Apprentices Pay User Fees :  Mike Harris plans to double the number of new apprentices and the pricetag for the training will be hefty new tuition and user fees.
 The proposed changes are--
 - Letting employers set wage rates for apprentices based on collective agreements and the market, instead of by regulation;
 - Charging tuition comparable to post-secondary education fees, and a registration fee to cover the cost of exams and certificates;
 - Expanding the types of jobs that qualify for apprenticeship programs, and giving companies a greater say in how they are run.
 NDP education critic Wayne Lessard said the reforms are designed to save the government money, not help young people. "This is about cutting funding for young people and imposing user fees," he said.
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Transition Team Preliminary Report - Should be titled - Robbing the Citizens
Report says balanced budget possible, but details reveal Toronto will collapse.

New Revenue Sources are Regressive Takeaways in the Quality of Life.

User fees are to increase for some residents. Fees will be ``standardized. And that means big fee hikes in some areas. The old city of Toronto had few user fees for parks programs. The draft budget shows standardized parks and recreation fees across the unified city would raise an additional $2.8 million in revenue. Most of that would come from increased fees in the old city of Toronto. (This is mainly billing the poor to pay for Transition.)

Cut 20 to 40 per cent of managers in some areas, saving $15 million. (Though these layoffs won't save when wages for staff for the New City add up to more than that. There will be an increase in high paid New City workers against the huge job loss of lower paid old city workers and hospital workers and many others laid off in Harris Restructuring. This is the creation of a New City elite and more unemployed workers.)

Use municipal workforces and equipment more efficiently, saving $40 million. Institute a joint purchasing system across the city, saving $10 million. (Keep dreaming as studies show Megacities are more inefficient in these areas.)

The city will save millions because the province has made changes in the rules governing contributions to the employees' pension plan.

COSTS-
Changes in business property tax rules for the largest businesses will cost the city $60 million in lost revenue this year. (There will be a tax revolt this year when the full effect of tax changes are understood by residents. Taxes have already increased, yet council is not revealing this fact.)

Queen's Park has told cities and towns that they must accept more of the burden of welfare, social housing, day care and public health programs, for example. The latest plan hits Toronto for an unexpected $103 million in extra costs this year, above and beyond the $163 million in budget pressure.

In addition, the city faces one-time amalgamation costs of $100 million to $175 million.

Looming on the horizon are more provincial cuts. For example, the province is ending its partial subsidy of transit equipment. That will cost the city an extra $180 million a year by 2001.

Conclusion:
The numbers say this city won't make it - yet the large Toronto Newspapers, Mel's Junta and the Transition Team are trying to make this situation look rosy and not like the impending disaster it really is.
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Toronto Schools Ripped off
$120 LESS PER TORONTO STUDENT. The province has short-changed the Toronto District School Board by $37 million for its January-September grant allocation, just one month after it stiffed the city for $163.6 million in downloading costs.  The shortfall means each of the school board's 304,000 students will lose $120 in funding. Education Minister Dave Johnson, who issued the funding announcement, said the new Toronto board will have to make more cuts.
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Some of the highlights on Social Assistance takeaways----- The system is now working to keep people uneducated as welfare is denied to students taking courses that are required for entry into post secondary education. Welfare workers seem to lack computer skills as computer errors are a major source of woe. They play games and drive people away and create disputes about eligibility requirements. Welfare workers act like petty tyrants and are not accountable. They fail to inform people as to what is expected and what documents are needed to get social assistance. They like to demand documents and papers but do not provide funds for the transportation needed to get the papers. They refuse to do work in this regard that could be easily be done by them. OCAP is thinking of printing a booklet listing the eligibility requirements, as a way of putting welfare workers in a position where they can't lie. Though this lying appears to be deliberate as workers are just aiding a Tory government trying to put people on the street where they won't show up as statistics. It may be that the city wants to bring in finger scanning because they do not intend to solve the homeless problem and they need a way to quickly identify the hundreds of thousands of permanent gutter people who will lack ID. This system involves all kinds of human rights violations. It is a two tiered system where the poor are considered guilty until proven innocent. And the problem is compounded as people become trapped at the bottom. There is little doubt that government policy and horribly inept welfare officials are cheating us all. People are pushed through the cracks to the street, and once there they are not entitled to benefits. The poorest people in society now have no social safety net at all.
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In international comparisons Canada shares a smaller portion of its total income with the bottom 20 per cent of children than any other industrialized country save one, the United States.
Now let's look at some of the highlights as a whole-----
The system is now working to keep people uneducated as welfare is denied to students taking courses that are required for entry into post secondary education. Welfare workers seem to lack computer skills as computer errors are a major source of woe. They play games and drive people away and create disputes about eligibility requirements. Welfare workers act like petty tyrants and are not accountable. They fail to inform people as to what is expected and what documents are needed to get social assistance. They like to demand documents and papers but do not provide funds for the transportation needed to get the papers. They refuse to do work in this regard that could be easily be done by them. OCAP is thinking of printing a booklet listing the eligibility requirements, as a way of putting welfare workers in a position where they can't lie. Though this lying appears to be deliberate as workers are just aiding a Tory government trying to put people on the street where they won't show up as statistics. It may be that the city wants to bring in finger scanning because they do not intend to solve the homeless problem and they need a way to quickly identify the hundreds of thousands of permanent gutter people who will lack ID.

This system involves all kinds of human rights violations. It is a two tiered system where the poor are considered guilty until proven innocent. And the problem is compounded as people become trapped at the bottom. There is little doubt that government policy and horribly inept welfare officials are cheating us all. Harris Health cuts leave sick breathless  `I want to die,' says pensioner denied oxygen  Tougher enforcement of provincial rules has left thousands of people homebound and short of breath.  People with a variety of lung ailments, including many who have been getting oxygen for years to help them breathe, are being cut off if they don't meet the stricter medical criteria now used.
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Layoffs Planned -- Paul Sutherland, co-chairman of the Toronto transition team, has told Conservative MPPs that cutting 3,000 public service jobs would solve thecity's $163-million downloading bill.
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1998 begins with nearly every town and city in Ontario in the hole as millions are pumped out or lost in the Harris downloading. It was not revenue neutral as promised. It is a huge takeaway. Cuts to nearly all school boards are also to be announced in early 1998.
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Students now face up to 20% increases in tuition fees, as these increase are allowed in the new Harris legislation.
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LASTMAN CALLS HARRIS A LIAR AS TORONTO ROBBED BY THE PROVINCE AGAIN: An angry Mel Lastman branded Premier Mike Harris a liar after the province torpedoed  his promised tax freeze by shifting an estimated $180 million worth of costs on to the megacity.  The Toronto mayor-elect said the city may have to deal now with a possible tax hike as high as10%. Such an increase would add $300 to a typical    property tax bill.  "You screwed Toronto, Mr. Premier. You are cutting the heart out of the city," Lastman said at Metro Hall. Lastman vowed to work to defeat the Tories in the next provincial election unless they reversed their decision.  "Mr. Premier, you and your cabinet promised revenue neutral. Mr. Premier, you lied to me and you lied to the people of the City of Toronto," steamed Lastman.
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905 MAYORS BRACE FOR TAX HIKES: The 905 mayors say provincial downloading could mean tax increases -- up to 20% for Mississauga property owners alone.  Mayor Hazel McCallion warned yesterday she's going to make sure taxpayers in Mississauga know  who is to blame for the hefty hike.  "If we have to pass it on to the taxpayers, it will be in the form of a separate provincial tax bill,"
 McCallion said."There's no way I'm going to let Queen's Park take credit for a 30% provincial income tax cut when they're forcing up local property taxes to pay for it."  Vaughan Mayor Lorna Jackson said the provincial move likely will mean a property tax increase for local  ratepayers. But, she added, it's too early to say how high the hike will have to be.
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Taxation without Representation - Bill 160 an Undemocratic Tax Grab -  The Ontario government is using Bill 160 to give itself the power to levy more than $6-billion in property taxes without seeking the legislature's approval. "A taxing authority of this nature should be debatable, rather than being set in regulation," Dave Johnson admitted when reporters asked why the government was bypassing the tradition in democracies that tax levies require approval by the legislature.
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Draconian details of Tory Education Bill 160 -- The bill will:

Strip elected school trustees of all power.

Local boards will no longer be able to raise money for local schools because all funding will be controlled by Queen's Park through a per-pupil grant. Harris plans to use the new funding system to cut up to $667 million more from elementary and high schools.

Allow Queen's Park to simply dismiss school boards if it doesn't like the way they are run; and depose elected school trustees and ban them from running for office in the future.

Ban parents, teachers, trustees and anyone else from launching a court challenge against upcoming education changes.

Strip principals and vice-principals of their contracts and all their seniority and set up new terms and conditions of their employment.

Permit the province to levy different tax rates for businesses in different areas.

Allow the province to give local parent groups unlimited power to manage local schools. The legislation requires that parent-run councils be created at each school. Parent councils could be involved in hiring and firing school staff, curriculum decisions and disciplinary procedures. It will lead to varying standards and open the door to taxpayer-subsidized charter schools that have admission requirements and private fees.

Prevent teachers from bargaining with their true employer - the province. Instead, they will be left to negotiate with boards which have virtually no control over wages, benefits or working conditions.
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Whitby General closing shocks patients: Whitby General Hospital staff gathered in the foyer yesterday to hear that the hospital is slated to close. Shocked by the bad news, many began to cry. Whitby's had only one general hospital.
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Deputy Education Minister Veronica Lacey is expected to cut next year's education budget by $667 million - a figure confirmed by the Premier. The document reveals that the Tory government has abandoned the cherished Canadian tradition in which public service offered its own rewards in favour of a corporatist model in which senior public servants are motivated by the almighty buck. In Lacey's case, her performance bonus would seem to hinge, in part, on delivering the cut - not unlike the CEOs who are rewarded for trimming costs by laying off employees. The Harris gov would have you believe Ontario overspends on education. Out of 50 states, 10 provinces, two territories and the District of Columbia, Ontario ranks 46th in spending. Ontario  pays out just a little more than half as much as states  like New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and far less than  border states like  Michigan and Pennsylvania. Ontario is even outspent by poorer states like Kansas  and Nebraska. Within Canada, it is outspent by  Quebec and  Manitoba as well as by BC.
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Seniors Cut Under the proposed Ontario Works law, now making its way through the Legislature, the provincial Tory government will slash benefits and extend workfare to all new welfare applicants between 60 and 64. New applicants will see benefits drop to just $520 a month from a maximum of $930 for a single person - a $410-per-month chop. And they'll be expected to look for a job, upgrade their skills or do community work in exchange for their money. Seniors' groups say it discriminates against older unemployed people who have little hope of getting back into the work force. And it will hurt recent immigrants who face even more barriers to employment because of their age, lack of skills and difficulty speaking English. This is just another attack on seniors who are already being hit by health care cuts and pension clawbacks. seniors will living in some dingy rooms or else be homeless and suicidal. The Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens' Organizations says the proposed cuts could force many elderly people into squalor and misery. Provisions in the Ontario Works law that will allow the province to put a lien against a welfare recipient's home. For many seniors, their home is the only long-term security they have.
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Some Downloading Takeaways:
Ambulances -The provincial government is trying to return to the chaotic private ambulance service system in Ontario before the mid 1970s.    The extra cost to Ontario municipalities of this legislation is stated by the province to be $200 million, but in reality that figure should be increased by at least $100 million to $300
Day Nurseries - Municipalities are required to share the costs of day nurseries The actual municipalities to be included or pooled in each area for cost-sharing is not specified in the bill -- the minister will set this by regulation. (Will day care costs be pooled across the GTA? Only the minister knows.)    The actual costs to be shared will be set by the minister in regulation. Presumably the minister will load on as much money as possible in those regulations.   The actual share -- 10 percent? 20? 50? 90? -- is not set out in the legislation. This also will be determined by the minister in a regulation.
Go Transit - Municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area will be required to pay all operating and capita deficits of GO Transit. The province has est;imated that the downloading burden is $120 million, which is a large underestimate .
Public Health - Municipalities are required to deliver full public health programs. The bill sets out the basis for these programs, and states the minister will set all the standards to be met, and that regular assessments will be made by provincially appointed assessors. If the province doesn't like what the municipality is doing, it can step in, arrange for delivery of public health services itself, and bill the municipality for all costs.    The province estimates the cost of this downloading at $225 million.
Social Housing - Municipalities will be required o cover the costs of all social housing -- public housing, non-profit housing, and non-profit co-operatives. The minister will determine exactly how much municipalities must pay, and can detennine which municipalities will be joined together for pooling these costs. The actual allocation arrangement will be determined by the minister. The Province is  to download 900 million.
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Mike Harris has created a number of (Fascist) undemocratic boards and commissions. These are to enable the government to chop benefits, close hospitals, force amalgamations of cities, eliminate the rights of workers and so on.
Transition Team
Financial Advisory Board
Education Improvement Commission
Health Services Restructuring Commission
Labour Relations Tribunal and others
Rights and benefits are being removed enmass by these boards and it will take years to rebuild and recover. The remainder of these need to be abolished, especially where they have been subsituted in for democracy and justice.

