Today's letters: Ontario is being simplistic about hospital parking fees
Article content
The reasons Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth have given for her resignation as a trustee from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board reinforce the growing knowledge that board employees will not be protected from extremist intimidation and threats (depending on who is making the threat and who the target of the threat is), nor from years of administrative abuse of power.
Article content
Kaplan-Myrth's story is another example of a public school system that has run amok due to years of not having to be accountable to its taxpayers. Its financial mismanagement is just the tip of the iceberg.
Article content
We truly need the Ontario government to ensure our children and youth are being properly educated for the 21st century and to demand that the school boards committed and hard-working employees get the support and protection they need in the face of administrative indifference and the multifaceted extremist ideologies that infuse our culture and threaten our children's future.
Article content
Article content
I was struck by news coverage of homes destroyed by wildfires and tornadoes and by how vulnerable wooden homes are. That, plus the rise of homelessness and the recent tariffs on Canadian steel, makes me think that now is the time for Canada to develop its own modular, pre-fabricated steel homes.
Article content
This would create a local demand for Canadian steel and aluminum products, while providing easily deployable, strong, durable structures resistant to the natural disasters. They could be transported by truck or rail, then dropped on site as needed to address emergency/temporary and long-term housing needs. The walls themselves could then be reinforced and insulated locally with poured concrete.
Article content
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
3 minutes ago
- CBC
$30M Red Cross contract for Manitoba evacuee support offers glimpse into wildfire costs
The Manitoba government has signed a $30-million contract with the Canadian Red Cross for evacuee support and other services related to this year's wildfires. The recently disclosed contract is worth more than half the province's total annual budget for emergency services and provides a first glimpse into the cost of the Manitoba's worst wildfire season in at least 30 years. "We know that we need to continue providing supports to Manitobans who are facing evacuations and are continuing to need support," Finance Minister Adrien Sala said in an interview Tuesday. It's too early to estimate a total cost, Sala said, but an update is expected next month when the province is set to release its quarterly fiscal update. The Red Cross has been providing shelter and other aid for many of the people who had to flee their homes this year. The agency has managed large evacuee centres that have at times included a large indoor soccer complex and a section of the main convention centre in Winnipeg. Another recently disclosed contract shows the province signed a deal with hotel chain Canad Inns for just over $673,000. Government officials have called this the worst fire season since daily electronic records began in the mid-1990s. At its peak, some 21,000 Manitobans were out of their communities, with many put up in shelters and hotels. Almost 20,000 square kilometres of land has burned to date — more than double the second-worst season in 2013. Many evacuees have since returned home, but the province remains under a state of emergency and some communities, including Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, are still under mandatory evacuation orders. In recent years, the NDP government has budgeted $50 million for emergencies — a broad category that also includes costs related to floods and other natural disasters. Premier Wab Kinew recently said he expects this year's total to be above $50 million. The former Progressive Conservative government had budgeted $100 million annually and sometimes ended up spending much more. Some $266 million was spent in the 2022-23 fiscal year, when spring flooding and summer forest fires kept emergency workers busy. Provincial governments can also get some expenses covered through the federal government's Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, or DFAA, program. But the Manitoba government says such aid can be limited. Each fire is normally counted separately and, in the past, fire damage covered by the program has often not met the minimum threshold for federal cost-sharing, says a slide deck prepared in June by the provincial emergency measures organization. "Due to the extraordinary nature of this event, Manitoba plans to work with Canada to combine some of the fire events into the same DFAA event, recognizing it will be very difficult to separate the cumulative impacts on communities," the slide deck reads.
Toronto Sun
32 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
LILLEY: Carney's canola tariff dilemma
Get the latest from Brian Lilley straight to your inbox Canola grows. Photo by Shannon VanRaes / Bloomberg When China slapped Canadian canola seed with a 75.8% tariff last week, the price immediately dropped more than $1 per bushel. While it's still trading higher now than the 10% price drop in March after China's first round of tariffs, it's still a drop farmers will feel. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account China's latest canola tariffs are in retaliation for Canada imposing 100% tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and 25% tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. The obvious answer to getting China's tariffs lifted on Canadian canola products is to lift our tariffs on EVs, steel and aluminum. The problem is, while the idea sounds sensible and simple, it's not that easy. In many ways, Canada is stuck between two economic giants involved in their own trade war. The Americans, under then-president Joe Biden, asked Canada to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. The claim is that these products are all heavily subsidized and dumped into North America to undermine our industries, harming our workers. Recommended video Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While these tariffs came from Biden, Trump has left the American tariffs on these products in place. Any move to drop the tariffs on Chinese goods could have the impact of the United States imposing more tariffs on Canadian exports headed south. The problem for canola farmers, and this will give them no comfort, but canola is simply a product China likes to target in any dispute with Canada. For three years, starting in 2019, China had a ban on Canadian canola. That was in response to the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the Americans in December 2018. China would go on to also kidnap two Canadians and hold them hostage, but on trade, they hit canola. In 2017, China began to complain that Canadian canola quality wasn't high enough and they slapped tariffs on seed exports. Let's be clear: These Chinese tariffs on canola should be removed but given China's past behaviour, there is no guarantee they would reciprocate. We could end up in a scenario where we remove our tariffs on Chinese goods, the United States places tariffs on more Canadian goods and China leaves their tariffs in place. