Home • Policy • Ontario Public Sector Salaries • The New Ontario Vision

TOWARDS OUR “NEW ONTARIO VISION "

4 March 2008

Reform's New Ontario Vision is our view of how this province needs to evolve. Society is complex, and our vision of it must be an integrated one. It is not always easy to integrate things: In fact, the process of integration demands certain trade-offs to ensure things mesh properly. By properly, I mean that the various elements of our New Ontario Vision need to work alongside each other as a “team”, with each initiative supporting the others.

To begin with, we Reformers need to have a solid foundation for our New Ontario. Here it is:

1. The family is the building block of our society.

2. New Ontario must protect individual human rights.

3. New Ontario must reflect the wishes of the majority.

4. New Ontario will be a fabric woven from our commonly held beliefs and values.

5. New Ontario must be transparent and accountable, with every citizen treated equally.

6. Our efforts must be viable in the short and long-term, so we must ensure New Ontario works from a financial point of view.

7. We will not go into debt to operate government programmes. The only acceptable debt is that needed to fund long-term infrastructure investments.

8. We cannot live on borrowed time forever. It is very much in the public interest to retire Ontario’s net debt over the next 35 years, allowing us to shift savings in Debt Interest payments (presently 10% of all expenditures) into health care.

As Leader of the Reform Party of Ontario, I envision a New Ontario Government based around 15 ministries, a sharp reduction over the size of cabinet today, which is very fractured and expensive to operate. These ministries will allow for all similar programmes to be grouped together under a single ministry, thus allowing for a more focused approach to programme design and delivery. For example, all educational programmes in Ontario would be placed under a single Ministry of Education, and all social (people) programmes placed under a single Ministry of Social Services.

This economically-sized cabinet will facilitate better discussion and decision-making on the part of government and allow voters to understand Who Does What.

At the top of the Reform Ontario Government will be the Premier, who will - through this office - lead the government and co-ordinate all inter-ministry efforts. The Premier will be the ultimate authority, but as is our parliamentary tradition, each minister will bear ultimate responsibility for their ministry and its programmes.

The Premier will also be the lead for Democratic and Electoral Renewal in New Ontario. All referenda, citizen’s initiatives, and recall will be co-ordinated from here, in concert with Elections Ontario. Citizens will continue to have the right to petition the Legislature directly.

The Premier will appoint cabinet ministers, although in a new fashion that will reflect opening up the process of government to legislators, the people’s representatives. All ministers and officers of the legislative assembly of Ontario will be elected by their fellow MPPs, and be responsible to the House, and could be replaced individually when they lose the support of the House.

The Legislature - being of and for the people - will take its show on the road to reconnect Ontarians and MPPs. Four annual sessions will take place - Toronto, London, Sudbury, and Kingston. MPPs will work a 9-5 workday and confine constituency work to the weekends. All MPPs will sit in alphabetical order in the house rather than by party and seniority. They will each have equal time to speak, on whatever subject they wish. Party whips and house leaders will be done away with in New Ontario. Party leaders must be present for all sessions. All votes will be free votes. The only confidence votes will be ones solely identified as such, with one opportunity in each of the four annual sessions.

Let’s have a look at how New Ontario will be governed:

First up will be the all-important Minister of INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS.
The minister will co-ordinate all inter-municipal initiatives. He will also liaise with the federal government, as well as with American state governments bordering on Ontario. Key among this minister’s duties will be the chairing of the ‘Who Does What Commission” to re-define unique, non-overlapping legislative jurisdictions for each of our three levels of government.

The REVENUE & INTERNAL ECONOMIES MINSTER
will handle Tax Reform (reducing rates and simplifying the tax system, possibly through use of a flat tax system and/or by trading tax areas with the federal government. (For example, the province could get all consumption taxes to streamline them into a single sales tax while the federal government gets all corporate taxes and streamlines those into a single tax.) This minister will also ensure that ministry budgets remain affordable and will implement budget coats-savings and overall justification for all current provincial government programmes. The general direction of taxes will be downward in New Ontario, once the budget is under control.

