Auditor shows environment and safety at risk under Liberals and Conservatives

QUEEN’S PARK — The Conservatives ran on the claim that they’d clean up Kathleen Wynne’s mess — but a new report from the Auditor General paints a picture of Doug Ford taking things from bad to worse. Ford’s cuts are putting people and the environment at risk.

The major audit report released Wednesday shows Ford and his government are acting like climate change isn’t a real threat at all.

“The Ford government is acting like the climate crisis isn’t a problem,” said Andrea Horwath, Leader of the Official Opposition New Democrats.

“Meanwhile, our kids and grandkids are living in fear of what their future holds. Ford’s evidence-snubbing scheme is condemning families all over the province to even more flooding, intense storms, tornadoes and wildfires.”

The auditor reveals that the Ford government’s flimsy scheme for reducing greenhouse gas emissions won’t even come close to meeting its weak targets — and that Ford ought to know that, since he’s counting reductions from electric vehicles after he’s cancelled the electric vehicle incentive program, assuming reductions from renewable energy as he’s ripping down renewable energy projects, and double-counting other factors.

Showing just how much this government is denying the threat of climate change, the Ministry of the Environment, Parks and Conservation isn’t even meeting its own basic obligations under the Environmental Bill of Rights.

Safety at risk

Years of Liberal and Conservative governments have turned their backs on the life-and-death issue of workplace safety. The auditor’s report reveals that the government is letting companies off the hook again and again for the same dangerous problems, while fining the workers themselves.

“No family should ever suffer the anguish of losing a loved one because of a preventable workplace injury or illness. No one should die for their job,” said Horwath. “Instead of more inspections and more enforcement, the government appears to be using a blame-the-victim system to let unsafe employers off the hook.”

The report also measures skyrocketing opioid deaths — and an opioid strategy that’s clearly a mismatch for the urgent need.

Children and seniors

Other troubling revelations from the report include waits between 18 months and a shocking three years to resolve child protection cases in family court, seniors often not getting the nutrition they need in long-term care homes, and risk of problems at hospitals throughout the province, so much so that 67,000 patients a year were harmed by things like infections or major surgical mistakes.

“Ontario families deserve better than a government that makes them less safe with cuts,” said Horwath. “Instead of undoing years of cuts and funding freezes and underfunding in areas like health care, long-term care, workplace safety and legal aid, Doug Ford is slashing deeper and squeezing tighter.

“Those Ford cuts are putting Ontario people — and the environment — at risk.”