Toronto Civic Employees' Union, CUPE 416 responds to City of Toronto's new Paramedic staffing plan
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TORONTO — CUPE 416 is encouraged by the City of Toronto's announcement of a multi-year staffing plan for Toronto Paramedic Services, calling the move a long-overdue step toward addressing critical service and staffing challenges.
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'We're encouraged to see the City finally taking steps to address the pressures our paramedics have been facing for years,' said Eddie Mariconda, president of CUPE 416. 'We'll be monitoring the plan closely to ensure it's implemented effectively and delivers real improvements on the ground.'
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CUPE 416 represents roughly 1400 members working in Toronto Paramedic Services.
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
‘It's scary': Residents say their groundwater is contaminated by firefighting foam from St. John's Airport
A group near St. John's Airport is worried about the quality of their drinking water. CTV's Garrett Barry reports. Torbay, N.L. -- A group of homeowners near the St. John's International Airport say runoff from foam used in decades of firefighting training has contaminated their drinking water and left them fearful of long-term health effects. Residents in Torbay, N.L., are attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit against Transport Canada, claiming the federal department didn't do enough to remediate and contain PFAS chemicals from contaminating their drinking wells. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are often called 'forever chemicals' in reference to their resistance to breakdown and extremely long life. They've been linked to cancers and other serious health risks. A statement of claim, filed last month at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, alleges the department knew the PFAS were present in the environment surrounding the airport, but didn't notify nearby residents until Health Canada began to lower exposure guidelines in 2023. Torbay resident Dean Pike would be included in the class-action lawsuit should it be certified at Newfoundland and Labrador's Supreme Court. He and his family, including all pets, are not drinking the well water, relying instead on 5-gallon bottles. He says a Transport Canada representative tested his well water in December and found that the PFAS concentration was below Health Canada's 30 nanogram per litre guidelines. But Pike says he and his family are refusing to drink the water at any PFAS concentration. 'In my opinion, my water is contaminated regardless if it's 0.1 or five hundred [nanograms per litre],' Pike said. 'We should not be consuming PFAS in our system.' Pike says he's been left to wonder whether his diagnosis of prostate cancer was influenced by potentially drinking contaminated water through his well. 'We do not have a family history of it,' he said. 'So, it makes you wonder, was it because I was drinking water here for the last 20 years that was contaminated by what happened at the airport?' Pike said. Forever chemicals news FILE - A water researcher pours a water sample into a smaller glass container for experimentation as part of drinking water and PFAS research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Center For Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) (Joshua A. Bickel/AP) In a statement to CTV News, Transport Canada said it would respond to the claims included in the class-action lawsuit in a courtroom. The department hasn't yet had to file a statement of defence in the lawsuit. 'Transport Canada takes its responsibilities seriously,' a spokesperson wrote. 'The department will continue to work with local health authorities and support potentially impacted residents and communities.' A statement of claim filed in May alleges that Transport Canada received test results indicating an elevated level of PFAS in the groundwater at the firefighter training site and in nearby surface water in 2011. Those results came in higher than the previous Health Canada objective of 700 nanograms per litre, and significantly higher than the current objective of 30 nanograms per litre. The statement of claim further alleges that Transport Canada 'knew that PFAS is characteristically capable of travelling long distances in groundwater.' Lawyer Alex Templeton said Transport Canada didn't inform homeowners they knew PFAS was in the area when they began a testing project in the nearby subdivisions in 2024. 'They didn't say that 'we've been sitting on monitoring data that shows for the past decade, annually, PFAS has been in the deep water aquifer, supplying this groundwater system,' he said. 'They didn't disclose that to any of these residents.' According to health surveys, nearly every Canadian has some PFAS concentration in their bloodstream. Health Canada wrote in its document laying out it's 30 nanogram per litre objective that exposure to PFAS does not 'necessarily mean that health problems will occur,' and exposure length, intensity and frequency are important considerations. Forever chemicals concerns in Newfoundland Eddie Sheerr has been drinking bottled water at home. Eddie Sheerr, the lead plaintiff for the proposed class-action, has also been living off bottled water. But his bottles are being delivered by Transport Canada, after tests in their water well in 2024 showed PFAS concentrations at about 100 nanograms per litre, well higher than Health Canada objectives. 'It's definitely scary because we've lived in the house since 2017,' he said. 'My kids are in the house. We've been bathing in the water, we drink the water, we cook with the water and so it gets you questioning a whole bunch of things.'
