Policy researcher, retired record & book peddler. Transit, housing, land use, energy, infrastructure & misc
#onpoli
wonkery.
#ONDP
. Tweets my own (he/him)
Ontario's Financial Accountability Officer says the Ford government failed to spend $5.5 billion in budgeted cash so far this year, including $670M unspent on public health, $554M unspent on schools, and $1.1B unspent on social supports like ODSP
#onpoli
The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers calls on all political parties to cancel the current plan to build Highway 413: “The current Highway 413 project is not the correct answer to Ontario’s gridlock and climate change concerns”
#onpoli
After Doug Ford claimed “thousands” of new homes could be built on the Ontario Science Centre site, the Toronto Region Conservation Authority pointed out that most of the site is floodplain, marsh & steep ravine: “it is not buildable”
#onpoli
#TOpoli
Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer has found that the Ford government failed to spend $7.2 billion of its budget last year, including $1.7 billion unspent on health as ERs are closing and surgery waitlists are growing
#onpoli
Interestingly, a Hamilton tree farmer received three purchase offers for his land *in a single day* just weeks before Minister Steve Clark announced that this land would be added into Hamilton’s urban boundary 🤔
#onpoli
Call it corruption: "'Go ahead, come after me,' Stiles said on Tuesday when asked if she was concerned about legal liability. 'I would love to hear your arguments and see all the evidence that gets presented in the discovery process. Bring it on'"
#onpoli
Last month you spoke at a rally organized by the Islamophobic yellow vests, with white nationalist Faith Goldy. Your campaign manager co-founded hatemongering Rebel Media, where your MPs still appear. You have been validating hate & mobilizing bigots for votes. Resign
#cdnpoli
Freedom has come under attack in New Zealand as peaceful worshippers are targeted in a despicable act of evil. All people must be able to practice their faith freely and without fear. 1/2
"IT FELT DIRTY": a Global News investigation reveals that people connected to premier Doug Ford, including former staffers, sent flyers to developers seeking donations to raise money for his daughter's wedding last year
#onpoli
Doug Ford has put a lifetime cap of $140,000 on funding to treat a child with autism, but he will pay a failed PC candidate $140,000 every year for a job that previously paid $3,600
#onpoli
Ford has appointed a failed PC candidate as EQAO chair, with a salary that is nearly 40 times what the previous chair made. “It’s not a full-time job, and I don’t know how you make it into a full-time job,” says former EQAO board member
#onpoli
"When you’re the Premier, you are held to a higher standard than the average father of the bride, especially when the guest list includes lobbyists & developers who have since received suspiciously favourable changes to the law," said
@maritstiles
#onpoli
There are more than 3,000 Metrolinx employees on the sunshine list this year who pull in a total of $410,117,370 in salaries and 1,720,710 in benefits.
In March 2023, Metrolinx reported a total headcount of 6,000 employees.
About half the workforce earns six figures.
#onpoli
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario warns that while the Ford government’s Bill 23 may benefit private interests, it will cost municipal taxpayers up to $1 billion/year, won’t improve housing affordability, and will harm the environment
#onpoli
Powerful landowner & PC donor Silvio DeGasperis bought protected Greenbelt farmland cheap, and then spent two decades lobbying to get the protections removed. Doug Ford is about to make him much, much richer. This is about speculation, not housing
#onpoli
Toronto Star editorial: “That Amato & Clark still have jobs is incredulous. That the PC government is pushing ahead with this flawed Greenbelt development defies belief. The entire affair requires an immediate investigation by the OPP”
#onpoli
Court of Appeal issues scathing ruling rejecting the Ford government’s attempt to grant itself immunity from nearly all negligence lawsuits, a measure that was snuck into an omnibus bill in 2019 by then-AG Caroline Mulroney
#onpoli
Indigenous leaders across Ontario are calling for the repeal of Bill 23 after the Ford government failed to uphold its constitutional duty to consult
#onpoli
The Globe & Mail calls the Ford government’s defence of its Greenbelt giveaway “one of the more disingenuous bits of political theatre in recent history. The PCs’ damage control is positively avant-garde in its contempt for voters’ intelligence”
#onpoli
The Ford government hasn’t published any of Ontario Place’s annual reports since it took office. An FOI from
@Thetrilliumca
revealed it was profitable last year & attracted nearly 3 million visitors:
Today the NDP asked what else Ford is hiding 🧵
#onpoli
.