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Toronto now the Harris Third World: Two transport trailers originally destined for the Third World were donated by the Canadian Foundation for World Development to the homeless youths at Rooster Squat in Toronto. With the squatters and city homeless committee chairman Jack Layton looking on, the trailers were unloaded on land just east of the silos. Layton is hoping to re-locate them as soon as he can find a church or organization willing to have the trailers in their parking lot.  An array of volunteers, from construction workers to carpenters, have been  converting the  trailers to  homes. Yesterday, the squatters chipped in by building the stairs and hammering down the wood floors. By last night, they were hoping to have their first night inside the trailers on the donated cots and mattresses.
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Tax Cut Fact: Personal income tax levies are $1.1 billion above the previous level in Ontario, in spite of the Harris Tax Cut plan. And for every dollar in tax cuts, Harris has taken more than a dollar out of social programs.
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Casinos Organized Government Crime: The Ontario casino business may not have to keep out organized crime, because it is organized crime. Five senior Ontario bureaucrats who helped set the  government's casino agenda now work with casino  companies that  benefited from that agenda. Hurried, sometimes sloppy construction and contract  negotiating practices on casinos in Windsor and Niagara Falls have  led to a budget overrun of $223 million in public money. While a small army of police officers investigates everyone involved in Ontario's casino industry in a bid to keep out organized crime, nobody checks on how the Casino Corporation does business.
Mike Harris criticized casinos in 1992 at his party's annual meeting. Harris called the premier ``Bob `Bugsy Malone' Rae'' and said laid-off Windsor auto workers deserved better jobs than dealing blackjack for minimum wage. In pre-election statements several years later, Harris vowed  there would be no more major casinos without a referendum ``Yes.''    The ``Yes'' never came. The message from voters is "No", yet the casinos keep coming -- like crime that comes though the public does not want it.
NoControl -- Ontario has no integrity commissioner, since Judge Gregory Evans retired last summer.  ``Have you ever been to their office?'' asks NDP Leader Howard  Hampton. ``They have no investigators.``This is a very real problem. I think we have a government that is already very intimate with the major players in the casino industry. We've seen a lot of this (bureaucrats going to the casino companies) and we are going to see more.''
The Casino Corporation is also having trouble understanding why certain decisions relating to awarding of contracts were taken. One explanation may be missing documents.  A source closely associated with the casino corporation told The Toronto Star that early last year a mass shredding of documents took place in the corporation's offices at BCE Place.
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Forced Casinos the Fault of Cowardly Mayors and Councillors: The Harrisoid Ontario government  intends to open dozens of new charity casinos in  communities that don't want them. The province's gaming commission announced eight firms it has chosen to own and operate 44 new charity gaming clubs, along with a list of communities where the casinos will be located.  The list includes Toronto, Kitchener, Guelph and Brampton -- four of the communities which have most publicly resisted the establishment of permanent casinos in their neighborhoods.  This, despite Consumer Minister Dave Tsubouchi's promise that no town or city would be forced to take a permanent casino against its wishes.  Toronto is slated for seven mini-casinos despite arguments against the plan. The fact that Toronto and other cities and towns failed to keep up the fight against forced Megacities and other action has led to this new action. Harris is not concerned about the will of the people when he knows he can get local representatives to betray them and take the fall for him.
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Give the Boot to Harris Bootcamps: Maybe there is a dark purpose to Bob Runciman's Tory bootcamps. You know, the same Bob who promised not to set up military style boot camps for young offenders. Apparently the bootcamps are now a laughing stock. They don't work and there is no evidence that they do anything in the way of rehabilitation. Studies say camps where inmates are in a group of equals are the best for rehab. As it is now, Runciman wants longer sentences for youths who fight the system and talks of bringing in easier prisoners. Despite the fact that the camps are a laughing stock and proven failures, Bob wants to turn all YO facilities into bootcamps. Some people say Harris' takeover of Toronto is an occupation. Following from that, maybe the bootcamps are to raise an army of little Tory shits to take over Canada. Hitler did it that way. Why not Harris?
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MADD Boss Fumes over Sunday Booze:Year-round Sunday shopping for beer and liquor begins  in Ontario.  "It's madness, stupidity" said John Bates, founder and director of MADD Canada -- Mothers Against Drunk Driving--of the province's decision to open about 560 liquor stores and 400 beer stores on Sundays.  Bates called the provincial government hypocritical especially since it recently vowed to do something more about drinking and driving. "Andtheir answer is to open the liquor stores on Sunday.  "We elect governments to do things which are in the best interests of the public and to refrain from doing things which are not.  (Consumer Minister Dave) Tsubouchi has to explain why increasing the consumption of alcohol is in the best interests of the people of Ontario."
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Injured Workers Crash Hearings: Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer had her apple cart upset June 16th as hundred of injured workers led by Gord Wilson stormed hearings on the Workers Compensation Reform Act. The bill cuts benefits and reduces medical confidentiality for injured workers.
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Take a Hike Mike -- A group of Ontario's disgruntled homeless ended a 220-km walk at Queen's Park yesterday with hopes of telling Premier Mike Harris to take a hike. About 30 members of the Ontario Coalition for Non-Violent Action ended their "Hike to end Hunger and Homelessness" yesterday. The walk, which began June 3 in Hamilton and travelled through southern Ontario, ended with a picnic on the Queen's Park lawn.   Daycare centre  The protesters, mostly homeless and disadvantaged street kids, vented their anger over the way the Tories treat the poor. "The poor in our society have been completely disfranchised from the rest of society," organizer Laural Smith said. "The point was to try to make people aware of the child poverty that our government seems to be covering up."  The group said they'll be at Queen's Park tomorrow June 16/97 with the hope of evicting Harris and changing the site into a free daycare centre.  "We will attempt to be civil, but if Mr. Harris does not co-operate we've planned a sit-in and will stay as long as it takes," Smith said.
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Harris Creates VLT ADDICTS - Video lottery terminals are so addictive that people don't even leave them to visit the toilet, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty told legislators yesterday. McGuinty opposes the provincial government's plan to licence up to 20,000 video lottery terminals for installation at racetracks, permanent charity casinos and permanent commercial casinos. An aide to McGuinty said in extreme cases, gamblers won't leave their chairs after pumping hundreds of dollars into the gaming devices. "These people put on adult diapers so they don't have to move." Tibor Barsony, executive director of the Canadian Foundation on Compulsive Gambling, confirmed such incidents are occurring in Ontario casinos.A published report on the weekend said cleaning staff at Casino Niagara are finding cups full of urine beside VLTs because gamblers are refusing to leave. Consumer and Commercial Relations Minister David Tsubouchi said the province will commit $9 million to treatment programs and fine corporations that abuse the system. "We will be increasing the amount that goes to treatment and education in those areas," he said of Bill 75. VLTs are expected to raise $350 million for the government and $180 million for charities.
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Government appoints new privacy commissioner - The Ontario government has appointed Ann Cavoukian as the province's new Information and Privacy Commissioner. But no one seems to know who she is. Even the government House Leader's office couldn't find out her background Tuesday. House Leader Dave Johnson announced Cavoukian's appointment in the legislature. Shortly after, Johnson's aide Rita Smith asked for the woman's biography. She was told "that information is private."
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HARRIS GAVE THE ORDERS' IN SHOOTING - info from the Sun - Mike Harris is as much to blame for the 1995 shooting death of native activist Dudley George as the cop who pulled the trigger and only a public inquiry can wash the blood from the premier's hands, the man's brother charged yesterday. "Even though he was sitting here, (Harris) gave the orders for the guys down there," Pierre George said. "These guys should be held accountable, especially Mike Harris. Why should they be above the law?" RIGHT TO KNOW "The people of this country need to know what's going on behind closed doors," said George, 43. "They should have the right to know who did what, to know what went on here." George was one of 150 demonstrators who yesterday marched from the attorney-general's ministry on Bay St. to Queen's Park, demanding an independent examination of the Ipperwash land-claims standoff that ended in his brother's fatal shooting by an OPP officer. Dudley George was one of a group of Stoney Point natives embroiled in a dispute with the federal government over ownership of the land, which contains a sacred burial ground. CRACKDOWN Government documents suggest the Tory government ordered the crackdown against the natives, a claim the premier has repeatedly denied. After a Cree prayer and songs in memory of George, the peaceful but boisterous protesters staged sit-ins, temporarily stalling traffic along Yonge St. and University Ave. OPP Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane was convicted last month of criminal negligence causing death in George's shooting. Deane will be sentenced Tuesday.
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Isabel Basset - Town Hall meeting, it was reported that three people supported Basset at this meeting. The rest of the audience was firmly and loudly against her and Tory policies. And this was a PC meeting. Why is Basset supporting crazy Harris policies her own people hate? Who knows? Go figure.
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Mike Harris is under fire for appointing Jeff Lyons to the police services board.. Lyons, a white male lawyer associated with Mel Lastman, Paul Godfrey, Allan Tonks and Toronto business circles is considered a poor choice at a time when the board needs minority representation. A life long tory, Lyons represents the tories and business. He will be a parrot for Mike Harris.
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Bill 86 on Fire-fighting passed today (May 14th): 9,000 firefighters opposed it and 250,000 people petitioned against it. It prohibits strikes, but the more inflamatory issue was safety as critics fear weakening fire safety will cost people their lives. Opposition critics said the bill makes it easier to privatize fire services. This is yet another kick in the teeth for the people and another Harris bill forced upon an unwilling public. The Harrisites truly do deserve to be booted out of office.
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Education: The Harrris Education Reform Law - Bill 104 -- is facing a legal challenge. The Ontario Public School Boards Association, Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the Toronto School Board filed the legal challenge. The extent of the authority of the Education Improvement Commission is being challenged. The Constitution guarantees that school boards are solely responsible for the education of young people. The premier has transferred power to the Commission when it may be illegal under the Constitution.
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Education Bill Knocked -- 400 home and school representatives voted to ask the province to slow down its bill to amalgamate Ontario's school boards. Representing about 20,000 parents of schoolkids, Ontario's Federation of Home and School Associations unanimously voted to ask for a delay implementing Bill 104, which will nearly halve the province's 129 school boards. "I'd like to see this whole bill dead in the water," said parent Laura Dark, president of the East York Home and School Council, which drafted the motion. "But I know that's not going to happen ... so I'd like to see some meaningful consultation with the stakeholders." The motion also calls for more parental input beyond the bill's plan for school councils, a change to the student funding formula, "democratic control" of the bill's proposed Education Improvement Commission and proof the bill will "lead to improvement in the quality of education in Ontario." Dark said public hearings held by the province in February and March, weren't enough and were "just lip service." Pat Johansen, the association's new president, said parents in her area of Thunder Bay wonder if they'll haveto call long distance to get their school trustee, once school boards are amalgamated. The association also voted in favor of getting assurances that all non-teaching staff in schools be board employees when Bill 104 takes hold. The bill calls for the Education Improvement Commission to take a look at contracting out some support services.
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Racism fighters cut by Tories: The provincial government is scrapping the anti-racism branch of the education ministry in a move critics say will make it easier for hate groups to recruit in Ontario schools. The ministry's anti-racism and equal opportunity branch, established by the previous New Democrat government, will wind up its operations today. Its 10 employees will move to other ministry positions. as the Heritage Front, in high schools. ``This is wonderful news for the Heritage Front,'' said Jacqueline Latter of the Ontario Education Alliance. ``This gives them almost carte blanche in our school system.''
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ENG Rips Tories on Race Plan: Former Metro Police boss Susan Eng took a swipe at the Tory government during a speech on racism last night, accusing it of isolating itself by abolishing employment equity. The ex-chairman of Metro's police services board said the province has become "an island in a sea of tolerance and progress" because federal and municipal levels of government still promote forms of employment equity. Eng joined Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall at City Hall in marking today as the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. However, she said the failure of the Ontario employment equity law to survive has taught us not to "legislate attitudes." "Rather it's up to people making individual decisions based on the broad principles of fairness and equity," she said.
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Police Will Abuse Powers:
--Provincial ombudsman issues warning --The province is making it easier for police officers to abuse their powers under proposed legislation to overhaul the police complaints system, warns the provincial ombudsman. ``There is an inherent potential for error or abuse of power, and therefore the system of policing must be accountable,'' Roberta Jamieson told a public hearing yesterday at Queen's Park. ``If Bill 105 proceeds as drafted, it will not be long before there is a lack of public confidence in the policing system,'' said Jamieson, the Ontario government's top complaints watchdog. ``Without public support, the system will break down and need to be fixed again,'' she said. Citizens should have the right to have their complaints heard by an independent and impartial body with clearly stated investigative powers, Jamieson said. But Bill 105, the Police Services Amendment Act, would scrap two independent bodies that keep an eye on police. It would fold the office of the police complaints commissioner and the board of inquiry into the existing Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. Jamieson called the new legislation a ``step backward'' because it restricts the powers of the civilian commission to conduct independent investigations. The commission would also have to answer directly to Solicitor-General Bob Runciman, who already has responsibility for Ontario's police officers. ``Policing is not just a public service like all the rest. Police have extraordinary powers,'' she said. She added that under the new system ``there is no reason for the public to trust the outcome of investigations.'' Hearings before an all-party committee continue today in Ottawa and tomorrow in London. They resume in Toronto April 28, with the legislation expected to be passed in May.
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Runciman hears critics of police watchdog bill -- Planned law to alter checks on officers Police and community groups yesterday criticized proposed legislation that would radically overhaul the overseeing of police in Ontario. Solicitor-General Bob Runciman launched hearings into Bill 105, which would amend the Police Services Actto scrap two independent civilian bodies that keep an eye on police and return responsibility for overseeing police to the solicitor-general, Ontario's top cop. Critics charged that the proposed bill won't have the confidence of the public because it will appear that the police are investigating themselves in cases of alleged wrongdoing. ``No one, but no one, should be the umpire of his own ball game,'' said Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. ``It also threatens to exacerbate tensions - racial, ethnic and class - (in the community),'' he told the all-party committee, adding: ``There's no way it can appear fair.'' But Runciman said the bill will simplify the complicated maze of police oversight while saving $3 million annually. ``These savings will be realized by ending administrative overlap and duplication in the oversight system - not by compromising service and accountability,'' he said. The legislation is expected to be passed this spring. Runciman said outside the committee room he's willing to make some amendments to the legislation to appease critics. However, he defended the main thrusts of his legislation, including the controversial provision that all public complaints would go directly to the local police chief, who would be given more powers to toss out complaints deemed ``frivolous and vexatious.'' ``Discipline (is) a management process,'' he said. ``I think a manager should have the right to deal with his or her employees.'' But Liberal MPP David Ramsay (Timiskaming) told him: ``It means that serious complaints about police will be swept under the rug'' because the chief may try to protect his or her officers. Under the new system, the office of the police complaints commissioner and the board of inquiry will be folded into the existing Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. The special investigations unit, which investigates police cases involving serious injury or death, will continueas a separate agency under the attorney-general's ministry. Complainants not satisfied with the ruling of a local police chief can request a review by the police servicescommission. And municipal councils will take over responsibility from the province for appointing the majority of members to their police services boards. But police officers said that's bad news for them because it will remove the dominant presence of the province from protecting their interests.
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Ontario Environmentalists have released a report that slams the Tory government's dismantling of provincial environmental rules and regulations. A 13-member coalition denounced the province's environmental policies in a 36-page report to be released today titled Our Future, Our Health. ``Ontario citizens are now exposed to greater environmental risk than they were two years ago,'' the report says. The Ontario Environmental Protection Working Group report says the government ``has undertaken a dismantling of environmental laws, regulations, policies and institutions that is without precedent in the history of the province.'' The report summarizes the actions by the government it says weakens environmental protection, including: Amending seven major laws - with two more pending - that affect mining, urban sprawl, publicly-owned lands and air and water pollution. Proposing to weaken environment ministry regulations making it easier for mining, chemical, petroleum products and waste disposal industries to pollute. Increasing air pollution by reducing funding for public transit systems, one of 29 examples of policy, program and regulatory cuts. Slashing the environment ministry budget by 37 per cent by 1998 and reducing staff by 31 per cent.The report accuses the government of favoring industrial concerns over the well-being of Ontario residents and the environment.``We believe that the future of Ontario's people and its environment is being sacrificed for short-term economic gain,'' the report said. The report notes environmental improvements have been made in areas like acid rain and toxic chemical pollution since the 1970s because of government regulations. In a letter to Premier Mike Harris and Environment Minister Norm Sterling, the coalition demanded the government create an annual state of the environment report, improve enforcement of environmental regulations, and live up to agreements with the federal and U.S. governments on Great Lakes water quality protection. Ontario residents are not at any greater health risk because of the government's actions, said an environment ministry spokesperson. Environmental regulations are being strengthened through streamlining and ``field orders'' issued by enforcement officers when industries fail to comply with the law have been more effective than laying charges and going to court, Sterling aide Ingrid Thompson said. The ministry plans to revoke or revise nearly half of its 80 regulations as part of the Harris plan to cut red tape throughout the government. ``We need environmental laws to protect the public interest. We cannot rely on private actors (like industries) to regulate their own use of air, water and land,'' said Ramani Nadarajah, a lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association. The law association and Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy did the bulk of the work. They were supported by other groups like Greenpeace, the student-oriented Stop Environmental Deregulation in Canada, Great Lakes United, Sierra Club of Eastern Canada and other groups from across the province.
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Nuclear Power Disaster an Example of the Dangers of Large Scale Restructuring: The NDP government of Bob Rae restructured Hydro and laid off 10,000 people. Now it is coming back to haunt us as Nuclear Plants may have to be closed. We simply haven’t the expertise to run them. We fired them all and the plants are failing. This will also happen with schools, hospitals, the environment and with Toronto in Megacity. The Big Talk about Big Savings in Restructuring has become the Big Lie. There are no savings when the systems are destroyed and we suffer enormous human casualties of unemployment, disease, ignorance and so on. We must stop these mad efficiency experts and cost cutters before they bankrupt our entire society.
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International Women’s Day: More than 2,000 people yesterday (Mar 8,1997) marched on Women's College Hospital. Protesters marched past Women's College, swinging hula hoops around their hips - a reference to Mike Harris' comparison of health-care workers to people who worked in hula hoop factories and had to find other employment when the fad died. Staff members and patients waved through windows. The day began with a rally at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall. Events there included speeches, songs, prayer and even a plea for justice from Marcia Simon, cousin of native Canadian Dudley George, who was shot dead by police at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995. Day delivered a scathing indictment of the Mike Harris government and vowed to fight back in the ``Tory war against women and children.'' Ongoing cuts to health care and social services amount to ``crimes against women and children,'' speaker and march organizer Linda Secord said to boisterous, foot-stomping applause at University of Toronto's Convocation Hall. ``You are cutting thousands of jobs in health care, most of which will affect women,'' Secord said. Secord cited a litany of other provincial cuts, which she said target women and children. They include women's shelters, subsidized housing, child care, the family support plan and legal aid. ``And the list goes on,'' she yelled. ``Premier Harris, you and your government are waging a war against women and children throughout the province of Ontario.''