FINANCE:
This minister is the Treasurer, will handle spending reform initiatives, and will ensure money is properly allocated in the provincial budget. The budget will be broken into ministry budgets for individual ministry budget approval in the Legislature, with all MPPs able to work to amend these documents within the overall spending proposed for each ministry that year. All budgets will be balanced. A Provincial Comptroller will oversee that money allocated is spent as planned and that any unspent money is applied to the Reserve Fund for subsequent re-allocation.

AGRICULTURE:
This is one of the ministries we hope to achieve sole custody over after the Who Does What Commission has completed its work. This ministry will develop and implement new models of farming, production and marketing, and encourage greater competition in the marketplace at all levels within the Agri-Business world. We will stress niche, mixed(general) and family farming to provide long-term stability to rural Ontario and its farm families, so they have less need to work off the farm to make ends meet. Additionally, a tobacco industry shutdown programme will be an early initiative of this ministry.

NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT & MINES:
This minister will develop and implement a Northern Ontario Revitalization Programme aimed at reversing shrinking populations in the north. She will also assist in the planning and development of new large-scale Hydro and Wind electric projects in the region, as well as programmes geared to restore the viability of mining and forestry businesses, main employers of many northerners.

PUBLIC WORKS:
This ministry will handle all public construction as well as the acquisition of all major purchasing contracts for the Ontario Government property of all types (real and other). It will handle municipal, educational, and health care infrastructure projects as well.

TRANSPORTATION:
The MTO will continue with its responsibility for Ontario’s highway network. It will also implement changes to move up to half of Ontario’s transport trucks (through traffic running in the Windsor-Quebec-Ottawa corridor) off 400 series highways onto new parallel rail lines. It will be the lead ministry for the new high-speed rail line for that same corridor. The MTO will develop and implement changes to the automobile pollution standards, as well as incentives to help Ontario’s automotive industry to become a world leader in green car, truck, and farm machinery production.

HEALTH & LONG-TERM CARE:
This minister will be responsible for developing and implementing a redesign of our health care system. First, it will launch an Ontario Health Service, which will build and operate family medical clinics across the province. These will be staffed by doctors and nurses (including nurse practitioners) trained fully at the public expense. In exchange for this generosity, these staff will be required to serve where posted for a number of years equal to their free education, on a salary. After the term is completed, they will be free to remain where they are, practice where ever they wish, to specialize, or go into private practice. This New Ontario Vision of health care will ensure there are always enough doctors and nurses to serve the needs of Ontarians.

Another positive change in New Ontario will be the introduction of the Health Freedom Voucher. It will allow Ontarians choice in health care. They will be able to use their share of the health budget to obtain the health services they require each year, including annual dental and eye checkups, basic chiropractic and alternative medicine procedures. It will also be used for purchasing diagnostic services (without which these people cannot make sound health care choices about the health care they need).

Long-Term Care will be fully privatized, and an Inspectorate of Long-Term Care Facilities (complete with a whistle-blower hot-line) will be created to ensure the level of care for our seniors meets provincial standards at all times. The minister will develop these standards. Additionally, for families who choose to care for elders at home, income tax deductions for dependent elders will help offset costs incurred. Home care will be expanded to provide support in familiar surroundings for those in their Golden Years. Often, seniors - as with children - live better lives in the bosom of their family.

Hospitals - The Minister will address the chronic funding shortages through increased funding (taken from savings realized in other ministries). To allow for better decision-making at the local level, hospitals will be transferred to the upper tier municipalities, where they will operate under a Local Health Board. These boards will replace the LHINs, and will also incorporate the existing Health Units.

