full image - Repost: Second Parliament | First Session | Speech from the Throne (from Reddit.com, Second Parliament | First Session | Speech from the Throne)
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Mister Speaker,Honourable Folks of the Legislative Assembly,Folks of Ontario,Folks,At the start of our first term, the Government inherited a province at its breaking point: a healthcare system in shambles, the affordability crisis squeezing working families, our industrial centres grappling with unemployment and poverty, and schools that were literally falling apart at the seams.In response, the Government governed with aspiration and ambition. After decades of cuts, the Government injected much needed funding in healthcare to clear the backlog. The Government took on corporate greed to put thousands of dollars in the pockets of working families. The Government kickstarted a plan to construct 250,000 new homes. The Government released an industrial policy to grow the economy and decarbonize our province with new investment. The Government allocated funding to fix up our schools and homes. And the Government did it all while slashing the deficit by $2.5 billion.While previous governments worked for their buddies, the wealthy and well-connected, this government will govern for folks. The Government will build a new social contract in Ontario, with a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power in favour of folks. Our Ontario will be one of climate action, economic development, worker prosperity, affordable living, strong public services, and fiscal responsibility. Folks, not buddies, will be the guiding theme of this government.This government will advance our program of climate action. The Government will crush the western corporate bandits and Athabasca elites who steal from Ontario’s coffers under the federal carbon pricing system. The Government will establish a made-in-Ontario carbon pricing system. Under this proposal, rates and rebates will complement the federal government’s present system. However, unfair exemptions which benefit large corporations will be abolished, ensuring that the carbon pricing system is as fair and effective as possible. This proposal will ensure that Ontario does not subsidize the western corporate bandits and Athabasca elites, that being the western provinces and large polluters, as is currently the case. The Government estimates that this will generate approximately $3.7 billion in new additional annual revenue.The developer elites want to rip off aspiring homeowners and ignite a reign of terror on farming communities. This government will abolish big developer sprawl. The Government will expand the size of the Greenbelt to freeze the urban boundaries of the GTHA, preventing further sprawl and protecting vital farmland and wetland. This expansion includes the Waterloo and Paris/Galt moraine, Orangeville moraine, Oro moraine, the Nottawasaga River corridor, and additional wetlands and small moraines in Dufferin and Simcoe. The Government will also establish secondary greenbelts outside of the GTHA to freeze the urban boundaries of Ottawa, London, Windsor, Niagara, Kingston, and Peterborough.Unlike the Fordist-Wynnist-McGuintist-Eveist-Harrism elites, this government believes in the fundamental principle of accountability. The Government will ensure that all projects have greater environmental oversight and consultation. The Government will bring back the Office of the Environmental Commissioner, which was eliminated by the Ford Conservatives, to uphold our environmental regulations in a non-partisan manner. The Government will also reform Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) by limiting its use, as MZOs have been used to override local planning authority without expert analysis and public participation.The Government will work to establish the Ontario Environmental Assessment Agency, which will promote environmental transparency. It will work to investigate, study, and report on the social and environmental implications of all public infrastructure projects.The Government recognizes that nuclear power is safe, efficient, and key in decarbonization. However, the Government also recognizes the incredible cost and time required to build new nuclear plants. The Government will develop a long-term strategy on nuclear power to plan for our energy independence in the coming decades. The Government will also explore the potential of small modular reactors to generate power in both industrial and residential settings.This government will build a high-wage, high-investment, high-growth economy. The Government will create the greatest economy ever right here in Ontario under our Ministry of Economic Planning and Industrial Revitalization.The Government will crush domestic terrorists such as the radical trucker convoy by permanently changing the way the Government move our goods around. The Government will establish a crown corporation to build, maintain, and operate shortline railroads. The corporation will give freight rail transportation the support it needs to thrive by connecting industrial parks across the province to mainline railroads, to move goods by train, not truck. It will also be directed to work with municipally-owned and private shortline railroads to improve existing services. Since transporting freight by train is significantly less expensive, this will bring down the cost of shipping goods and lower carbon emissions, reducing industrial operating expenses.The natural wealth of our province belongs to all Ontarians, not the Australian Beasts. The Government will develop a Natural Resources Heritage Fund, a sovereign wealth fund based on the success of Norway’s Oil Fund and Chile’s ESSF. It will receive 50% of revenue from the mining tax and 40% of royalties on forestry. To help finance the NRHF, the mining tax will be increased