The 905er Podcast

On October 31st, 12 Mayors from across Ontario wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford, requesting more powers to deal with the growing homeless and encampment crisis in our cities. Five of those mayors were from 905 cities.

In the letter, the mayors went the extra step to request the Notwithstanding Clause be used if necessary to give them the ability to override court decisions regarding the Charter Rights of homeless. Needless to say this has proven to be a controversial point. Some have gone so far as to say it’s an overreach of government and a step too far. Mayors on the other hand are saying they have exhausted the limited powers granted to them to deal with this problem.

We wanted to reach out to one of the signatories from the 905 to find out what made them decided to request such a controversial and impactful option with the Notwithstanding Clause.

Joining us today is Mayor of St. Catharines Mat Siscoe, who outlines his argument for why this option needs to be on the table.

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our own patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the better part of a decade, municipalities have been expected to chip in a portion of new hospital infrastructure. This practice was brought in under the previous Ontario Liberal government and is continued by the current Ontario PC. When hospital infrastructure runs upwards into the billions of dollars this can become quite the burden on a municipality's bottom line.

This issue came to the forefront last week during Mississauga City Council's deliberation over whether or not to fund the Trillium Health Partner's request for $450 million to help fund the Peter Gilgan Hospital redevelopment. The main reason cited was that the funding of health care is the sole responsibility of the province. Municipalities do not have the funds or fundraising mechanisms to invest in healthcare infrastructure of this size. According to the city, to fulfill this request would mean that the city would need to raise property taxes to pay off the debt for many years to come.

Stepping back away from this specific issue, the matter of municipalities paying for what is essentially the province's responsibility is one that we keep coming back to time and time again on this podcast. If this is going to be the expected model going forward, then perhaps a new deal for cities is required.

To discuss the city's rationale, and the matter of who pays for what in Ontario, we invited back to the podcast Alvin Tedjo, Mississauga City Councilor for Ward 2. He joins us to give us insight into how the city is pushing back on the province's pressure to fund their responsibilities and to discuss why Ontario's cities need new ways to fund their responsibilities.

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our own patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There have been a few stories that popped onto our radar recently that made us think we ought to do a 905 Round-Up Episode to cover them all. In the course of our discussions about them though, we discovered a common thread. All of the problems we discuss are a result of the poor decision-making of the Ontario PC Government.

The Mississauga LRT project is under threat of not being completed due to questions of where funding to pay vendors and suppliers will come from. The funding has turned into a mess of who's owed who and who is paying for it. Metrolinx is the Ontario government's transit corporation in charge of this project so why isn't the province stepping in to sort this out? Another project that the current government is leading to failure.

In Hamilton, The Spec reported how a new distribution model for home care supplies has left major gaps in the way they are distributed to patients. The result is that patients and home care providers are not operating with the tools they need. All due to the current government's need to upend the old way of doing things, resulting in a mess.

Lastly, we look at the fact that Burlington is raising property taxes again. We face the reality that it's due to the Ford government's upending the municipal funding formula but not replacing it with a new model for 905 municipalities to operate with.

What is the common thread we mentioned at the beginning of this note? We describe it as malicious incompetence. Listen to the episode to understand what it means.

Hurontario LRT track trouble and delays threaten credit rating, completion timeline

‘We’re panicking,’ says home care co-ordinator dealing with supply shortage crisis with ‘no end in sight’

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our own patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As reported by Global News earlier this month, an internal document to then Minister of Education Todd Smith states that the province could be facing a teacher shortage.

Too many teachers are leaving the profession with fewer new teachers joining their ranks. The Ministry of Education is predicting that as early as 2027 we could start seeing a gap in available teachers and the number of students. If this continues we could see an already burdened education system stretched to its limits.

The current Minister of Education Jill Dunlop says that this looming crisis will be addressed by dealing with absenteeism as well as shortening the time for teaching candidates to get in front of classrooms.

Our guest today though has a different viewpoint. Karen Brown is the president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. Previously she was on to discuss the issue of violence against teachers in the classroom. Today she joins us to expand on that topic and discuss why Ontario has enough teachers. Just the province isn't stepping up to the plate to make the profession attractive to the qualified.

Classroom Crisis: Ontario student, teacher disparity to ‘widen’ more, internal document warns

Previous Podcast: Karen Brown of ETFO Talks Violence in Our Schools

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our own patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week saw news that another beluga whale died at Marineland.

For years now, the Niagara Falls-based theme park has been under intense scrutiny, after evidence of animal mistreatment and deaths have emerged at the park. The Ontario Solicitor General has stated that the park is under inspection by the province but will not divulge what it has been examining or looking for. Meanwhile, the park has reduced its operations to a mere shadow of its former glory.

The idea of Marineland overcoming its current woes and becoming a prestige destination attraction in Ontario is long gone. As people speculate on what the future of the park will be, the remaining Beluga Whales and Dolphins welfare is questioned.

We invited on to the podcast the whistleblower who brought to light the mistreatment and condition of the animals at Marineland, Philip Demers to discuss the current state of the park and what its future might be.

His not-for-profit organization to protect marine animal life is called UrgentSeas, and today he joins us to talk about Marineland

https://urgentseas.org

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month the Ontario Liberal Party held their AGM in London.