ENERGY:
This minister will have a busy job in the years ahead, as energy is poised to become the Number One issue in Ontario. She will develop and implement an electrical generation plan that sees a shift to a more balanced mix of generational assets. Much more emphasis will be placed on hydro, as well as wind, solar, biomass, etc. We envision a mix of 33% nuclear, 33% hydro, 20% other, with clean coal making up the remaining 14% of the generation mix until it can be replaced by something better, such as fuel cell technology. Additionally, these new assets will allow for a move to a decentralized power grid, preventing future province-wide blackouts. 40% of electricity is lost as it travels along power lines to the customer, so decentralization will also significantly increase the supply of electricity avaiable, which will help to keep prices affordable for consumers.

This minister will also handle the fuel energy challenges in the years ahead. Depleting supplies of natural gas in Canada will see a need to expand the search for reserves here in Ontario. Gasification plants may be an option. The minister will implement a new fuel oil pricing regime that will result in fewer and less dramatic swings in fuel prices for Ontarians. Natural Gas and Electricity are controlled for the benefit of consumers and in New Ontario, so , too, will be fuel oil and vehicle fuels. The minister will also develop and implement a province-wide energy conservation rewards programme. This will be an early initiative of a Reform Ontario government.

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL RESOURCES:
This ministry will be responsible for Ontario’s parks system, the province’s natural resources including forestry and water, and developing greenhouse gas emissions regulations for Ontario. To that end, he will bring in legislation requiring all gasoline to contain 85% ethanol within two years of forming government, and all trucks and buses on Ontario roads to run on at least biodeisel within three years. Our planned shift in 401 truck traffic onto parallel rail lines will enable trucking companies to reduce their fleets and invest in the new biodeisel trucks for those that remain on the province’s highways. The minister will also ensure that coal scrubbers are effective on Ontario’s remaining coal-fired generating stations. In other important environmental areas, unaddressed admail delivered through the mail system will be banned in Ontario, and plastic shopping bags will also be banned at retail outlets. These two changes will have a very positive effect on prolonging the life of Ontario landfills and reducing unnecessary costs in recycling large volumes of papers and plastics that are seldom used more than a single time.

In that regard, all municipalities will be required to deal with the waste generated within their borders. This will require a major increase in the recycling effort.

EDUCATION:
This ministry will include elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and skills training education. Ontario will return to a two-track secondary educational system, reintroducing streaming. Universities and community colleges will henceforth each offer unique programmes. Colleges will revert back to skills and job-specific (apprenticeship) programmes.

Entrance exams will be required at universities and fewer post-secondary students will be pushed towards universities, making those who do earn degrees more valuable in the job market. These university students admitted will benefit from free tuition (subject to maintaining marks) via a New Ontario Scholarship programme.

Community colleges and Apprenticeship programmes must be expanded. There are widening gaps in the Ontario labour market which are not being closed, and this will worsen given the demographic reality of an ageing population. These programmes will have entrance exams and scholarships, too.

In his role co-ordinating referenda to let the people decide major issues, the Premier will conduct a binding referendum to ascertain Ontarians' wishes concerning the future of public school boards in Ontario in Year 2 of a Reform Government. There will be a freeze on Accommodation Review Committees until the results of this referendum are known. Instead, principals will see their duties modified to include budget management and hiring of all staff at their school. They will be given the tools to keep within their assigned individual school operating budgets.

The provincial curriculum will be reviewed to ensure it reflects what Ontarians want for their children’s education.

Education is about more than just academic matters, and the ministry will become involved in citizenship training, which will ultimately help these children and teenagers in the future as adults. There will be an expansion of the 4-H, Ontario Rangers and Cadet programmes to provide for thousands of additional student summer job and winter volunteer opportunities.

MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS & HOUSING:
This minister will develop and implement the Northern and Rural revitalization programmes in a New Ontario. The aim is to spread out the benefit of Ontario’s population to more parts of the province. In this era of instant communications, not everybody needs to live in Toronto and our largest cities. This only compounds the problems faced in those cities. New Ontario will make better use of the existing infrastructure everywhere in Ontario and reduce the stress on our biggest cities, allowing them to reduce property taxes and fees for services. To that end, moving costs to assist in the relocation of those who wish to move to areas of lower costs of living will be tax-deductible. These new arrivals in rural and northern Ontario will fill job vacancies and cause positive spin-off effects in there local economies, helping small business and small schools in such places prosper.

The minister will also develop affordable housing initiatives partly tied to the northern and rural programmes, and partly shifting the responsibility to municipalities along with the tax room to fund such projects where they are needed.

ATTORNEY GENERAL, PUBLIC SAFETY & CORRECTIONAL SERVICES:
This minister will oversee an expansion of our court system to ensure timely trials, a shift away from OPP municipal policing towards upper-tier municipal (county) police services - keeping constables in place to better serve their communities, and allowing for the OPP to specialize at the provincial level. Our correctional facilities will be reformed to include labour requirements, boot camps, and northern penal colony options. Jail time cannot be a holiday resort: It must ensure convicts never re-offend and end up back in prison or reform school. Ontario's current re-offend rate is unacceptably high. Finally, in New Ontario, victims rights come first.

SOCIAL SERVICES:
This minister will be our “people” person. This job will entail working with the Northern & Rural Revitalization Programmes to help spread out the population over time through education and counselling those seeking government assistance. A Citizenship & Immigration branch will become involved in the selection of new arrivals from overseas based less on the point system and more on cultural factors. The ability to speak English before departing for Canada (and Ontario) will be a deciding factor, as will clean criminal and health records.

Social Services will also handle Aboriginal Affairs (this is an area of federal responsibility we will be returning to that level of government in the Who Does What Commission process); Women’s and Francophone affairs; Children’s Services including Children's Aid and Family Child Care. The latter will be a new tax deduction that encourages a parent to stay at home and raise his or her own children rather than paying another person to perform this vital role. This deduction will equal that offered for child care costs (up to $650 or more per month, per child).

Non-health Seniors issues will also fall under this ministry, as will Welfare & Ontario Works programmes, Workers Compensation; and certain cultural matters (provincial signage and the language of services offered in localities, TVO, Ontario Arts Council, museums, the AGO, etc.)

Finally, all Licensing and Registrations will come under this ministry.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS:
This ministry will handle all matters pertaining to doing business in Ontario, being an entrepreneur, and economic development initiatives (especially in northern and rural areas), trade (an early start will be to create free trade within Canada between provinces). It will also be involved in Research & Innovation. Under its aegis, telemarketing will be restricted only to those phone numbers on a list who wish to be called. Other nuisance business practices, unaddressed admail, will be banned. Flyers will need to be inserted into an addressed, subscription based publication. These last two measures will ensure Ontarians can enjoy the serenity of their home free from the intrusion of our consumer society.

SUMMARY:

As you can see, New Ontario will be will be a better place for us all, truly "a place to stand & a place to grow". It will be "the" place for those who cherish freedom and liberty. New Ontario will be the Number One place to do business in North America.

New Ontario will generate wealth and jobs in all parts of the province, and be governed by a smaller, more helpful, less taxing government with less red-tape. Our families will be more cohesive, our farms more viable, and our businesses more innovative. Our children will be better educated, and our health care system will be there for us all, when and how we need it to be.

New Ontario communities will be more integrated, where every person of every age, race, and religion will feel safe and at home. Neighbours will know each other's names, and treat one another with consideration. People will feel safe at home, and New Ontario's highways will be safer, too. Our environment will be cleaner, with our energy generating stations powering us to a brighter tomorrow. Our industries will evolve and adapt to an ever-expanding global trading economy, and will benefit from free trade with our other Canadians provinces and territories.

Ontario's newfound optimism will shine through Confederation, as we - Canada's largest province and chosen people - take our rightful place at the centre of the Canadian experience.

Home • Policy • Ontario Public Sector Salaries • The New Ontario Vision