Updates

TORONTO – Official Opposition NDP critic for Energy and Climate Action, Peter Tabuns (Toronto – Danforth), has released the following statement in response to the Conservative government’s legislation to maintain a costly charge on energy bills that subsidizes Enbridge’s expansion plans:

“Ending this subsidy would mean over a billion in savings for customers, who will now be stuck paying more than $300 on top of their current utility bills simply to help Enbridge’s bottom line. Ford’s Conservatives walked away from a win-win-win situation: lower energy bills for Ontarians, lower carbon emissions, and a future where homes can start converting to heat pumps.

"At a time when the world needs to move towards green energy, the Conservatives are using their majority to drive up carbon emissions and gas bills.

"They had the option to put money back in people’s pockets and finally start addressing the realities of climate change. But they chose to stick to their interests: climate denial and lining the pockets of billion-dollar corporations like Enbridge.”

Quick Facts:

• $4,400 savings cited by the Minister are for homes where developers choose natural gas over electric heat pumps, will instead be added to the bills of existing gas consumers, representing over $1 billion in extra charges to gas consumers over four years.
• The OEB decision was about keeping these costs off people’s gas bills, but today’s legislation will add these costs back on.

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the Official Opposition is heading into the upcoming legislative session ready to present practical, hopeful solutions:

"People across our province are facing real challenges right now. People are waiting for hours for basic healthcare, they are stuck with sky-rocketing costs of housing, and their bills are not getting any lower. We need real solutions,” said Stiles. “But this government is too wrapped up in its never-ending scandals to come up with real solutions that matter to Ontarians.

“The NDP is headed into this session focused on delivering solutions to housing, health care, and the rising cost of living.

“We've taken on a corrupt Conservative government and forced them to reverse course on countless bad decisions. Now, they’re under a criminal investigation for selling off the Greenbelt to the highest bidder and were forced to walk back wage-suppression policies after losing twice in court. Every climbdown and policy reversal is proof that when we work together, we can win.

"This session, we'll keep holding Ford’s Conservatives to account, while putting forward the solutions that will make people’s lives easier.”

Stiles and the NDP will champion real solutions in the legislature, from targeting the staffing shortage in hospitals and underused public hospital resources, to expediting housing—including deeply affordable housing.

QUEEN’S PARK – Marit Stiles, Leader of Ontario’s Official Opposition NDP, released the following statement in response to the Ontario Court of Appeal’s ruling:

“Today is a victory for workers across Ontario.

"This win belongs to the workers, unions, and advocates from across the province who stood firm against the Conservatives’ unconstitutional attack on their rights.

"Bill 124 hurt our province. It forced health care and education workers out of the profession, cut people’s wages during an affordability crisis, and eroded the people’s trust in their government.

"This government wasted years and taxpayer dollars fighting workers in court to uphold an unconstitutional Bill and take away wages. The government needs to accept this ruling, stop fighting workers, and start addressing the crises that Ontarians are facing.

"Let’s make up for the lost time and wasted energy: start fixing this mess by hiring health care workers into our public system and paying back workers for lost wages.

"New Democrats will always stand up for the rights of workers."

TORONTO CENTRE – Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre), the Official Opposition Critic for the Attorney General released the following statement in response to the verdict of the Coroner’s inquest into the police shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim in 2013:

“I would like to thank the jury for their verdict and important recommendations, which have been a long time coming.

More than a decade ago, a very young Sammy Yatim was experiencing a mental health crisis and instead of receiving help and compassion, he needlessly wound-up dead.

Police officers are not trained or equipped to act as emergency mental health professionals or social workers. It’s clear that protecting Black, Indigenous and racialized lives urgently require a shift in the way we respond to people in crisis.

The former officer, responsible for the death of Sammy Yatim has already been found criminally responsible by the courts. Other inquests have already resulted in comprehensive recommendations calling for greater resources for community mental health supports and mandatory de-escalation training for police.

The government has yet to implement key provisions of its own policing bill that would help ensure there was better training for, and accountability of police in a situation such as the one that led to Sammy Yatim's death.

I welcome the 63 recommendations of the Coroner’s inquest into Sammy Yatim’s death, and call on Premier Ford to implement these changes to prevent further such incidents from taking place.

I know this verdict is long-awaited, especially and particularly by Sammy’s family. My heart is with them. If there’s one lesson to be learnt from Sammy’s killing, it’s that the threshold for brandishing a gun needs to be much, much higher.”

WATERLOO — Official Opposition NDP Finance critic Catherine Fife issued the following response to the Financial Accountability Office (FAO)’s report on the Ford government’s spending in 2023-4:

“People are struggling to get by during a cost-of-living crisis, yet the Ford Conservatives continue to shortchange Ontarians, underspending by billions of dollars.

The government’s overall spending is $2 billion less than planned, including less-than-planned spending in vital areas like social services, education and public health.

It’s shameful to see the Conservatives underspend by $183 million on social assistance at a time when Ontario’s woefully inadequate rates of ODSP and OW, compounded by the affordability crisis, are making life unbearable for some of the most vulnerable people in our province.

