Ford’s speech from the throne was delivered yesterday by Canada’s Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell marked the start of a new legislative session and speech and touched on the crumbling healthcare system, the continuous spike of inflation, and boosting disability benefits among others.
The Speech from the Throne opens every new session of Parliament and is traditionally read by Canada’s Governor General.
During his throne speech on Tuesday Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledged that he could not offer new solutions to ease health system pressures that led to temporary emergency room closures across the province and added that his government is working with health-system stakeholders to identify ideas to tackle the issue.
Being a premier since 2018, Dowdeswell in the speech touted what Ford has already done in health, including the addition of thousands of hospital beds and nurses, investing in home and community care, and introducing a grant to attract health professionals to rural and remote areas, and planning to build 30,000 new long-term care beds.
“While these historical investments have helped to support the province’s health system… continues to experience significant pressures, including an exhausted workforce and increasingly stressed emergency departments…More can still be done…to identify urgent, actionable solutions and will implement whatever measures are needed to help ease immediate pressures, while also ensuring the province is ready to stay open during any winter surge,” Dowdeswell said in her speech.
Emergency departments across Ontario have closed for hours or days at a time this summer, which stakeholders and advocates say is due to a nurse staffing crisis.
Ford indicated through the speech that while working to address “short-term stressors,” the government will make long-term investments to create a “Roadmap to Wellness” plan for mental health and addictions care.
As promised during the election the government will boost disability support payments by five percent and tie future increases to inflation, noted the throne with an offer of a new pledge to give an additional $225 million in direct payments to parents to help their kids catch up.
Ford added that both of those measures will be funded from contingencies in the budget.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy reintroduced the budget immediately after the throne speech.
A global growing sense of uncertainty amid COVID-19, high inflation, and the war in Ukraine impacting supply chains were discussed during the throne speech remarks opening.
“Unprecedented spending throughout the pandemic has created new fiscal challenges here in Ontario and across Canada…these looming fiscal and economic challenges cannot be understated or ignored. They must be confronted head on. And there are no easy solutions,” the speech said.
When warned by the speech that Ontario, like the rest of the country, must be prepared for the possibility of a near-term economic slowdown due to rising interest rates in response to high inflation, Ford pledged to chart a path forward based on economic growth, not by painful tax hikes or spending cuts.
“Your government will continue to do what has served this province’s economy so well: cut red tape, keep taxes low, foster an environment that attracts global capital and make targeted investments that strengthen Ontario’s competitive advantage,” the speech said.
Key parts of Ford’s agenda, including building highways and other infrastructure, attracting electric vehicle manufacturing investment, and a skilled trades strategy to address a labor shortage, were largely touted by the speech.
When the Ford government indicated that a so-called strong mayor bill is coming Wednesday to grant more powers to the leaders of Toronto and Ottawa, the speech suggested that those powers will help get housing built more quickly.
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