Questions about Premier Doug Ford’s relationship with developers and the expansion of private healthcare delivery will dominate the return of the Ontario legislature on Tuesday when it resumes after the winter break.
The first order of business is expected to be a new law containing the promised healthcare reform. That includes allowing community clinics and diagnostic centers to perform more procedures and tests, letting health care professionals from other provinces work in Ontario without registering immediately, and allowing nurses and paramedics to expand their responsibilities.
“It’s a great plan,” Ford said last week about the upcoming legislation. “We have consulted with the sector many times. They believe this is a sound plan.”
The new law would expand cataract surgeries performed in private clinics and allow hip and knee replacements to be completed by private organizations.
Critics are concerned about a greater role for the private sector in health care
The plan is aimed at accelerating healthcare delivery, but critics fear it involves a bigger role for the non-profit sector. While Ford has promised that the procedures and tests will remain publicly funded, the opposition party said it would open the door for private clinics to pressure patients to pay out of pocket for services on top of what is covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.
“Public health dollars should be spent on public health care,” newly minted NDP Leader Marit Stiles told CBC Toronto in an interview Monday.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the public health care system, but this plan will ultimately cost us all. And I think it will actually exacerbate the crisis.”
Stiles, who on Tuesday will formally step up as NDP leader since being sworn in earlier this month, said the government’s plan would exacerbate the staffing crisis by causing competition for healthcare workers between public and non-profit healthcare providers. business.
“That, ultimately, will drag more of our healthcare workers out of our hospitals and out of our long-term care centers and into these non-profit facilities because they have the flexibility to pay more,” he said. .
The province said its law would protect hospitals from losing staff to outside clinics.
Stiles is also working on a new complaint to the commissioner of integrity about Ford, the developer, and removing protected Greenbelt land for housing.
Ford said he did nothing wrong when the developer, who is a family friend, attended his daughter’s bachelorette party last summer for $150 per ticket. Media reports quoted sources as saying lobbying and government relations firms were asked to buy tickets.
The Ontario Commissioner of Integrity’s office said based on the information provided, Ford was not aware of gifts being presented to his daughter and son-in-law and there was no discussion of government affairs at the summer event.
But Stiles says there are many questions Ontarian still wants to answer.
“We feel very strongly that Ontarian did not choose to help our well-connected friends of Ford destroy Greenbelt, so we are going to work hard on that issue,” he told CBC Toronto.
“This prime minister continues to put the interests of wealthy developers first, even if it means tearing up and asphalting our vital Greenbelt,” he said in his caucus last week.
“We’ve learned a lot in the last week or so about how that comfortable relationship continues with these developers. It’s even gone beyond our usual closed meetings and there’s ample evidence that things have really crossed the line.”
Integrity commissioner, auditor general reviews Greenbelt decision
The integrity commissioner is investigating other complaints from Stiles about the government and developers. He sought an inquiry into Secretary of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark and what he called the “strange timing of the recent purchase of Greenbelt land by a powerful landowner with donors and political ties to the Ontario PC Party.”
Media reports say several developers have purchased the land over the past few years despite Clark and the prime minister having publicly said it would not be developed, with one purchase occurring two months before Clark announced he would clear the land.
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said his party would also focus on health care and Ford’s connections with developers.
“We will work with other opposition parties, as we have, to resolve this,” Fraser said of the developer and Greenbelt controversy.
“Everything, just the smell…. The Prime Minister is too close to a lot of the people who actually benefit from his decision to open Greenbelt.”
The auditor general also conducted a value-for-money audit of the financial and environmental implications of the Greenbelt decision.
The leader—and lone caucus member—of the third opposition party, the Greens, will also be the focus of attention when parliament resumes. Mike Schreiner said he would be “considering” a plea from a group of Liberals to seek leadership of the party.
Since saying last month he was considering their arguments, Schreiner has not given any indication of what he might be leaning on.
Critical minerals, increasing skilled trade among the government’s priorities
The prime minister’s office said in addition to the health law, the government would also focus on critical minerals and increase skilled trade.
The government will also send its budget soon, having promised to draft it by March 31.
Ontario has recorded a large increase in its projected deficit this year. The province’s third-quarter financial update, released last week, pegs the deficit for this fiscal year at $6.5 billion, less than the $13 billion projected in last year’s budget.
But Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy indicated the government doesn’t see that as additional spending space.
After unprecedented investment during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said last week it was time to change course.
“Now is the time for the government to exercise restraint, act carefully and responsibly,” he said.
