SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2024 09:00AM
  • Apr/25/24 10:20:00 a.m.

Speaker, the Ford Conservatives’ planned service reduction of the Union Pearson Express, which they walked back in less than 48 hours, reminded me that since forming government, Conservatives have been forced to reverse their decisions, multiple times.

The cuts to the greenbelt—the Auditor General reported that a small group of connected developers stood to gain $8.3 billion from increased land values, and that led to an RCMP investigation.

Bill 124, which capped public sector wages to 1%—reversed because they lost in the courts twice.

Who can forget the “notwithstanding” clause suspending charter rights and freedoms, used to strip education workers’ right to fair bargaining? The Conservatives faced a general strike.

Dissolving Peel region without first finding out the cost and the impact on public services—the region didn’t dissolve, but it still cost taxpayers millions.

Massive retroactive cuts to public health, only paused after pushback—it took a pandemic to realize that cuts to public health are a terrible idea and put everyone at risk.

And some just downright foolish—like introducing the blue licence plates that were not visible at night and having to discontinue them.

Speaker, I only list a few, but you see the pattern. The Conservatives have a habit of making obvious bad decisions and reversing them. The Premier says it’s because he’s open-minded and listens to the people. If that’s true, then don’t hand over public lands at Ontario Place in a secret 95-year deal; stop privatization of our health care system; stop interfering with the Ontario Energy Board and independent regulator on behalf of Enbridge. Prove it.

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I’ll ask my question to the member for Brampton South—the minster. This bill is called the Get it Done Act, and I’ve got to say, there’s an incredible irony, because I’ve got a list of seven bills that this Conservative government has had to reverse because they got it wrong: Bill 124, Bill 28, Bill 35, Bill 39, Bill 112, Bill 136 and Bill 150. These cover things like stripping education workers of their constitutional rights and protections under the Human Rights Code, the paving over of the greenbelt, the dissolution of Peel and the reversing the urban boundary expansion.

Rather than calling this the Get It Done Act, should this government not be known as the ready, fire, aim, we got it wrong and have to reverse it act?

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