Teachers Go To War Against School Cuts: Ontario's public high school teachers will go to court to challenge the provincial government's plan to reduce the number and power of local school boards.``We will fight and we will challenge them on every front,'' Earl Manners, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, told delegates at the annual convention yesterday. Manners said the federation will join the Ontario Public School Boards' Association in its constitutional challenge of Bill 104, which is now in public hearings and scheduled for passage early next month. ``The bill, contrary to its title, has little to do with the amalgamation of school boards,'' Manners said. ``It is simply the latest in a series of government smoke screens designed to hide their true intentions of privatizing education.'' A radio and newspaper advertising campaign opposing Bill 104 and classroom spending cuts will begin later this month, Manners said.

$320 M Severance TAB: Ontario taxpayers are on the hook for $320 million in civil servant severance pay this year, government documents show. The bill for exit packets is $120 million above and beyond the cost of the contract that Management Board Chairman Dave Johnson signed with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union in March 1996.
Tory Revolt Begins: Six Progressive Conservative MPPs yesterday supported a Liberal private member's resolution calling for an end to hospital funding cuts and to closings by the Health Services Restructuring Commission. The vote on Liberal Sandra Pupatello's resolution ended in a tie - 34-34. It was only the second tie vote in the Legislature's history. House Speaker Chris Stockwell, a Tory from Etobicoke, had to vote to break the tie. He voted in favor of the resolution and it passed second reading.The government, has closed hospitals in Ottawa and London this week. A major closure is planned next Thursday for Toronto-area hospitals.
Harris won't allow Local Democracy in Gambling: The premier says he won't allow Alberta-style local votes on video slot machines. Here at Harrisville we support local democracy on this issue. If communities don't want casinos and video lottery terminals, they should be taken out. This is an area where the provincial government has too much power. The government should not be able to force gambling on communities.
Toronto parents lashed out at Bill 104, the Harris Government's education bill again last night(Feb 25/97) Many feel that special education programs will be cut, and most are angry with the bill in general.
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Charter Schools and Casinos: Former Liberal Leader Lynn McLeod says the Harris education goal is Charter Schools, that is schools that are privately run yet publicly funded. And perhaps those schools will be next to the many new casinos the Harris Government plans to bring in . . . they've got a billion they're taking from education to gamble with for starts. This is a government of high rollers, and they've put our entire house of Ontario and its democratic system on the green felt table. We'll be lucky if we have anything left by the next election.
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RNs give Harris a failing grade on Health Reform:They're fed up with short hospital stays and overcrowding. Nurses from areas north and west of Metro yesterday sent Premier Mike Harris a failing grade report on health-care reform. The huge yellow valentine told him nurses are becoming ``increasingly angry and frustrated,'' said Enid Mitchell, vice-president of the 42,500-member Ontario Nurses Association. Members of the association said quality health care is collapsing. They expressed concern about $1.3 billion in cuts to hospitals' base funding without ensuring community services are available. The valentine to Harris, displayed at yesterday's briefing in Newmarket, gave him an F-minus on cutting waste and duplication, increasing illness prevention and health promotion, stopping inappropriate use of unregulated health workers, shifting resources to community care, expanding the role of the registered nurse and creating an integrated health delivery system. The nurses listed nine cases where they feel patients have suffered in York, Peel, Halton and Dufferin facilities recently.
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FIREFIGHTERS Oppose Bill 84: The public could get fried by proposed provincial legislation that will reduce fire safety standards, the Toronto Firefighters Association warns. "When smoke and fire are jeopardizing your home and family it's not the time to find out that, because of government cutbacks, you don't have adequate response times," association president Mark Fitzsimmons said yesterday. He was appearing before city council's executive committee, which unanimously endorsed a motion supporting the firefighters' objections to Bill 84.  According to Fitzsimmons, the bill will make it easier for municipalities to reduce the number of firefighters, replace full-time employees with part-time staff and privatize services. The government is expected to hold public hearings on the bill next month, with passage expected in June.
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The Association of Municipalities of Ontario fired off a motion condemning the Harris Government. The elimination of the farm tax rebate and hospital closings bother the rural and small town people a lot. Since small town people help build local hospitals, the closings are particularly wounding.
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Mike Harris has Earned a Billion Dollars from Booze. It turns out the billion dollars in surplus revenue that Ernie Eves called an economic boom, was really revenues from increased liquor sales. Now we have a government that profits from our drunkeness and despair.
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Super-Robbery in Super Jails: Solicitor General Bob Runciman will continue pursuing the privatization of jails despite union condemnation of the plan. "We will do what is necessary. We have indicated we are looking at the issue of parallel operation. Those are jails that will be run privately alongside a government-run prison so their performances can be compared. Runciman is closing 14 small, jails and preparing to build two superjails on the outskirts of Metro. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union said Runciman is putting the public at risk by going private. The prison restructuring is designed to save $80 million a year and axe 1,400 workers.
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Tories Hypocrites on Christian Issues: Many familes with alcoholic members have been devastated by the Harris Government's decision to open liquor stores on Sundays. The Tories, it seems, care about raking in tax dollars, but don't care about our health and well-being. Now John Snobelen wants to help a small group of misguided fundamentalists in their attempt to ban a Joyce Carol Oates book about girl gangs from high schools. Perhaps in the next installment, Ms. Oates should have a chapter where John Snobelen delivers a bottle of whiskey to the fathers of the bad girls, so they can get plastered and beat their families on Sunday.
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Tories Now Hit By Privatization Madness:Among 30 Crown Groups to be privatized under a new Harris report are Ontario Place, which is already 75 percent privatized, Algonqin Forest Authority, District Health Councils, Ontario Clean Water Agency, Ontario Heritage Authority, Ontario Housing Corp, TV Ontario.  So if Megacity Madness wasn't enough for you, just try and grasp the logic behind this madness.
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The Harris government is about to eliminate a third of Ontario' public bodies - Agencies ranging from TVOntario to the Ontario Clean Water Agency are slated for privatization, sources told The Toronto Sun yesterday.The task force reviewing government agencies could release a report and "overall plan" for privatizing government assets as soon as today, sources said. About 40% of the province's 76 operational agencies should also be told to contract out jobs and services to the private sector, its report will recommend. Other agencies ought to get new powers to attract private sector money, the report will state. The task force, chaired by Tory MPP Bob Wood, will send its recommendations to privatization minister Rob Sampson.
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Mothers at an Educaton forum at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on Bloor St., vowed to fight the Harris Government on its massive education cuts.  "We must continue and escalate the fight against the simple-minded attack that's being launched on education," said parent Kathleen Wynne. "They're coming after our kids and they're taking on mothers, and that's a big mistake," Wynne said, referring to the recent announcement of major changes to the system from Education Minister John Snobelen.  "We see the implications (of Tory plans) and we are greatly distressed," said Marilies Rettig. She said a recent poll indicates 65% of Ontarians don't believe the government should call cuts a reforming the educational system. "We must demand that there is a new bottom line for educational reform in Ontario ... change that is good for the students," she said.
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Public Education or Harris' Sunday School:It has been noted that Mike Harris whines about how much shool costs and taxes went up, but he never mentions that they went up a lot after Bill Davis and a previous Tory government began funding separate schools. It shows that the Tories are a little backwards here; they don't like public education and Mike is threatening cut the trustees' severance package, which isn't really all that much of a severance package. Really the Tories favour privatized education but that's hardly possible when separate schools also want in the trough for more and more. What gets cut from public education will end up going over to separate schools, so we have an attack on public education, and also an attempt by the Tories to make the cuts big enough that they can pocket a lot of the money. I don't think Jesus would have appealed to Pilate or the Scribes for funds because he would've known that religious schools become the Gov's schools and not God's schools when the funding comes from the state. It's just too bad our separate school leaders can't fathom this...quasi religious schools aren't needed for the survival of religion. Churches will always be around, and I would rather hear the real message, unfiltered by the State.
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Serious Flaws in  Tory Police Changes:The Tories are amending the Courts of Justice Act to, in essence, turn any venue where a police disciplinary hearing is being held - like police headquarters - into a courthouse. Which means the press can't take photographs inside and police not wanting to identify colleagues charged under the Police Act can further protect the anonymity of fellow cops. All complaints will go through the local police department for initial investigation. Police chiefs and OPP commissioners have discretionary powers to decide when complaints are frivolous or vexatious and not worth investigating.

The Cost of University education has risen 60 percent in two years or since Harris was elected. His tuition hikes are the main culprit.

The Toronto Reference Library is closed for periods now and many workers have been laid off, due mainly to the Harris cuts.

Provincial Sneak Attack -Aug 22nd, the Harrisittes slipped in a 75 page bill that would force municipalities to foot the entire cost of social housing, pubic health, welfare, libraries, Go Transit and pay a bigger share of child care costs.

 Cutbacks to Ontario's Community services order plan will cause people to spend time in jail instead of performing community services. The budget has been cut in half so rehabilitation can be listed as another Harris cut.
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Clip from a column  - In Kingston, where city and suburbs are going through an amalgamation exercise much like Toronto's, the provincially appointed transition team ordered a study called Benchmarking and Best Practices.
The study compares Kingston with a dozen other cities in ``the cost of service delivery per household.'' The transition team is using this study  to set a budget for the new Kingston.
So the Harris government is very determined about establishing benchmarks and it has given itself the power to force municipalities to use them.  Some will say this is wonderful. Harris is forcing local councils to give us value for our taxes.
 But what kind of value?
 Consider parks and trees. A knowledgeable civil servant gave this example: Suppose that in the newer cities, parks don't have many trees and the trees are far apart. The parks department can string together mowers and  cut the grass for, say, $9 an hour.
 But in Toronto, where parks are old and trees are large and close together, they can't string as many mowers together. And after lawn mowers go by they have to trim around each tree individually. So let's say that in Toronto, it costs $16.50 an hour to cut the grass. Queen's Park announces that since every other city in Ontario manages to cut grass in the parks for $9 an hour, Toronto must do likewise. So Toronto City Council, after trying various schemes. decides the only way the city can meet the provincial benchmark for grass cutting is to chop down all the trees in public parks.
Preposterous?
Harris has given himself that much power. And although the government spokesperson assured me the province would never make such demands, politicians don't give themselves power just for fun.
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Harris' plan to privatize courier and other services in the buildings around Queen's Park has been beaten back by a court ruling. The privatization would have put disabled CUPE members out of work, and that was against the signed collective agreement. Once against it has been demonstrated that only the law stops Harris.
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Ontario Government Minister Janet Ecker has released some details of the new Social Assistance Reform Act. The Reform Act would axe the Social Assistance Review Board and replace it with the Social Assistance Tribunal. People who are cut off benefits would have little chance with this new tribunal. It appears that like in all other areas of government, the Tories are creating a new board for two reason. 1. To make patronage appointments. 2. To drastically reduce benefits and enrollment in plans. The new plan to send all welfare mothers into workfare programs is also negative. Workfare as defined by the Tories is close to slave labour. A proper program would pay at least a living wage and seek full time employment for people. In general workfare programs tend displace people as low paid welfare people take their jobs. Ecker is also making province-wide fingerscanning legal and there will be a lot of protest against it. Eventually scanning will be killed so bringing it in at all is just a waste of time. A good government would not bring in a controversial identification method like fingerscanning. In general, identification programs should not draw protest and a wise government would chose accordingly. Fingerscanning is considered a totalitarian form of control by many.
 

Harris takes from the poor-- May/97--Any hope among the families relying on social assistance that things might get better were dashed yesterday when Mike Harris decided to reduce the payments from the province to families with children by $75. per child per month. More then a 10% across the board cut in welfare payments to families with children.

