The end of the year provides an ideal opportunity to look back at a full slate of legislation and pass judgement on those who govern. Have social goals been enhanced or harmed? Are employers given tools to better compete in the marketplace or burdened with red tape and unnecessary costs? Will employees be safer, more productive?
And every year has its share of laws both good and bad, depending on one’s point of view.
Amidst all this legislative and regulatory activity — federal and provincial, coast to coast — one offering sticks out as a being particularly bereft of social forethought, serving narrow interests, while harming the greater good. The infamous distinction here goes to Ontario Premier Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservative cohorts for their “Equity in Education Tax Credit.”
In a nutshell, Harris decided to offer $3,500 annually for every child sent to a private school. Depending on how many people take advantage of this, it will cost between $300 million and $700 million every year. This at a time when the public school system is struggling to provide books and pay for extra-curricular activities essential to the development of young minds and bodies.
But rather than ensure every child, regardless of social standing, has an opportunity to develop into a healthy, mentally prepared member of a workforce that employers can tap into during an era of skill shortages, the Harris proposal will provide tax breaks for those who can afford private school while doing nothing to improve education for the vast majority of our future employees.
Over the years, Ontario’s public school system — unlike the United States where people have fled public schools because of long-term underfunding and safety concerns — has done a good job of preparing students for the workforce. Strains in the system can still be repaired with an infusion of funding and thoughtful restructuring, but Harris has opted to encourage an exodus for the minority that can afford it.
The excuse for this handout was the United Nations’ criticism of public funding for Catholic schools that did not grant the same monetary support for other religions. So, in the process of coming up with a way to correct this inequity and give parents of non-Catholic religions similar fiscal support, the new tax credit was born. Then the privileged rich got in on the deal.
The Ontario Tories could, of course, have shown the guts former Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin displayed in the late ’90s when his province revamped a school system based upon Catholic and Protestant boards and passed legislation to create a non-denominational public institution. But that type of thinking doesn’t exist within Ontario’s legislature.
Ontarians instead will continue with a system that encourages parents of different religions to separate their children from one another. Instead of students of different faiths learning together and becoming accustomed to diversity and the peaceful coexistence of religions, they will be kept apart. And the rich get a tax handout they don’t need.
And every year has its share of laws both good and bad, depending on one’s point of view.
Amidst all this legislative and regulatory activity — federal and provincial, coast to coast — one offering sticks out as a being particularly bereft of social forethought, serving narrow interests, while harming the greater good. The infamous distinction here goes to Ontario Premier Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservative cohorts for their “Equity in Education Tax Credit.”
In a nutshell, Harris decided to offer $3,500 annually for every child sent to a private school. Depending on how many people take advantage of this, it will cost between $300 million and $700 million every year. This at a time when the public school system is struggling to provide books and pay for extra-curricular activities essential to the development of young minds and bodies.
But rather than ensure every child, regardless of social standing, has an opportunity to develop into a healthy, mentally prepared member of a workforce that employers can tap into during an era of skill shortages, the Harris proposal will provide tax breaks for those who can afford private school while doing nothing to improve education for the vast majority of our future employees.
Over the years, Ontario’s public school system — unlike the United States where people have fled public schools because of long-term underfunding and safety concerns — has done a good job of preparing students for the workforce. Strains in the system can still be repaired with an infusion of funding and thoughtful restructuring, but Harris has opted to encourage an exodus for the minority that can afford it.
The excuse for this handout was the United Nations’ criticism of public funding for Catholic schools that did not grant the same monetary support for other religions. So, in the process of coming up with a way to correct this inequity and give parents of non-Catholic religions similar fiscal support, the new tax credit was born. Then the privileged rich got in on the deal.
The Ontario Tories could, of course, have shown the guts former Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin displayed in the late ’90s when his province revamped a school system based upon Catholic and Protestant boards and passed legislation to create a non-denominational public institution. But that type of thinking doesn’t exist within Ontario’s legislature.
Ontarians instead will continue with a system that encourages parents of different religions to separate their children from one another. Instead of students of different faiths learning together and becoming accustomed to diversity and the peaceful coexistence of religions, they will be kept apart. And the rich get a tax handout they don’t need.
