Ontario politics

Ontario will require its school boards to keep an online learning option for the upcoming 2022-23 academic year and any student who needs tutoring help will receive it, the provincial government said as it laid out its school spending plan ahead of a summer election.

The Ford government’s move to do away with youth-specific job search programs in Ontario has put the career growth and earning potential of young people at risk, a new report from advocacy network First Work warns.

While some saw an obviously staged (and crassly executed) stunt, others treated it like a shining example of Doug Ford’s best political trait, writes columnist Max Fawcett.

Supriya Dwivedi is a sought-after political commentator who will be writing mostly about Ontario climate policy.

Over the past few weeks, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government has begun implementing policies former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne boldly committed to more than four years ago, writes Andrew Perez.

A private member’s bill looking to expand trans health care in Ontario now awaits the consideration of a standing committee on social policy at Queen’s Park, with advocates hopeful of it passing before next year’s provincial election.

If New Democrats and Liberals want to avoid splitting the progressive vote and handing Ford another four years in office, they need to do something now, writes columnist Max Fawcett.

It’s time for Ontario’s government to realize that the year is 2021, not 1950, writes Bruce F. Nagy.

The Ford government will require workers in publicly funded Ontario schools to disclose, but not prove, their COVID-19 vaccine status. And those who say they have not gotten the shot, will be required to test regularly.

The main elementary teachers union in Ontario is calling on the government to take a more cautious approach to reopening schools than the one advocated by the province’s pediatric hospitals.

The medical experts advising the Ontario government say the province’s schools and classrooms should stay open unless “catastrophic circumstances" force them closed again after more than a year of disrupted learning and socialization.

Private cottages on leased public land have been part of the southwestern Ontario park for over a century, despite environmentalists’ arguments that they’re harming its delicate ecosystem and the province’s plan to phase them out. Now, the Ford government is considering selling the land.

In an exclusive interview, party leader Mike Schreiner said the Ontario Greens would crack down on urban sprawl and take aggressive steps to address the housing crisis. It comes as the province’s unofficial campaign season gets rolling ahead of next year’s election.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has consistently shown his contempt for the rule of law, starting with his first piece of legislation in 2018, writes Dianne Saxe, deputy leader of the Green Party of Ontario.

The bill doesn’t single out Canada, but would require state contractors to ensure they only use boreal forest wood products that respect Indigenous rights and aren’t adding to forest destruction. Ontario, Alberta and Quebec and Canada’s Consulate General are arguing it unfairly targets industry north of the border.