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Apartments are allowed to be dangerously hot in Toronto. City still studying options
Should Toronto set a maximum indoor temperature for apartments? 7 minutes ago Duration 2:29 Social Sharing Monique Gordon's second-floor apartment in Rexdale is sweltering hot all year-round — even in the winter. She keeps track of the temperature in her home with a small digital thermometer and records it as proof. Recently, on a cool, rainy 20 C afternoon, her unit was 27.3 C, an indoor temperature that's unsafe to live in, health experts and environmental advocates say. Gordon, who is chair of ACORN's Etobicoke chapter, has lung granulomas. Paired with the heat, it makes it difficult to breathe. "Thank God, I don't have any asthma because I don't think I'd be able to make it through with the heat," Gordon told CBC Toronto. She says she's tried in the past to hook up an air conditioner, but every time it ran, it tripped the fuse. Last week, she told city officials about the lack of temperature control in her building during a tour. Gordon, like many tenants across Toronto, is bracing for yet another hotter-than-usual summer, while the city continues looking into implementing a maximum indoor temperature standard for apartments. City officials chose not to endorse a standard because of financial and technical barriers in 2018. Then, in June 2023, city council voted in favour of exploring the feasibility of a maximum temperature standard as a way to ensure no residential unit becomes dangerously hot. That led to another motion that was approved last December, where council endorsed the idea and asked for recommendations. "They just need to make the decision and then just enforce it," Gordon said. Toronto Heat Safety, a coalition of tenant advocacy groups, health experts and environmental organizations, came together last year to demand that the city establish a 26 C max temperature to prevent residents from developing any health problems from heat, including heart and breathing problems. With weather and climate modelling showing extreme heat days will increase in the city, Canadian Environmental Law Association lawyer Jacqueline Wilson, whose organization is part of Toronto Heat Safety, says sweltering apartments are an urgent health and safety concern. She says the onus shouldn't be on tenants. "It's kind of a core fundamental right to be safe in your home," Wilson said. "We're seeing that if you don't have the infrastructure in place to cool, that you're not safe in your home." WATCH | The consequences of extreme indoor temperatures: We installed sensors inside 50 homes without AC. Most levels were unsafe. 2 years ago Duration 8:57 In a year of deadly heat waves, CBC News installed sensors to measure the heat and humidity inside 50 homes with little to no air conditioning over the summer to find out how hot they would get and explored the consequences of extreme indoor temperatures. In an emailed statement, city spokesperson Shane Gerard said recommended next steps toward implementing a maximum indoor temperature standard will be released in a fourth quarter staff report, as requested by city council last December. "Indoor temperatures in apartment buildings are a particular concern, as tenants living in units without air conditioning or other cooling equipment may be at higher risk of heat-related health impacts," he said. "Addressing excessive indoor temperatures is a complex issue that must consider housing affordability, ongoing decarbonization initiatives, public health practices, and the perspectives of tenants and property owners." Toronto already has rules for heat in winter The new maximum standard would mirror what Toronto already has in place to protect renters in the winter. The minimum temperature standard of 21 C means landlords have to provide heat and run it from Oct. 1 to May 15, according to rules updated last December. If a tenant is fortunate enough to live in a unit where the owner already installed an air conditioner, then city rules state it has to be on from June 1 to Sept. 30 and maintain a maximum temperature of no more than 26 C. But right now, there's nothing keeping residents safe from scorching temperatures if they've moved into a unit that doesn't have a landlord-installed air conditioner. That includes Gordon, as well as Thorncliffe Park resident Khalil Aldroubi, whose 21st-floor apartment can reach highs of 29.79 C. He says his kids often put a mattress on the balcony just to get some sleep during hot summer nights. "Everyone's sweating and burning," he said. "It's hard to sleep." Aldroubi is among the majority of tenants living in apartments who don't have air conditioners. A municipal report from 2018 on the consequences of extreme heat found that only six per cent of apartment buildings in Toronto are reported to have air conditioning. By creating a maximum temperature standard, all landlords would have to make sure units stay cool and provide some sort of technology to do it, says Sarah Buchanan, campaigns director for Toronto Environment Alliance, another member of Toronto Heat Safety. She says it's no different from any other safety requirements landlords already have to abide by. "We have rules in place in rental apartments to protect people from things like fires. Landlords have to provide sprinklers, smoke detectors, things like that. It's starting to get hot enough now that we need to have rules in place to protect people from heat," Buchanan said. But when additional responsibilities and costs are saddled on landlords, some tenants worry how they might be impacted. That's why Wilson says it's important for the city to also consider complimentary measures, such as funding for landlords with low income renters. Buchanan says she knows the city is working diligently to find the right answers, but that a maximum temperature bylaw is an important tool and the faster it's established, the better.