@MaritStiles
in QP asks why the government is hiding the attendance figures for Ontario Place? 2.9 million visited OP last year. In response, platitudes and lies like "We're protecting natural heritage", how by cutting 1,500 trees?
#onpoli
#topoli
The TTC has a $26 billion capital repair backlog, but 44% of Toronto’s transportation capital budget is going towards rebuilding the underused Gardiner East
#TOpoli
Toronto Star editorial: “When developers on the receiving end of favourable government decisions are mixing it up with the premier at family gatherings, that makes it a matter of public concern”
#onpoli
Former health minister Christine Elliott is now a lobbyist for Clearpoint, a chain of private surgical clinics and a top beneficiary of the Ford government’s privatization of healthcare services
#onpoli
#ONhealth
Premier Doug Ford's government gives a for-profit clinic more funding to perform certain OHIP-covered surgeries than it gives Ontario's public hospitals to perform the same operations, CBC News has learned. .
“Lysyk also found ‘several examples’ unrelated to the Greenbelt of political staffers appearing to give ‘preferential treatment’ to lobbyists, potentially violating their code of ethics”
“‘I’ve called this corruption’ said NDP Leader
@maritstiles
”
#onpoli
Ontario Financial Accountability Officer finds that the Ford government has failed to allocate billions in federal
#covid19
funds, including $382 million intended for the Safe Return to School Fund
#onpoli
Helpful reminder that Doug Ford is spinning when he says he was “cleared” by the Integrity Commissioner. There was no investigation or inquiry. The IC simply provided an opinion based on whatever information he was given by the premier
#onpoli
Note: Highway 407 is the only provincial highway with tolls
Fun fact: in 2021, the Ford government waived $1 billion in congestion penalties owed by the private 407 ETR operator for setting tolls too high
#onpoli
Disappointment & anger as Brampton council learns that the ‘world class’ hospital Doug Ford promised in March will not be a full-service hospital after all, will have 250 beds not 850, and requires a $125M local funding share
#onpoli
#ONhealth
#brampoli
Reminder that Doug Ford’s attacks on the Greenbelt have always been about delivering profits to powerful land speculators who are friends and donors of Doug Ford and the PC Party
#onpoli
Toronto Star editorial board: “Fire Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, halt the development of Greenbelt lands and call in the cops”
#onpoli
“On Sept 15, a company controlled by developer Michael Rice bought the property for $80M. The agent promoted it as a ‘prime land-banking opportunity’ … a person with the name Michael Rice donated more than $10.5K to the PC Party since 2018” 🤔
#onpoli
Private interests, 99-year leases, secret backroom deals, no transparency, no accountability — Therme’s Ontario Place deal looks a lot like the privatization of Highway 407, says the former public servant who oversaw that highway’s construction
#onpoli
During the pandemic, the Ford govt has quietly issued several Minister’s Zoning Orders on behalf of well-connected developers & PC donors, paving over farmland & destroying wetlands without public notice or consultation. Scoop by
@jeffreybgray
#onpoli
“The relationship between the government & developers who benefited from having lands removed from the Greenbelt needs to be explored by an investigating agency with criminal investigative powers in its quiver,” writes
@CanadaGray
of
@envirodefence
#onpoli
Strategic voting: because of its reliance on astonishingly inaccurate riding-by-riding projection models (curiously, mostly skewed towards Liberals), “strategic voting” may have helped elect MORE conservative MPPs, including Doug Ford’s nephew
#onpoli
#OntarioVotes
“A tally by the Ontario NDP finds that just four guests at a Ford family wedding reception benefited from as many MZOs as previous Liberal governments issued in total over the course of their 15 years in power”
#onpoli
In the wake of the Greenbelt scandal, there’s new scrutiny of how the Ford government has handed out 100+ fast-track zoning orders (MZOs) for properties around Ontario.