The Ontario Drug Plan, already damaged by the Harris fees of two dollars per prescription has been hit again by fees. This time it is outight dishonesty on behalf of the government. Seniors paid a 100 dollar deductible fee that was to last 12 months. After only eight months they have been billed again.

 User Fees: Harris has now broken his promise that there will be no user fees -- (April/97) Health Minister Jim Wilson is now to bring in a plan to make Ontarians pay $50 dollars for eye tests

Hospitals Shut Down by Harris

Citizens Must Go to WAR Against the New Medicine of Hospital Closures - Montreal- After seven hospital closures doctors call the emerging model of health care an assembly line ``ambulatory'' approach that gets people in and out of hospitals fast. Hospitals can't afford having anybody stay in beds on the floor too long because it jams the emergency ward so people are being pushed out The emphasis is on home care, but resources to provide that care are lacking. The hospital closings in Montreal saw a 22 per cent increase in ambulance arrivals. Coupled with the closing of beds, that often caused bottlenecks as patients waited in emergency ward hallways for room to open up on the floors. Hospitals then ran afoul of the government's Tactical Intervention Squad, a group of doctors that does spot checks. If the squad finds patients spending more than 48 hours in emergency wards, the hospital is fined for poor management. In January, four major hospitals were fined a total of $600,000 for violating the standard. The statistics are damning; the new health care leaves people suffering in emergency wards, and this is simply not acceptable. Before the reforms, patients were staying at Notre-Dame Hospital an average of 10 days before heading home. That has been cut down to eight days and the city-wide standard set by the regional health board is 6.3 days by next year. To do so, hospitals have adopted the ``ambulatory'' approach to medicine. It sets a timetable for the patient's exit the moment he enters hospital. It is obvious that this system does not have the flexibility that is needed in health care.
In Ontario the average stay at a hospital has already been cut to six days, so there isn't room for any more cuts at all. Since the cuts, hospital moral has been dropping, causing even worse levels of care. The entire new formula-based approach to hospital restructuring must be opposed. Health care is for human beings; we are not objects on an assembly line. The restructuring comission has goals like eliminating 100 percent of avoidable admissions. And things like distress and suicide attempts are considered avoidable admissions. The Wellesley Hospital and Women's College Hospital in Toronto are compassionate hospitals, so the restructuring commission with its uncaring attitude for sexual assault victims and the poor, merely sees them as avoidable admissions. There is no human factor in the thinking of the restructuring commission at all. We must oppose it in the strongest manner possible at the political level, and that is because all political parties promised the keep health care intact. Now that it is being damaged and destroyed we must haul them before the court of the people and sentence them for their crimes. On the ground, we must fight right at the hospitals; we must refuse to allow them to put people out early and document and make public all cases of poor treatment and abuse.

ENG Rips Tories on Race Plan: Former Metro Police boss Susan Eng took a swipe at the Tory government during a speech on racism last night, accusing it of isolating itself by abolishing employment equity. The ex-chairman of Metro's police services board said the province has become "an island in a sea of tolerance and progress" because federal and municipal levels of government still promote forms of employment equity. Eng joined Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall at City Hall in marking today as the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. However, she said the failure of the Ontario employment equity law to survive has taught us not to "legislate attitudes." "Rather it's up to people making individual decisions based on the broad principles of fairness and equity," she said.
 

Provincial Sneak Attack -Aug 22nd, the Harrisittes slipped in a 75 page bill that would force municipalities to foot the entire cost of social housing, pubic health, welfare, libraries, Go Transit and pay a bigger share of child care costs.
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Toronto the Damned - Metro Toronto has a much larger percent of public housing, elderly people, single parents, homeless people, immigrants and refugees, unemployed youths and children living in poverty. Though a recent United Way report outlines the damages and danger, it fails to note that the attack on Toronto by the Harris Regime with its financial and political takeover of government using unwanted and unelected Trustees and Transition Teams, is likely motivated by these statistic. The Harris ReformaTories know that Toronto is the centre of those in need in Ontario, so in order to save money they have decided to Damn Toronto. It is to be made a privatized, user fee, US style city with the the poor, elderly and so on swept into the gutter as the social safety net is dismantled. Since Toronto has been damned, all of the reserves we now have, including education funding are being taken by the province. In the long run, Harris sees a prosperous Ontario, outside the Megacity - the people of Toronto have pretty much been tossed to the devil so the rest can live well. It is a very sad note to think of how weak our politicians and activists groups are when it comes to fighting off this attack. Too many of them are cooperating and speeding our demise. Without a doubt the citizens themselves have to organize and fight this government.

--A United Way Report called Metro Toronto: A Community At Risk has been released. United Way president Anne Golden said ``You can't walk around the homeless and the outstretched hands any more. The numbers are too big and the trends are too alarming,'' she  said in an interview yesterday. An estimated 5,000 people were seen sleeping on Metro streets and doorways in 1996. As many as 50,000 people may be without a permanent address or doubling up with friends or family in the City of Toronto alone. And 135,000 people on welfare in Metro are at risk of homelessness due to high rents. Demand at Metro food banks rose 71 per cent in a six-month period in 1995. More than 40 per cent of those who needed food were under age 18.

The report notes that: Metro's poverty rate of almost 19 per cent is double that of the outer ring of the Greater Toronto Area cities. While Metro has just 50 per cent of the GTA's population, it has 70 per cent of all single parent families and 67 per cent of all seniors. Both groups have high poverty rates. Metro has the lowest vacancy rate in Canada and high demand for  emergency shelters and social housing.  36 per cent of Metro children aged 10 and under live in poverty compared to 22 per cent for the rest of Canada.  ``Residents of the GTA outside Metro tend to be younger and have
higher incomes, leaving Metro - with its significantly higher social needs - with a disproportionate tax burden,'' the report says.
The province's plan to force municipalities to pay more for social services such as welfare and social housing will make the problem worse, the report says.  A Metro report notes that property taxes will have to increase by at least 7.1 per cent next year to maintain existing service levels. The preoccupation with fiscal restraint and deficit reduction in Ottawa and at Queen's Park is having a profound effect on social services, the report says. ``The trend toward privatization of health and human services is pronounced, and includes significant cuts to funding,'' it says. Those most hurt by funding cuts are low-income families, victims of abuse, people with developmental disabilities, immigrants and refugees, according to the report.---
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ReformaTory Advisors to Harris Work to Sell the Big Lie - Talk of moderation is forbidden among the dark coven of advisers around Ontario Premier Mike Harris. His top aide, principal secretary David Lindsay, says he doesn't believe the Premier's government is right-wing in the first place.
Lindsay is known as one of the chiefs of the ReformaTories in his own party, by Tories who sadly note that their party has been hijacked by mad Reformers. Linday's job is to sell the lie that Harris is moderate to the majority of Tories who are moderate. And as many Tories realize it was the Harris' right-wing agenda that destroyed them federally, Lindsay's job is getting harder. Lindsay points out that Bill Davis didn't have employment equity or pay equity and doctors extra-billed back then. This is an unconvincing argument; some say that perhaps Lindsay should point out that the Tory party of the Stone Age had no social programs to worry about. Also unconvincing is Lindsay's argument on hospitals. He notes Saskatchewan's New Democratic Party Premier Roy Romanow has closed 44 hospitals to fight his deficit problem but doesn't get categorized as right-wing. What he doesn't note is that Saskatchewan is called an Indian word for too many hospitals. There was a hospital on every corner in Romanow's Saskatchewan. The situation in Ontario is different. There have already been drastic cuts, the population is aging, there is no good reason to close hospitals.
Lindsay claims Ontario welfare rates are high, but again he doesn't note just how costly it is to live in Toronto. The Harris government has produced documents which favorably compare Ontario's current spending on programs for the poor, children, seniors and on health care with other governments across the country. And we all know how honest reports of Harris government are . . . perhaps they should also produce a report comparing the many unaccountable boards and commissions they've created with those in Fascist and Communist countries. And perhaps Lindsay and Harris' other advisors would look more legitimate if they were at least the heads of some commission. As it is, Ontario is run by Harris and his few advisors, run from backrooms - a dictatorship that even some of his own MPPs don't deny .  Perhaps Linday can also explain why Toronto and many other areas are being converted to costly MegaCities, against the wishes of the people. Where is the prudence in all this costly restructuring? Even many Tories are against it.
Linday likes to point out that they have reduced the deficit, which is hogwash. The deficit is high, and at time when the slashing and wounding and burning of good social programs has been incredible. We now have a government that steals from the poor and middle class, and on top of that, borrows huge sums and creates a deficit so they can give tax cuts to the wealthy and the employer class. Basic rights of the citizens, rights we all took for granted are now gone under Harris. Police review, right to strike, rights of citizens to choose their form of municipal government and on and on and on. This is the Harris mistake and because of it the Tories will gone. The backroom boys will have had their day, and it will be time to rebuild.
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Tory Arrogance Leading to Isolation.—The opposition to the Harris Government continues to grow.This Government is now opposed by nearly all the traditional voices of  the people and humane society. The Toronto Sun, some business groups. and a few Metro Councillors are now the last remaining Harris Bootlickers. The Ombudsman, the Human Rights Commissioner, The Star Editorial Board, Union leaders and others denounced Harris again today.
An investigation by Ontario Ombudsman Roberta Jamieson has concluded an Ottawa man was denied basic health care due to his income. Premier Harris refused to reply on case so it was made public. The man was forced to travel to Toronto for an assessment, but couldn’t afford the trip so he was denied access to benefits.
Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Keith Norton has denounced planned changes to rent control saying they would discriminate against the poor. Norton, a long time Tory has found that the Harris government ignores him the same as they do the rest of the people of Ontario.
The Toronto Star editorial board has finally realized that the Harris Government is leaning into dictatorship. The Star noted Harris has no mandate restructure municipal and provincial services and make massive changes that affect the lives of all Ontarians. The Star called the Tory rules changes to the legislature – undemocratic. And accused the Tories of acting like goons. The editorial ended noting that Harris is determined not to govern but to rule.
 Labor's fight to kill Bill 136 came home for Ontario Premier Mike Harris last night -- literally.
 armed with placards and bullhorns, union supporters demonstrated in front of the premier's Don Mills house, protesting legislation that would take the right to strike away from public-sector workers.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton and his caucus were thrown out of the Legislature June 19/97 for protesting proposed legislative rule changes. The NDP caucus showed up with anti-government stickers on their shirts -- contrary to legislative rules -- one day after Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty led his caucus out of daily question period as a demonstration against the amendments.
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Judge's Ruling Leaves Megacity Tarnished Forever -- July 25th - Citizens for Local Democracy held a news conference on the courthouse steps this morning. Kathleen Wynne spoke for the group and a second woman spoke for the Citzens' Legal Challenge. There may be an appeal, and lobbying for legislative change to protect municipal rights. The Borins ruling expresses a real sense of regret that the Harris Government acted against the will of the people. But said that the court was powerless to stop it through the Constitution. This means there is little incentive to vote at all in municipal elections, as everything can be overturned by the province.

The Judge said the Harris Government displayed mega-chutzpah in proceeding as it did" without residents "being given an opportunity to have a real say in how they were to live and be governed. Imperiousness was another word the Judge used to describe the government's attitude. And he shot down the hearings on bill 103.The Judge made a moral ruling against the hearings, and the hearings were Harris' main justification for his hasty passage of the bill. The Megacity is now forever tarnished. The people voted massively against it, our city politicians fought it, the Judge ruled it a disgrace.

I have to ask the people of this city if they would want to live in a Canada that had been founded on SHAME?
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Judge Knocks Harris Government Megacity Decisions - Mega-Chutzpah -
Judge Borins ruled the province has ultimate authority over municipalities -- "the prerogative of government."   Opponents had asked Borins to strike down the bill under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because they said it was pushed through without enough consultation.  "It may be the government displayed mega-chutzpah in proceeding as it did" without residents "being given an opportunity to have a real say in how they were to live and be governed," the judge said.   However, Borins ruled, "the Charter does not guarantee an individual the right to live his or her life free from government chutzpah or imperiousness."  He said voters can best express their opinions in the next provincial election.  Scarboro Mayor Frank Faubert said he was disappointed to lose the legal challenge, but called the judge's remarks "a great moral victory."  Opposing parties will discuss appealing the ruling today at Toronto City Hall.
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Police Will Abuse Powers:
--Provincial ombudsman issues warning -- The province is making it easier for police officers to abuse their powers under proposed legislation to overhaul the police complaints system, warns the provincial ombudsman. ``There is an inherent potential for error or abuse of power, and therefore the system of policing must be accountable,'' Roberta Jamieson told a public hearing yesterday at Queen's Park. ``If Bill 105 proceeds as drafted, it will not be long before there is a lack of public confidence in the policing system,'' said Jamieson, the Ontario government's top complaints watchdog. ``Without public support, the system will break down and need to be fixed again,'' she said. Citizens should have the right to have their complaints heard by an independent and impartial body with clearly stated investigative powers, Jamieson said. But Bill 105, the Police Services Amendment Act, would scrap two independent bodies that keep an eye on police. It would fold the office of the police complaints commissioner and the board of inquiry into the existing Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. Jamieson called the new legislation a ``step backward'' because it restricts the powers of the civilian commission to conduct independent investigations. The commission would also have to answer directly to Solicitor-General Bob Runciman, who already has responsibility for Ontario's police officers. ``Policing is not just a public service like all the rest. Police have extraordinary powers,'' she said. She added that under the new system ``there is no reason for the public to trust the outcome of investigations.'' Hearings before an all-party committee continue today in Ottawa and tomorrow in London. They resume in Toronto April 28, with the legislation expected to be passed in May.

