‘Buying us off’

Dear Editor:

Premier Doug Ford announced that everyone in Ontario who qualifies will receive a $200 cheque, a refund from a “cash flush” government according to Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy. The cost will be about $3 billion. 

Put this together with the $1 billion that cancelling the cost of license plate stickers lost and $4 billion is gone from provincial coffers.

This is the amount transferred from the federal government to Ontario during COVID. That $4 billion was to provide help for Ontario’s citizens like those vulnerable old folks dying in senior’s homes in Ontario. No one has accounted for the whereabouts of that transfer, however.

Citizens get $200. What to do? Donate to Habitat for Humanity who are actually building much needed housing rather than paying off developer friends with a destructive Highway 413 or making empty promises?

Or donate to the Wilmot farmers who are trying to save their farms from a provincial land grab with no agricultural impact assessment, setting a precedent that means no farm is safe in Ontario? 

Save it for private health care as our system is chronically underfunded so that privatization continues to take over? Buy medical supplies for home care that the provincial “cash flush” government seems unable to do?

Donate to a teacher for classroom repairs or resources?

 Or donate to Nature Canada, Environmental Defence, a conservation authority, Seniors for Climate Action Now, or any local group doing their best to protect and preserve our environment from short-sighted policies and destruction?

Or pay for groceries from grocery chains making unprecedented profits?  

As our provincial government buys us off cheaply for our votes, our province and its people continue to suffer from governance by self interest and ignorance. The attempted Greenbelt swindle is the tip of the iceberg! Investigators cannot keep up with the scandals like the Science Centre, Ontario Place, Highway 413, and so many more! 

But $200 for almost 15 million people, right? Ralph Klein would be proud!

Donna McCaw,
Elora