I’ll discuss just after 7am on
@metromorning
👇to read full story 👇
#onpoli
“The company actually sits at the heart of a complicated network of subsidiaries” — the Ford government won't, or can't, reveal who is financing Therme, which risked bankruptcy just 3 years ago, but was given a 95-year lease for Ontario Place 🤔
#onpoli
Ford government staffers working on the Greenbelt removals in 2022 edited emails to remove references to “Greenbelt” and replace them with the code word “G*”, FOI documents reveal
“What this looks like is intent to conceal,” said
@MaritStiles
#onpoli
The Ford government is giving itself the power to appoint the regional chairs of Peel, York and Niagara councils. These appointees will be accountable to Doug Ford and whatever PC donor has his ear, and not local voters. Unbelievable
#onpoli
Last year the Auditor General reported that politics, not evidence, was driving highway planning in Ontario. Perhaps this is why the Ford government does not want the public to know the estimated costs of major projects like Highway 413
#onpoli
As Doug Ford’s Attorney General, Caroline Mulroney normalized the use of the Notwithstanding Clause to suspend Charter rights, blocked victims of government negligence from suing, imposed deep cuts to Legal Aid, and broke the Landlord & Tenant Board
#onpoli
@TorontoStar
Mulroney, now transportation minister, has a New York law licence, but wasn't called to the bar in Ontario even during her tenure as AG. The Law Society says it's in the process of adding her to its registry of lawyers after she was called last week
Doug Ford’s attacks on education workers may seem unrelated to his gifts to pro-sprawl developers, but these issues have intersected before, like that time a group of PC-friendly developers ran an an illegal astroturf campaign against teachers
#onpoli
Why is Minister Surma refusing to answer when asked if Therme's Ontario Place bid required a publicly-funded parking garage? Because if it did, then under the terms of the government's Call For Development, it should have been rejected
#onpoli
“Reversing the decision to open up the Greenbelt to development is the only way the Government can regain the trust of farmers and all Ontarians,” says the National Farmer’s Union - Ontario
#onpoli
Toronto Star editorial: “Ford appears to be creating a regime of arbitrary personal favour, in which conduct doesn’t matter, norms, policies and standards do not matter, the judgment of institutions does not matter. Only loyalty to the leader does”
#onpoli
The same month the Ford govt announced its Greenbelt removals, the Ontario NDP tabled a motion with detailed proposals to build housing without destroying farmland or the Greenbelt. The PCs used their majority to quash the motion without a debate
#onpoli
Ontario's in a housing crisis.
Let's get to work building the homes we need... at prices people can actually afford... in neighbourhoods people actually want to live in.
We don't need to bulldoze our Greenbelt & farmlands for that... and Ontarians know it.
#onpoli
I don’t need more pictures of Lonsdale apartments.
I don’t need more pictures of Lonsdale apartments.
I don’t need more pictures of Lonsdale apartments.
I don’t need more pictures of Lonsdale apartments.
I don’t nee……damn it!
Health clinics were caught charging illegal fees, but the Ford government won’t disclose which clinics broke the law because it could prejudice their “competitive position”
#onpoli
#ONhealth
Durham’s CAO warns there is no infrastructure in the areas proposed for removal from the Greenbelt (eg: Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve). This contradicts the Ford government’s claim it chose these areas for their easy access to infrastructure
#onpoli
A government that just gave high-income earners a $275 million tax cut really should stop telling desperate families that Ontario can’t afford to provide adequate treatment for kids with autism
#onpoli
#AutismDoesntEndAtFord
“Is the premier using his personal phone to conduct government business to avoid freedom-of-information requests?” asked NDP leader
@MaritStiles
#onpoli
“Abundantly clear there was a relationship”: texts show that Doug Ford’s former principal secretary visited a Greenbelt developer’s mansion multiple times, contradicting his sworn testimony to the Integrity Commissioner. Scoop by
@CharliePinkerto
#onpoli
Secret backroom deals with favoured insiders, no accountability or transparency: the Ford government’s 95-year Therme deal for Ontario Place has the same bad smell as its corrupt Greenbelt giveaway
#onpoli
A partisan ad campaign by the Ford government is costing taxpayers about $8 million, CBC reports. “Governments shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars trying to puff themselves up,” said NDP leader
@MaritStiles
#onpoli
FOI documents obtained by the Ontario NDP reveal Ford government’s secret “Phase 2” plan for Ontario Place that includes paving over Lake Ontario
#onpoli
Pickering mayor Kevin Ashe received campaign donations from several developers who benefitted from the Greenbelt removals (but not many donations from actual Pickering residents, it seems 🤔)
#onpoli
The internal document says the publicly-funded Therme parking garage is needed "to meet landlord lease obligations." This conflicts with conditions in the Call For Development, which told bidders the government would NOT fund additional facilities
#onpoli
How Ontario cooked its own books: “Ontarians have a $5.6B deficit because Ford govt wanted a deficit. Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement added $2.5B to a contingency fund, bringing it to $5.4B, and also kept a $1B reserve
The cupboard isn’t bare”
#onpoli
Preferential treatment: the Ford government says it will massively expand the Mayfield West MZO in Caledon, evidently at the request of PC donor Nick Cortellucci’s Brookvalley Project Management. The MZO expansion was not requested by the town
#onpoli
Doug Ford told minister Clark to develop processes for “swaps” & “contractions” of Greenbelt land, breaking his promise not to touch “anywhere” in the Greenbelt. It is impossible he & Clark were not closely involved in what would certainly be a controversial policy change
#onpoli
The Ford government won’t hire nurses or keep emergency rooms open, but it will spend millions of public dollars on partisan ads. "This ad is basically giving themselves a pat on their back,” said NDP affordability critic
@BhutilaKarpoche
#onpoli
The Ford government has been quietly breaking the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The tribunal once issued 100 decisions a year, but now issues just 16. Nearly 9,000 cases wait to be heard
#onpoli
#ONlaw
The Ford government just tabled a bill that would repeal the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act, allowing Doug Ford to remove 4,500 acres of prime farmland from the Greenbelt — and making the powerful PC donor who owns 1,500 acres in the Preserve much, much richer
#onpoli
Anyone else having a deja vu? Here's a flashback from the LONG HISTORY of fighting for the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve.
