What’s at stake for Peterborough in this week’s provincial election

A spokesperson for the Adam Hopkins (Liberal) campaign sent this statement attributed to Hopkins:
It’s unfortunate that foster parents are a necessity in our society. In the long term, we must address the root causes contributing to the increasing demand. We’re meeting with CAS workers and union representatives at KHCAS to gain a deeper understanding of the situation and explore solutions.

KHCAS currently lacks the resources under the existing funding formula to meet needs. I would work to restore preventative programs, allowing social workers to proactively support families and ensure children’s stability. Right now, they can only react to situations. Increased resources are essential for better support for our children.

Lucas Graham (Green) sent these answers:
The Green Party will increase support for foster parents by boosting financial assistance, improving training, and expanding respite care. We will also invest in wraparound services — including mental health and family reunification programs — to prevent children from entering care unnecessarily and ensure every child receives the stable, loving home they deserve.

The situation at KHCAS reflects a broader failure to support high-needs children. The Green Party will increase funding for frontline staff, ensure proper oversight, and invest in community-based mental health and disability supports — so no child is left without the care they deserve, and no agency is overwhelmed beyond capacity.

The campaign for Jen Deck (NDP) did not respond.

The campaign for Dave Smith (Progressive Conservative) did not respond.

The Green Party of Ontario is promising to double ODSP and Ontario Works rates and keep them tied to inflation. This would be a “first step” toward implementing a basic income, the party states.

The Liberal Party of Ontario is promising to double ODSP rates and keep them tied to inflation.

The Ontario NDP is committing to doubling both ODSP and Ontario Works benefit rates.

The Progressive Conservatives have not made any commitments regarding social assistance rates.

The Progressive Conservatives have not made any promises regarding rent control or tenants’ issues.

The Ontario Liberals are proposing a “phased in” approach to rent control. Newly built units will be exempt from rent control for “a set period of time,” after which the unit will be transitioned to become rent controlled. Rents will be allowed to “reset” in between tenancies. The Liberals will offer “both in-person and online hearings” at the LTB. The Liberals are also proposing a new emergency fund to offer short-term, interest-free loans to tenants who need help paying their rent.

The Ontario NDP is promising to “close the unfair loophole that exempts units built after 2018″ from rent control. In addition, the NDP is proposing to implement vacancy control to restrain rent hikes in between tenancies. The provincial NDP did not respond to an email asking if the party would return to in-person LTB hearings.

The Ontario Green Party will “reinstate rent controls on all units” and “implement vacancy control to limit rent increases between tenancies.” The Greens have also committed to returning to in-person LTB hearings “unless otherwise requested by the renter.”

The Progressive Conservative platform does not mention municipal finances. However, when PC candidate Dave Smith was asked during the YourTV candidate debate what he and his party would do to help municipalities deal with rising costs, Smith said he believes the City of Peterborough needs to do a value-for-money audit of its operations. He also said the city needs to listen to his advice more often and referred to the city’s refusal in 2019 to accept his guidance on a provincial grant application for a new community ice rink. The city didn’t get that grant, and Smith said it was because city staff didn’t follow his advice. “Moving forward we have to make sure that they do listen to what the MPPs are saying,” he said.

The Ontario NDP is promising to upload the cost of homeless shelters and homelessness prevention programs to the province to save municipalities money. The party is also promising “adequate, predictable, and consistent” funding to municipalities for maintaining and repairing roads and other infrastructure. Responding to the same YourTV debate question on municipal finance as Smith, NDP candidate Jen Deck said the police budget is one driver of rising costs for the city, and that the NDP’s investments in housing, education and healthcare “will take pressures off of our policing.”

