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FORUM: A view from inside the pink palace (June 2024)

July 19th, 2024 · No Comments

Elections, housing, and schools are the hot topics

By Jessica Bell

Is it election time? 

The Conservatives closed the legislature a week early and extended our return date to Oct. 21. 

This isn’t a matter of politicians taking a 137-day vacation. MPPs work in their ridings in summer.  The issue is it’s harder to hold the government to account if they don’t have to respond to our questions in question period, reporters’ questions in media scrums, and debates in the legislature. And with the RCMP investigation hanging like a specter over Doug Ford, we know they’ve got a lot to hide. 

We hear the premier might call an early election, possibly this fall or spring.  Our response is bring it on.  In the last election, the Conservatives did not tell voters they planned to build on the Greenbelt and further privatize surgery delivery and primary care, even though that’s what the government did after they won. Voters deserve to vote for the government’s true legislative record. 

 It’s time for a cell phone ban

I recently visited a civics class at a school in our riding, and it was an eye-opener. 

We talked to the students about politics, how Queen’s Park affects their lives, and how to influence what happens at Queen’s Park by working together. The power of politics got personal when we discussed the government’s move to ban cell phones in classrooms. 

Every student in this class had a cell phone. Almost all of them checked their phone at least once during class, and two students spent literally the entire class looking at their phones, doing their makeup, and taking pictures of themselves.  

I fully support a cell phone ban in classrooms. The TDSB is inviting parents to provide input into their new cell phone policy right now.  We all know how addicted many children—and adults, including this one—are to their cell phones.  It is hard for any teacher to compete with the lure of Instagram for a student’s attention.  Cell phones in the classroom harm learning. 

That said, we need to do a lot more than ban cell phones if we want kids to succeed at school. I asked the students what they would like to see changed in their school, and one student immediately raised her hand and said, “I want soap in our bathrooms.”  

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about how the lack of resources is affecting our schools.  I recently spoke to another teacher who said she brought her own paper to the photocopy machine because paper was rationed, and there was frequently no toilet paper in the bathrooms at her high school. 

The lack of investment in our schools has gotten that bad.  And it could get worse because the TDSB has a budget deficit of over $20 million dollars for the coming year. 

To improve education outcomes for our kids, we need to invest in our public schools, lower class sizes, hire more teachers and staff, fix our school buildings, and yes, ban cell phones in classrooms.

Housing issues 

This month, the Ontario NDP debated a bill called the “EV-Ready Homes Act,” which calls for changes to the building code to require all new homes to have rough-ins for electrical vehicle charging stations. Installing these rough-ins during construction is significantly cheaper than retrofitting homes later.

Ontario needs to complement its electric vehicle-manufacturing program with measures to transition the vehicles Ontarians use from gas-powered to electric.  Although the government voted against our bill, I believe these changes to the building code will eventually be made into law because demand for electric vehicles is surging. 

The Conservatives have responded to our call to expand the power of the Condo Authority Tribunal so the tribunal can adjudicate disputes about condo board governance.    

Many condo residents in University-Rosedale have worked with our office to advocate for a cheap and effective way to deal with issues they have had with their condo board, including undemocratic elections and infrequent condo board meetings.

We will continue to call for broader reform to Ontario’s condominium rules to ensure condo buildings are well-managed and well-maintained places to live.

Please reach out to our office if you have questions or concerns, or would like to invite me to an event or meeting.  

Jessica Bell is the MPP for University-Rosedale. She can be reached at jbell@ndp.on.ca or 416-535-7206. 

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