#SaveDRAP
#SaveTheGreenbelt
The action today? Call Premier Ford, Call Minister Bethlenfalvy, Call Pickering Mayor-Elect Ashe, call your councillors!!
A well-connected developer bought Greenbelt land right before the Ford govt opened it up for development. Turns out, the developer had already been discussing a development proposal with Southlake & King Twp officials. Great scoop by
@jillsmahoney
#onpoli
Follow the money: "A search of the land registry shows several long-time PC party donors have interests in a number of sites the ministry favoured in its amendments, and others are owned by land developers who lobbied the government extensively"
#onpoli
The MZO benefits Lakeview Community Partners, which include TACC, owned by the powerful DeGasperis family, the biggest winner from recent Greenbelt removals. Lakeview's lobbyist, Nico Fidani-Diker, was at Doug Ford's daughter's wedding reception
#onpoli
Doug Ford hammered over changes to municipal boundaries: “What we are seeing is act two of the Greenbelt corruption crisis,” said NDP leader
@MaritStiles
#onpoli
At an industry luncheon, Calandra told developers he is sorry the Ford government’s corruption made the beneficiaries of the corruption look bad. A guest said “What the hell was he doing? It makes it look like the government & the development industry are in bed together”
#onpoli
NEW: Premier Doug Ford’s new housing minister has apologized to developers for the government's "mistakes" in the Greenbelt scandal that is now under RCMP investigation.
#onpoli
Ford has cut $25 million from after-school programs for needy kids, just three weeks after he gave away $34.5 million to a client of the Ford family business that is cutting 300 jobs
#onpoli
#StarExclusive
: The Ford government has cut funding for programs that provide after-school jobs for needy teens, classroom tutors, “student success” supports for racialized youth and a project focusing on Indigenous issues, the Star has learned.
#ONpoli
One of Ontario’s biggest construction companies, owned by the powerful De Gasperis family, has been criminally charged in the deaths of six young people
#onpoli
The City of Ajax has long opposed this plan to pave over the Carruthers Creek headwaters, which would increase flood risks downstream and threaten 4,000 acres of prime farmland. The powerful landowner seeking this MZO is a big PC donor. Background:
#onpoli
An internal document suggests the Ford government might use the new Canadian Disability Benefit to “mitigate costs” by clawing back ODSP payments
#onpoli
#cdnpoli
“Those emergency powers were, by law, only to be used when nothing else would do. So many of those other legal powers were in Mr. Ford’s jurisdiction. The inquiry will have to hear Ontario’s explanation for why they weren’t enough”
#onpoli
Preferential treatment: the Ford government rewrote Hamilton’s official plan using the *exact words* provided by a developer who had bought tickets to Doug Ford’s daughter’s stag & doe. The developer also got land removed from the Greenbelt
#onpoli
#hamont
The Ford government planned for at least two ADDITIONAL Greenbelt removals, quietly amending York’s official plan to enable development on protected farmland. The Ford government’s changes to municipal OPs were as shady as the Greenbelt removals
#onpoli
Why it's getting harder for Doug Ford to sidestep blame for Greenbelt scandal — More evidence emerges premier’s office involved in picking properties for development. Story by
@CBCQueensPark
#onpoli
“Tapeworm economy”: a useful term via
@ArmineYalnizyan
describing the harmful infiltration of private interests into public systems — “like introducing a parasite that slowly robs the body of nutrients and destroys its organs”
#onpoli
“The tapeworm economy has arrived in Ontario”: Why is Ontario embracing private health care? The Scandinavian experience shows it hurts both the quality and choice of care, writes
@ArmineYalnizyan
#onpoli
#ONhealth
“Unprecedented”: FOI documents reveal that the Ford government’s rewrites of Toronto’s midtown plan in 2019 were provided by political staffers, not the ministry’s professional planners 🤔
#onpoli
#TOpoli
Accessible? Nearly half of surveyed science teachers in Ontario said a relocated Ontario Science Centre would be LESS accessible, according to the Auditor General
#onpoli
