Ontario's Progressive Conservatives cruise to rare 3rd-straight majority, CBC News projects
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives have cruised to their third straight majority government, CBC News projects, after a snap winter election fought amid the spectre of U.S. tariffs.
It is the first time since 1959 in Ontario that a party leader has won three consecutive majorities.
Results are still pouring in from ridings across the province, so the size of the majority is uncertain.
Get the latest results here.
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Ontario ordering public servants back into office full time
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Global News
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‘Significant crisis': Number of violent incidents reported in Ontario's schools grows
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'It confirms what parents and educators have been saying for some time — that there is a significant crisis of violence in our classrooms and the violence is getting worse over time,' NDP MPP Chandra Pasma said. Story continues below advertisement The Ministry of Education acknowledged the numbers were increasing. 'To address rising violence in our schools and communities, our government has increased funding for school safety initiatives to the highest in Ontario history, including more funding to hire psychologists, social workers, child/youth workers and educational assistants to enhance direct services for students,' a spokesperson said. More than 4,400 incidents last year A summary of all the violence incidents reported to the government by Ontario's school boards over the past seven years shows a significant increase, especially since the pandemic. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy In 2018-19, schools reported 2,499 incidents across the province over the course of the academic year. The next year, it rose to 3,237. The figures dropped to just 993 during the 2020-21 year and 2,866 the year after, as the pandemic wound up and school returned to a normal schedule. Story continues below advertisement By 2022-23, the numbers spiked up to 4,414 violent incidents through the year. Last year, officials saw a marginal increase, taking the total to a recent record of 4,424. Use the chart above to explore the total number of incidents reported in Ontario, as well as a board-by-board breakdown. Note that the Y-axis will change depending on your selection. 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'We have a mental health crisis in our schools, but we don't have enough mental health professionals, so kids are asking for help and then they're not getting any until the following school year. We're closing special education programs, and so EAs are running from one crisis to the next, after the crisis has already happened.' The Ministry of Education suggested a planned increased role for police in classrooms would help. 'The rise in school violence also coincides with the shortsighted decision of many school boards across the province, starting in 2017, to end School Resource Officer programs in schools,' the spokesperson said. 'This is why our government has introduced measures that will require school boards to work with police services to develop School Resource Officer and youth engagement programs that will help foster positive relationships between students and law enforcement while making schools safer.' 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Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Ontario Shipyards partners with province and Italy's largest builder to ready bid for navy corvettes
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The new Vigilance ships, if built, would be somewhat larger, perhaps 100 metres long, to give them more range and capabilities, said Ted Kirkpatrick, Ontario Shipyards' director of business development and government relations. The federal government has yet to issue a tender for the new corvettes – the navy is reportedly still setting the parameters of the project – and neither Mr. Fedeli nor Mr. Kirkpatrick know the timeline or the expected budget, though the contract could be worth several billion dollars. 'We feel hopeful that this project will move forward fairly quickly,' Mr. Kirkpatrick said, noting that Prime Minister Mark Carney has made rearmament an industrial priority to meet Canada's domestic defence needs and NATO commitments. In an effort to kick-start an ambitious shipbuilding program in Ontario, which has not built a warship since the Second World War, the provincial government last month launched a financial program worth $215-million. The amount is designed to support shipbuilding capacity under the National Shipbuilding Strategy program. Mr. Fedeli said the incentives would be composed of loans and grants and tailored to each project. 'We want Ontario to get back into the shipbuilding business,' he said. Several other funds, including the new Ontario Together Trade Fund, could offer incentives to steel companies and other manufacturers to help them serve Canadian customers. Mr. Kirkpatrick said Ontario Shipyards 'hopes and expects to be a large beneficiary of the incentives programs.' Ontario Shipyards (formerly Heddle Shipyards) was founded in 1987 and has three sites – in Hamilton, Port Weller and Thunder Bay. The company has about 250 employees, and its main business today is repairing coast guard vessels, not building new ships. The company joined Team Vigilance to launch an unsolicited proposal to build a new corvette fleet. In addition to Fincantieri, the group includes Vard, which is Fincantieri's design arm; Thales THLEF, the French defence company that specializes in electronics; and SH Defence of Denmark, a maker of modular loading systems. Ontario Shipyards expects competition for the contract from the other industry players in Canada, primarily Irving Shipbuilding of Nova Scotia, which has a contract worth $8-billion to build the first three River-class destroyers for the navy; Davie Shipbuilding of Quebec, which is making icebreakers for the coast guard; and Seaspan Shipyards of British Columbia, which is building large non-combat ships for the navy and the coast guard. Mr. Kirkpatrick said the three rival shipbuilders have ample work at the moment, leaving only Ontario Shipyards with enough spare capacity to take on a big, new naval contract. 'We have the largest amount of underutilized capacity in Canada,' he said. 'If there is anyone who can put a boat in the water and paint it grey, it's us.' He said the presence of Fincantieri and subsidiary Vard are key advantages for Team Vigilance. Vard would design the vessels, and Fincantieri would handle shipyard layout, procurement and project management. Mr. Kirkpatrick said a team from Fincantieri visited Ontario Shipyards last year to assess the company's capabilities and determine what equipment and training it would need to launch a competitive bid for Canadian navy warships. Fincantieri, based in Trieste, in Italy's northeast, is controlled by the Italian government and is listed on the Milan exchange. The company has built some of world's largest ships for Cunard, Carnival, Princess and other cruise companies. It also builds combat ships, including aircraft carriers and submarines, for the Italian, U.S. and other governments. In Wisconsin, it makes the U.S. Navy's Constellation-class frigates, which are based on the Italian Navy's multipurpose frigates, known as FREMM.
