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Susan Delacourt: Justin Trudeau’s plan is long on promises and short on details. Why is his government leaving so much unsaid?

Aug 12, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Just to be clear: Justin Trudeau’s government has not acquired the ability to see into the future.

Granted, the prime minister’s office briefly did create that impression late last week, when it reported on a phone call that hadn’t happened yet with Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole.

But Monday’s highly conditional fall economic statement should dispel any ideas about Trudeau’s Liberals knowing exactly how the pandemic will play out — or whether the country will be tipped into an election before it’s over.

It’s said that COVID-19 has exposed the gaps in Canada. So does an economic statement issued in the midst of a pandemic’s second wave — by a government that holds only minority power in Parliament and fragile relationships with the provinces.

So what is missing from Monday’s economic statement — all the blanks left about the future — will likely dictate how rough a political ride Trudeau’s government will face in the days ahead.

Within the next week or so, Trudeau will be going into an important meeting with Canada’s first ministers, who have been pretty clear about their demands for more health-care dollars from Ottawa.

No such money is set aside in the fall economic statement, but it does say that Trudeau will arrive at that meeting with $1-billion for long-term care and a bid for national standards at these institutions so ravaged by COVID.

Will the provinces even start a conversation on national standards without some money on the table for health care overall? That’s one of the blanks in the economic statement, setting the stage for what could be a stormy first ministers meeting in early December.

A lot of specifics are also missing about the “build-back-better” plan that Trudeau’s government is vowing to launch once the “dark winter” of the pandemic’s second wave is over.

“We are announcing the scope of the plan now, and committing to come back in budget 2021 with more details,” the statement promises.

There are hints of a child-care program to come, a green recovery and national pharmacare, but these are more distant objectives and in the meantime, the government will be gathering up advice and ideas.

All the conspiracy theorists warning of Trudeau’s “great reset” agenda will be delighted. The fall economic statement gives them just enough ammunition to say that Trudeau has big designs on the future, but a level of inexactitude that leaves them room to fill in their own scary-sounding details.

O’Toole, whose own Conservatives have been helping to feed that “great reset” mania on Twitter, went after the vagueness too in his early reaction to Monday’s statement, saying it was a demonstration of a government improvising its way through a crisis.

“This government is not providing a plan. It is not providing clarity,” O’Toole said.

New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, who has been helping the Trudeau Liberals avoid an election so far, was saying he wanted more in the economic statement too, particularly in the area of making the wealthy pay for social programs that Canada needs now.

Politicians like to say they don’t answer hypothetical questions, but the federal economic statement of fall 2020 is a full-scale plunge into a hypothetical future. It is framed entirely as an if-this-happens strategy for getting past the pandemic.

When will we know the economy is “roaring back?” Details to come. Phrases such as “additional details will follow” and “further details will be announced” punctuate the 250-plus pages of the document.

In the parlance of the finance people who wrote it, the economic statement is more of a down payment on a recovery strategy than a strategy itself.

In an ideal world for Trudeau’s government, it will be enough of a down payment to secure some opposition support for all those as-yet-vague details to come. Minority governments survive on negotiating “details to come” with opposition parties — the economic statement also appears to have been written with that in mind.

We are coming to the end of a year that has laughed in the face of predictions, so it would be perilous to forecast at this point whether this new economic statement will be a tipping point to a snap federal election.

The very conditions that made the economic statement so cagey — COVID’s second wave, lockdowns all over the country, uncertainty over everything from vaccine arrival to holiday gatherings — are a strong argument against any federal election right now.

As we learned last week with that premature press release, the future cannot be foretold in any kind of statement from Trudeau’s government right now. It will emerge in how Liberals fill in the blanks they are keeping deliberately, hypothetically open.

Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt

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‘It’s not an issue limited to Wasaga Beach’: call for tougher car rally measures gets support from other towns

Aug 10, 2021 , , , , by shlf

A host of municipalities have rallied behind Wasaga Beach to ask the province for tougher rules on illegal gatherings of car enthusiasts.

