Dr Beth Parton @beth_doc

New: Hospitals have started to submit cost-cutting plans at the behest of the Ford government. The government is promising there will be no service cuts — but won't share the plans publicly, saying that doing so could be bad for the economy. #onpoli thetrillium.ca/insider-news/h…

NEW: Just days after the Ford government tabled its ticket resale cap law, the premier received a personal visit from one of Canada’s most powerful CEOs to discuss the law and its potential impact. Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri. globalnews.ca/news/12001446/… #onpoli

#ONpoli NEW: in the Ontario Lobbyist Registry, Shopify has stated that they have targeted the *Minister of Transportation* in their lobbying efforts… Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria is the one pushing to expand Billy Bishop airport for jet traffic near Shopify’s Toronto offices.

This article is flawed. It provides no credible evidence that Toronto’s business community broadly supports expanding Billy Bishop Airport. Instead, it relies on commentary from Giles Gherson, a former Ontario deputy minister under the Ford government who now leads the Toronto Region Board of Trade (a connection that deserves greater scrutiny and context). As a Toronto business owner deeply invested in this city’s long-term success, I do not recognize the supposed consensus presented here. Many Toronto business owners understand that a green, liveable downtown is fundamental to the city’s economic performance. Expanding the island airport and introducing the additional noise, congestion and disruption it would bring would undermine the very qualities that make downtown Toronto attractive and competitive. Businesses that depend on proximity to a major airport already have Pearson and its surrounding employment district, one of the largest in the country. Downtown Toronto serves a different purpose. Pearson is also less than 30 minutes from Union Station on the UP Express and is itself undertaking a multibillion-dollar expansion. This reads like airport-expansion advocacy presented as the position of Toronto’s business community. Yesterday I wrote that the golden goose was safe, for now, and that those who wanted a piece of it would be back. This article proves the point. thestar.com/business/toron… via @torontostar

NEW: Ontario Premier Doug Ford billed taxpayers for a flight to Orlando last summer to attend the conference of a private-sector union that has repeatedly endorsed the Progressive Conservative Party and received millions in government funding. #onpoli globalnews.ca/news/11995827/…

Fascism is what happens when conservative nostalgia becomes a government program: invent a glorious past, blame vulnerable people for its disappearance, crush dissent, and loot the country behind a wall of [false] flags.

Two years ago, the Ford government abruptly shuttered the Ontario Science Centre (OSC), claiming the roof was at risk of imminently collapsing. This past winter, it withstood the biggest single-day snowfall in Toronto's history.   The Province is now moving forward with a plan to build a smaller $1.4 billion OSC at Ontario Place. Nothing about that plan requires the former OSC site to sit empty. The building should be reopened and reimagined to serve a growing community in Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park, along with our entire city and region.   That’s why I, working with Save Ontario's Science Centre, Moriyama Teshima Architects and local Councillor Jon Burnside, held consultations directly in Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park, and with people across Toronto, to hear their vision for the future of the site. This week, we're bringing a report to City Council with that community vision and recommended next steps toward reopening.   Torontonians' priorities were clear. Keep the site public. Ensure it remains a place of learning and discovery. Protect access to the ravine and preserve the building's architecture and heritage. Most importantly, ensure it serves the surrounding communities needs and provides all Ontarians a public institution again that contributes to their quality of life.   This report recommends a process that brings the Province together with the City, the federal government, the TRCA, and community and philanthropic partners to determine the site's future use, governance, and funding.   To be successful, the province needs to come to the table in good faith. We're giving them the opportunity to do exactly that, with a realistic, positive, community-grounded vision to support. Read our report here: secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda…

Today, Deputy Mayor @ausmalik and I submitted an urgent motion to demand the Province of Ontario give back our waterfront, including the Toronto Islands and Little Norway Park. We have been demanding to see the plans, despite the Toronto Port Authority actively hiding them. We have researched the impacts on housing, the environment, congestion, and more. We have discovered who would benefit - like the Wall Street bankers at JP Morgan. Council has formally opposed the unacceptable overreach. We still do. We thank the Federal government for listening, and the thousands of people who worked relentlessly to make Toronto's voices heard. Return our waterfront to us.

This world isn’t collapsing because humanity became too compassionate, too equal or too free. It is collapsing because greedy fucking sociopaths converted governments into protection rackets for wealth and empire.

A 45-minute flight to Kingston. A planned flight to London. Here’s how Premier Doug Ford has been skipping the 401 commute and flying to announcements in Ontario instead. All billed to taxpayers. globalnews.ca/news/11973406/… #onpoli

People need to stop idolizing billionaires and start treating them like the greedy, resource-hoarding, people-exploiting fuckers they are.

Who wrote this? The Premier’s office? The feds literally said no. And no…you can’t take over their legal jurisdiction. @fordnation overplayed his hand. This is dead on arrival.

Prabmeet Sarkaria @PrabSarkaria

a week ago

We look forward to continuing to work to advance the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport. The benefits are clear: the project will contribute up to $8.5 billion to Canada's economy every year, create thousands of jobs, and improve connectivity for millions of travellers and

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Doug Ford's island airport folly: The fight is not over, Toronto. #waterfront #control #lobbyists #nojets thestar.com/news/gta/about…

@AndrewScheer Are you still here?

Look who I ran into when I landed back from Thunder Bay! Turns out premiers fly commercial just fine.

@ThatEricAlper The Cremation of Sam McGee - and more song lyrics than I can count.

I’m starting to understand why Ford’s Conservatives voted unanimously to restrict access to Freedom of Information!

Jack Hauen @jackhauen

a week ago

New: PC MPP Charmaine Williams charged her riding association more than $14,000 for hotel stays — on top of the $16,000 she billed taxpayers — before paying at least some of that amount back, according to the PC Party. From me and @TinaYazdani. #onpoli thetrillium.ca/news/politics/…

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NEW: A second internal email reveals the PC party gave its MPPs permission to bill taxpayers for hotel rooms as early as 2022. MPPs were told to keep it in “the strictest of confidences.” globalnews.ca/news/11986657/… #onpoli

First Nations chiefs demand public inquiry, resignations over Ontario’s wildfire response. Given failure to inform or help communities and general failure to prepare these are reasonable demands. theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…

NEW: Doug Ford railed against his own MPPs for claiming hotel stays in downtown Toronto, telling them they'd all have to pay it back. The thing is, it was actually the government that told them to use the perk in an email last year. #Onpoli globalnews.ca/news/11974967/…