While negotiators for the province and the Canadian Union of Public Employees were still struggling on Sunday to patch together an agreement to head off an Ontario-wide closure of elementary schools this morning, a question needed to be asked: Why?
Is there no intelligent leadership at Queen’s Park? Are there no adults to run the province?
No premier with common sense would have let his education minister introduce an unnecessary, anti-democratic piece of legislation like Bill-28, the “Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022,” then use his majority to ram it through, from second reading to royal assent, in a single day.
It took more than the two-day strike by CUPE’s 55,000 education support workers plus the spectre of a provincial general strike to bring Premier Doug Ford to his senses. It took opinion polls. He suddenly discovered, to his surprise, that the public was not with him. Ontarians were very clear. They overwhelmingly wanted schools kept open; they wanted teachers and support workers to be treated fairly; they felt the four years of minimal pay increases imposed by Bill-28 were unfair; and they were strongly opposed to using the “notwithstanding clause” to suspend collective bargaining rights.
An impatient politician who governs by instinct, not intellect or careful thought, Ford ate humble pie. He offered an enhanced salary package (15.2 per cent over four years, effectively double the amount in Bill-28). The union celebrated its victory.
But wait! What was acceptable a week ago became unacceptable to CUPE, an outfit that could also benefit from sensible, adult leadership.
The union upped the ante. It bore down on demands for increased staff in the schools, including an early childhood educator in every kindergarten, not just in classes with 15 or more students.
The first crisis of the month could have been avoided if government hadn’t overreached with Bill-28. The second crisis – the walkout looming today – could have been avoided with common sense on the union side: accept the money and cut the government some slack on the staff increases.
Not surprisingly, Ford dug in his heels. The tough-guy shtick is important to him. It is his nature to plow ahead regardless. His “super mayors” scheme is an example. It increases the government’s control over municipal decision-making – in the interest of speedier decisions – by restricting input from elected councils and councillors.
It’s the same with the contentious “MZO’s” – Minister’s Zoning Orders – by which the provincial cabinet can override municipal or regional zoning and bypass environmental reviews to authorize major projects the government fancies – housing, shopping centres, giant warehouses, roads, parking lots, gravel pits abutting residential streets, or whatever – without consulting area residents or their elected representatives. In Doug Ford’s Ontario: consultation creates red tape and serves only to waste precious time.
MZO’s are being used to permit development in the Greenbelt around the GTA – something Ford had sworn he would never allow. It comes as no surprise to anyone around Queen’s Park that some of the prime parcels of land being liberated by MZO’s are owned by known developer friends of the Progressive Conservative government.
Last week brought the “Better Municipal Governance Act,” written, so Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said, “to remove the obstacles standing in the way of much-needed housing” – of which the Ford government plans 1.5 million new units over 10 years.
The obstacles, it turns out, are regional governments. Clark’s legislation would give him the power to replace the heads of the regional councils in Niagara, Peel and York for the 2022-2026 council terms with Ford government appointees. Next on his list: Durham, Halton and Waterloo.
Asked if the province plans to do away with regional governments in those six areas, Clark ducked. “I’m not going to presuppose the discussions that take place …”
Sounds like Yes to me.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens40@gmail.com