to 15% and forestry royalties will increase by 18%. There will also be a one-time starting injection of $250 million to immediately grow the fund.The Government will also bring Ontario in line with the rest of Canada by increasing our Focused Flow-through Share Tax Credit from 5% to 20%, unlocking an extra $90 million dollars for private mining exploration.The Ring of Fire is an excellent opportunity for Ontario to create jobs, secure critical minerals, develop the northern economy, and fight climate change. Unfortunately, the Australian Beasts are poised to take control of our strategic resources. To keep our jobs, wealth, and resources in our province, the Government will establish a crown corporation to bring the exploration, development, and operation of mines in the Ring of Fire under public ownership. This crown corporation will be developed in partnership with local indigenous communities, which will include board representation and profit-sharing measures. It will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during production, unlocking additional funding for our critical public services. To facilitate this process, the government will acquire all mining companies and projects within the Ring of Fire at market value with fair compensation, at an expected cost of $1.229 billion. In addition, the Government will prioritize the delivery of resources from the Ring of Fire to industry in Ontario, boosting manufacturing and employment in our battery and automobile industries. The Government will also commit to building $1 billion in road infrastructure to service the Ring of Fire and nearby communities.The Government will work alongside mines and manufacturing plants to lower carbon emissions by promoting clean power and vehicle electrification. Our plan to reduce the cost of electricity by annihilating private, for-profit control over electricity generation will significantly reduce operating expenses in mining and manufacturing.To clarify the consultation process for mining companies and ensure fair representation for all relevant local and Indigenous groups, the Government will task the Ministry of Natural Resources with creating a comprehensive list of groups with which to consult.The Government will invest in Ontario’s Electric Avenue and partner with private industry to secure critical lithium resources for a made-in-Ontario, start-to-finish battery supply chain.This government will prioritize the use of goods and services from Ontario in the public procurement process. Unlike the Fordist-Wynnist-McGuintist-Eveist-Harrism elites, the Government will get our goods from Ontario, not from the Australian Beasts or China. Government agencies, provincial crown corporations, and public institutions such as universities, school boards, hospitals, and transit agencies will be encouraged to purchase goods and services from businesses in Ontario. This will boost economic growth, employment, and private investment in Ontario, as businesses will work to produce the necessary goods and services to compliment public expenditure.The Government like businesses, if they are good. To encourage good business practices and assist community-based businesses, the Government will introduce a Most Economically Advantageous Tender approach to procurement. Under this approach, factors in awarding contracts such as quality, environmental features, fair living wages, innovation, and support for SMEs, cooperatives, and unionized firms will be considered in the public procurement process.This government will be the first folks-government in Ontario history. The Government will push for economic democracy in the workplace and build worker power across the province.Workers ought to benefit from the success of their workplace. This will establish a wage board system of industry-wide collective bargaining, emulating the success of similar systems in mainland Europe. Under this proposal, employers, workers, and the general public will be brought together to negotiate wages and benefits for an entire industry. This will deliver good compensation for working folks.This government will work with the Ontario Federation of Labour to examine the establishment of an Ontario Pension Plan. Working folks deserve a good pension, for when they actually become folks.The Government will implement a right of first refusal policy, giving workers the ability to purchase ownership of their company or workplace before it closes or is sold off. The Government will also develop a strategy to support cooperatives and worker-owned businesses. The Government like workers, especially worker-owned businesses.This government will establish co-determination in provincially-regulated industries, where workers of businesses with over 1,000 employees will be given the right to elect a quarter of the company’s board of directors. Provincial crown corporations will also be subject to co-determination. By facilitating collaborative workplace relationships and promoting additional training, this will boost productivity and give workers a real voice in the workplace. The Government will also examine introducing works councils, shop-floor organizations which complement unions in the workplace. Democracy is good.Small business owners are workers; this government recognizes the importance of small business and Main Street. While the Fordist elites bailed out our big box stores at the height of the pandemic, small family owned shops were forced to close and go bankrupt. The Government will ensure that commercial insurance is affordable for small businesses by collaborating with business organizations and the insurance industry. The Government will explore the standardization of commercial lease agreements and rent guidelines to simplify the process for business owners.Living should be affordable for folks. This government will ensure affordable living for all