Dear Premier Ford,
Ahead of this afternoon’s Team Ontario meeting, I’m pleased to submit the Ontario Liberal Party’s priorities for the upcoming 2020 Budget.
Implementing these ideas is essential to ensuring Ontario families recover from this pandemic and thrive in a new economic landscape.
Simply put, Ontarians demand investment in their safety and our recovery. The Budget must include:
- New provincial funding for smaller class sizes in our schools.
- Emergency funding for nursing homes to implement the recommendations of the Long Term Care commission, including a 4 hours of daily resident care requirement and increased staffing.
- Immediate relief measures for small businesses.
- New supports for the people hit hardest by the pandemic, including women, racialized Ontarians, and indigenous peoples.
- Immediate expansion of Ontario’s COVID-19 testing, which is currently hampering our response and path to recovery.
Ontarians aren’t looking for the government to take a victory lap campaigning around the province. Families of loved ones in nursing homes and kids in school demand meaningful and timely action.
Those families cannot be ignored in the Budget on November 5th. Anything less than an expanded emergency response will put lives at unnecessary risk.
While I look forward to discussing these measures with you this afternoon, a productive conversation will be impossible without also taking immediate action to remove the hateful legislation currently before our legislature.
Using emergency COVID-19 legislation as a trojan horse to legitimize the hate of Charles McVety is more than underhanded, it’s unbecoming of the Premier of our great, inclusive province. This is no time to jeopardize real relief efforts by rewarding your friends on the radical far-right.
This legislation must be immediately withdrawn in order for a productive conversation this afternoon.
Regards,
Steven
Steven Del Duca
Leader, Ontario Liberal Party