Roundup: Ford’s sick days deception

Posted on by

The issue of paid sick days went completely sideways in Ontario after the murderclown government, thinking they were clever, tried to propose that the federal government simply double the payout of the federal sickness benefit programme, promising that they would cover the difference, and leave it at that. Not surprisingly, the federal government said no, because the federal sickness benefit is not paid sick leave, and everybody knows it. Doug Ford knows that, because he repealed the paid sick days that were legislated in the province, at the behest of business owners (because when Ford says he’s looking out for “the little guy,” he means the business owner). Reinstating them is a simple fix in the province’s labour code, unlike “fixing” the federal benefit, which is an impossibility because a) it’s not their jurisdiction, and b) they are limited by their back-end IT infrastructure, which in no way could allow them to have seamless paid sick days the way amending the provincial labour codes would allow. (The federal government could do more when it comes to the sick leave provisions in federally-regulated workplaces, but they are not starting from zero like provinces are).

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1387006526406209538

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1387007565285011459

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1387072092491894790

While on Power & Politics, Ontario’s labour minister, Monty McNaughton, did let slip that they didn’t want to implement actual paid sick days because it would be a burden on businesses, which were already suffering from the pandemic – as though having an outbreak in their facility won’t hurt them even more, or having their employees die of COVID. That, and they have options available to them, such as using the wage subsidy to pay for their employees’ sick leave – that’s one of the reasons it’s there. The whole gods damned point of the federal sickness benefit is for those who don’t have employers, like the self-employed, who could need some kind of income support if they can’t work because of COVID. It was never supposed to replace actual paid sick leave, but premiers decided that they could try to get around their own obligations with it.

Meanwhile, BC premier John Horgan is putting on a song and dance of reluctantly implementing paid sick leave in BC – fourteen months later – and making a theatrical production of trying to claim they wanted to make this a national programme. This, dear readers, is horseshit. Labour codes are provincial jurisdiction in 94 percent of workplaces, and if the federal government had tried to come up with a national paid sick leave programme pre-pandemic, every single premier would have cried jurisdiction and refused on principle. For Horgan and other premiers to now try and claim they want a federal programme is a lie, and an attempt at giving themselves cover. They are trying to avoid the wrath of the business lobbies, and the small business lobby in particular, and trying to use a federal programme designed primarily for the self-employed as their fig leaf.

Even more to the point, I cannot abide how pretty much every single media outlet has framed this issue, painting it as either federal-provincial “finger-pointing,” or even worse, claiming that Ford’s proposal as being some kind of “compromise.” It is not a compromise – it’s more deception that these media outlets are spooning up. And they keep offering Doug Ford political cover. I cannot stress this enough. By trying to be “neutral” and both-sidesing the issue, they are providing Ford with more ability to try and pin this on the federal government when it’s his issue, in his jurisdiction, and he needs to own it.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau insists his office didn’t know the General Vance allegations were of a #MeToo nature, but Conservatives point to emails saying otherwise.
  • Trudeau also says that the government is working with “partners and allies” on the topic of vaccine passports.
  • The Star talks to Ahmed Hussen about how he plans to negotiate with provinces around the childcare plans in the federal budget.
  • The government is willing to entertain amendments to its net-zero emissions by 2050 bill in order to get NDP support for it.
  • The NDP say that they are open to supporting the controversial amendments to the Broadcasting Act bill, if it levels the playing field against web giants.
  • Conservative senators are holding up the creation of the joint parliamentary committee to review the next steps on assisted dying legislation.
  • Erin O’Toole says he’s mulling the idea of mandatory voting (seriously, just no).
  • The NDP got the Parliamentary Budget Officer to cost their dubious “excess profits tax” proposal, and took his heavily caveated response as gospel.
  • NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq is taking another two-week leave for health issues.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column explains how the back-to-work legislation for the Port of Montreal will play out in Parliament.
  • Robert Hiltz savages the government for dropping back-to-work legislation before the strike even happened, and how they couldn’t even mention the workers’ issues.
  • Heather Scoffield considers the Ford government’s bid to try and double the federal sickness benefit to be showboating or an entry point for negotiations.
  • My column looks at how provinces are blame-shifting around the border when they’re not doing their job of enforcing the Quarantine Act.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.