Thousands of college teachers took to the picket lines Monday morning, sparking encouragement from the government to "get back to the table" and potshots from the opposition around Liberal posturing and education resources.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents 12,000 faculty members at 24 public colleges, announced Sunday night that talks with the College Employer Council had failed.
“My only message is, let’s get back to the table, let’s get back to the classroom, students are counting on this," deputy premier Deb Matthews said Monday.
Matthews said that it was “premature” to discuss whether students might lose their year. She added that the government's labour legislation, now in second reading, deals with the issue of temporary employment — which includes part-time and sessional faculty — via equal-pay-for-similar-work provisions.
“I’m hoping that the premier gets everyone back to the bargaining table today, that this is resolved immediately so we’re not going to be in a protracted labour dispute," Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said.
“The students are stuck now," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. “This government has not stepped up to the plate when it comes to post-secondary education, and I’m not surprised that we’re in this situation, and the Liberals need to answer for that."
The union is demanding a 50:50 ratio of full-time to contract faculty, limits on work load and a senate at all 24 public colleges to give faculty control over curricula, which the colleges argue would cost them $400 million a year and curtail the number of outside professionals able to keep one foot in the classroom.
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Ontario released <a href="https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/ecaccts/#jurisdictional" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">updated economic accounts</a> Monday showing real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 — April, May and June — led by the strongest increase in consumer spending since 2010. It follows a 1.0-per-cent increase in the first quarter.
The second-quarter growth was stronger than the average of all <abbr title="Group of Seven">G7</abbr> countries, but weaker than the national average, which the government report attributed to "a strong rebound in the resource sectors in other provinces."
Finance Minister Charles Sousa said independent economists are predicting 2.6- to 2.8-per-cent annual real GDP growth this year, and he said the growth reflects the success of government policies.
"It's kind of like we planted a tree some years ago and we're getting shade, and getting the fruits of our labour, and certainly the people of Ontario are benefitting," Sousa said.
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Jeff Leal, Ontario's Minister Responsible for Small Business, kicked off Small Business Week Monday by a Ontario will devote one-third of its per cent of its procurement spending to "small and medium-sized businesses by 2020." The government will provide supports for small businesses interested in submitting bids in order to accomplish that goal.
Leal also announced that the government is partnering with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on a new program called Small Business Access that will help businesses interact with the government.
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New Democrats shot off a fresh volley of numbers on hospital overcrowding Monday.
Internal documents show Brantford General Hospital's acute-care beds reached 120-per-cent capacity last January, according to the NDP. The mental-health ward hit 108 per cent over the summer.
An occupancy rate of 85 per cent or lower is considered safe, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"Hospitals in Peterborough, Brantford, Etobicoke, Brampton, Toronto and Oshawa are all overcrowded and the premier has seen the proof in the numbers," NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said in question period Monday. "She has seen the proof in the horror stories that are flooding into her office.... What else do the people of Ontario need to do to make the government take this crisis in our hospitals seriously?"
Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the government has tasked a supervisor with tackling the challenges in Brantford, where the hospital's budget was bumped by $3 million this year.
Hoskins also said New Democrats, under then-premier Bob Rae, closed one-quarter of acute-care beds, 13 per cent of mental health beds and about 9,600 beds in total between 1990 and 1995. The PCs, meanwhile, shut down more than double that number over the next eight years, he said.

In Brief: The college strike, economic growth, Small Business Week and more crowded hospitals

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