A typical family’s food bill will jump by almost $700 next year — the biggest leap in more than a decade.

GUEST: Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, professor in food distribution and policy, and senior director of the AgriFood Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. 

AG Report: The Ministry of Transportation was aware as early as 2016 that the total cost estimate for the Hamilton LRT would be higher than the $1 billion in capital costs that the province had publicly committed to funding in 2015, but it did not make this fact public. The $1 billion was sufficient to cover only the project’s initially estimated construction cost. Subsequently, in December 2016, the Treasury Board approved a budget of $2.981 billion for the project, based on estimated costs that included $823 million in construction costs. 

In March 2018, the Treasury Board approved a revised cost estimate of $3.659 billion, including construction costs of $1.083 billion, because the LRT’s estimated length had increased. We found that the 2016 and 2018 estimates did not represent the full cost of the LRT and were significantly understated. These estimates were not made public at those times. Based on a detailed review, we found that the $5.5-billion cost estimate reported by the Minister of Transportation in December 2019, when the project was cancelled, was reasonable. 

GUEST: John Best, founder of The Bay Observer

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Ontario has passed a bill that could grant university status to a Christian school run by a controversial supporter of Premier Doug Ford.Bill 213 contains a provision that allows Canada Christian College to grant arts and science degrees. College president and evangelical pastor Charles McVety has been an outspoken Ford supporter since 2018.

GUEST: Marit Styles, NDP education critic, MP Davenport

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The Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s policy brief, Realizing the Full Potential of Virtual Care in Ontario will be released on December 10th. The report underscores the need to permanently integrate virtual care into Ontario’s health care system. While the recommendations in the report are directed to the Ontario government, the report truly underscores the national importance of virtual care, particularly with respect to pandemic preparedness.

The brief provides four recommendations to ensure virtual care is not only permanently integrated in our healthcare system, but is more equitable, accessible, and widely adopted. We can't make the same mistakes we did with SARS, by only implementing temporary measures related to virtual care. The permanent integration of virtual care into our system could ensure access to timely and appropriate care, no matter their circumstances, as well as alleviate some of the pressures facing our healthcare system, such as reducing unnecessary visits to the ER.

GUEST: Ashley Challinor - Ontario Chamber of Commerce VP of Policy

David Crombie resigned Saturday as Chair & Member of the Greenbelt Council. His reason is the assault on Conservation Authorities in Premier Doug Ford’s Bill 229. He calls the assault on them "high level bombing" which undermines the ability to protect the environment and public. Six more members followed suit and resigned Sunday morning.

The Greenbelt Council is a government-appointed expert panel that advises the province on issues related to the Greenbelt, a stretch of protected land surrounding the Greater Toronto Area that Ford has promised not to develop. 

Bill 229, an omnibus budget measures bill tabled by the Progressive Conservatives on Nov. 5, included a section amending the Conservation Authorities Act.

Among the proposed changes in Schedule 6, the bill opens up new appeal avenues allowing developers to bypass conservation authorities. It also removes citizens from their boards and mandates that they be comprised of elected officials. 

GUEST: Tim Gray, Executive Director of Environmental Defence