The town was inundated in late September by drivers and their vehicles in a so-called ‘pop-up’ H2Oi car rally, in spite of the urging of OPP and local municipal officials for people to stay home.

The drivers came, regardless, and that resulted in about a dozen charges under the Reopening Ontario Act put in place due to the pandemic.

Police took 14 cars off the road for a variety of infractions, from street racing to having an unsafe vehicle.

At its Nov. 25 meeting, council received a motion from Halton Hills — in response to a letter to Premier Doug Ford from Wasaga Mayor Nina Bifolchi on Oct. 1 — and supporting letters from South Bruce Peninsula, Northumberland and the Township of Douro-Dummer, asking the Ontario government to develop tougher laws and larger financial penalties for unauthorized car rallies and participants.

“As a fellow tourist community, we understand the extreme upset that was caused in Wasaga Beach,” read the letter from South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson. “As more and more alarming behaviour is displayed, it becomes ever more apparent that training and support resources are required by our police forces.

“More support is required to ensure that these front-line peacekeepers are able to perform their duties without hesitation and with expert skills.”

In her Oct. 1 letter, Bifolchi made a number of recommendations to the premier, including enforcement and increased fines related to the display of licence plates, the use of improper exhaust, and the use of nitrous oxide fuel systems. Suggested penalties included higher fines, vehicle impoundment, and automatic licence suspensions.

She also suggested that municipalities have the authority to close its borders with the assistance of the OPP.

“It’s not an issue limited to Wasaga Beach,” said Wasaga Beach Coun. David Foster during the Nov. 25 meeting. “It’s disheartening to a certain extent that this is going on, not only from public safety, but also in relation to COVID-19.

“For those who say this is just kids having fun, you go, at what cost?” he said.

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TTC rolls out new bus-only lanes. Here’s what you need to know

Aug 6, 2021 , , , , by shlf

TTC bus riders finally have a lane of their own.

The first bus-only lanes installed under Toronto’s are now up and running on Morningside Avenue in Scarborough, part of a wider installation on the that should be complete next month.

Reserved lanes for buses are common in other cities, but Toronto has historically been reluctant to embrace them. That changed this summer when , with proponents arguing that improving bus service would reduce crowding on TTC vehicles and help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Ahead of the bus lanes’ official inauguration on Oct. 11, here’s what you need to know about the latest addition to Toronto’s transit network.

Where are the new lanes?

The lanes are being installed on an 8.5-kilometre corridor between Brimley Road and the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, via Eglinton East, Kingston Road, and Morningside Avenue. They will eventually be extended from Brimley Road to Kennedy station once the Scarborough subway extension is complete.

The city and TTC plan to install bus lanes on at least four more corridors, starting with Jane Street, between Eglinton Avenue and Steeles Avenue next year. Lanes on Dufferin Street, Steeles Avenue West, and Finch Avenue East would come later.

Bus routes on these corridors serve lower-income communities in Toronto’s inner suburbs where transit ridership has remained high during the pandemic as a result of employees in essential sectors like health care, manufacturing and food distribution relying on the TTC to get to work. Some of the neighbourhoods have also been hardest hit by COVID-19.

“We need to support communities in the suburbs of Toronto who really do rely on surface transit to get around,” said Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19, Beaches-East York), who sits on the TTC board and advocated for the new lanes.

The Eglinton lanes are expected to cost almost $8 million, and are being installed as permanent infrastructure, not a pilot project.

How will the lanes affect bus service?

Prior to COVID, four bus routes operating on the Eglinton corridor carried about 47,000 people per weekday. Crowded buses were frequently stuck in a sea of single-occupancy private cars, which experts say is an inefficient use of road space.

The TTC projects that by giving buses their own lanes, the Eglinton East project will reduce travel times on local and express routes by 16.5 and 6.5 per cent respectively. For example, riders on the 905 Eglinton East Express would save 4 to 5 minutes on a trip from Kennedy station to UTSC.

The lanes should also help alleviate crowding by ensuring buses operate at regularly spaced intervals. The goal is to “get to more evenly distributed crowding” so that a packed bus isn’t quickly followed by a half-empty one, said TTC senior planner Eric Chu.