The Ontario Green Party is promising “a new deal for municipalities.” Among the proposals they’re putting forward are uploading the costs of community housing, shelters, and transit funding so the province pays for these services instead of municipalities. The Greens propose granting municipalities the autonomy to “implement revenue tools” to fund critical infrastructure and services. The Greens are also promising municipalities “dedicated and ongoing funding” to address the mental health and addictions crisis. Speaking after Jen Deck at the YourTV debate, local Green candidate Lucas Graham agreed that investing in social services can help to bring the cost of policing down for municipalities.

The Ontario Liberal Party is promising to implement a “Better Communities Fund” to help pay for municipal infrastructure. The fund will replace the revenues that cities currently raise through development charges, which the Liberals are pledging to eliminate. “It’s clear that municipalities … are taking on additional burdens,” Adam Hopkins said in the YourTV debate segment about this topic. “There are ways to find efficiencies in our social safety net,” Hopkins continued. He added that he wants the province to take a leading role in identifying and implementing more efficient municipal service delivery.

The Ontario Liberals are promising to eliminate some development charges on housing units under 3,000 square feet. The Liberals say a new Better Communities Fund will ensure municipalities are “fully compensated for lost revenue” as a result of axing development charges.

The Green Party of Ontario is promising to remove development charges “on homes, condos and apartment units under 2,000 square feet that are built within urban boundaries.” The Greens will create an “Affordable Communities Fund” to cover infrastructure costs instead of development charges.

The Ontario NDP have not made any promises related to development charges.

The Progressive Conservatives are promising “a rational, common-sense and sustainable approach to development charges.”

The Progressive Conservative Party is pledging to continue investing billions of dollars into the Building Ontario Fund and Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, which, among other things, fund housing-enabling municipal infrastructure. The PCs have not released any other promises related to housing supply and local PC candidate Dave Smith skipped the riding’s housing and homelessness all-candidates debate. He has blamed the City of Peterborough for not getting enough housing built.

The Ontario Liberals aren’t just proposing to remove development charges. They also propose exempting co-ops and purpose-built rental housing “from other punitive taxes.” They also say they’ll “modernize building codes and subjective design rules” and “establish a provincial catalogue of pre-approved housing designs.”

The Ontario NDP is pitching the creation of a new provincial agency called Homes Ontario that would be tasked with supporting the construction of 250,000 non-market “affordable” housing units and 60,000 supportive housing units. The party also proposes loosening zoning restrictions to allow fourplexes and four-storey multiplex apartments in all neighbourhoods.

The Ontario Green Party has committed to “working directly with non-profits and co-ops” to build 250,000 “affordable” homes, 60,000 supportive housing units, and 22,000 affordable homes for Indigenous people. The Greens are also pitching policies to prioritize intensification. They’re committing to freezing urban boundaries, incentivizing developers to build within existing neighbourhoods, and loosening some planning restrictions that limit housing development.

The Green Party of Ontario is promising to recruit 3,500 more family doctors. The Greens also promise to increase the number of nurses and PSWs by “pay[ing] healthcare workers fairly” and ensuring wages are “equitable and internationally competitive.” The Greens will “fast-track” international credentials for health-care workers and increase nursing student enrolments. The party also promises to “shift away from our reliance on agency nurses”

The Liberal Party of Ontario is promising to recruit, retrain, or integrate 3,100 new family doctors by 2029, giving all Ontarians access to a family doctors within four years. The Liberals also promise to pay nurses, PSWs, and other health-care workers a living wage as part of a strategy to incentivize them to work in the public health-care system. The Liberals will also regulate temporary nursing agencies.

The Ontario NDP is promising that every Ontarian will have access to a family doctor by recruiting and supporting 3,500 new doctors. The party will also “train and hire more nurses to ensure safe nurse-patient ratios” and introduce wage parity across the health-care system to ensure “health care workers are paid fairly.” These measures will end the reliance “on for-profit private nursing agencies,” the party states.

The Progressive Conservatives have committed to spend $1.8 billion “to connect two million more people to a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team within four years.” The PCs also promise to increase training opportunities for other health-care workers and fast-track approvals for out-of-province health-care workers to start working in Ontario.