The clock is already ticking on Doug Ford's agenda
Ford must act immediately on two promises and four major initiatives to define his legacy
Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario promised to “Get it Done” during the June provincial election. Voters agreed and gave Ford a commanding mandate of 83 seats in the 124-seat Ontario legislature. Ford’s ministry has now been sworn into their roles. It’s time to get things done.
What to do first?
That’s easy. There are two promises Ford must deliver on right now – and four major initiatives he needs to launch when the 43rd Parliament of Ontario begins its first session.
On election night, I wondered aloud which Doug Ford we re-elected. Is it the “Bull in a China Shop” Doug? Or “High-Spending Buddy” Ford? The fact is, Doug Ford has reinvented the PC Party of Ontario – and himself – as pragmatic centrists. He’s got a strong 4-year mandate ahead of him, no organized opposition against him and a cozy working relationship with Justin Trudeau’s federal government – which also has three years of clear sailing to work with.
There can be no better time than right now to make some big, audacious moves to achieve the promises he made during the election campaign.
Cost of living was the Big Issue in the election. Healthcare, a perennial issue, might have been bigger – but no one believes any of the parties had a solution to what’s broken in our healthcare system. Probably because our healthcare system cannot be fixed by nibbling around the edges and pouring more cash into the problem.
Here’s what Doug Ford needs to do right now.
First – Immediately expand on the gas tax reduction he promised. A 5.7% gas tax reduction for six months is already legislated to come into force on Canada Day, July 1st. Ford should consider significantly increasing the discount. He has the fiscal room buried in the contingencies of the budget he tabled prior to the election. And, he should publicly call on Justin Trudeau to do the same with federal gas taxes.
Second – He must immediately increase Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits by the 5% he promised during the campaign. If this requires legislation, it should be the first Bill he puts to the legislature when it resumes. If it simply requires and Order-in-Council, he should do so at the first meeting of his new cabinet.
Then, Ford should launch four major initiatives.
1 – A Major Revision to Municipal Housing Rules.
If Ford is going to deliver 1.5 million new homes in the next 10 years, municipal zoning rules and regulations, excessive bureaucracy and red tape, and neighbourhood NIMBYism all need to be overcome. Every party in the legislature agreed on the target of 150,000 new homes per year over 10 years. Every party also promised to change municipal zoning rules and eliminate red tape. So, Ford has a clear and compelling mandate to drive change – whether municipalities like it or not. A little bit of 2018-style “Big Foot” Ford would go a long way to make speedy progress on this file.
2 – A Massive Initiative to Grow the Skilled Trades.
There are many great programs in place – alongside union sponsorship – to get people into the skilled trades. But, they’re all too small. We need a massive initiative to train tens of thousands – not tens of dozens – of skilled tradespeople across Ontario to deliver on Ford’s housing promises – not to mention his promised (and long overdue) orgy of construction of highways and public infrastructure.
Once again, every political party in Ontario agrees more skilled trades are needed. That gives Ford the runway he needs to do something truly exceptional to change the education and vocational paradigm that exists in this province. Skilled trades are great jobs. They pay well – far better than most jobs available to new university graduates. It’s time to end the stigma and celebrate the trades. Ontario should aim to overshoot our domestic need for tradespeople and aim to export skilled tradespeople to the world.
3 – A Complete Review of Health Care.
All of our health systems in Canada are broken and have been for generations. No one government destroyed them. Every government ignored the problems and let them fester.
During the pandemic crisis, we finally saw parts of Ontario’s system collapse. Our primary health care networks, hospitals, mental health and public health systems are all relics of the 1950’s. Everybody, of every political persuasion, agrees on this.
We don’t all agree on the solutions. Which is not at all surprising, since nobody knows what the solutions are. To date, we’ve heard nothing but vested interests arguing for the enrichment of those they represent at the expense of everyone else. Politicians revert to ideological form on this issue. Just as they have done for 50 years.
But the time for ideology is over. Canadians have seen the Emperor without clothes and it is a terrifying sight. As citizens, we must demand a full and complete autopsy on health care and an abandonment of ideological sacred cows. We need pragmatic solutions for very real challenges.
More money alone is not going to fix anything. We need to start from first principles: Patients need care. No one should go without because they can’t pay. Now what?
Why do we have to do things the way we’ve always done them? We may not find the answers quickly or easily, but the sooner we get started on an honest attempt to re-engineer and rebuild our health care system for the 21st Century, the better. Ford has a clear mandate to get this started. We may fight the next election over which answer is best.
4 – A Complete Overhaul of Ontario’s Social Safety Nets.
Ford should follow his promised increase in ODSP rates with a complete overhaul of the program. I expect we spend more money making sure nobody gets a dollar they don’t need, than we save by doing so. That’s certainly the case with housing and shelter support in Toronto. Fewer dollars spent paying bureaucrats means more dollars available to benefit those in need.
An overhauled ODSP could be the perfect test-case for a Universal Basic Income, delivered in partnership with the federal government, that improves benefits without increasing costs. Lessons learned from improving ODSP could be applied to the Ontario Works program and other social safety nets that cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year to deliver frugal benefits to our most vulnerable populations.
Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau have been able to work effectively together before. This would be a partnership that would secure both their places in the history books.
What do you want Ontario’s new government to prioritize?