Runciman hears critics of police watchdog bill -- Planned law to alter checks on officers Police and community groups yesterday criticized proposed legislation that would radically overhaul the overseeing of police in Ontario. Solicitor-General Bob Runciman launched hearings into Bill 105, which would amend the Police Services Actto scrap two independent civilian bodies that keep an eye on police and return responsibility for overseeing police to the solicitor-general, Ontario's top cop. Critics charged that the proposed bill won't have the confidence of the public because it will appear that the police are investigating themselves in cases of alleged wrongdoing. ``No one, but no one, should be the umpire of his own ball game,'' said Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. ``It also threatens to exacerbate tensions - racial, ethnic and class - (in the community),'' he told the all-party committee, adding: ``There's no way it can appear fair.'' But Runciman said the bill will simplify the complicated maze of police oversight while saving $3 million annually. ``These savings will be realized by ending administrative overlap and duplication in the oversight system - not by compromising service and accountability,'' he said. The legislation is expected to be passed this spring. Runciman said outside the committee room he's willing to make some amendments to the legislation to appease critics. However, he defended the main thrusts of his legislation, including the controversial provision that all public complaints would go directly to the local police chief, who would be given more powers to toss out complaints deemed ``frivolous and vexatious.'' ``Discipline (is) a management process,'' he said. ``I think a manager should have the right to deal with his or her employees.'' But Liberal MPP David Ramsay (Timiskaming) told him: ``It means that serious complaints about police will be swept under the rug'' because the chief may try to protect his or her officers. Under the new system, the office of the police complaints commissioner and the board of inquiry will be folded into the existing Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. The special investigations unit, which investigates police cases involving serious injury or death, will continueas a separate agency under the attorney-general's ministry. Complainants not satisfied with the ruling of a local police chief can request a review by the police servicescommission. And municipal councils will take over responsibility from the province for appointing the majority of members to their police services boards. But police officers said that's bad news for them because it will remove the dominant presence of the province from protecting their interests.

The Harris Government is closing one of two Pembroke hospitals, a loss of 300 jobs. This is hard news, particularly in one of the more economically depressed areas of the province, particularly when talking about the closing of the century-old Civic Hospital that locals say is so much more to their community than mere bricks and mortar. What makes it worse is the astounding insensitivity of the commission to an important and incendiary local circumstance.

Prince Edward Heights gears up for battle Local 448 is gearing up for a town hall meeting in its continuing battle to delay closure of Prince Edward Heights in Picton beyond its scheduled March, 1999, date. Local president Carl Yates said there is massive support from parents, concerned about the future of their offspring in the facility, whose average age is about 45. A booth at the community fair last September produced 1,000 letters and 6,000 names on a petition to keep the centre open. These have already been presented to the area's MPP. Parents and members of the business community have met with Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker, who has so far refused to delay the closure, Yates said. Prince Edward Heights has a "village setting, with a church, school and bank," he said. "The clients there have more flexibility and freedom than they would in a group home in the community. In addition Prince Edward runs a number of group homes itself, a fact that many people don't seem to realize." Yates said with the client age and staff age being about the same, the most humane aproach would be to let the ageing process itself just phase the programs down. By the time existing staff reached retirement, probably most of the clients would be gone.
Federation fights bad WCB bill "It's your life... don't leave work without it." That's the theme of the Ontario Federation of Labour's fightback campaign against a new government bill that threatens to tear apart the province's workers' compensation system. The campaign began after Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer introduced a bill Nov. 26 to repeal the current Workers' Compensation Act and replace it with a Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. "This bill is a major attack on the living standards and rights of injured workers," said OPSEU health and safety officer Bob DeMatteo. "It would strip injured workers of more than $15 billion in benefits and give employers more than $6 million in reduced premiums." Highlights of the proposed bill:
 

• No more entitlement for chronic mental stress
• Lesser entitlement for chronic pain
• Workers must file their own claims
• Workers must consent to releasing medical information to the employer when filing their claim
• Workers must cooperate in return-to-work plans or face penalties
• Benefits are cut to 85 per cent of net average earnings
• Inflation protection reduced
• Appeals Tribunal's jurisdiction limited
• Injured workers' pension fund cut by half
• Office of Worker Advisor restricted to assisting non-union workers; budget cut by 30 per cent
• Occupational Disease Panel eliminated

Student Sit-in: 30 Students took over the president's office at York University Feb 11,1997 in a show of support for a similar sit-in at the University of Toronto. Wayne Poirier of the Student Federation called for a freeze on tuiton. The Harris gov recently okayed a 10 per cent hike in fees. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario fired off a motion condemning the Harris Government. The elimination of the farm tax rebate and hospital closings bother the rural and small town people a lot. Since small town people help build local hospitals, the closings are particularly wounding.

The Greater Toronto Area mayors and chairmen voted 28-1 yesterday to ask the province not to shift any more social program costs on to cities. The municipal leaders also called on the Tories to replace their 50-50 social cost sharing scheme with the welfare funding plan proposed by David Crombie's "Who Does What" panel. That would see the province take over the 20% now paid by regional governments. Ajax Mayor Steve Parrish, Richmond Hill Mayor William Bell and Oakville Mayor Ann Mulvale spoke out against the Harris government. Scarboro Mayor Frank Faubert said downloading social costs on to cities "isn't even disentanglement. It's re-entanglement when you go from paying 20% to 50%. Who's in charge? It's more confusing than ever." Terry Mundell, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, said social downloading has met stiff opposition across Ontario.

Harris Job Cuts Destroying the Fabric of Ontario: Harris Government Job cuts have more 27,000 people across Ontario on the termination list. Of these only 2,400 have found other jobs.

In a rather heartless editorial in favour of Eves' new MVA tax assessment the Toronto Star wonders where the money will come from when seniors aren't taxed at the higher rates till they sell their homes. The Star notes that many on fixed incomes can't pay these tax increases, but the Star Editorial Board, being big-business and all, simply doesn't care if people are destroyed. Shouldn't they really be questioning why the Tories, who are supposed to be the party of tax cuts, are hitting us with increases? The Star also doesn't mention that the disparity in house values has changed as suburban area houses haves gained while central-city house values have declined. Now some of the big tax increases will be in the suburbs. With a massive new debt placed on the city, and councillors reluctant to load all this onto home owners, something like a tax increase of 20 per cent,  it is clear that businesses are going to get socked, later if not sooner. Because of the downloading of costs to municipalities, there will be more taxes, MVA can't close the gap in metro business taxes it was supposed to correct, and is therefore useless in that regard. In Toronto it is expected that businesses will end up taxed shut, people will be forced out of their homes and a downward spiral will click in. Toronto will be an ugly shell, like US cities, so all the talk about fairness coming from Eves and the Star is wrong. It would have been nice if a big reshuffling of the tax system would have created a fair and affordable property tax system. But on the whole and in context with the rest of the MegaWeek cuts, this one's a dog. We'll be like New York or Boston - rotten to the core. Fair isn't it? How about a tea party or a tax revolt? And if the Star Editorial Board is standing on one of the boxes, we'll just throw them in.

Bail Funds for the needy eliminated: The Tories today announced the end of 12 bail programs for the needy. Based on this years costs, by cutting the one million dollar fund, the province will be hit by 28 million dollars that it would cost to keep these people in custody.

Public Education or Harris' Sunday School:It has been noted that Mike Harris whines about how much shool costs and taxes went up, but he never mentions that they went up a lot after Bill Davis and a previous Tory government began funding separate schools. It shows that the Tories are a little backwards here; they don't like public education and Mike is threatening cut the trustees' severance package, which isn't really all that much of a severance package. Really the Tories favour privatized education but that's hardly possible when separate schools also want in the trough for more and more. What gets cut from public education will end up going over to separate schools, so we have an attack on public education, and also an attempt by the Tories to make the cuts big enough that they can pocket a lot of the money. I don't think Jesus would have appealed to Pilate or the Scribes for funds because he would've known that religious schools become the Gov's schools and not God's schools when the funding comes from the state. It's just too bad our separate school leaders can't fathom this...quasi religious schools aren't needed for the survival of religion. Churches will always be around, and I would rather hear the real message, unfiltered by the State.

Serious Flaws in  Tory Police Changes: The Tories are amending the Courts of Justice Act to, in essence, turn any venue where a police disciplinary hearing is being held - like police headquarters - into a courthouse. Which means the press can't take photographs inside and police not wanting to identify colleagues charged under the Police Act can further protect the anonymity of fellow cops. All complaints will go through the local police department for initial investigation. Police chiefs and OPP commissioners have discretionary powers to decide when complaints are frivolous or vexatious and not worth investigating.

Government layoffs are outstripping job creation in the private sector, Ontario's ministry of finance says.  Statistics released by the government show the dilemma cost Ontario 12,000 jobs last month and 25,000 in the last four months.  "Private sector employment rose by 7,000 jobs in December while public sector employment fell by 19,000," the ministry found.

The Tory overhaul of Ontario's public services will eventually cut at least $250 million from provincial transfers to municipalities, Finance Minister Ernie Eves admitted.  Liberal critic Gerry Phillips argued the cut to municipalities could be as high as $950 million.  "They have turned over their problems to municipalities," Phillips said..On the New Tax System: In general, people living outside Metro will see their taxes drop while those inside the City of Toronto in particular face tax hikes. But people outside of Toronto shouldn't count on it because by the time it is phased in over eight years they'll likely be paying more due to alterations. Another reason is that tenants in Toronto may start paying less . Critics call it a property tax time bomb in multi-unit apartment buildings. In Metro, $400 million a year is overpaid by apartment dwellers because they're taxed at four times the rate of single-family homeowners, tenant spokesman Andrew Stewart said yesterday.  Giving municipalities a "local option" to equalize those wide disparities is a major part of yesterday's provincial announcement, he said, since 50% to 55% of residents in Metro live in apartments.  The bill will enable councils to equalize apartment taxes with single-family homes right away, phase in changes over a number of years or do nothing.  That will turn the political heat on to city councillors, said Stewart, tenant co-chairman of the Tenant/LandlordCoalition for Equal Taxation.  The average Metro apartment is overpaying $100 a month in property taxes, he said, and his group will put megacity candidates' "feet to the fire" to make good on past pledges for fairness. Landlords will likely pocket any tax reductions unless some new legislation forces them to return it to tenants in some way.

11,000 Hospital Beds have been closed over the last five years, yet the population of Ontario has increased by nearly a million. And this is before Harris' new round of hospital closures. Health care has been cut too deeply, and at a time when hospitals should be maintained. Our growing, aging population, needs hospitals.

School Board Cuts have been a trend across Canada, with Ontario and Quebec at the tail end for large cuts. Most people support cuts of some sort, but nearly all of the people who cheered yesterday’s cuts didn’t look at them closely. As the liberal leader Dalton McGuinty said, " Keep your eye on the ball on this one." And that is because while Snobelen blinded people with his soft-spoken TV manners, the money in terms of billions in taxes was rolling over into Harris’ pocket. Now we have school boards so weakened as to be useless and trustees that are only part-timers making a max of $5,000 a year. It’s about the same as having no school board at all yet still having to pay for one. These cuts weren’t done right, and I don’t buy them or the fact that Toronto always gets the shaft - this time with a mega-board and trustee to student ratio three times that of other areas. People should stop just cheering for cuts and start looking at whether they are done wisely.

As Toronto and Scarborough voted to go ahead with a mail-in referendum vote the Harris' government introduced legislation yesterday to slash Ontario's trustees from 1,900 to about 700 in number, and their annual pay to $5,000. This move is hypocrisy on Harris’ part as he was criticized when he sat on the Nipissing board of education for voting to hike his own monthly salary --  Premier Mike Harris voted to give himself a 166% pay hike when he was a school board trustee in 1975. Opposition politicians say the Tory scheme is a plot to commandeer property taxes and dictate their distribution to school boards … by controlling $10.6 billion of the education pot, the province can systematically reduce it and pocket the savings. "It feels like I'm at a best friend's funeral," an emotional Frances Gladstone, president of the Toronto Teachers Federation, said after hearing Ontario's 168 school boards will be chopped in half and trustee numbers cut from 1,900 to 700.  "The government plans to control education funding to determine how much will be spent," NDP education critic Bud Wildman said. "What it means is fewer dollar bills for education in this province."  High school teachers' union president Earl Manners called the reforms "the beginning of the end" of public education. "The government has taken the next step in an agenda to move to charter schools and a voucher model," he said, insisting trustees are the latest in their line of scapegoats.  Ontario Teachers Federation president Bill Martin said he feels like he got hit in the head "with a big brick." He predicted plenty of chaos in the next year, with a "mass exodus" of superintendents and directors.
Coming this Week -Legislation to bring in province-wide property tax reform.  - Changes to allow the merging of provincial police forces and complaint bodies.  - Announcements that GO Transit and other transit services will end up in municipal hands, together with responsibility for operating roads and water and sewage systems. - Notice that the province will retain responsibility for disease control and air ambulances, while municipalities outside Metro will take over land ambulance services.  - Minor changes to let local officials issue tickets and prosecute provincial infractions. Opposition politicians accused the Tories of loading expensive programs onto property ratepayers and trying to camouflage the cuts.  "You're not fooling anybody," Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said. "Your actions are about one thing and one thing only -- finding the cuts you need to pay for your irresponsible tax-cut scheme."
The province will hand Ontario's $6-billion welfare system over to municipalities today.   Local government will also get stuck with the $900-million cost of running Ontario's public housing buildings.  Some 84,000 units of public housing are also being mortgaged to pay for major repairs. Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker will announce legislation today to merge the provincialand municipal welfare systems into a single program.  Municipalities will be charged with running the program and the province will pick up half the $6-billion tab.  Under current agreements, municipalities pay 10%-20% of welfare costs and the province pays 80%-90%.  Municipalities will run and eventually pay for Ontario Works, the Tory workfare and job-training program.  Municipalities will pay for long-term care, old-age homes and half the cost of community public-health programs.  The changes are expected to move more than 8,800 provincial welfare workers off the provincial payroll and into municipal jobs.  Dramatic reforms are also being made to public housing.  Ecker will announce government plans to turn more than 200,000 units of publicly assisted housing to local government.  Municipalities will be given responsibility for the administration, maintenance, management and security of 84,000 Ontario Housing Units and 125,000 co-op and non-profit units.

