No public hearings as Ford pushes through health care legislation
Opposition MPPs and advocates say they’re concerned by the Ford government’s decision to bypass public hearings for new health care legislation.
The government has introduced a motion to move the bill directly to the third-reading stage bypassing the usual committee hearings that would be held at the second reading.
The legislation would give the government the power to transfer hospital patients to long-term care facilities outside of their home areas, to free up more hospital beds.
The Liberals say they’ve heard that, in northern Ontario, those locations could be up to 300 kilometres away.
The penalty if a patient refuses is unclear but advocates worry they could be charged hundreds of dollars a day for remaining in a hospital.
Air quality in long-term care
The provincial government has fined two long-term care homes 11 hundred dollars each for failing to install air conditioning in their residents’ rooms.
Legislation passed last year gave the homes until June 22nd to install the necessary equipment.
Provincial officials say nearly all homes have purchased air conditioning equipment, but supply chain and labour issues have held up installation.
However, a home in Sarnia has refused to even consider the idea while another in London is debating the definition of “air conditioning” with provincial officials.
The two homes have been ordered to comply by September 16th or face further penalties.
A near miss
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the world narrowly avoided another meltdown yesterday, when the last electricity line to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was cut.
The plant is located in southern Ukraine, in an area under Russian control.
Zelensky says a fire at a nearby coal plant severed the connection and if Ukrainian staff hadn’t been on duty to check backup power generators, there could have been a massive leak of radiation.
The electricity supply has since been restored.
Zelensky and the United Nations have been pressing Russia to allow an international monitoring team into the plant but, so far, it’s refused.
Kushner, Trump and Freeland
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says former U-S President Donald Trump was a “bully” during negotiations for a new North American free trade agreement in 2020.
In his new book, Freeland was reacting to Jared Kushner’s description of her as a difficult negotiator.
Kushner, the son-in-law to former President Donald Trump, says Freeland deliberately stalled the talks and discussed them publicly, despite a White House request that she did not do so.
Freeland says when a bully threatens you, you don’t cave in.
California banning all gas-powered cars by 2035
California has become the first U-S state to ban the sale of gas-powered cars with a target date of 2035.
The law would also set increasing quotas for the sale of emission-free vehicles until the target year is reached.
Now that California has made the move, several other states are likely to follow suit.