What Matters at the Ballot Box Is Doug Ford’s Record Dismantling Public Services Not His “Captain Canada” Guise

New book Against the People finds Ontarians harmed by PC policies

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The trail of harm of the policies of the Doug Ford government has regrettably touched many Ontarians, finds a new and timely book, Against the People (Fernwood).

As Ontarians face an early election with Ford playing the role of ‘Captain Canada’ against the threat of U.S. tariffs, contributors to the book - academics, economists, health care workers, human rights lawyers, housing researchers, NGO specialists, teachers, Indigenous and community leaders – prioritize the voices of those most directly impacted by the destructive policies of the Ontario PC government.

Against the People finds deteriorating health and educational outcomes, a growing housing and cost-of-living crisis, all made worse by privileged insider access that harms regular Ontarians.

The book cuts through the Ford slogans and advertising to look at his government’s aggressive assault on social programs, labour and tenants’ rights and environmental protections and instead identifies real solutions to the complex problems facing Ontarians.

Ford Nation has put tens of billions of dollars back into the pockets of the business community, often directly out of public coffers that puts Ontario at the bottom of all ten provinces on per capita program spending. Few ministries and programs have been left unscathed. Most people have not benefitted.

Key take aways from the book include:

• Between 2021 and 2024 housing costs in Ontario increased by 23% and food costs 24%.
• In 2018, tenants waited 40 days for a hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Today the average wait is 277 days.
• One in ten people in Toronto routinely visit a food bank.
• The government has prioritized tax cuts and subsidies for corporations, totaling nearly $10 billion annually significantly reducing government revenue and contributing to the perceived fiscal crisis.
• Lower provincial government funding of hospitals Ontario today than in any other province. If Ontario hospitals were staffed at the same per capita levels as other provinces, Ontario would have close to an additional 35,000 extra full-time staff to deal with the health care emergency in this province. And had the Ford government kept spending consistent with population growth, that would mean close to an additional 1,900 hospital beds.
• The number of Ontarians with developmental disabilities waiting for supportive housing has grown by 10,000 since the Ford government took office.
• Ontario Disability Support Program rates, in real terms, have been frozen at 2018 levels, while inflation-adjusted social assistance rates are lower today than when the last Conservative party governed Ontario in the early-2000s.
• The cost-of-living crisis has also gotten worse, with some 45 percent of Ontario households spending 30 percent or more of their total income on shelter, the highest on record and across the country.

Quotes from the authors:

“The contemporary Ontario Conservatives, the party of Ford Nation, is a vehicle to move Ontario toward a deep market fundamentalism and thereby remake how citizens relate to their government. The effect is to ultimately accept there is no such thing as a social contract binding different components of society to one another. It is, in many ways, an Ontario version of Margaret Thatcher’s proclamation that ‘there is no such thing as society’ but there is always business.” Bryan Evans, Professor Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University.

"In the time since the Ford government was first elected, there are nearly 5,000 fewer educational workers, 35,000 fewer health care workers, almost 2,000 fewer hospital beds and an additional one million more Ontarians without a family doctor than there would be had the government kept pace with inflation and population growth.

Forty percent of Ontarians today — the most of any province — report living in a household that is experiencing financial hardship and say they are considering leaving the province due to low wages, rising debt loads and unaffordable food and housing costs. Unremedied, the scale and immediacy of this social and economic crisis is likely to leave a generational scar." Carlo Fanelli, Associate Professor Work and Labour Studies Program, York University, Interim Director, Global Labour Research Centre

"The minimum wage in Ontario is $17.20 an hour. That translates to just over $33,500 a year before taxes. But in Toronto, that falls $5,000 short of Canada's Official Poverty Line. This is unacceptable." Maria Rio, CEO Further Together (Chapter: Why are People in Ontario Hungry?)

“Ontarians who face a housing dispute with their landlord or tenant, who experience sexual harassment or discrimination in their workplace, who need compensation after a motor vehicle injury, now face an inaccessible justice process at some of Ontario's busiest tribunals. It's not fair and it isn't getting better.” Kathy Laird, former tribunal lawyer and adjudicator, now with Tribunal Watch (Chapter: Everyday Justice in Doug Ford’s Ontario)

"The Ford government’s policies have led to a decline in Ontario's economy, with austerity measures and privatization hurting public services. Ontario's per person spending is the lowest compared to other provinces. The government prioritizes the wealthy, resulting in increased inequality and a higher cost of living. The focus must shift to the needs of all Ontarians." Venai Raniga, CUPE National Researcher (Chapter: Manufacturing a Fiscal Crisis)

"While the $10-a-day child care plan has been rolling out in every province and territory, here in Ontario the Ford government has been an unwilling and stagnant partner at best, and, at worst, has actively subverted the federal program’s goals to create affordable non-profit and public child care for Ontario families. Instead, they continue to push for unlimited privatization." Carolyn Ferns, Public Policy Coordinator Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (Chapter: Child Care When Convenient)

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