TEN TONS OF OFFLOADED TORY SCRAP BROKE THE CITY CAMEL’S BACK: The Tories are doing a great job of Keeping Promises they never Made and here are some words about a few more of them. First there were the angry words the people had for Transport Minister Al Paladini down at the Ferry Docks today, when he announced 11 million a year in funding for the Ferries would be transferred to the city. Airports also lose funding. Paladini was booed; I wonder if he expected cheers? Mayor Barbara Hall likens the situation to New York, which went bankrupt when it was burdened with the same sort of bills.Police watchdog organizations are now being merged into one board, the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services and fall under Solicitor General Bob Runicman’s control. All public complaints would now go to local police chiefs. NDP Leader Howard Hampton said this puts too much power in the hands of police chiefs. Police shouldn’t investigate themselves. Other critics see Runiciman’s office as really the head office of the police, and not the place that should be in control of investigating police – with the boards merged, this is again police investigating themselves. Even the police fear the changes, which demonstrates how Mike Harris can get people on all sides of an issue against him. On the health care issue, people feel the aging population will not be able to get the care they need with hospital closings and costs transferred to the municipalities. And there is no accountability when municipalities are asked to pay 50 percent of costs, but have no say in spending - a province-wide special purpose body will control spending. MPP Peter Kormos says it’s a matter of principle that social and health services come out of income taxes rather than property taxes. Doctors in the Medical Reform Group agree with Kormos, saying offloading health care costs on to municipalities is an abrogation of responsibilities under the Canada Health Act which guarantees access and universality. When poorer municipalites cut health initiatives, universality will be gone. Add to this a shifting of day-care costs from the province to the city, and the fact that the city will really have no control of those funds either. The total number of costs Mike Harrisnow expects the municipal level to pay are mindboggling. Few people could rhyme off the items without missing some. Nearly all of them are promises the Tories never made, but are keeping. This is Tory restructuring, an idea they got from the private sector, where mergers are out of control. Only the difference is that the Harris people aren’t all that corporate - Al leach is from the TTC and did well on the public purse, and Harris himself voted the money over to himself when he was a school trustee, just like he’s doing now. The latest word on corporate restructuring is that it is creating inefficient companies with departments merged that don’t really work together. This isn’t what we need for government - so the Harris Who-Does-What Week is now more like the Geeze, What-Crazy-Thing-Will-They-Do-Next Week. No wonder Mel Lastman leaned back to a referendum when speculation was that he was entranced by the idea of being Mayor of the Megacity – Who wants to be mayor of a city on the skids? In his emotional appeal in North York, Mel Lastman said North York is my city. I think he’s right. North York belongs to the people there. No one voted for Mike Harris so he could take over and make the place his new Harrisville. It’s another promise Mike never made, but is keeping. And darn those promises cost a lot – like it says in the title of this article – it wasn’t a tiny straw, it was ten tons of offloaded Tory scrap that broke the city camel’s back.

The province will hand Ontario's $6-billion welfare system over to municipalities today.  Local government will also get stuck with the $900-million cost of running Ontario's public housing buildings.  Some 84,000 units of public housing are also being mortgaged to pay for major repairs. Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker will announce legislation today to merge the provincialand municipal welfare systems into a single program.  Municipalities will be charged with running the program and the province will pick up half the $6-billion tab.  Under current agreements, municipalities pay 10%-20% of welfare costs and the province pays 80%-90%.  Municipalities will run and eventually pay for Ontario Works, the Tory workfare and job-training program.  Municipalities will pay for long-term care, old-age homes and half the cost of community public-health programs.  The changes are expected to move more than 8,800 provincial welfare workers off the provincial payroll and into municipal jobs.  Dramatic reforms are also being made to public housing.  Ecker will announce government plans to turn more than 200,000 units of publicly assisted housing to local government.  Municipalities will be given responsibility for the administration, maintenance, management and security of 84,000 Ontario Housing Units and 125,000 co-op and non-profit units.

Schedule Jan 13, 1997: TORY WEEK OF MEGA-DOOM
Monday: EDUCATION RIPOFF, SHOOL BOARDS MURDERED, TAXES STOLEN -- Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach's statement to the Legislature. John Snobelen will announce his monumental changes to the education system at Enoch Turner school, near King and Parliament Sts., and in the Legislature.(This is an opportunity for protesters who want to get to Snobelen).
Tuesday: THE BIG TORY WELFARE ROBBERY -- Community and Social Services Minister Janet Ecker will announce sweeping changes to the General Welfare Assistance and Family Benefits programs, handing off billions of dollars in funding responsibility to municipalities to help offset the removal of education from property taxes. Sources said both programs will be delivered by municipalities in future, rather than the current split delivery between the two levels of government. The province now spends $1.9 billion annually on welfare and municipalities spend $468 million. After the changes, it will be funded on a 50-50 basis, sources said, adding $725 million to municipal budgets. On family benefits, the province now spends $3.4 billion and municipalities only $20 million. On a 50-50 shared cost basis, that would add about $1.7 billion to municipal budgets.
Wednesday: THE GREAT TORY TRAIN ROBBERY, POLICE SACKED,  LIBRARIES BURNED and THE BIG TORY ENVIRONMENT SPILL --  Several announcements will be made by ministers about how other spending programs will be transferred to municipalities. For example, Transportation Minister Al Palladini is expected to transfer to Toronto-area municipalities the $110 million cost of operating GO Transit, along with $165 million in capital costs for municipal transit. Municipalities are also expected to absorb $75 million in capital and operating costs of provincial highways. Environment Minister Norm Sterling is to announce municipalities will take over $105 million in costs for capital spending on sewer and water systems and environmental approval for septic tanks. Other similar announcements will include Attorney-General Charles Harnick on provincial offences, Solicitor General Bob Runciman on police and fire services, and Citizenship, Culture and Recreation Minister Marilyn Mushinski on library funding.
Thursday:THE-NOW-YOU-SEE-NOW-YOU-DON'T TORY TAX FRAUD -- Eves will make a major statement on Actual Value Assessment property tax reforms, and will introduce a major bill to implement all tax changes, including the removal of education from residential property tax and the pooling of commercial-industrial property taxes.
Friday: HOSPITALS DIE, TORY HOT AIR BALLOONS LAUNCHED -- AL Leach will make a major speech to the Kitchener Chamber of Commerce.
HARRISVILLE OPINION: This is too ugly for the opposition to even participate in . . . I think the members should just walk out and join the protests against this government. To work with the conservatives on this would likely be nothing more than collaboration with them, and many oppositon members may conclude that they morally just can't do it.

People have be hit hard by the Harris cut in legal aid. "It is just appalling," said Judge Lynn King of the Ontario Court's Provincial Division. "Ninety per cent of our clientele in family court are appearing  unrepresented. These people are in crisis, but they often don't even know how to fill out forms." Those too timid to protest can even end up being needlessly convicted.  "Some of them have no idea what they are doing," said John Zado, director of  the Metro Toronto duty counsel office. "They end up pleading guilty to offences the Crown cannot prove."  They can also end up on the losing end of child-custody disputes or support  battles they might otherwise have won.

Environment Cuts: Jan 8,1996: The Harris Government Environment Minister Norman Sterling announced today that he will be laying off 186 environmental inspectors, investigators and pesticide monitors. 117 mangers at the ministry will also be given pinks slips.

PROPERTY TAXES TO SKYROCKET : Now that we've got megacity, get set for mega tax hikes. If you've received your 1997 property assessment notice and didn't have a big increase, enjoy. A year from now your 1998 tax news may be catastrophic -- at least on paper -- and especially if you live in some older sections of the City of Toronto. Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach said yesterday the 1998 tax assessment rolls will be out on time -- about a year from now. They will include hikes due under the actual-value assessment system (AVA) adopted by the Tories for all of Ontario.

HungerWatch, yesterday released a report which calls on the private and public sectors to promote full employment at decent wages to ensure that people have enough food to eat.   HungerWatch is comprised of the Daily Bread Food Bank, FoodShare, North York Harvest Food Bank, the Red Cross and OXFAM. "More children went hungry more often in 1996," Sue Cox, of the Daily Bread Food Bank, said.  "About twice as many kids went without meals at least once a week because their parents couldn't afford to buy food. "Food bank use rose quite dramatically in 1996," Cox added.  "The main message is that charities really don't have the ability to pick up all the slack," she said. Neither the poor nor the charitable food organizations that serve them can withstand further social assistance cuts, an anti-hunger coalition says.

Harris in Bed with Developers: The Harris government has been quietly giving a helping hand to the builders of suburbs, malls and other developments.  Critics note that the changes encourage costly urban sprawl, and make new developments less friendly to the environment.   New Tory policies include changes to the Planning Act: Policies that discouraged sprawl and encouraged environmentally friendly suburbs have been watered down or made optional.  Some energy conservation features mandatory in new buildings will be optional;  Developers won't have to pay as much toward additional municipal services on new housing.  The result will be more subdivisions with large houses and wide lots, requiring longer roads, water-lines, sewers and making people more dependent on cars.   "We're going to see developments in areas that never should see development - in wetlands, in natural areas," warns former Toronto mayor John Sewell.

Docs' Deal Bad Medicine:The tentative deal to end job action by doctors is bad medicine whether they accept it or not. The reason is that new doctors will be penalized financially if they fail to locate in areas that are short of doctors. Incentives for young doctors to locate in certain areas are all that is needed - to penalize doctors heavily goes too far. The government is really now telling them how to live their lives. It is another Harris takeaway.

Fire chiefs say their warnings about megacity are being ignored : Metro's six fire chiefs are alarmed at the speed with which governments are moving toward amalgamating their departments. And some chiefs are frustrated at a debate that seems to be passing them by. East York fire Chief John Miller said he's wary after studying prior amalgamations of police services and the 1967 amalgamation of 13 Metro municipalities to six. Both cases resulted in massive budget increases in the ensuing years. ``Everything I've looked at cost more money,'' Miller said. Miller also warned politicians not to embrace obvious cost savings without looking at the larger picture.``I can't dispute the fact that if you look at the very top, there's going to be one chief instead of six and one deputy chief instead of 10. There's $1.25 million saving right there, there's no doubt about that,'' Miller said. ``But how can one person manage 3,400 people? It can't be done, so there's going to have to be another strata in there,'' Miller said. Miller was also critical of a Ernst and Young report commissioned by Metro that suggested savings of about $40 million by amalgamating all six departments. JOB CUTS ``If you're going to save $40 million, there's only one way to save it. That's 700 bodies - gone,'' Miller said. ``And that's going to be downsizing the service. There's no other way to do it.''

Public debt still climbing, study finds: A study to be released today concludes that despite recent efforts by federal, provincial and municipal politicians, governments at all levels are still carrying record debts of $796-billion, or about $26,656 for every Canadian. The study, done for the Fraser Institute, concludes that total government debt has risen by about $45-billion from last year--about $1,300 for each Canadian. Opinion: The study only reinforces the arguments put forth here and by the Canadian Policy Institute and many others, that the debt can't be paid through cutbacks. The government has to invest and restructure the system with the banks through which it borrows. A system that doesn't bleed the country with unreasonable compound interest charges is needed. Despite recent publicy given to the idea of eliminating the GST, it is dealing with the debt that is more important. It is also a fact that our political parties all refuse to face this fact and are relying on only cutbacks of varying degreee. Restructuring debt charges and payment should be the number one Federal Election Issue.

Ontario's largest hospitalswill lose almost 10 per cent of their provincial funding next year. Large acute-care hospitals will bear the brunt of the province's decision to cut $435 million from hospitals in the fiscal year that begins April 1. The cuts come on top of $365 million slashed last year. That first round of cuts was blamed for extensive layoffs and an end to some medical programs. For instance, the Toronto Hospital cut more than 300 nurses, while St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton started charging patients $120 a day for room and board if they refused a nursing-home bed.

New Harris Attack on the Sick and Elderly:Thousands of ailing seniors will face new fees in hospital and thousands more will see existing fees dramatically increased under a government regulation change. Health Minister Jim Wilson has invoked provisions of his government's controversial omnibus bill to allow any hospital in Ontario to charge $40.29 a day for room and board to a chronically ill patient who is waiting to move to a nursing home, home for the aged or other institution. The new fee is the same amount charged to people in nursing homes, homes for the aged and other long-term care institutions. Seniors' groups yesterday denounced the change as an attack on the elderly, saying it will increase the suffering of the sick across Ontario. "It will be absolutely devastating both to sick seniors and to families who are already supporting them financially,'' said Jane Leitch, president of United Senior Citizens of Ontario, an umbrella organization for 1,200 groups. "These people are victims of a system that says you're just worthless and we'll just warehouse you until you die. They are trying to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable people in the province."

Tory Welfare Laws, Federal cuts to Unemployment Insurance and other Policies violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The article below mentions the sad state of welfare in Alberta. It is also true that the Harris Government has violated human rights by dumping the poor into a no income category of homelessness. Phony government statistics are used to hide this fact. Critics of welfare and other programs for the poor should remember that Canada as a country signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here is Article 25.(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. EDMONTON - 44% of Albertans cut off welfare may be penniless. Many of the 52,000 people Alberta trimmed from its welfare rolls since 1993 may now have no income at all, a new study by two Edmonton social agencies suggests. The eight-month survey of more than 800 Edmontonians indicates 44 per cent of those whose welfare files were closed in the province's assault on its deficit have no income and only one in 10 has found full-time work. The study by the Edmonton Food Bank and Edmonton Social Planning Council is the first to probe the fate of people cut off welfare when Premier Ralph Klein began to erase Alberta's $3.4 billion deficit. Brian Bechtel of the social planning council said this ``dark side'' of welfare cuts should be a wake-up call for government. ``We have disturbing evidence'' of some very arbitrary and dismissive actions by the social services department, he said. Bechtel said the study was done because the province has not produced any data on the fate of the closed cases. ``Alberta's welfare reforms are being used as a model throughout the country,'' he said. ``We have a responsibility to tell the whole story.'' Alberta's welfare payments are Canada's second-lowest after New Brunswick's, although Ontario Premier Mike Harris is challenging that ranking, said Marjorie Bencz of the Edmonton Food Bank. She said a single person on Alberta welfare receives $394 a month for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc. ``When you consider we're one of the wealthiest provinces with a $2 billion surplus, it is hard to reconcile."

A GTA czar should be named immediately to bring a Greater Toronto Area government into being and to serve as its first leader, the Who Does What panel has urged. The person would direct the dismantling and restructuring of local governments by Jan. 1, 1998. Opinion: The Tory Hacks are on the way and our money is blowing on the winds of the megacity --- you can count on the Tories spending a fortune on this pet plan of theirs and now is the time for the opposition to get to work and let the people know just what is happening. The new mayor of the megacity might as well lock himself away in vaults the government empties of gold to pay for this project, because that's about how accessible any mayor of the megacity will be.

Jim Wilson resigned as health minister yesterday(Dec 96) amid allegations his office released confidential information to smear a political foe. Wilson's sudden departure marks the first time a cabinet minister has resigned in the 18-month life of the Mike Harris government. Privacy Commissioner Tom Wright will investigate allegations that Wilson's aide, Brett James, released confidential information about the billing practices of an Ontario doctor. "To ensure the integrity of the investigation by the privacy commissioner, I believe it both honorable and appropriate that I step aside as minister of health until the investigation into this matter is complete," Wilson said in the Legislature yesterday as opposition parties howled for a full public inquiry.

Tory Tax Cut to cost 12 Billion: Grit MPP Gerry Phillips citing a report by the Dominion Bond Rating Service warned that the tax cut will add 4 billion a year over the next three years.

A Leaked Cabinet document reveals a Harris government plan to strip $15 billion from injured workers. Tory Liz Witmer says hearing will be held in the new year on provisions that will cut the earning of injured workers in half.

