Coming off our previous episode with Evan Scrimshaw, the Ontario Liberals announced a major part of their housing platform. Their plan would eliminate development charges from municipalities, replace them with a provincial fund, end the Land Transfer Tax for new home buyers and bring in phased-in rent controls for renters. Is this what progressives seek to win themselves to the Ontario Liberals? And are we going to be eating our words after our previous episode? Well yes and no. We discuss why this is good and its shortcomings in actually getting housing built.

Our second story focuses on how Premier Doug Ford of all people in Canada is the one punching back at President Donald Trump. In retaliation to Trump's proposed 25% tariffs, his promise to cut off electricity to American states is the standout statement in what is shaping up to be a trying time between our two countries. Joel walks back his initial statement on social media and both of our hosts ask, is this what's needed?

Ontario Liberal Housing Plan

Doug Ford on Donald Trump

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The Ontario Liberal Party attempted something of a rebrand of their leader, Bonnie Crombie at the start of December. At their leadership dinner fundraiser, the party brought in $1.65 million for their coffers before an expected spring 2025 Ontario election. However, what made headlines was her keynote address where she broke ranks with their federal cousins and denounced the Carbon Tax, calling it a mistake and vowing not to implement one should she become Premier. This after years of the Ontario PC's branding her as a Trudeau Carbon Tax Liberal. In addition to that announcement, Bonnie Crombie also announced her support of funding police departments across the province. This is on the heels of many runaway policing budgets, as municipalities struggle to get their finances under control.

This sharp turn to the right, in search of chipping away at Doug Ford's base, has alienated many progressives in Ontario. Many of them are Ontario Liberal supporters who now feel alienated from the party. Will this rebranding of Bonnie Crombie 2.0 pay off?

To discuss this, we invited onto the podcast Evan Scrimshaw of Scrimshaw Unscripted. Evan has been openly critical of the Ontario Liberals as of late and his recent substack article has taken to task this recent strategy of the Ontario Liberals and made us question how viable their chances are of winning a majority of seats now in the 905.

Evan's Article on Scrimshaw Unscripted is here

CBC's Article on Bonnie Crombie's Leadership Dinner

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Police budgets are the biggest line item on any municipalities budget. It would logically follow that it would also be the most scrutinized. As it turns out it is virtually impossible to openly criticize and debate the use of tax dollars when it comes to policing in Ontario.

This is something our guest today resigned their position on Peel's Police Board for. Newly elected Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish resigned from the Peel Police Board over a proposed 23.3% budget increase which would lead to increased property taxes for Mississaugans. Something as Mayor, she was concerned with but not allowed to discuss openly due to the code of conduct for Police Board members not being able to openly criticize decisions.

We discussed a similar issue with Hamilton Councillor Cameron Kroetsch when he was disciplined by the Hamilton Police Board over his objections to their proposed budget increase. If duly elected municipal officials cannot publicly debate the spending of public tax dollars what does that mean for oversight or accountability?

These are some of the questions we put forward to Mayor Parrish as she joins us today on the podcast.

Our episode with Cameron Kroestch on the Hamilton Police Board can be found here.

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.

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We rarely expect to return to the topic so soon when we air our episodes. However, that was the case with our last episode with St. Catharine's Mayor Mat Siscoe. We spoke with him about his reasons for signing a letter with 12 other Ontario Mayors requesting Premier Doug Ford give municipalities the power under the Notwithstanding Clause to remove homeless encampments from public parks and spaces. This proved to be a controversial debate. We were happy to have Mayor Siscoe on to provide his reasoning and give this topic the discussion it deserved.

Following the release of that episode though, a rebuttal letter was released signed by 40 councillors from municipalities across Ontario. The letter laid out the clear opposition to the Mayor's request for the notwithstanding clause to be used and made a direct appeal to the Premier to refuse their request. One of the signatories to that letter was Councillor Haley Bateman. Councillor Bateman represents St. Catharines in the Niagara Region. As Councillor Bateman and Mayor Siscoe represent the same constituents they would also be familiar with the details of St. Catharines' homeless population. We thought this would be a good apples-to-apples examination of the issue.

As such we welcome to the podcast Councillor Haley Bateman of St. Catharines to discuss why she thinks the notwithstanding clause is a step too far in dealing with the homeless encampments in our cities.

Last week's episode with Mayor Mat Siscoe is here.

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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!

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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!

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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’

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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

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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!

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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!

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The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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