The TTC doesn’t plan to add service to routes operating in the bus lanes. Instead, the agency hopes the lanes will allow it to operate the same number of bus trips per hour using fewer vehicles.

As a result, the city expects the lanes to generate $2.5 million in annual savings for the TTC. According to Chu, that will allow the agency to reintroduce express bus routes that were as ridership plummeted.

Why is the TTC removing stops?

The TTC plans to “consolidate,” or remove, 24 of the 69 stops along the Eglinton corridor. Transit agency officials say removing some less busy stops is necessary to allow buses to move quickly through the new lanes. But with fewer stops people will have to walk farther to catch a bus, and transit “could become less accessible for some riders,” warned Shelagh Pizey-Allen, director of the TTCriders advocacy group.

Chu said the TTC takes those concerns seriously, and the agency is consulting on the stop-removal plan. But he said there are always tradeoffs when the TTC changes its service. “What we try to achieve is the balance that overall more people will benefit from these changes than people that are inconvenienced,” he said.

How were the lanes designed?

As of Friday, the section of bus lanes on Morningside between Kingston Road and UTSC that are already operational were marked with signage and eye-catching red pavement treatment. Diamond and “bus only” pavement markings, as well as RapidTO pole banners, are being added.

Striped red pavement treatment designates sections of the lanes where drivers are allowed to enter in order to access driveways or make right turns.

The design is based on provincial and national standards, and doesn’t currently include physical barriers to separate the bus lanes and regular traffic. That means it will be up to car drivers to pay attention and obey the rules. The penalty for improperly driving in a bus lane is a $110 fine and three demerit points.

Allan Abrogena, project lead with the Toronto’s transportation department, said the city is open to tweaking the design if necessary, but its priority was to get the project operational. “We want to get this rolling first,” he said.

On Friday, compliance was spotty, and a minority of drivers consistently occupied the bus lanes on Morningside. The city and TTC are planning an education and enforcement campaign to alert drivers to the changes.

“It’s not something we can just roll out and expect people to figure it out on their own,” said Bradford.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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Heather Scoffield: The central bank has its pandemic ‘beacon’ for the economy. Where is Chrystia Freeland’s?

Aug 6, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Tiff Macklem calls it his “beacon.”

As the new governor of the Bank of Canada gets his feet wet amidst the greatest economic crisis of our times, he says he has one thing in mind at all times in order to keep his policy grounded: the inflation target.

Having a guiding light that shines through the fog of crisis and prevents decision-makers from losing sight of their destination is crucial, especially as the economy drags on and on.

For the central bank, it means pulling out all the stops right now to keep financial markets healthy, to keep the money flowing, and to eventually nudge economic activity back to its normal self as pandemic restrictions allow. And then reining it back in as soon as the economy — and inflation — show entrenched signs of inching up.

But a sustainable recovery for the Canadian economy requires the Bank of Canada to work in parallel with fiscal policy officials and the Department of Finance, which can use its massive spending power to target help to those who need it most.

It, however, doesn’t have a beacon. And that’s a problem if we have any hope of maintaining the confidence of investors, job-creators and job-seekers, and making sure the recovery plan sticks.

In an interview with the Star this week, Macklem was eager to talk a lot about how inflation targeting will ensure the hundreds of billions of dollars the central bank has pushed into financial markets over the past few months won’t morph irresponsibly into hyperinflation or something that would undermine the stability of the Canadian economy over the longer term.

When asked about the need for a beacon in fiscal policy, he was more cryptic, as central bankers are. But his point was clear — and critical.

“It is important to have a view of some sort of a plan on which you operate against. We’re very conscious of the fact that that scenario is very conditional on the evolution of the virus itself,” Macklem said.

In other words, so many things are uncertain when it comes to how the virus will affect the economy and our ability to recover. But with the inflation target as his guide, the constant factor is the commitment to maintain robust support for the economy for as long as it is underperforming.

Inflation right now is rock bottom and is expected to stay there for the long haul. When it picks up, along with growth, the bank will scale back its support.