A leaked confidential documentshows the province plans to privatize as many as 55,000 school caretaker, clerical and other non-teaching education jobs, says NDP Leader Howard Hampton. The document, marked confidential, also lists other municipal areas such as fire, police, transit, public works, health services, social services and libraries as possible targets of restructuring.

Workmans' Compensation Benefits Cuts: As announced by Labour Minister Elizabeth Witmer. 1. After July 1,1997 injured workers will get 85% of their pay, a 5% cut. 2. Inflation protection will be replaced by a formula with a 4% cap. 3. The name will change to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. 4. Agency restructuring to cut the administrative bill and sending collection agents after firms that are in arrears.

Education Protest: Hundreds of parents around Toronto - and in at least 13 other Ontario cities - marched to the offices of their local MPPs to protest up to $1 billion in cuts from the classroom by the end of next year. NDP Leader Howard Hampton told the crowd outside Rosario Marchese's office that his caucus will start a "No Cuts to Education" fact-finding tour in January. Outside her Danforth Ave.office, MPP Marilyn Churley was presented with a stack of letters addressed to Education Minister John Snobelen from students and parents at Jackman public school. Hampton accused the government of plotting to cut another $800 million from classrooms next year and roll back teachers' pay by 5%. Snobelen said the suggestions were "pure speculation" but refused to discount them. Caucus sources say the cuts could be between $600 million and $1 billion, that school boards will be reduced from 168 to about 61 and trustee salaries capped at $15,000.

New province-wide groups protest Education Cuts: People for Education, Mothers for Education and the Ottawa-Carleton Coalition to Save Education are some of the new groups protesting the Harris Cuts tomorrow (Nov 27,96). Parents will hold vigils and deliver pamphlets opposing education cuts to MPPs' offices.

Mississauga Cuts: New parks, recreation centres and zoning changes are on hold after Mississauga councillors learned the province plans to cut development funding. Proposed changes to the province's Development Charges Act would result in Mississauga paying $60 million in capital funding for new services over the next 10 years. That means homeowners could be footing the bill for development charges. "The gloves are off," said Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. "This is the most ridiculous, irresponsible legislation I've ever seen."

Nurses held a candlelight vigil at Queen's Park today (Nov 22 '96) to protest the Harris cuts .
Up to 15,000 Ontario nurses stand to lose their jobs due to hospital cutbacks, closings and mergers.. And while nurses bear the brunt of the provincial cuts to hospitals, the real losers are patients who suffer when there aren't as many nurses to care for them, said Lesley Bell, chief executive officer of the Ontario Nurses' Association. ``When our nurses are the ones getting layoff notices, we're a little concerned on what that means to health care on the patients,'' Bell said. Nurses traditionally have been silent on issues affecting hospital management, so many simply absorb these cuts by working harder, risking their own health. ``Nurses are more concerned with patients than they are of themselves and in fact put themselves at physical risk lugging patients and the like . . . and we're now saying this can't continue,'' Bell said. Former Liberal health minister Elinor Caplan said cuts to nurses' jobs are ``tragic'' and will jeopardize patient care.``Quality is going to suffer and we'll pay a huge price,'' Caplan said. ``Because if patients don't have confidence that they're going to get the quality care that they need . . . you're going to destroy medicare.'' Bell added that slicing nurses' jobs first to reduce hospital costs not only puts patients at risk, but itdoesn't make financial sense. She cited the case of Toronto Hospital, where 322 nurses were laid off earlier this year. Many were replaced with so-called generic workers, people with no medical training who are hired to do many tasks formerly done by nurses. Of the 23 people brought in to fill these jobs, 11 passed the theoretical exam and only seven remain today, she noted. On average, generic workers last 18 months on the job compared with a registerednurse who lasts eight to nine years. Generic workers cost more in the end because they need more training and supervision and their turnover is high. In fact, at least one U.S. hospital in Baltimore that laid off nurses to save money hired back the registered nurses because it recognized what a bargain they are, Bell noted. But Sunnybrook Medical Centre president Tom Closson disagreed, arguing that the simple math of hospital cuts means nurses' jobs likely will be reduced. For example, Closson noted that Sunnybrook has been ordered to cut $44 million from its budget next year and $22 million the subsequent year. Two-thirds of the hospital's budget is salaries and one-third of the employees happen to be nurses, he said. So nurses definitely will be affected by cuts, he said. He argued that some cuts to nurses' jobs are feasible because the average length of stay in hospitals has grown shorter. However, Women's College Hospital president Bill MacLeod disagreed, noting that the reduced amount of time patients spend in hospital means that those people who are there are quite ill and need superior care. ``The people who are in beds are really sick,'' MacLeod said. ``I mean you're turning the place intoan intensive care unit.'' Bell said nurses have formulated their own written proposal for rescuing health care. It suggests the various components of Ontario's health care system - from hospitals and doctors to long-term caregivers and physiotherapists - have built up their own turfs and don't work properly together. In fact, they don't work together at all. ``There's no more tinkering that can be done with the system,'' Bell said. ``We need to integrate it. The only way we're going to sustain it is if it is integrated and we need to bring primary care, acute care and long-term care all together. ``We believe there is enough money in the system,'' she said. ``It just has to redistributed properly.''

Transportation Minister Al Palladini fired 700 workers yesterday. The job losses will be in Downsview, Toronto, St. Catharines, London, Kingston, Thunder Bay and North Bay. It's part of the Conservative government's plan to dump 12,000 civil servants from its multi-billion-dollar payroll. Private sector operators will be contracted to offset some of the service cuts. He didn't know if the measure will save money so it may be that he just wants to give work to his pals in the private sector.

More than 600 provincial highway construction engineers, designers and inspectors are getting pink slips. The province plans to issue layoff notices later this week to administrators who oversee contracts and staff who inspect the work of private sector contractors. OPSEU president Leah Casselman accused the government of jeopardizing public safety with the cuts. This is another move to eliminate needed jobs, and that's what the Tories are all about. Privatization, which they favour in every area, really means job cuts.

God Save us from Al Leach: Housing Minister Al Leach plans to privatize Ontario's rent-control bureaucracy. Leach plans to create an independent, arms-length tribunal to resolve landlord-tenant disputes. Disputes are currently heard by the courts and government rent-control bureaucrats. Leach intends to transfer some of his bureaucrats to the new tribunal once the Tenant Protection Act becomes law. Some 20 rent-control offices across the province will be consolidated and adjudicators will travel like circuit judges outside major centres to hear disputes. Eventually, the tribunal's work will be contracted out to the private sector. Leach is also eliminating Ontario's rent registry, which keeps tabs on maximum rent each landlord can charge and its registration and enforcement bureaucracy. The rent registry was popular with landlords as it has meant there is no rent control when apartments are listed at hundreds of dollars above the current rent. It is expected here that the new rules will anger tenants, landlords and public sector unions. A solution that pleases no one.

As Predicted Here: Housing Minister Al Leachgot attacked by both tenants and landlords yesterday over his new rent control law. Tenants' groups said Leach's new law will force people out of their homes. Landlords complained the law will put them into the poorhouse. Leach said if neither side is happy, the law must be good. What Leach didn't understand is that the rent registry is used by landlords to set high maximum rents, then after the tenant moves in, the rent goes from a lower initial rent back to the maximum, increases anywhere up to 300 per cent that bypass the rent control law. With Leach threatening to close this cash cow, landlords are frightened of the prospect of real rent control. Tenants on the other hand, just don't want higher intitial rents and other new charges that will hit across the board.

The government's new tenant legislation will force more low-income renters on to the streets, says a report released yesterday. Rents are higher today than in 1990 yet the incomes of tenants are steadily declining, says the report called, A Place To Rent, released yesterday by the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. More than 220,000 tenant households - or 15 per cent - spend more than half of their gross household income on rent, the study says. In 1990, 33 per cent of tenant households spent more than 30 per cent of their income on rent while in 1994 - the most recent data available from Statistics Canada - it increased to 36 per cent, or 540,000 households, it shows. "The picture is far worse for people of lower incomes,'' Bill Morris of the housing federation told a news conference. Some 60,000 tenant households - 4 per cent of all tenant households across Ontario - paid more than 90 per cent of their gross income on rent, the report says. The average income for these households was only $6,300 in 1994. Availability of units is a major barrier for the 427,000 tenant households - or 29 per cent of all renters in Ontario - who are on social assistance, the report reveals. Lenny Abramowicz of the Coalition to Save Tenants' Rights said the province's new Tenant Protection Act, introduced last week, will do even more harm because it will lift rent controls from vacant units and make it easier for landlords to convert apartments to condominiums.

Opinion: The Tory idea that new apartments will be created by the private sector is proving to be a farce. Even their new rent control laws, or no-rent-control laws, however you look at them, have failed to please to private sector landlords. Combined with the dismantling of co-op housing, this spells disaster. And the truth is that co-op the system is a better one to invest in ... private sector landlords can't be relied upon, more money for a small or medium sized landlord is often just money for new cars, lottery tickets and more nights at the pub. We need solid investment and the Tory idea that the private sector can do everything is a weak idea. In the rent control area the Harris policy is wrong from the beginning. Rent control and enforcement of landlord and tenant law is clearly a government responsibility and not a job for the private sector. Even the landlords know this, and that is why they fear the new system. Leach's idea that it will help landlords kick out criminals is not correct as most delays in court are caused by landlords who simply don't show up. So in the end a tighter system means disabled people who find it hard to attend eviction hearings will get thrown out, and big landlords with a lot of cases will lose more of them.

So Here You Have It: Turning Metro's six municipalities into one big city will make it easier to privatize civic services and save taxpayers money, says a spokesman for the Metro Board of Trade, John Bech-Hansen. It is now clear that the Tories are making an ideological move at our expense. Gorbachev mentioned that all societies are mixed economies nowadays, capitalist and socialist entities exist side by side. We just have to choose which things should be run by the government, and choose wisely. Just like communism failed so will the extreme Harris ideology, because society won't work with everything privatized. Harris' efforts are doomed to failure in the long run and we all pay the price for it.

The Conservative government is whipping up backlash against women, disabled people and visible minorities, the Alliance For Employment Equity charged yesterday. Court hearings start today into the group's claim that the government's decision to repeal the provincial employment equity law violates equality rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "Since the act was repealed, we find that even people who found jobs under employment equity are losing them because of the backlash created against them,'' said Daina Green, chair of the Alliance For Employment Equity. "It is as if the government gave people permission to discriminate,'' Green said. The New Democrats passed a law requiring employers and workers to come up with a plan to combat discrimination in the workplace against women, disabled people, aboriginal people and visible minorities. Premier Mike Harris dubbed it a ``quota law'' in the 1995 election campaign and abolished the law in 1995 after winning power. The group wants that decision reversed by a court as a form of discrimination. Lawyers and activists yesterday accused Harris of lying to the public about the nature of the law by saying people of color were being hired without qualification. Harris's campaign rhetoric has hurt those people, activists said, by implying all people covered by the law were hired without merit.

Harris Delays 3 Billion in New Cuts: The Tory government is still studying a projected $3-billion chop in spending and will delay its economic statement until early December, says Finance Minister Ernie Eves. There appears to be infighting among Tory ministers over the cuts. And with public opinion firmly against cuts, the goverment may be starting to come apart. Management Chair Dave Johnson said further public sector layoffs are definitely included in the financial statement. The government has already declared about 12,500 civil servant positions surplus.

The province's students are being put at risk by the government's breakneck pace of educational reform, school board directors said yesterday. Changes to the province's school system "could threaten the very future of public education in Ontario and thus, the future of our society," the directors said in a letter to Premier Mike Harris. The letter asks the government to consult directors on the education reforms. It calls the province's reforms unplanned, unfocused and unclear and based on inaccurate information and simplistic myths. It accuses the education ministry of "adding pressure, while diminishing support" in its quest for change and calls the timelines "unrealistic."

The Harris government is demanding that all municipalities start a workfare program immediately or else they will be forced to pay for the program with municipal funds. The problem with workfare is that it is based on a myth. Unemployment is real and very and high and there is no class of welfare bums who don’t want to work. The Harris people love to see bums and freeloaders everywhere, but the truth is that they have no commitment to full employment, and governments with no goal of full employment must believe in social assistance for a certain percentage of the population, or else believe in making tramps out of that percentage. Workfare really only attempts to duplicate what Canada Manpower already does, so in the end it is just expensive window dressing and can’t create many real long-term jobs. It’s just more government by decree. Mike Harris has fostered no great spirit of democratic cooperation, which is what is needed. Instead his government is like an attack dog that turns on everyone at the same time. Nowadays we are told that everyone is overpaid and worthless, yet we make less than we did ten years ago. This is just another myth; the efforts of most of the people whether in hospitals, at schools, etc. have been valid efforts. Maybe it’s the Harris people, who sell the idea of worthlessness, who are the ones that are really not needed.

Hundreds of chanting nurses marched on Queen’s Park today (Nov 19) to protest the Harris cuts. At the same time I was at a hospital telling a doctor I would file a complaint if a patient was again mistreated. I had called an ambulance to put a lady with a severe stomach problem in emergency. I found out later they put her out quickly and she nearly vomited to death at home and had to be sent back. Although it wasn’t part of job action by doctors, it brings to light the fact that action of that sort is dangerous. I haven’t seen signs of overstaffing at hospitals and patients in agony have to wait a long time to get a doctor. We definitely don’t need hospital cuts. Sometimes just a little bit, like a doctor is taking job action, or a qualified nurse being laid off, can mean death for people. I think that if doctors are serious they should man a steady rotating picket at Queen’s Park - that takes the message straight to Mike Harris and doesn’t hurt the innocent or anger the public. If the health minister thinks he can gain public support, then job action by doctors isn’t bringing about a settlement.

The Harris government has passed a law to bring video lottery terminals to Ontario. By a vote of 63-33, with all Tory MPPs present voting in favor and all opposition Liberal and New Democrat MPPs voting against, Bill 75 was passed into law last night. Toronto City Council yesterday voted 13-1 to send a message that it opposes the province's plan to introduce the addictive gambling machines.

A ministry of education forum faced a minor mutiny last night as some parents and educators accused organizers of manipulating the debate. The 150 people who attended a meeting at Zion Heights Junior High School in North York about education reforms bristled at an attempt to limit discussion to four suggested areas: changes to Grade 9, compulsory courses, co-opprograms and province-wide testing. "Is this the kind of flexibility this government exhibits?" shouted one parent. "What about the issues we think are important?" Also on the education front: Many Ontarians think that high schools are working well and are not ``broken,'' says the man holding province-wide forums on reform for Education Minister John Snobelen. Snobelen has repeatedly said the education system is ``broken.''

