the spread of invasive species and fish and wildlife strategies are not reported annually. The Auditor General has found that Ontario lacks summ...

This week we heard that Alberta has signed a childcare agreement with Ottawa with the goal of reducing daycare to $10 a day by 2025. Ontario and New Brunswick are the only 2 provinces who have yet to sign a deal . A deal would give Ontario $10.28 billion over five years. Lecce and Ford say it’s a bad deal for Ontario but, really, is it? Ford says it’s not enough. Well it was enough for all the other provinces except NB. The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care said this claim has been debunked. And anyway, it’s meant to be a 50 - 50 cost sharing deal so, yes, Ontario will need to pitch some more in. Ah! Maybe that’s what is at the heart of the PC’s resistance - being told to spend more on social services! Lecce also claims that the deal is vague about what happens after 5 years failing to mention that these deals are always set in 5 year frameworks and are meant to continue on as fixed budget items into the future. An OECD report showed that dollars spent on Early Childhood Edu...

We heard on the news that some people can’t get an eye exam and our feed says the ONDP wants us to sign this petition . What’s going on? Well, for a couple of months now Ontario Optometrists have not been doing OHIP covered exams because the OHIP fee, about $44 doesn’t come close to covering the real cost estimated to be around $76 . OHIP covers exams for children under 19, seniors over 65 and people with diabetes or other eye conditions. The OAO, Ontario Association of Optometrists waited for 8 months to negotiate with the Ontario government. The government finally listened, or pretended to listen then made an offer and did not negotiate in the only 2 day meeting with the OAO. The government then decided to try and go around the OAO and offer a one time payment directly to eye doctors. They offered $39 million, a figure which they can try to boast about but which, in reality, doesn’t come close to covering the doctors’ losses and does nothing about future funding. These are typical ...

Imagine your next car. Maybe it will be electric. Maybe it will be self driving. Maybe it will be that cool new shade of blue. It will look nice in the driveway. Maybe. Imagine instead of buying the car, you buy into a fleet of self driving autonomous vehicles. Use your phone app and ten minutes later a nice little 2 seater appears to take you to the grocery store. Need to drive 4 kids to hockey? No problem. Use the app and ten minutes later a self driving electric minivan shows up to collect you, the kids and the gear. Where do the cars go when you are not using them? Why, they are driving other fleet owners to their destinations or charging at the fleet windmill or getting serviced by the fleet mechanics. No worries about looking after the thing. Charged and ready to take you wherever you want to go. Sounds like science fiction? Not really. We know that most domestic vehicles will be electric in the next 20 years. The same vehicles will be autonomous in about the same amount of time....

As COP26 gets underway in Glasgow we’ve been thinking about reducing our carbon footprint here at home. Getting around town and heating our homes seem to be the biggest slices of our personal carbon pie. What can we do? What can governments do to make it happen? Switching to Electric cars is on everyone’s mind. First we need to learn some new terms like EV, PEV, PHEV and HEV. We need to think about charging the vehicle at home and, ultimately, how much carbon was produced making the electricity and the batteries going into the car. Maybe we can leave that new EV plugged in at the GO station and take the train in to see that Leafs game? At home we can improve our windows, furnaces and insulation with a bit of help from the government. We can turn the thermostat down and replace incandescent lighting with LEDs. Maybe we can capture a little more carbon by planting a tree in that barren piece of grass or replacing that dilapidated old fence with a row of cedars? All of this sounds reas...