Open Sources Guelph #410 - January 19, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph it's Blue Thursday, the saddest Thursday of the week. To celebrate, we're going to talk about the Code Blue in our healthcare system that Ontario's inglorious premier thinks he's solved, and then we're going to talk about some issues around Toronto's men and women in blue, the members of its police service. But it's not all depressing because we've brought in an old friend to talk about all the math city council will be doing next week!

This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

Doug's Anatomy. Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced that the Ontario government will lean on private clinics to help clear the surgery backlog, which now sits at nearly one million procedures. Of course, Ford says that you will only ever have to "pay with your OHIP card and not with your credit card", but the whole province is understandably freaked out that Ford is opening the door to two-tier healthcare. Do we have to hit 9-1-1 on this policy direction?

The Money Split. Last month, Toronto Mayor John Tory announced that he was looking at a $48 million increase to the police budget. This comes after months of Tory warning about a budget crunch from legislative changes, and it comes after years of discussion about social justice reform. It also comes at a time of several funerals for officers killed in the line of duty, so maybe "Defund the Police" isn't as politically neutral as it once was. So how do we make sense of these conflicting issues and talk straight about policing?

The Allt in Our Stars. Next week, Guelph City Council will sit down to ratify the 2023 budget, but a lot has changed since last December when the City's first multi-year budget was passed. Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt will join us to talk about those challenges including the financial fallout of Bill 23 and Mayor Cam Guthrie's proposed levy to raise funds to combat homelessness and mental health issues. We also talk about the varying definitions of affordability and the fate of big infrastructure projects like the library.

Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.