That’s the plan, and it has long been the plan for the bank, giving confidence to the public that even in the midst of an unruly second wave, there will be responsible monetary policy.

But the fiscal picture is not as clear. Successive federal finance ministers — first Bill Morneau and now — have leaned on the commitment to do “whatever it takes” to get Canadians through the pandemic.

So far, that’s meant putting about $325 billion into health and safety, direct support for businesses and individuals, and liquidity measures, according to the most recent tally in mid-August.

On top of that, there’s an expanded and more generous Employment Insurance system that just started, and plans in the works for training, job creation, extending the wage subsidy, a new rent subsidy and untold stimulus programs.

Freeland has been consulting widely about reinstating some kind of fiscal “anchor” that would force discipline in spending over the medium term and give the finance minister some criteria around when to say yes or no to new initiatives.

Ottawa used to have a goal of keeping the debt burden — debt as a proportion of GDP — on a steady, downward track, but that guide was barely heeded at the best of times and had to be abandoned with the pandemic.

It’s now been almost 17 months since we last had a federal budget, and the government’s sporadic spending updates and summer fiscal “snapshot” didn’t restore any kind of firm guidance for spending.

Freeland and have promised to be responsible and to lay out some kind of fiscal mini-budget later this fall. But we’re not sure yet what “responsible” means. And in the meantime, every cabinet minister is armed with two or three sentences from the throne speech, taking the words as a green light to forge ahead with their own agendas.

It’s time to prioritize for the medium term, starting with establishing what kind of fixed point the fiscal ship is pointed toward — not just in spite of the uncertainty, but because of it.

As Macklem said: “It is important, when faced with a crisis, to step beyond your normal way of working and really embrace the possibility that you’re going to have to do things differently. You’re going to have to do things that you’ve never done before.”

Heather Scoffield is the Star’s Ottawa bureau chief and an economics columnist. Follow her on Twitter:

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‘Ontario is at a breaking point:’ COVID-19 impacts being felt beyond the lockdown areas of Toronto and Peel

Aug 6, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The impacts of are radiating out further from the lockdown zones of Toronto and Peel as the province marked a sixth straight day with new cases above 1,700 and 35 deaths, the highest in a week.

Hospitals in Kitchener, Cambridge and Windsor are among those feeling the pinch of a growing pandemic that has already curbed non-emergency surgeries in parts of the GTA.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said parts of the province could see more restrictions imposed on them Friday after the latest statistics are re-evaluated by Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. David Williams.

“Dr. Williams is speaking with the medical officers of health in several other areas to obtain their views about whether…they think they should be moved up from orange to red or into lockdown,” she told reporters Wednesday in a reference to the province’s five-tier, colour-coded framework.

Criteria include the weekly rate of cases per 100,000 people, the number of outbreaks, strain on hospital intensive care unit capacity and the percentage of people testing positive, along with a health unit’s ability to keep up with contact tracing.

York Region, Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Waterloo and Windsor-Essex are now in the red zone, one step short of lockdown.

In Kitchener, Grand River Hospital said it has temporarily paused non-urgent elective surgeries and has cut down to two cardiac surgeries a week.

“We are currently at full capacity in ICU (intensive care unit) and are experiencing a surge in COVID and non-COVID critical-care patients,” the hospital said in a statement as the surrounding Waterloo public health unit reported 103 new infections.

Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife called on Premier government to provide “immediate and urgent investments” for hospitals.

“Ontario is at a breaking point…things are only going to get worse,” the New Democrat said in the legislature’s daily question period.

Elliott maintained “Ontario is not in a crisis right now” and said it is doing better than Alberta and Manitoba which have case rates four and six times higher, with Alberta “doubling up” patients in intensive care rooms.

“We are flattening this curve,” Elliott said.

Figures from her own ministry show active cases are at an all-time high of 14,526 people testing positive in the last 14 days and the seven-day average of cases hitting a record of 1,720, up 50 people from Tuesday.

There were 1,723 new cases reported Wednesday, up slightly from 1,707 the previous day.