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Why would they do that? In order to obtain greater concessions from the Carney government, to try and encourage them to move Canada closer to China and away from the United States. This is what I mean about being caught in the middle of a bigger trade war between China and the United States. I understand the argument that the canola industry is strong, established, worth $40 billion and employs around 200,000 people while the EV sector is just starting to get off the ground. Allowing China to dump their vehicles into Canada, charging half the price it costs to make them, would seriously injure our entire auto industry, though not just the nascent EV sector. The tariffs Canada has imposed also extend to Chinese steel and aluminum though China is dumping their product, hurting our existing and vital steel and aluminum industries. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. China is simply a bad player, an untrustworthy trader and a market we should try not to rely on for any of our exports. Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken often about diversifying our markets away from the United States; we should be doing the same with China. Replacing China would be difficult, but not impossible if markets like Japan, South Korea, India and Mexico were developed. That's a long-term solution for the next time China takes aim at our canola famers. In the meantime, there is simply a frustration across the Prairies that the Carney government favours Ontario and Quebec and doesn't care about them. That isn't helped by Carney's lack of action on this file. There may not be many good options but doing nothing is likely the worst option. Toronto Blue Jays NHL Money News Sunshine Girls World
CTV News
32 minutes ago
- CTV News
Poilievre will have to ‘soften the edges', act prime ministerial as he returns to Ottawa: experts
CTV's Political Commentator Scott Reid on what to expect from Pierre Poilievre after he regained a seat at the House of Commons. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will have to hold the government accountable while showing he can appeal to a wider set of Canadian voters, as he gets ready to head back to the House of Commons following his resounding byelection win, experts say. After losing his seat in the Ottawa-area riding he'd held for two decades to a political rookie in April's general election, Poilievre won a Monday byelection in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River—Crowfoot with 80 per cent of the vote. Now, when the House returns on Sept. 15, Poilievre will face off against new Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney for the first time in question period. Kory Teneycke, a leading Conservative campaign strategist, campaign manager for Ontario Premier Doug Ford and former director of communications for former prime minister Stephen Harper, said he anticipates Poilievre will face a set of specific challenges. 'His personal popularity continues to be a ballot drag compared to the Conservative party as a whole,' Teneycke said in an interview with CTV News on Tuesday. 'So, trying to improve his image with Canadians is, I think, something that they should be focusing on, maybe softening some of the harder edges there.' 'The second challenge is maybe a little more tricky, and that's that the Carney government has adopted most of what the Conservative campaign platform was, and so you're got to come up with a critique that is a little bit more nuanced and a little more complicated than it was under the Justin Trudeau Liberals,' he added. Former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore called Poilievre 'one of the most effective opposition leaders Canada has seen in a very, very long time,' but said the challenge will be to balance that while being seen as prime ministerial. 'It's one of the most difficult ju-jitsu moves in all of politics,' Moore said in an interview with CTV News on Tuesday. 'If you're the leader of the opposition and you do it really well, Canadian voters might want to have an instinct to want to keep you in that role, because you do it so well.' Moore said 'the ground has really shifted underneath the country' in response to the protracted trade war with the United States, which began in February following U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods. He said Poilievre should bring the Conservative caucus in line with the momentum behind that shift. 'I think making sure Canadians see that he understands that the mission of this Parliament is to consolidate a clear Canadian position in defence of Canadian interests, relative to the threat of Donald Trump, and making sure that the caucus is united in that message, while the same time not letting other issues slip by,' Moore said, pointing to taxes, housing, and defence as other critical issues of the day, and adding that a 'tough opposition' is necessary to make the government more effective. 'It's a tough task,' Moore also said. 'And (Poilievre) has to really make sure that Canadians know that he's not just speaking for Conservatives, he's not just speaking for centre-right voters, but he actually aspires to be a prime minister for all Canadians.' Poilievre to face leadership review in January After winning Monday's critical byelection with a clear margin of victory, Poilievre now has another important deadline ahead: he's set to face a mandatory leadership review at the Conservative convention in late January. 'When it comes to his leadership, I think a lot of it will have to do with how the national numbers pan out,' said Nanos Research founder and chief data scientist Nik Nanos. 'Think of it this way: there are caucus members who were elected in the last federal election when the Conservatives had the support of more than four out of every 10 Canadians. Now they're in the low thirties.' 'I don't think you can underestimate that dynamic, because for some caucus members, they will be self interested,' he added. 'They'll be thinking can they win another time locally with Pierre Poilievre as the leader, and if Conservative caucus members believe that they can win with him as a leader, then he won't have a problem. If his numbers are flat, could be a different story.' Nanos said Poilievre will have to move quickly to close the gap between his party and the Liberals, and critically, between himself and Carney, with January's leadership review as a possible target date to see improvement in national polling. According to the latest numbers from Nanos Research, the Liberals are 12 points ahead of the Conservatives, at 44 per cent and 32 per cent respectively. But, Poilievre is trailing Carney by 27 points when it comes to the preferred prime minister question. Those numbers are a sharp contrast to the start of the year when the Conservatives led the Liberals — under former prime minister Justin Trudeau — by more than 20 points. Teneycke, meanwhile, said Poilievre's position as leader is likely safe, with no other candidates waiting in the wings to mount a challenge. 'Normally when you see an unsuccessful leadership review for an incumbent, it's a result of others wanting to push that person out,' he said. He added that while there's 'some discontent' among Conservatives who were disappointed they didn't win the election as handily as they were expected to at the beginning of the year, the party under Poilievre still picked up several seats. 'It was a mixed result,' Teneycke said. 'Losing his own home riding, obviously, is an embarrassing thing to have happen, but coming back to the House this fall and having gotten a very strong mandate from the people of Battle River—Crowfoot, I think that's going to be a positive thing for them compared to what they were potentially facing.'
