More affordable housing recommendations, this time from John Howard Ontario.

johnhoward.on.ca/wp-content/u...

The supportive affordable housing proposals are coming in spades this summer, including this one from United Way Toronto.

www.unitedwaygt.org/wp-content/u...

Putting this here as one more reminder that abuse of people labelled with developmental disability is still far too common

missouriindependent.com/2025/02/24/d...

This story in @thetrillium.bsky.social hits on pretty much all the key elements around exclusion, seclusion, and restraint of students with disabilities in Ontario schools.

www.thetrillium.ca/news/educati...

Re: imperfections --- for one thing, this uses functional behaviour analysis, about which:

endseclusion.org/2021/09/23/w...

While far from perfect, Alberta's ministerial order governing seclusion and restraint of students is interesting and could serve as a starting point in Ontario (which has no provincial policy on the issue).

www.alberta.ca/system/files...

Our Crisis in the Classroom report offers a pretty shocking look into seclusion, restraint, and seclusion of students with disabilities in Ontario schools. I will be using BlueSky to track media coverage and our follow-up work on this.

communitylivingontario.ca/resources/cr...

Hear from CLO Council members as they share why being part of the Council matters to them and what they hope to achieve during their term. youtu.be/CuNrpTZd52M?...

Alberta says that involuntary addictions treatment will still allow civil liberties to be protected. How will that work exactly?

Since CMHA Alberta doesn't seem to be saying anything about this, I'll post info from CMHA Ontario: ontario.cmha.ca/involuntary-...

The ON Liberals have similarly promised to "eliminate wage discrepancy across the system, regardless of whether
you work for a hospital, in-home care or in long-term care." Again, so important to also consider mental health, education, developmental service, autism, etc. workers here.

Also: "We’ll make sure our public education system gives
students with disabilities the support they deserve."

A promise to watch from the ON NDP: "We will ensure children and families have access to Autism services, particularly
in Northern and Rural communities where services are even scarcer."

In a similar vein, the promise of wage parity for home care workers could have potential negative impacts on workers in other adjacent sectors.

The Ontario NDP promise of a caregiver benefit is welcome. The details of this kind of program can be tricky. The federal benefit, for example, isn't available to caregivers who have been out of the labour force for a long period of time. Showing proof of caregiving can also be an issue.

Ontario’s major political parties have published their election platforms in advance of Thursday’s provincial election.

Read them here:

Ontario PCs: ontariopc.ca/our-plan/

Ontario NDP: www.ontariondp.ca/platform

A couple of Ontario PC promises to watch: (1) two million more people connected to primary care by 2029; (2) require medical schools to reserve 95% of spaces for Ontario residents. Possible that the 2nd of these might work against the 1st (which will almost certainly take longer than planned).

The Ontario PCs' investments in trades education has been significant, and they are promising to continue this if re-elected. This is welcome. At the same time, the botched implementation of Employment Services Transformation means that people facing barriers to training will continue to miss out.

Reading the ON PC election platform, which notes that a million more people are working now versus 2018. True, though I note that the unemployment rate is currently 7.6%, compared to 5.7% in Jan 2018. And the number of unemployed is 241k higher. Population growth explains a lot of the jobs increase.

A very insightful and on-point investigation into employment service changes in Ontario by @jackhauen.bsky.social

www.thetrillium.ca/news/the-tri...

Thanks @mattgalloway.bsky.social for covering the school absenteeism crisis. In my mind, worthy of a follow-up story that covers mental health and a broader discussion of hopelessness (climate crisis, affordability, etc etc), and delves into how education needs to change to support these kids

@mikeschreiner.bsky.social will the Greens be sending a rep to the all-party disability debate at Holland Bloorview next Wednesday?