Elliott later acknowledged Ontario has “plateaued at a very high level but what we want to do is keep it there, but move it down.”

She came under fire from opposition parties for comparing Ontario to worse-off provinces out west instead of better-off Atlantic Provinces where cases are low because of a restrictive bubble formed there earlier this year.

“Stop playing defence,” said Liberal House Leader John Fraser. “It’s not a valid argument. We need to be better able to manage this.”

The health unit in Windsor-Essex, which had another 60 cases and entered the red or “control” zone on Monday, said it is having trouble keeping up and is battling 18 outbreaks, including two of Ontario’s six current school closures. Hospitals have put strict limits on visitors.

“Every outbreak that we report, every case, is a further stretch of our resources,” said chief executive Theresa Marentette, noting that tracing and managing cases is becoming increasingly difficult.

“We need help and we need it now,” added New Democrat MPP Percy Hatfield (Windsor-Tecumseh), warning of a “looming collapse.”

Elliott said she is aware of the “considerable concern regarding public health resources” in Windsor-Essex and has provided 24 more contact tracing staff to help get case growth “more under control.”

“If more resources are needed for that, we will certainly provide them,” she pledged.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said areas outside Toronto clearly need more help from the province to stem the tide of the pandemic until a vaccine arrives and is widely distributed.

“The virus can get out of control. The government needs to deploy resources immediately to those areas that need them.”

Most cases remain in the GTA, with Toronto at 410 new infections, Peel with 500, York 196, Durham at 124 and Halton with 45. Hamilton had 74.

Ontario has had 3,698 deaths from COVID-19 since the first fatality in March. Almost 120,000 people have tested positive for the virus, which first arrived in the province in January.

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter:

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More Barrie GO train disruptions starting this weekend

Aug 4, 2021 , , , , by shlf

After construction along the Barrie GO rail line shut down train service for one weekend last month, GO Transit is announcing further interruptions in service Dec. 5 to 18.

Construction crews are completing infrastructure upgrades along the track, taking advantage of weekends and late evenings to minimize disruption to customers.

On Dec. 5 and 6, riders leaving at the Allandale Waterfront and Barrie South GO stops in the morning will have to take a bus to the Bradford station, where a train will take you the rest of the trip.

Riders leaving Barrie in the afternoon will take a bus to stops along the way to the Aurora GO station, where train service resumes.

All riders heading northbound to Barrie will have to take a bus from the Aurora GO station.

From Dec. 8 to 18, the 10:53 p.m. train from Union Station to the Allandale Waterfront GO station will be cancelled. Riders can get on a bus to connect with stops at the Rutherford, Maple, King City and Aurora stations.

More detailed information about the service change schedule can be found at .


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LIVE VIDEO: Ontario Premier Doug Ford provides daily update on COVID-19 October 26

Jul 30, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Watch Premier Doug Ford’s daily COVID-19 update now.

In a news conference at Queen’s Park, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and provincial cabinet ministers Christine Elliott (health) and Rod Phillips (finance) provide an update on their government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic.


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Ontario reports two more schools closed because of COVID-19; 56 more school-related cases with 32 among students

Jul 29, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Two more schools in Ontario are currently closed because of a outbreak bringing the total to four, according to the Ministry of Health’s latest update Friday morning.

Both additional schools are in Ottawa: St. Jerome Catholic elementary school had two staff members test positive; and Franco-Cité Catholic high school where 15 individuals have tested positive since the school year began.

They join Ottawa’s Horizon-Jeunesse and St. Charles Catholic School near Dufferin Street and Lawrence Avenue West in North York in being closed.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in public schools across Ontario has jumped by 56, to a total of 628 in the last two weeks.

In its , the province reported 32 more students were infected for a total of 369 in the last two weeks; since school began there have been a total of 482.

The data shows there are nine more staff members for a total of 94 in the last two weeks — and an overall total of 149.

The latest report also shows 15 more individuals who weren’t identified for a total of 165 in that category — and an overall total of 245.

There are 429 schools with a reported case, which the province notes is about 8.9 per cent of the 4,828 public schools in Ontario.