Ontarians by focusing on housing, social assistance, electricity, auto insurance, and telecommunications.This government will enact comprehensive zoning reform. We’ll abolish exclusionary zoning, spurring the construction of more missing-middle housing, such as duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes. We’ll upzone land around transit corridors to build more mixed-use transit-oriented development. We’ll abolish minimum parking requirements to free up space and drastically reduce the cost of housing. And we’ll mandate affordability through inclusionary zoning, where 20% of new units in condominiums will be required to be affordable, to tackle land inequality and foster mixed-income communities. The Government will take on the NIMBY elites by being inclusive, not exclusive.This government will work for people who work for a living, not lazy people who should get a real job like landlords. The Government will restore rent control on all units. We’ll also scrap vacancy decontrol, ensuring that a new tenant pays what the last tenant paid. We’ll establish good cause eviction laws to protect tenants from being evicted without a fair reason. We’ll also establish a rent registry, allowing renters to observe how the cost of rent has changed in their unit over time.Housing is good. The Government will build it. The Government will establish Housing and Development Ontario, a crown agency with the mandate to construct 250,000 non-market rental homes over the next decade, of which, 60,000 units will be secured as supportive housing to end chronic homelessness and tackle the addiction crisis. Following the 3-3-3 rule: one-third of homes will be affordable, one-third will be deeply affordable, and one-third will be market-rate. This will allow for the cross subsidy of tenants in housing, ensuring quality affordable housing for all Ontarians. To ensure proper representation for residents, the Government will establish residents councils, where a quarter of Housing and Development Ontario’s board of directors will be elected by tenants of the agency. Residents will also be given the opportunity to designate their building as a housing cooperative as of right.Housing and Development Ontario will be given the mandate to regenerate greyfield and brownfield sites to build new mixed-use, affordable communities across Ontario. It will also take advantage of inexpensive, excess public and private land by burying electric transmission lines, utilizing land in ‘towers in the park’ developments more effectively, and building on public transit stations. In addition, the agency will work with community organizations to aid in the establishment of community land trusts: non-profit organizations which own and manage land on behalf of the community. Acting as a public developer, the agency will gradually bring land development under public ownership and control. Development is good, but public development is better.Large multinational corporations are buying up rental buildings and pushing tenants out. Under this government, Housing and Development Ontario will bring affordable rental buildings listed for sale under public ownership. The agency will purchase and rehabilitate these private rental homes to ensure affordability and security of tenure for tenants. In doing so, the Government will force lazy people like landlords to get a real job.The Government will tax the hell out of lazy developers, speculators, and flippers. The Government will double the vacancy and speculation tax to 10% and introduce a flipping tax to solve this issue. The new tax will be applied on the sale of residential property, which will be dependent on how long the property is held. It will not apply to developers, property that is held for more than two years, and in exceptional life circumstances.Poverty is bad. No one should live in legislated poverty. This government will double ODSP and OW over a four year period, continuing our present policy of increasing rates by 25% annually. These measures will lift 650,000 people across Ontario out of poverty.Howard Hampton wrote a really good book called Public Power. The Government will bring private generators of electricity under public ownership to take private profit out of electricity generation, absolutely destroying private generators of power. The Government will re-establish Hydro Ontario, bringing Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One, the Independent Electricity Market Operator, the Electrical Safety Authority, and the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation back under a single, consolidated crown agency, reducing overhead. The Government will abolish the wholesale electricity market and reinstate central planning in our electricity system. Planning is good. Altogether, these measures will greatly reduce the cost of electricity for consumers.This government will allocate $2.3 billion over a two year period to bring a public option into the telecom market. This will be accomplished through the establishment of a crown corporation, which will be tasked with constructing a holistic telecom network across Ontario’s major urban centres, where it is the most profitable to run such a service. The Government will then instruct the crown corporation to direct its revenue from telecom services to gradually build out a telecom network across the province, particularly in rural and remote regions. The crown corporation will also be instructed to keep costs for consumers low; this will force private telecom corporations to reduce their prices in a bid to compete. Ontario will no longer just be a large grocery chain and two rival telecom companies in a trenchcoat.The Government will also develop a Rural Broadband Strategy in partnership with this new crown corporation and local communities, to secure internet access in rural and northern communities. This will