Ontario politics

Nick Kouvalis, a veteran conservative operative, tweeted and retracted a false claim that "antifa" and Black Lives Matter activists were responsible for the Capitol riots. The office of Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn't answer when asked if Kouvalis is still doing work for the Progressive Conservatives.

Protected areas are home to more than three-quarters of Ontario’s species at risk, but shockingly few plans to manage them actually contain actions to protect or even track their populations, writes Katie Krelove, Ontario campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.

Just as COVID-19 vaccination should strive for universal coverage and be guided by equity, governments should legislate paid sick days on the same basis, emergency physician Jesse McLaren writes.

How well endangered species fare under the 2019 changes will depend on how the Ford government implements the new rules, some of which have “ambiguous” wording, researchers from Simon Fraser and Western universities say.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford blasted the federal government Monday for not moving faster on COVID-19 testing for incoming international travellers as a new variant prompted more border closures.

Amid backlash over a controversial bill that gutted conservation authorities’ powers, the Ontario government is appointing a working group to advise it on how the changes should roll out. The panel will be led by a conservation official, an apparent olive branch to the watershed management agencies.

A last-minute verbal vote in favour of an NDP motion to ban evictions means Premier Doug Ford must decide whether to follow the Ontario legislature's instructions and halt eviction hearings ahead of the holiday season and until the pandemic has passed.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said Monday the province would forge ahead with the legislation, which has sparked backlash from fellow Conservatives. He also announced new funding to restore wetlands, which critics said wouldn’t make up for the contentious changes.

David Crombie, a former Progressive Conservative MP and Toronto mayor, resigned as chair of the advisory board Saturday, saying the Ford government's changes to limit the powers of conservation authorities amount to "high-level bombing." Six more members followed suit and stepped down Sunday morning.

The Ford government has cancelled green energy programs and tried to halt partially built wind farms. But now it’s announcing plans to reduce emissions through a new “hydrogen economy" as a way to boost the economy amid COVID-19.

Ontario’s auditor general released four reports on the state of the environment in the province Wednesday, finding that the Ford government is failing to follow the rules. While opposition parties slammed the Progressive Conservatives, Environment Minister Jeff Yurek said he was “proud” of his ministry’s work.

Ontario is allowing resource extraction in protected areas, failing to collect enough data to even know if it’s meeting its environmental responsibilities and not abiding by the rules, the province’s auditor general found in a series of scathing reports.

Dianne Saxe was the Ontario environmental commissioner from 2015 until 2019, when the Ford government eliminated her position. On Friday, Canada's National Observer reported that Saxe would run for the Greens in 2022.

Dianne Saxe held the non-partisan watchdog role from 2015 to 2019, when the Ford government eliminated her position. She was often critical of the province's weakening of environmental policy. "I feel truly horrified by the unrelenting attacks by the Ford government on our natural environment, on the institutions that protect it," she told Canada's National Observer.

Environmental advocates say the change will push endangered species in Ontario closer to extinction. The Ontario government says other layers of protection are enough, and the move would help create jobs.