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Report shows Canadians are waiting longer for surgery, but Alberta is seeing some improvement
New data shows wait times increased for Canadians seeking priority surgeries, but Alberta is making progress in some areas. A new report shows the wait list for Canadians needing critical surgeries continues to grow and fewer people are receiving the procedures within recommended times. The data collected from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows the wait for priority procedures—including knee and hip replacements, cancer surgeries and diagnostic imaging—is longer now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. 'We're still continuing to face shortages, which impact the ability of systems to really address the wait times for patients,' said Cheryl Chui, CIHI's director of health system analytics. 'For patients who are waiting longer than the recommended timeframe, this could have impacts on the pain that they're experiencing ... their mobility in the case of, say, joint replacement procedures, their quality of life.' The benchmarks for knee and hip replacements recommend patients receive procedures within six months, but only 68 per cent of hip replacements and 61 per cent of knee replacements happened within that deadline last year. That's down from 75 and 70 per cent, respectively, in 2019. The long, painful wait Longtime Postmedia visual journalist Jim Wells is among the thousands of Canadians on a growing wait list for surgery. 'The top of my femur is disintegrating. I've got some very deep bone bruising all the way down my thigh. I've got some stress fractures, you know, as well as all the cartilage and stuff that's missing,' Wells said. Longtime Postmedia visual journalist Jim Wells is among the thousands of Canadians on a growing wait list for surgery. Longtime Postmedia visual journalist Jim Wells is among the thousands of Canadians on a growing wait list for surgery. It's been six months since Wells' doctor told him he needed a hip replacement. He is scheduled to meet his surgeon for the first time in a month and hopes a surgery date comes soon after that. 'You've just got to be patient. I know for a fact that there's a lot more people that are worse off than me,' said Wells, who now walks slowly and painfully with a cane and is unable to perform most of the regular duties of his job. Wells is right that many people have been waiting much longer than he has. Several people who reached out to CTV News but did not want to talk on camera say they've been waiting for knee or hip procedures for more than a year and have yet to have an appointment set to meet a surgeon. Others say MRI and CT scans are being booked more than a year out. Alberta seeing some gains While the national picture shows longer waits, Alberta is seeing some improvement in a number of the procedures tracked. In 2024, 73 per cent of Albertans needing a hip replaced had the procedure done within six months, a significant jump from 58 per cent in the year prior. A new report shows the wait list for Canadians needing critical surgeries continues to grow and fewer people are receiving the procedures within recommended times. A new report shows the wait list for Canadians needing critical surgeries continues to grow and fewer people are receiving the procedures within recommended times. For knee replacements, 62 per cent of people received surgery within the recommended time last year, up from just 49 per cent in 2023. But the median wait times for cancer surgeries, MRIs and CT scans in Alberta all increased in 2024 compared to 2023. 'Alberta's government knows there is more work to do to, particularly on cancer surgical wait times. We are committed to improving the timeliness and accessibility of health care in the province to ensure every Albertan receives the care they need within clinically recommended timelines,' reads part of a statement from the province's new Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Services. 'Alberta continues to perform better than the national average for wait times in four areas: hip replacement, hip fracture repair, knee replacement and radiation therapy.' The province also performed more than 318,000 total surgeries in the 2024-25 fiscal year, which is a record for Alberta and more than the projected target of 310,000. 'So, there are there are areas where we can see some of the many strategies that provinces like Alberta are trying are starting to show an effect,' said Chui.