Women are being forced back to abusive husbands because of Mike Harris' budget cuts, says the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses. Welfare benefit cuts and slashed funding for women's emergency shelters, affordable housing and legal aid have left some women with no other choice but to return to violent homes, said Leighann Burns-Campagna "We found a desperate hopelessness and helplessness across the provincebecause of these cuts,'' Burns-Campagna told a Queen's Park news conference yesterday. Since the Harris government took office in June, 1995, all funding has been cut from second-stage women's shelters, which offer longer-term help to battered women. As well, emergency women's shelters have had a 5 per cent funding cut.

Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy yesterday warned a tenants' group that Tory plans to scrap rent controls could create a New York City-style homeless problem in Toronto. Kennedy, York South MPP and former director of the Daily Bread Food Bank, told a meeting of the Federation of Metro Tenants' associations that the proposed changes will create a "squeeze" in the housing market that will push more low-income people on to the streets. What Kennedy and others haven’t mentioned is that is the situation that really exists now. Because landlords can simply apply at the commission to get increases back to the highest rate that an apartment ever rented for, and pre recession rates were hundreds more, tenants in the past few years have been hit by huge rent increases. There has been no rent control.

Support Campaign 2000: Canada must spend another $18 billion to $20 billion a year to create a social investment fund that would lift 800,000 children out of poverty. The fund would include an $11.1 billion basic child benefit for all poor and moderate-income families and could be financed largely by increasing corporate taxes, Campaign 2000 said in a report released to mark the seventh anniversary tomorrow of the all-party House of Commons resolution to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. Canada's child poverty rate has increased by 46 per cent since then to a total of 1.4 million children, the second highest rate in the industrialized world. The government would have to reduce unemployment by 4 per cent to remove the remaining children from poverty and meet its commitment, said the group of 49 organizations monitoring the progress of that resolution.They include the Canadian Council on Social Development, the Canadian Teachers' Federation and the National Anti-Poverty Organization. The group proposes a basic benefit or cash payment of $4,200 per child to the poorest families earning less than $18,000 a year. This would reduce gradually to zero for high-income families, but they would get a tax credit as ``public recognition for the social contribution of parenting.''

3 Billion in New Cuts to the Poor: It’s time to hit the streets with picket signs as Finance Minister Ernie Eves will make $3 billion in new spending cuts in a financial statement Nov. 27. It is expected that these cuts will stall any recovery of Ontario’s economy and many students and people on assistance simply won’t survive the blow. Spending on education, social programs, government housing and transfer payments to municipalities are expected to take the biggest hits. Government ministries are facing budget reductions of 15% to 30%. Privatization Minister Rob Sampson is expected to place government assets such as public housing, TV Ontario and LCBO on the chopping block. The government has already announced plans to cut $8 billion in spending but detailed only $5 billion of those cuts.

Ten Year Plans Needed: Tory advisor David Crombie's latest report suggests school boards be chopped in half. Toronto board chairman David Moll said his board will use "whatever it takes" to fight the plan. Education Minister John Snobelen said reform of education funding could lead to allocation of public money for private schools and for schools operated by religious groups. He said he believed such schools would welcome a new system of allocating money on a per-student basis - something Elaine Hopkins, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Schools, agrees with. -- Here at Harrisville the opinion is that religious schools shouldn't be taking government money because they will end up teaching the word of the government and not the word of the Lord. -- This school board thing is another too far, too fast, Tory plan. Institutions that took generations to build shouldn't be bulldozed overnight. If the Tories really think school boards should be downsized, they should let the board people like David Moll present a ten year plan for downsizing. This would be a plan that would impement some cuts to start but hold back on controversial cuts while they are properly debated. If staff is cut, attrition, buyouts and other more human means should be implemented. People who have worked for years for government shouldn't be just tossed on the scrap heap nor should valuable institutions be just junked. In areas like amalgamating municipalities or changing how municipalities police themselves, long-term plans of five, ten or twenty years, depending on the situation, are what is needed. Government in a hurry is government bound for a fatal accidental. And no matter what Harris says about having a majority, no one voted on this stuff. It also true that there is no majority that can make a wrong thing right . . . so we will do better to place faith in plans that are thought through and hastily thrown together. If Mike Harris wants to convince us that this is more than a grab at municipal funds by his greedy government, he should start doing things in a realistic time frame.

Child Poverty Tax: A news item below mentions the intolerable rise of child poverty in Canada while the rich are getting richer, corporations are paying lower taxes than ever and banks are registering record profits. I feel we need a Child Poverty Tax now -- a tax on bank profits, corporations and high income individuals, and that the money should go to a special fund for the elimination of child poverty in Canada. With right wing elements on the attack against all forms of taxes, a tax that is for one specific purpose would be better - let Mike Harris and others come forward and say they don't want children to eat. As it is all they cry about is government waste, without proving just how much of it is waste.

In Defense of the Doctors: John Stuart Mill outlined certain liberties a society must have to be considered free: freedom of thought, and opinion, the freedom to unite for purpose that don't harm others, and liberty of tastes and pursuits including the ability frame our own plan of life without impediments from others, so long as we are not hurting them. Health Minister Jim Wilson wants to interfere with the last item mentioned - he wants to tell doctors where to locate and thus limit their liberty. It would be ideal if doctors would locate in remote areas, but the fact is that the Harris Governement knows that doctors really have to be enticed to move. That means paying for good hospitals and equipment and of course the Harris people don't want to do that - they only want to make cuts. So if the doctors are fighting back they are really fighting for us all against a government that is interfering in areas where they don't belong. Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons seems to agree with this assessment as they have rejected the health minister's request to prosecute doctors who turn away new patients during a province-wide job action."Wilson's request drastically interferes with freedom of speech and expression. The changes would have been awfully draconian," was the president's --Dr. Helen Gordon--comment.

This is no time for cutbacks as - Child poverty soars: Canada now has the second-highest child poverty rate in the industrialized world - 20 per cent, or 1.4 million. It's ``just absolutely unacceptable'' that 1.4 million children live in poverty in a country that ranks number one in the world on the U.N.'s health and well-being index,'' Stephen Lewis said in an interview. `That's an appalling figure for a country like Canada that voted in 1989 to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000,'' he said. Instead, child poverty has grown by 34 per cent since then, according to Statistics Canada. Canada has no national child-care system. Canadian children are among the most highly educated in the world, but ``worrisome signs exist'' because funding for kindergarten programs is being cut and post-secondary tuition fees are rising. The suicide rate for young teens has more than doubled in the past 30 years. Respiratory illnesses among children have risen in recent years, likely because Canada is one of the highest per capita producers of air pollutants in the world. Three in ten women suffer domestic violence and in almost 40 per cent of their marriages, the children witnessed the attacks on their mothers. This situation is expected to get worse in Ontario where Mike Harris' cuts to health care, women's shelters, environmental laws, daycare and education are now having an impact.

Tories Kill Environment Laws: `Many of the efforts of the past year have been the unequivocal lowering of environmental standards for the benefit of industry,'' said Paul Muldoon, a lawyer for the Canadian Environmental Law Association. Government plans to allow polluters to monitor themselves, eliminate intervenor funding (up-front money that used to go to environmental and residential groups to assist them in fighting municipal waste dump plans) and cut public input into environmental assessment

Government lack of commitment to Full Employment gets Costly: 35,000 students to date in the '90s, have gone bankrupt. $277 million in federal student loans haven't been repaid because of bankruptcy since 1990 - an average of about $7,900 per student.

More Crazy Crombie Recommendations: Harris advisor David Crombie now wants Ontario towns to pay for their police. Provincial funding would be taken away but though towns foot the bill the province would still set the standards for policing. One idea Harrisville has for saving money is to cut David Crombie, the tiny man who is best at creating situations to give himself more consultant's fees.

Another sad chapter in the Harris attackon health care came as laid-off nurses said tearful goodbyes. The hundreds of nurses were bitter that doctors didn't help them. Harris plans on laying off thousands of nurses. Guess it doesn't pay to go to school anymore. It is clear that right-wing forces have whipped up an anti-government, anti-civil service, anti-politician cynicism among the voters. And this has spread to hospital workers as the unthinking public doesn't do enough to stop cuts. In health care, services done outside the hospital cost more so it is clear that in hospital closings the Tories are simply cutting our health care. Laying off nurses has proved to cost more in other places because too many aides and technicians were brought in and the inefficiency of the less experienced workers added costs. Again we have people losing their jobs but no money being saved, just chaos and inefficiency coming in -- the economy refuses to move at present because people won't spend, and with thousands more hitting the unemployment line there will be more loss of revenue and even less spending. Perhaps the best way to see society is like a human body, where you can't restore it to health by severing limbs because then you end up with a crippled society. Cuts to wasteful spending are needed but they should be surgical. With Harris we have an axe murderer instead of a sugeon and the patient - Ontario - is bleeding badly.

4000 firefighters protested at Queen's Park (Nov 6/96) to show their opposition the Tories' plan to alter the governing of fire departments. Bill 84, known as the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, was announced last month by Solicitor-General Robert Runciman to replace Ontario's 50-year-old Fire Department Act.

Environmentalists including government environment workers about to be scrapped will be protesting the Harris Government's elimination of all laws governing corporations in regards to pollution, etc.

Temagami': On June 28 of 1996, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources, announced plans to open half of Temagami'sancient red and white pine forest ecosystems to logging.......click here for the full article.

The Save Ontario Coalition is opposing the Harris attempt to privatize water and sewage treatment. call 416 960-2284 or 416 443-8888.

Tory Social Services Minister Janet Ecker was swarmed this week by angry parents and daycare workers. Ms. Ecker walked into the crowd after a speech, intending to use a child as a photo-op backdrop when an angry grandmother shouted at her to get away and the crowd began to chant "Ecker, Ecker, child care wrecker!" Perhaps daycare workers aren't taking closures and the proposed $5000 a year cut to individual salaries lightly. I guess this is more Tory tax relief like the same ministry's 22 percent cut to welfare benefits was tax relief.

The Tories like to say that institutions won't change till they are forced to -- so that is a reason for big cuts and closures . . . to wake people up. I say the Tories won't change till they are forced out. They will keep cutting, attacking every part of our society and heritage. We have to keep the protest balloons flying by the thousands, but getting them on the run won't be enough. In the end we will have to throw them kicking-and-screaming out of the legislature.

Canadians have revealed in a new Angus-Reid poll that they are sick of cutbacks and don't want to hear about them anymore. Politicians take note - You better come up with an economic strategy if you don't want to be dinosaurs.

Mike Harris' Tory hatchetman Tom Long is pushing uneasy Tories toward more extreme policies, so now is the time to make him Tom Long Gone. The fax numbers of Tory members can be obtained through the link to the legislature on this page. People who want to write to members, urging them to ease up and defy Tom Long and Mike Harris should send a message. Many Tory delegates - and I talked to a couple of them briefly early Saturday morning, though I was a protester and not a Tory - are fed up with the party's extremist stance and may be ready to engineer a revolt.

More Tory tax relief is on the way in the form of new legistalion allowing libraries to charge user fees.
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LIBERAL PARTY NOTES ON CUTS: 1.3 billion in cuts to hospitals The Mike Harris "restructuring commission" will close up to 40 hospitals across Ontario.

Cut funding for roads Despite what Transportation Minister Al Palladini says, $500 million has been cut from our roads system. Watch out for potholes.

Cut funding to schools Mike Harris and Education Minister John Snobelen have succeeded in creating a"crisis" in education. Cuts to schools means larger classes and less quality education for your children.

A tax cut that only helps the rich Middle-income Ontarians will see theirtax cuts eaten up by higher property taxes, tuition costs, transit fares and other user fees.

Cut funding for law enforcement Despite promises to protect law enforcement, the Conservatives have cut crown prosecutors, cut local police forces and are proposing to give up prosecuting "minor" crimes like breaking and entering. Does that make you feel safer? Abandoned his commitment to create 725,000 jobs After cutting jobs for nurses, medical technologists, police and firefighters, even the Tory budget admits that more Ontarians will find themselves without a job in 1996 than in1995.

Made Ontario "Home of the User Fee" By slashing funding to municipalities, Mike Harris forced towns and cities to increase user fees on everything from recreation programsto daycare. Since Mike Harris took office, over 1000 new or increased user fees have been introduced.

Brought in prescription drug user fees for the poor and the elderly Breaking his campaign promise not to bring in health care user fees, Mike Harris is charging the poor and the elderly two dollars everytime they fill a prescription.

Tried to bully Ontarians When Mike Harris tried to sneak in Bill 26, he thought Ontarians wouldn’t mind giving ministers sweeping new powers like snooping into personal medical records.
 
 

About this Page: Over the last decade tens of billions and tens of billions have been cut from social spending, yet Canada, though weakened by international conservative monetary policy, still produces more wealth than ever before. What has happened in a nutshell is that our money is paid as compound interest to banks and investors through a system that our government created. There is not more government spending now, there is less --- yet conservatives, and other politicians have tried to convince us we are fat and overpaid and that all sectors of society must suffer so the debt can be paid. So what happens if the great sacrifice is made and the debt is paid? Well, what happens is the process begins again. In the end there likely won’t be a single benefit left to cut. Canadians will have nothing, yet a large debt will build again as all our money is paid to the lenders as compound interest. It is no secret that investors and the banks are gaining billions that they have really just bled from us. We are really being taxed in a big way and the money is handed off as interest without the people really having an understanding of the issue. This is taxation without proper representation. The only way to fix this problem is for the federal government to attack it at the root and change the policy of the bank away from the present one – which is quite simply robbery, where our money is stolen through usury. The actual truth is that under the present system the debt never will be paid, but we will be bled day by day, month by month, year by year until nothing is left or the situation gets so bad there is a revolution. My prediction is of a hopeless future. Neither the liberals nor the NDP have attacked the problem at the source. They really have a smaller, less damaging measure of the same policy called CUTS. Cuts that lead to more debt as revenues we would have gained through spending are lost. True, it seems odd that we will all be in the poorhouse and ruined – except for a few—and that Canada with social programs will no longer exist—it seems odd but that is the way it is getting to be and will be when our politicians have either a lack of knowledge and policy or a lack of the courage needed to make some simple changes that would save us. The most extreme people of all are of course, the Harris people, and some of their cuts, as insane as they seem now, won't seem surprising when compared with insanity of what they will do tomorrow. This page will keep a record of those cuts and takeaways and will be a reference anyone can use when questioning the Harris Government.

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