establish a low-cost telecom market with high connectivity across the province, benefitting households, businesses, and industry.This government will allocate $575 million over two years to deliver on a public option for auto insurance, under a provincial crown corporation. This will drive down the cost of auto insurance and ensure universal affordability of coverage. The Government will also end postal code discrimination for auto insurance, saving families hundreds of dollars. The Government doesn't like cars, but the Government hates private auto insurance agencies even more.This government will expand and strengthen our healthcare, education, and long-term care systems in our second term. The Government will also strive to work towards and achieve Indigenous reconciliation.The Government understands that mental health is health. With an annual $1.17 billion investment, the Government will establish a publicly funded mental healthcare program to ensure that everyone in Ontario can get the help they need. This program will cover counseling and therapy services provided by regulated health professionals under OHIP. The Government will encourage opposition MPPs to make good use of this program. The Government will also bring transition drugs and PReP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) under OHIP so no one has to pay out of pocket for them. Pharmaceuticals and dental care ought to be a key component of our universal, public healthcare system. As such, the Government will work with the federal government to implement pharmacare and expand access to cost-free dental care.The Government will treat addiction like a health crisis instead of a crime crisis by establishing a mental health and addiction taskforce tasked with developing a working plan to defeat addiction on our streets. The taskforce will also expand the distribution of Naloxone and support safe injection sites. Police services do not always have the capabilities to adequately deal with mental health crises, which could lead to more tragic and preventable incidents. The Government will establish Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Teams and pair police with mental health workers, ensuring our first responders can properly respond to mental health calls. The Government will also work to empower hospitals to collect race-based data to help better inform government policy regarding equity in healthcare. Unfortunately, my advisor told me to not call the police “pigs”.In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, private LTCs had twice as many outbreaks as public LTCs, all while the three largest LTC companies paid out $1.5 billion to shareholders. This will bring dignity back to our seniors by ending profit in long-term care by 2030. The Government will work to build a new public and non-profit long-term care system to ensure resources are distributed in an effective manner. The Government will mandate that long-term care residents receive a minimum of four hours of hands-on care daily and restore independent and unannounced inspections of long-term care homes. The Government will support your folks by ending Fordist-Wynnist-McGuintist-Eveist-Harrism in long-term care.Ontario uses public tax dollars to fund a Catholic school board. Not only does this violate a fundamental principle of our country, the separation of church and state, it costs the province extra on administration and overhead. This government will take immediate action to merge the public and Catholic school boards across the province, saving $1.6 billion every year. The Government will reinvest these funds right back into our education system to build new schools, expand our existing facilities, and hire 10,000 additional trained teachers. This measure will cap class sizes at 20 for all grades. With a $50 million investment, the Government will also improve French language education in our schools. No comment.This government will act immediately to end boil water advisories in Ontario. The Government will work with the federal government to allocate an additional $39 million to fund much-needed water infrastructure in First Nations communities. In addition, to ensure Indigenous peoples are treated equitably under the law, the Government will implement UNDRIP. This government has drip.The Government will continue to explore implementing electoral reform under the working committee established under Bill 7. The Government will also reform the Ontario Land Tribunal to restore freedom to municipal decision makers and promote smart urban planning. This government will work with nasty John Tory, nasty Tory, to help fix up municipal shortfalls in revenue.This government will stop our public services from being contracted out. The Government will also reform Infrastructure Ontario to put an end to the further use of public-private partnerships. In doing so, the Government will respect the rights of workers and ensure prudence in government expenditure. The Government will also fire the CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, for he is a McKinsey & Company pro-privatization bastard.The Government is committed to fiscal responsibility. In our first budget, the Government slashed the deficit by $2.5 billion while still supporting our critical public services and new investments to grow Ontario’s economy. Unlike the previous Conservatives government, who projected a $12.3 billion deficit in the 2023-2024 fiscal year and a $7.6 billion deficit in the 2024- 2025 fiscal year, This government will commit to an accelerated program of deficit reduction. Our costed platform projects a $7.9 billion deficit in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which shrinks to $2.5 billion by the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The Government can handle money.Thank you.
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