Skip to main content

Ontario loses 75,000 FT jobs. But who cares?

Last week, the government announced that it would renege on its election funding promises. Now Dwight Duncan is making more noises about what this may mean. Here's some of his comments to the Toronto Star:

The Ontario government faces "very difficult choices" as it moves to limit spending increases to just 1 per cent, warns Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. ... Duncan said his fall economic statement the week after next would signal the belt-tightening that looms ahead as the Liberals strive to eliminate the deficit. "Traditionally, fall economic statements are about updating the numbers for the last budget. We're going to do that, but more importantly we're going to start to lay the path towards the next budget and the sorts of decisions that we are going to need to take in order to stay on target for our balanced budget (in 2017-18)," he said."Those inevitably will involve some very difficult choices."

 Duncan told a business reporter of the Globe and Mail "This will be a long period of restraint. My view continues to be that there will be a lot of difficult choices," while indicating that revenues would fall short due to reduced growth.  Clearly, the government's  fall economic statement later this month is going to be something to watch this time round.

With this, we are now hearing all sorts of advice on the new situation. Tory leader Tim Hudak wants a wage freeze, changes to the interest arbitration system for essential workers, and to "rein in the size and the cost of government" ; the former head of the Champlain LHIN is calling for more regionalization of health care; and the Globe & Mail now says "Everything is on the table, including the possibility of letting the private sector deliver some health-care services." (If so, this is also contrary to earlier Liberal promises.)

In the first eight years of the Liberal government funding increased a little over 7% per year, on average. The government had planned to move to 1.8% increases, but now plans six years of 1% increases.

Austerity has helped drive Europe into higher unemployment and economic crisis and it may well do the same here.  While there is little sign of the alternative  -- a public sector jobs and growth strategy --  in Ontario or elsewhere, it is apparent that even some conservative economists are concerned about the impact of public sector austerity on jobs, growth, the economy, and debt.

Ontario lost 75,400 full time jobs last month.  Just under 38,000 people joined the unemployed, officially.  This pushed the (official) unemployment rate to 8.1%, a half percentage point higher than the previous month, and leaving Ontario with an unemployment rate well above the national average.   

But the McGuinty government is focused on cuts instead - cuts that will drive unemployment.  And the official opposition is even less focused on jobs, with Tim Hudak making clear he will prop up the government if it implements cuts. 

For now working people (and public services) are going to be made to pay the price, it seems.  A deepening economic crisis may, however, bring new approaches to the fore.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding:  There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities).    For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year.   But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending.  Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2. 

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding :  While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments.  In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS.  But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery :  Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada.   But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily  Medavie,  a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit.  Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance.  It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees.  It now a