The NDP continues to urge the Ford government to double ODSP and OW rates immediately.”

Background

• The government’s contingency fund has increased to $5.4 billion. The FAO reported the balance was $2.9 billion in September 2023, with a $2.5-billion top up in October 2023.

The report also shows:

• Continued disinvestment in population and public health
• Less-than-planned spending on infrastructure projects including transit-oriented communities and broadband infrastructure
• Less-than-planned spending on energy subsidies to lower energy costs for Ontarians, including the Ontario Electricity Rebate
• Less-than-planned spending on post-secondary education
• Less-than-planned spending on capital funding for housing programs

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP MPPs are calling for urgent action after the Conservatives tried to bury the AODA’s fourth review, that rang alarm bells about accessibility in Ontario being in a ‘crisis’ state.

“Accessibility in Ontario is in a clear state of crisis and it’s shameful for this government to sit on a report of this importance,” said MPP Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain), NDP critic for Children, Community, and Social Services. “The crisis in accessibility is having a real, daily impact on the quality of life of millions of people in Ontario. Do the Conservatives think they can just dodge accountability for this?”

The Conservative government received a copy of the fourth and final AODA review in June of 2023. One of the report’s recommendations is for the government to urgently address Ontario’s poor accessibility measures as a ‘crisis’.

Ford’s Conservatives quietly released the report last week – six months later.

“It speaks volumes that the Conservative government sat on this report for six months instead of taking immediate action to address this crisis,” said Taylor. “It’s clear they are not taking it seriously. We need urgent action to address this serious challenge, especially if we want to have any hope of getting anywhere near AODA standards by 2025.”

The AODA standard was passed into law in 2005, and mandated that Ontario be fully accessible by 2025. Ontario is likely to miss that target, after subsequent Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to take serious measures.

BACKGROUND

• The third review of the AODA was a scathing admonishment of the Ford government, delivered in 2019 by former Lieutenant Governor, David Onley
• The fourth review urges the government to convene a “Crisis Committee chaired by the Premier and co-chaired by the Secretary of Cabinet” within 30 days. This recommendation seems to have been ignored.

QUEEN’S PARK – Marit Stiles, Leader of the Official Opposition NDP, joined Peter Tabuns (Toronto—Danforth), the critic for Energy and Climate Action, to call on Ontario’s Conservative government for clear climate action as the international community wraps up COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change conference.

"A year of drastic climate events, including some of the worst forest fires we have ever seen in our province should have been a wake-up call for the Conservatives to take real climate leadership and lead with a plan that actually reduces emissions at a scale that meets global targets,” said Stiles.

“Ontario can and should be a leader on green energy strategies—not just in Canada but globally. We have the opportunity and resources to show leadership, but this government chooses to ignore reality and refuses to implement our practical solutions.”

Tabuns sounded the alarm about Ontario falling behind on meeting its own climate targets.

“The summit has made it clear that the world is headed towards significant disruption due to climate change, but Ontario’s government hasn’t set the targets the situation demands or put in place the steps to meet its own weak targets,” Tabuns said. “We must be a leading force in coming to grips with the global crisis. We are a wealthy province with huge abilities, we can make a difference. We can meet our power needs with conservation, efficiency, and renewables rather than expanding gas fired electricity generation.”

The Ontario NDP has put forward practical and immediate solutions to not only move towards clean energy, but also help families save money in the face of skyrocketing home heating bills by subsidizing green energy retrofits and heat pumps.

QUEEN’S PARK – Official Opposition NDP critic for Climate Action Peter Tabuns (Toronto—Danforth) is sounding the alarm on the monetary cost of the Conservatives’ failure to address the climate crisis following the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario’s latest report on the budgetary impacts of changing climate hazards on public infrastructure.

“The cost of doing nothing is billions of dollars higher than the cost of proactively investing in our public infrastructure for climate adaptation,” Tabuns said. “Instead of making the necessary investments, the corrupt Conservatives are making things worse. With their climate denialism, they are allowing the destruction of wetlands and other natural heritage that help lessen the impacts of climate change on people and property.

“They’re focused on giving preferential treatment to their friends, while putting our province at greater risks from floods, fires, droughts, water contamination and other climate-related threats. Today’s report makes it clear – Ford’s inadequate and failing 'climate plans' will lead to extreme circumstances that our province is not equipped to face.”

Jennifer French (Oshawa), the Official Opposition critic for Infrastructure, called on the Conservative government to begin proactively investing to adapt Ontario’s public infrastructure to withstand climate impacts.

“While the province is failing to invest in adapting our public infrastructure for climate change, municipalities are being forced to plan for wasteful and costly sprawl-oriented development,” she said. “This makes people more dependent on fossil fuels and increases the costs of infrastructure for taxpayers. Failing to invest in the state-of-good repair of municipal and provincial infrastructure assets will make us more vulnerable to climate-related impacts and cost us so much more.”