The Toronto District School Board updates its information on current COVID-19 cases throughout the day . As of 10 p.m. Thursday, there were 110 TDSB schools with at least one active case — 124 students and 39 staff.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board also updates its information . As of 8:05 a.m. Friday, there were 37 schools with a COVID-19 case, with 41 students and 10 staff infected.

Epidemiologists that the rising numbers in the schools aren’t a surprise, and that the cases will be proportionate to the amount of COVID that is in the community. Ontario set another one-day record Friday, reporting 939 new COVID-19 cases — 336 new cases in Toronto, 150 in Peel and 126 in Ottawa.

Dr. Susy Hota, an epidemiologist with the University Health Network, told the Star earlier that the school numbers are rising because it reflects an exponential increase in the community.

“These are kids who are attending school,” she said this week. “It’s not necessarily that these numbers are (from) school.”

Ann Marie Elpa is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email:

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Electrical fire causes roughly $50,000 in damage to ex-Huronia Regional Centre building in Orillia

Jul 28, 2021 , , , , by shlf

An unoccupied and unused building at the former Huronia Regional Centre (HRC) property caught fire Friday night.

Orillia Fire Department crews were called by security staff to Building 17, located near the middle of the sprawling complex just off Memorial Avenue, Oct. 2. Once on scene, firefighters noticed the large building was full of smoke, Fire Chief Brent Thomas told Simcoe.com Saturday morning.

“On investigation an electrical fire was discovered,” he said. “To ensure the electrical fire was not smouldering in the walls, fire crews had to check in some of the walls for fire extension. We also had to clear smoke from a large building and underground access way.”

Damage is estimated at about $50,000. That number excludes destruction caused by smoke, which will be difficult to assess because renovations on the building are expected to start soon, Thomas said.

“Orillia Fire was able to determine the cause so the (Office of the) Fire Marshal will not be (called in),” he said.

No injuries were reported. At the height of the incident, there were four Orillia trucks on scene, as well as tankers from neighbouring Rama, Ramara and Oro-Medonte departments, Thomas said.

HRC was closed more than a decade ago; the property is presently operated by Infrastructure Ontario and home to a courthouse and OPP training facilities.

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‘It felt like I was trying to fit into someone else’s skin’: Barrie dancers perform better in shoes that match their skin tone

Jul 28, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Elize Harrylal feels much more like herself when she performs a dance number now.

That’s because the 13-year-old Barrie Dance Conservatory student can don attire that matches her skin tone.

It all started while watching a video playback of herself doing a lyrical dance two years ago, as she had to wear light-coloured shoes.

Harrylal noticed her feet were sticking out like a sore thumb.

“When you listen to a song in dance, you kind of connect with it. But the uniform I was wearing didn’t really make me feel like it was mine,” she said. “It felt like I was trying to fit into someone else’s skin.

“For a while, I didn’t really pay attention to it, because I’ve been dancing in pink stockings and shoes for so long. As I started to grow, I realized it.”

So she went to a dance store to inquire if there were other options, and learned there are several shades of skin-toned shoes and stockings to match her colouring.

Harrylal then approached her dance instructor, to see if she could veer away from the traditional pink uniform.

“A lot of people were surprised I had the confidence to ask,” Harrylal said.

“I opened up the book and saw they did come in different shades,” Barrie Dance Conservatory owner Jolenne Bradley said. “I had never thought of offering that.”

Now others are following in Harrylal’s footsteps.

“When I wore pink, I never really felt like myself, I never felt included,” 11-year-old Mya Hall said. “When I’m on stage, you see black arms and black face, a black body suit and white (tights) and white shoes. It was weird how I’m Black, but I’m trying to fit into white.”

She was so excited when she found shoes and tights to match her skin colour.

Both of the girls’ mothers agree their stage presence and confidence level has changed.

Bradley said conversations are also happening about hairstyles and makeup to suit every dancers.

“My hope is for our country to be more open and inclusive of all races, just a little bit more, so girls won’t be afraid to be themselves,” Harrylal said.