[All] Bill 66 Standing Committee Presentations Tomorrow - March 18th, Upcoming Events Mar 20th, Mar 26th and More

Sun Mar 17 12:28:53 EDT 2019

Good Day,

1)  Bill 66 Standing Committee Presentations, Monday March 18th at Queen’s Park - the Ford government has restricted Bill 66 hearings to just one day - tomorrow March 18th at Queen’s Park at the General Government Committee.  A number of local groups applied to the Clerk to present but not surprisingly have been turned down.  Hopefully, we will see Section 10 removed by the Committee and many other changes made to other parts of this sweeping omnibus Bill.  

I strongly encourage your group to e-mail your concerns by tomorrow at 5:00pm about Bill 66 (it can simply be a reprint of earlier submissions or letters) to the standing committee clerk at comm-generalgov at ola.org <mailto:comm-generalgov at ola.org>

2) Paris-Galt Moraine Act, Bill 71 - Kudos to Green Party MPP Mike Schreiner and all the community organizations helping to promote the Paris-Galt Moraine Act.  Modelled after the Oak Ridges Moraine Act it received unanimous approval recently during its second reading at Queen’s Park!  It is important that we continue to build support for this Act that would help to protect farmland, water, and nature.

3) Regional Review Opens for Public Comments - We have only a few weeks to submit comments in the Regional Review currently taking place that could amalgamate our Region, remove entire levels of local government, and change so much that has been important to the success of our local communities.  

We should be very worried and concerned about the Regional Review because so much within our Region and across Ontario is at stake.  The consequences to poorly thought out and hap-hazard changes could be very far reaching - particularly to rural areas overwhelmed and outvoted by urban areas.  Community groups in Simcoe County, York Region, Niagara, Halton and other parts of the province are extremely concerned about this review too.  Oakville Mayor Rob Burton is working to try to rally people to save the Town of Oakville and City of Burlington from being absorbed into Halton Region and we have seen numerous press releases from the Region of Waterloo, Township of Wilmot, City of Waterloo, City of Cambridge and others urging local residents to speak up and ensure our voices are heard.

You can read the Region of Waterloo press release here: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=5b3756e4-7959-499d-a665-3f840abd3b21

Please be sure to fill out the skewed survey and provide written submissions to the provincial government at:

	 https://www.ontario.ca/page/regional-government-review

Current rumours are that Premier Doug Ford is looking to act quickly and make dramatic announcements at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in June.

4) Opening Aggregates for Business - more than 20 community groups held a conference call this week to discuss the provincial announcement about changes to facilitate economic growth in the aggregate industry at the expense of local farmland, water aquifers and natural areas.  So far all community groups are still being excluded from the March 29th provincial meetings though the Wellington Water Watchers, Gravelwatch Ontario and other groups are trying to spearhead a response.

5) Waterloo Region Power of Many Activation Meeting, Wednesday March 20th 5:30pm - please join the Ontario Federation of Labour and groups from across our community to figure out how a broad coalition of local groups can come together on common issues and concerns to stand up to the Ford government.  More than 125 people/groups have already RSVP’d to this meeting on Wednesday from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the OFL Office, 610 Wabanaki Drive Kitchener.  You can learn more and register to attend at:

	https://www.oflevents.ca <https://www.oflevents.ca/>

6) Waterloo Region Health Coalition Town Hall Meeting - Tuesday, March 26th, 7:00pm - Recently announced changes to our Healthcare system in the radical Bill 74 are extremely concerning.  Please attend this upcoming meeting at the Kitchener City Hall Rotunda to learn more.  You can register for free on Eventbrite at:

	https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/health-care-town-hall-tickets-58170396221

Additional information on Bill 74 and the Town Hall meeting are attached below.

7) Green Drinks Follow-up - It was fantastic to see such a large, diverse turnout of well over 100 people for the inaugural Green Drinks event held this past week in Waterloo.  Please mark the second Wednesday of each month from 6:00pm to 9:00pm in your calendar and check out http://www.greendrinks.org/ON/Kitchener%20Waterloo%20Cambridge for additional information.

8) Our Water, Our Future - the date of Wednesday, April 17th at 7:00pm has been chosen in lieu of the February date that was cancelled because of the weather.  A new Eventbrite page has been created and I encourage you to register early for this free event featuring speakers from Walkerton and CELA.  If your group would like to have a table at this event at the First United Church in Waterloo please e-mail John Jackson of the Grand River Environmental Network at jjackson at web.ca <mailto:jjackson at web.ca>

	https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/our-water-our-future-tickets-58165251834 <https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/our-water-our-future-tickets-58165251834>

9) Fridays for the Future Climate Strike - it was fantastic to see hundreds of students locally and hundreds of thousands of students across Canada taking part this past week in the Fridays for the Future global movement.  Please join on Friday, April 5th at 12:30pm for the next event and learn more at:

	https://www.facebook.com/events/155952411991859/

Please share any questions or ideas and hopefully we can continue to stand up for our community.

Cheers,
Kevin.

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Ontario Federation of Labour Fight Back Flyer (note the new date of Wednesday, March 20th at 5:30pm):

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March 26th - Waterloo Health Coalition Event - Kitchener City Hall 7:00pm

The language contained in the Bill 74, in particular Schedule 1 (see URL), is what is actually most important not the euphemistic words used by the Ford administration that we are all tired of hearing...streamlined, efficiency, innovation...(think funding cuts)... when they describe Bill 74!   This is the dismantling of Public Health Care in Ontario:

https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-74 <https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-74>

This is a radical piece of legislation. It is an omnibus bill and it amends or repeals dozens of other health care Acts. Fundamentally, it sets up a new Super Agency and gives the power to the Minister of Health to merge a range of existing health care oversight agencies into it. Then it gives the new Super Agency extraordinary powers to order, negotiate, facilitate and coerce (through funding measures) mergers, amalgamations, service transfers, closures etc. It gives the Minister sweeping new powers to order mergers, closures, service transfers, etc. These powers include new powers to privatize entire sections of health care services. The public interest protections that we won, largely through amendments to the LHIN legislation, have all been removed. There will be no open Board meetings, no right to access documents, no appeals etc. The Super Agency is to be made up of political appointees. The new powers override the existing democratic structures of local community, public and non-profit health care providers. All health service providers, integrated conglomerates, the Super Agency are required to find endless “integrations” – defined as service transfers, mergers, closures, partnerships etc. This is a very very large health restructuring bill with no democratic process, no democratic protections and will result total loss of any remaining local community control over health care. 

-------------------------------------
Kevin Thomason
Vice-Chair, Grand River Environmental Network

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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