Normally this isn't newsworthy, but this time a few items put it on our radar. Policy proposals to change the nature of the party's provincial council, limiting the number of Young Liberals on it, as well as potentially changing the leadership review process allowing current Leader Bonnie Crombie to stay on, even if she does not deliver for Ontario Liberals in the next election.

The proposals ultimately failed. However, the fact that such divisive motions made it as far as they did caught our attention. Furthermore, accounts from the AGM show a party that is not unified together. A problem for the Ontario Liberals as it appears Premier Doug Ford may try to call an early election early next year. So what actually went down in London?

To get the inside scoop, we reached out to Ahmad Elbayoumi, the publisher of the Policorner.ca substack. Ahmad is a political reporter, covering Queen's Park politics for the last four years and is now an independent journalist. He was one of a handful of journalists to cover the AGM and published a detailed account of what he saw. We asked him to come on the podcast to give his account and insight into what is happening to the Ontario Liberal Party leading into a potential election in 2025.

Policorner Substack on the Ontario Liberal Party AGM

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last week has seen many out-of-touch comments on the part of Ontario's Premier, Doug Ford.

A visit to Hamilton saw him brush off criticism of his failure of the housing file by stating that the plight of homeless encampments in 905 cities would be solved if those living there got off their quote 'A-S-S' and applied for jobs. The fallback position of him to a Ronald Reaganesque quote demonstrates how out of touch he is with the problems his lack of action has caused on the number one problem of the province.

Not letting that statement stand alone though, later in the week, Ford announced a multi-billion boondoggle in the waiting of promising to build a tunnel under the 401 from Brampton to Scarborough to alleviate traffic on Canada's busiest stretch of highway. Rough estimates state that it could cost over $100 Billion. Not to mention the fact that government projects never end on time. The money could be spent infinitely more wisely and have a better impact on Ontarians.

This week we have to look at the staggering incompetence and realize that when it comes to the people of Ontario, we are last in priorities for this Ontario PC government.

Doug Ford's A-S-S Comment

Doug Ford's announcement of the 401 Tunnel

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems that downtown Hamilton has been under fire for the last few months.

The federal tax court recently shut down citing gun violence.

Tent encampments are a feature in city parks, and most recently the President of LiUNA made the outrageous claim that busloads of homeless people were being brought into the city to take advantage of services in the downtown core.

The problems downtown Hamilton is facing are monumental. Development of affordable housing is desperately

needed, as well as encouragement of economic development. These problems didn’t pop up overnight. They have been stewing for decades. And are the result of a myriad of policies from all levels of government.

However, that is no excuse to stop trying to solve the problem. But are our government’s up to the task?

To talk about the task ahead and to help sort through the hyperbole we invited back to the podcast downtown councillor for Hamilton, Cameron Kroetsch.

Cameron is the councillor for Ward 2 and has been most vocal on many of the issues affecting the downtown of Hamilton and what needs to be done to change the course

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us

if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re talking to Melanie Walker, co-chair of “Walk to the Lighthouse” in Burlington, and social worker in Mental Health and Addiction Services at Burlington’s Joseph Brant Hospital, where she has worked for 22 years, in addition to her own private practice.

In the previous decade Jo Brant hospital received a major expansion and renovation via a large new patient tower, funded by the province, the city and community donations. At the time this was described by people involved - even some in provincial government - as ‘Phase 1’, and there was a clearly appreciated need and perhaps even expectation of a Phase 2. At the top of the list of ‘Phase 2’ needs was the urgent need to upgrade the cramped and aging facilities used by Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Infrastructure built for a small suburban town in 1960s, today handles the needs of a major urban centre. And then COVID-19 hit in 2020. COVID may have been a virus that caused physical symptoms, but one of its greatest knock-on public health effects was a massive increase in demand for mental health services. I saw first hand mental health professionals exhausted by the increased demands being put on them in 2020, but that demand has never returned to pre COVID levels.

Despite these pressures, the staff at Jo Brant, like so many around Ontario, Canada and the rest of the world, have risen to challenge magnificently, providing excellent services to their community, even if their facility is almost literally bursting at the seams.

Walk to the Lighthouse aims to raise both awareness of this need, and practical money towards the day when ‘Phase 2’ finally happens. We wanted to learn more, and to help spread the word about this fantastic community initiative.

https://www.equilibriumburlington.com/

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Warning this episode deals with child abuse and endangerment

We welcome back to the podcast Ajay Sharma for this episode.

As we prepared to cover this episode several news items broke ground in Ontario that we felt could not be ignored. First was the Ontario PC government's plan to back out of the $ 10-a-day daycare funding formula for private daycare providers. The result could be disastrous for parents, children, and ECEs who were enjoying a $2 an-hour pay increase. This sudden reversal is going to leave a big game and lead to what we think will be two-tiered daycares in the province. Result in greater costs for parents with less return.

The second and rather quite alarming news item was a story broke by Global News that under this Ontario government, wards of the state in Children's aid programs were dying at the rate of one every three days. A dishonour that should bring down any provincial government. So why is there so little outcry or attention being paid to this travesty?

Links to the articles and previous episodes mentioned in the episode are here.

Karina Gould, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development: Will the Province Blink First on Childcare?

Ontario cutting funding from daycare centres not in $10-a-day program

‘The system has fallen apart’: A child dies every 3 days under Ontario’s care network

It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills.

You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win!

Or, why not buy us a coffee?

Nicholas Paul: sound editing.

The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.