At bat today on the Oakville Chamber of Commerce, "Oakville on Deck" interviews with our elected officials were Stephen Crawford, MPP Oakville and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure, and Effie Triantafilopolous, MPP Oakville North-Burlington and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Long-Term Care. Tomorrow's interview with the Honourable Anita Anand and MP Pam Damoff will occur at 11:30 am on the Chamber's Facebook page.
Chamber Past Chair Tim Caddigan had his hands full with a short time to interview two people at the heart of the Provincial government, in key roles in two of the most critical portfolios during the pandemic and in preparing the Province to emerge from it.
Stephen Crawford said he sees the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, with more than 50% of Ontario adults receiving a vaccine dose. He is pleased with the understanding of Oakville residents. While some are up in arms about the lockdowns, others feel they should be even stricter. Most residents realize the government is between a rock and a hard place as it seeks to balance the interests of students and businesses with the need to keep people safe while also managing hospital capacity. Mr. Crawford pointed out that even our local Oakville hospital is at capacity. Reducing cases to ensure the hospital can deal with other emergencies, such as car accidents or heart attacks, is essential. Mr. Crawford praised residents for their patience with the current health emergency restrictions and their understanding that the government must make tough decisions. There is no way to please everyone. The restrictions and fears affect everyone personally, making this an emotional issue, yet people have been very sympathetic to the position politicians are in.
He also commented on the way all levels of government have cooperated. Crawford feels Canada's lag in vaccine supply impacted the severity of this third wave. However, he points to Canada's and Ontario's overall case and death rates per capita as an indication that generally, as a country, we can be proud of how well we worked together. Other levels of government might see ways in which Ontario could have done better. Ontario wants more border control, even for interprovincial air travel. He believes, on balance, all levels of government have worked well together, and that benefits Ontarians.
Effie Triantafilopolous echoed Mr. Crawford’s comments about the challenges of finding the right balance in terms of protecting hospital space and keeping restrictions to the minimum consistent with safety. She also emphasized that the pandemic has derailed many of the initiatives she and the government had as priorities on assuming office.
In her role in the Ministry of Long-Term Care, she described the Long-Term Care situation her government inherited as broken. This situation came home to roost in the pandemic, as residents of the system, among those most vulnerable to the virus, found themselves exposed and infected, resulting in large numbers of deaths. The government has made substantial investments to modernize and to make the system more resident-focused. Currently, 95% of LTC residents are vaccinated, and the infection and death tolls have dropped dramatically.
Long-term care is an issue of continuing importance post-pandemic. With 40,000 Ontario seniors on LTC waitlists and an aging population affected by more complex medical problems, new LTC capacity is urgently required. From 2019, the Ford government committed to adding 30,000 new LTC beds in four years. It has already added 2/3. Since the pandemic started, the Ontario government has spent $2 billion keeping LTC residents safe and will spend a total of $4.9 billion. In Oakville, the province will build two new facilities with over 500 beds. As a part of the modernization, a new staffing plan will increase the number of Personal Care Workers and Nurses so that the in-person attention per patient will increase from 2.75 hours to 4 hours per patient per day.
Both Ms. Triantafilopolous and Mr. Crawford reiterated their optimism that the rapidly increasing vaccination rates mean life will soon return to some semblance of normal. Both are also very optimistic about Ontario’s ability to re-emerge as Canada’s growth engine. Ontario, said Mr. Crawford, was literally a North American miracle as government measures were beginning to take hold until the pandemic struck.
As to future priorities to reinvigorate the Ontario economy, Mr. Crawford emphasized the government's skills trades training initiatives, which received widespread Union support. Both he and Ms. Triantafilopolous were at pains to point out their commitment to environmental protection and expanding the greenbelt. In particular, Ms. Triantafilopolous introduced a private member's bill to expand the greenbelt, which received unanimous support. Given the difficulties of passing private member's bills, this is a notable achievement.
According to Ms. Triantafilopolous, $4 billion will be invested over six years in broadband infrastructure. The province will improve accessibility to government services online and make these services more customer-focused. The government has taken advantage of the necessity imposed by Covid-19 to accelerate these changes.
Mr. Crawford pointed out that 700,000 households in Ontario, some even in rural Halton, do not have broadband access, limiting their ability to do online learning. This means they do not have access to many goods and services increasingly available online. This is the top infrastructure issue for the Provincial government, as reflected in bill 251. The more Ontario households accessing broadband, he underlined, the more customers can patronize Oakville businesses.
Other budget highlights addressed by Triantafilopolous included:
- Small business pandemic relief grant program has been doubled, helping about 120,000 small Ontario businesses,
- Electricity cost assistance program ensures Ontario businesses are competitive with their US counterparts.
- Employer Health Tax reduction
- Addition of 3 sick days paid by the Ontario government so that small businesses are not financially burdened when employees stay home for a Covid test or other pandemic-related precaution. The additional paid sick days add to the 20 days paid by the Federal government
- Ontario Jobs training tax credit
- Doubling of child care benefits
- 300,000 more child care spaces through the Ministry of Education
Nevertheless, Stephen Crawford cautioned that Provincial debt would very much be on the government's agenda once the pandemic is over. Pointing out that his government inherited the largest sub-sovereign debt in the world and then had to deal with necessary and fully justified expenses to deal with the pandemic, he was emphatic that getting deficits under control would be a government priority once the pandemic was behind us.
The two MPPs have clearly had to roll with significant challenges and derailments of their and the government’s agendas due to the pandemic. They have faced challenges from constituents on both sides of the lockdown policy issue. However, they both demonstrated both humility and professionalism, acknowledging that there might have been different steps taken by all levels of government, including their own, and refreshingly focusing on co-operation rather than finger-pointing. This is the kind of collegial results-oriented collaboration among levels of government Canadians appreciate.
They both expressed optimism that the summer will bring substantial relief from the pandemic and that life will be increasingly normal by September. Their key priorities now are to stay the course on distributing vaccines and controlling infections in the short term and to drive a strong economic recovery as the pandemic ends.