Government of Ontario: 1) Ontario Expands Program To Train Long-Term Care Staff, 2) Supreme Court Rules Ford Government Doesn’t Have To Disclose Mandate Letters 3)Ontario To Add 400 New Primary Care Providers To Deal With Staffing Shortage
1) Ontario Expands Program To Train Long-Term Care Staff
Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Jan 31st, 2024
Stratford, Ontario
Ontario is extending a program that helps long-term care homes provide clinical placements for nursing and personal support worker students.
The government says the program has already helped 500 long-term care homes provide more than 17,000 placements since 2021, and with new funding of $94.5 million over three years, it aims to support 31,000 more placements by 2027.
Long-Term Care Minister Stan Cho says the program helps build a pipeline of talent for the future by giving students more hands-on clinical training.
The students work under the supervision of preceptors, staff who are trained for that role, and the program also aims to train more than 3,000 new preceptors.
Cho also announced that the government will spend almost $11 million over three years to expand a program that helps students train to become personal support workers on-site in long-term care homes.
The government says so-called living classrooms allow students to learn and apply that knowledge at the same time.
2) Supreme Court Rules Ford Government Doesn’t Have To Disclose Mandate Letters
Canadian PressPublished: Feb 2nd, 2024
By Allison Jones
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government can keep marching orders to cabinet ministers confidential, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday, marking an end to a long-running legal battle over access to the documents.
The CBC had asked – under the province’s freedom-of-information law – for the letters written to ministers after Ford won the 2018 election, but the request was denied on the basis that releasing the documents would reveal the substance of cabinet deliberations.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner disagreed, ordering the government to disclose them, and two levels of Ontario courts also sided with the CBC.
But the Supreme Court ruled that the letters are exempt from public disclosure.
While the outcome was unanimous, one of the justices on the panel of seven who heard the case came to the same conclusion as the majority, but for different reasons.
“Freedom of information (FOI) legislation strikes a balance between the public’s need to know and the confidentiality the executive requires to govern effectively,” Justice Andromache Karakatsanis wrote for the majority.
“Both are crucial to the proper functioning of our democracy.”
Ford’s government had contended that cabinet confidentiality, candour and solidarity are fundamental to a system where responsible ministers collectively decide government policy, but the CBC argued disclosure is key to an informed public and accountable government.
While there is no doubt that public access to government-held information is vital to the democratic process, Karakatsanis wrote, in this case the information and privacy commissioner interpreted the freedom-of-information exemption around cabinet deliberations too narrowly.
“In our constitutional democracy, the confidentiality of Cabinet deliberations is a precondition to responsible government because it enables collective ministerial responsibility,” Karakatsanis wrote.
“At base, Cabinet confidentiality promotes executive accountability by permitting private disagreement and candour in ministerial deliberations, despite public solidarity.”
The information and privacy commissioner found that the letters indicate topics that may have arisen during a cabinet meeting or may be considered at a future meeting, and represent the “end point” of deliberations, rather than the substance.
But, Karakatsanis wrote, the commissioner did not give due consideration to the impact that “premature disclosure of policy priorities at an early stage of the process may have on the efficient workings of government.”
“Far from being mere ‘topics’ like items on an agenda, the Letters reflect the views of the Premier on the importance of certain policy priorities, and mark the initiation of a fluid process of policy formulation within Cabinet,” the court wrote.
“The Letters are revealing of the substance of Cabinet deliberations, both on their face and when compared against what government actually does.”
Kathleen Wynne became the first Ontario premier to proactively disclose the letters, in 2014, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several other premiers following suit.
The 2018 Ontario mandate letters themselves were made public in September after a source provided them to Global News.
Ontario’s opposition leaders said Ford should have released the letters and keeping them secret suggests he has something to hide.
“It’s clear that almost every decision that this Conservative government has made is in the interest of a select few of their friends – not the best interests of Ontarians,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles wrote in a statement.
“This government wasted five years and huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to keep these documents secret.”
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said Ontarians deserve to know what the premier instructs his ministers to do.
“If this government were truly ‘for the people,’ this would include being for the people’s right to know what their government is doing,” she wrote in a statement.
“Ontario citizens should be able to trust that their premier will act in the public’s best interest.”
3) Ontario To Add 400 New Primary Care Providers To Deal With Staffing Shortage
Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Feb 1st, 2024
By Liam Casey
Ontario is investing $110 million in an effort to connect more than 300,000 people to primary care teams, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Thursday.
The new money will go toward the province’s attempts to get everyone in Ontario a primary care provider, she said.
“We are not going to stop until everyone that wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one,” Jones said at a news conference in Peterborough, Ont.
Jones said $90 million will help add 400 new providers who will go to 78 new and expanded primary care teams across the province.
That should connect 328,000 patients to a primary care team, Jones said.
Primary care teams consist of doctors, nurse practitioners, registered and practical nurses, physiotherapists and social workers, among others.
There are currently 1.3 million people in Ontario without a primary care provider, which includes nurse-practitioner led clinics, the province said.
Jones said about 90 per cent of Ontarians have some sort of primary care coverage.
“We know there is more to do to close the gap for the people in Ontario not currently connected to a primary care provider,” she said.
The province said it hopes to have 98 per cent of patients covered by a primary care team by 2032.
The Ontario Medical Association says there are 2.3 million Ontarians without a primary care doctor, a number that has grown significantly in recent years.
That number is expected to double in just two years, said Dr. Andrew Park, the association’s president.
“We’ve been calling for investments in teams to improve access to care and to ensure doctors and health-care professionals are able to do what they do best, to take care of their patients,” Park said.
“Today’s news is a big step in that direction.”
Earlier this week, the OMA had asked the province to address the family doctor shortage immediately. There are 2,500 physician jobs currently open across the province, the association said. About 40 per cent of Ontario’s doctors are considering retirement in the next five years, an OMA survey of its members found.
The Registered Nurses’ Association said it was “delighted” with the funding announced Thursday.
“Today’s investment is the beginning of a renewed emphasis on primary care that has long been needed in the province and a sign the government understands the magnitude of access shortfalls in primary care,” said Doris Grinspun, CEO of the association.
The news comes a few days after a health-care provider in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., said 10,000 of its patients will be cut loose due to retirements and doctors closing their practices.
“Our immediate focus is to stabilize our operations and continue to provide care to 50,000 patients in our community,” said a letter from the Group Health Centre to patients last week.
Jones called the issue in the northern Ontario city “deeply disturbing.”
“There are two proposals that the community in Sault Ste. Marie brought forward that will be funded through this program,” she said.
A year ago, Jones committed $30 million to open 18 new primary care teams across the province and opened up an application process.
Jones’ office said they were deluged with hundreds of applications and decided to triple the investment to $90 million for 78 teams.
An additional $20 million will go to all existing primary care teams for operational costs and supplies.
Patricia is the Business Mentor and owner of Grow Vantage and a Past President of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce. She applies over 30 years of business experience (from start-up to corporate) to mentor entrepreneurs. Since 2011, she has held over 6,500 coaching and training sessions in-person and online. Through Ask For Directions Training, her entrepreneurial training program (and parent company Grow Vantage), and as a business coach, she works with start-ups who are new (or who have lost traction) to design, launch and grow their businesses. Along with 20 other expert instructors she teaches strategies in marketing, sales, communications, and finance, as well as practical techniques to increase productivity, and manage their businesses. In other words, everything entrepreneurs need to learn to grow and run their businesses successfully, and avoid the costly mistakes they can't even see coming - that lead to delays in growth and getting stuck.
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