The Ford government recently appointed a developer & PC donor to a committee to protect species at risk, despite allegations he had unlawfully misappropriated millions of dollars from construction projects for personal use
#onpoli
Thread (warning: wonkish) — A recent report by the Financial Accountability Officer raises serious questions about the transparency of the Ford government’s current spending plans
#onpoli
Guillotine watch: Loblaws raises ‘hero pay’ for ... its shareholders. No pandemic pay for front-line workers. Weston family net worth is up by $1.6 billion since March 💰🐖
#covid19
“The province’s acting auditor general is running two fresh investigations about Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre. Which is excellent news for the public, because Mr. Ford’s plans for those two sites – two beloved public places – stink,” writes
@alexbozikovic
#onpoli
This for-profit business, owned by a donor to Lecce’s reelection campaign, is being sued after driving away most staff at a daycare it acquired, where Lecce’s federally-funded grants are being used to top up worker pay the new owner cut to minimum wage
We made history by opening 🇨🇦's largest child care center!
After cutting fees by 50%, I was proud to cut the ribbon at Lullaboo supporting 360 kids with
@sandhuamarjot1
&
@SherefSabawyPC
.
A big win for moms who no longer have to choose between working & raising their kids. 👏🏼👏🏼
“This deal needs more scrutiny, not less. Ford should stop ripping up environmental and heritage laws, and prepare a proper environmental assessment for the Ontario Place redevelopment,” said NDP leader
@MaritStiles
#onpoli
NEW: The Ford government has tabled legislation that would give itself significant new powers to fast-track the redevelopment of Ontario Place and exclude it from environmental laws, including the power to issue MZOs on the site.
#Onpoli
Ryan Amato is also engaged to the chief of staff of infrastructure minister Kinga Surma, who oversees the Ontario Place redevelopment, the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre & the government's multibillion-dollar P3 procurement program
#onpoli
Curiously-timed Greenbelt purchase by developers whose lobbyist attended Doug Ford’s daughter’s wedding: “These dealings are beyond suspicious, and nobody is believing that the timing of when these lands were purchased is just a coincidence,” said NDP MPP
@shaw_sandy
#onpoli
High-profile builders purchased an Ancaster Greenbelt property just weeks before Ontario announced plans to strip development protections from the area,
@teviahmoro
and
@mattatthespec
report
#HamOnt
#OnPoli
“Last week, Stiles made Tory MPPs visibly uncomfortable during the legislature’s question period when she taunted them by recounting that Ontario PC Fund chair Tony Miele sold $150 tickets to the bachelor party for the fiancé of Ford’s daughter”
#onpoli
BREAKING: RCMP investigators probing Premier Doug Ford’s $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal will begin interviewing people this week, sources told the
@TorontoStar
.
#onpoli
On Ontario Place, Ford is ‘getting it done’ at the cost of democratic norms: “Ford govt is cursed with the overconfidence of the mediocre. It’s certain of itself in the way only the least capable & most shortsighted tend to be,” says
@David_Moscrop
#onpoli
Trudeau is blaming the NDP for Doug Ford? During the 2018 election, the Liberals made the cynical decision to attack the NDP instead of Ford in order to help themselves. They spent the last days of their campaign saying “Stop the NDP,” sounding just like Ford
#cdnpoli
#onpoli
If Doug Ford wanted to signal a shift away from the mindless cruelty shown so far by his government, he shouldn’t have appointed to cabinet the PC MPP who compared cancer patients needing life-saving drugs to spoiled children demanding ice cream
#onpoli
Shoppers bills Ontario taxpayers $75 for each medication review. Unnecessary reviews divert public money from the healthcare system to Loblaw shareholders. Recently the president of Shoppers claimed “we don't have targets”
Seems he lied
#onpoli
#ONhealth
More than a dozen current and former Shoppers Drug Mart associate owners and pharmacists tell CBC News the chain sets targets for medication reviews, and corporate management pressures owners to meet them. .