Some Thoughts On Why Ontario Is Still Closed, While Other Provinces Are Fully Open

Why is Ontario still completely shut down? Why is there more freedom pretty much everywhere else in North America? Perhaps these bits of information will shine some light on that problem.

In an earlier piece, it was shown that Sarah Letersky and Patrick Harris lobbied the Ontario Government on behalf of AstraZeneca. They were recently at it again, lobbying on behalf of Janssen in June, 2021.

Letersky helped install Ford into power in June 2018, and remained in that Government for a period afterwards. Now, she lobbies that same Government. Quite the conflict of interest.

And as repeated ad nauseum, these “vaccines” are not approved by Health Canada, but instead, have interim authorization under an emergency order. Not at all the same thing. In fact, it’s only legal to distribute because of the emergency declaration.

Describe your lobbying goal(s) in detail. What are you attempting to influence or accomplish as a result of your communications with Ontario public office holders?
.
Employment Standards Act: removal of pharmacist exemptions in ESA for improved labour standards. Insurance Act: prohibit restrictive preferred provider networks to protect patient choice in providers. Ontario Drug Benefit Act: sustainable pharmacy funding. Drug Interchangeability & Dispensing Fee Act: advocacy on dispensing fees. Pharmacy Act: scope of practice for pharmacists. Narcotic Safety and Awareness Act: to obtain data from the Narcotic Monitoring System. Health Sector Payment Transparency Act: fair reporting protocols. Drug and Pharmacies Regulation Act: redefinition of where pharmacists can practice. Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act: for point-of-care and other forms of diagnostic test including for COVID19, and to order/receive lab test results for medication monitoring. Smoke Free Ontario Act: for pharmacy dispensing of medical cannabis. Cannabis Act: for pharmacy dispensing of medical cannabis. Public Hospitals Act: to enable full scope of pharmacist/technician practice. Long Term Care Homes Act: alignment of pharmacy funding with required services to be performed under the act. Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act: for the provision of government-supplied PPE for all front-line pharmacy professionals.

The Ontario Pharmacists Association, much like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, is subsidized by taxpayers in order to keep its operations going. The OPA has also been involved with Bill 160 and Bill 132, helping to erode transparency among pharmaceutical companies.

Describe your lobbying goal(s) in detail. What are you attempting to influence or accomplish as a result of your communications with Ontario public office holders?
.
Seeking legislation, regulation, and policies related to Ontario’s economic competitiveness and prosperity of our membership and their communities. Issues around COVID-19 and advocacy on the impact on Ontario businesses across the province, particularly on supports for business & vaccine & rapid test distribution. Issues surrounding cannabis and advocating for the industry’s growth across the province. Issues surrounding a competitive tax and regulatory environment including pursuing a simplified tax system and improve transparency in regulation. Issues around regional economic development – removal of inter-provincial trade barriers. Issues regarding modernizing energy and infrastructure (specifically broadband infrastructure investment). Issues concerning health care sustainability such as direct and indirect support for research and development as well as the path to economic recovery with regard to COVID-19. Issues relating to a skilled workforce such addressing the skills mismatch, reinventing employment and training services, and ensuring the apprenticeship system becomes more flexible. Issues related economic competitiveness with Ontario’s agri-food sector, leveraging Ontario’s innovation advantage and collaborate with the private sector to fully leverage Ontario’s competitive advantages. Issues related to fiscal position of the province. Issues related to supporting Ontario’s competitive advantage including agri-food, immigration tourism, and lowing electricity rates through investment in sustainable energy infrastructure.

Now, this could just be poor wording, but the Ontario Chamber of Commerce doesn’t actually say that they want the Province reopened. They seem to be pushing for support for businesses forced to be closed.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Rocco Rossi is the head of the Chamber of Commerce. He is a former Head of the Liberal Party of Canada, a former Mayoral Candidate in Toronto, and ran as Candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Rossi is a great example of politics being too close with lobbyists.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses supposedly stands up for the rights of independents, as the name implies. However, it seems to do little beyond parroting official Government tallies.

Unfortunately, Dan Kelly, who runs the CFIB, is more content to virtue signal about taking his own experimental injections, and doing it to his MINOR children.

Walmart is once again lobbying Ford’s Government. Their stated goal: “Lobbying for regulation changes to allow pharmacists to have expanded scope of practice.” Of course, their business interests have grown considerably as of late, since they are considered essential, while so many are not.

See this earlier work on lobbying by big businesses, and how airline lobbying may have impacted inter-Provincial border closures.

Another area that has picked up is the delivery and rideshare industry. One such company is Facedrive, which uses lobbyists tied to the Ontario and Federal Conservative Parties. See Prabhu and Dunlop.

Just a thought, but Facedrive may be contributing to why “conservative” politicians remain so pro-lockdown. It’s good for their bottom line.

Loop Insights Inc. is described as “a Vancouver-based Internet of Things (“IoT”) technology company that delivers transformative artificial intelligence (“AI”) automated marketing, contact tracing, and contactless solutions to the brick and mortar space.” It should come as no surprise that the people lobbying also have lengthy political ties.

So, why is Ontario mostly still shut down? Wild idea, but maybe there are certain people who have financial incentives to keep it that way.

(1) http://lobbyist.oico.on.ca/Pages/Public/PublicSearch/
(2) https://rubiconstrategy.com/
(3) https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-letersky/
(4) https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-harris-69348726/
(5) https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabienpaquette/
(6) https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-paquette-526b0721/
(7) https://twitter.com/CFIB/status/1402405151483248645
(8) https://twitter.com/BNNBloomberg/status/1400170795339497482
(9) https://twitter.com/canadabusiness/status/1399399075640922112
(10) https://twitter.com/CFIB/status/1395133016423505923
(11) https://www.linkedin.com/in/roccorossi/
(12) https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephdunlop/
(13) https://archive.is/WiJc9
(14) https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-prabhu-63850120/
(15) https://www.facedrive.com/
(16) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adria-minsky-b8ba9277/
(17) https://archive.is/7yd7R
(18) https://www.linkedin.com/in/carysbaker/
(19) https://archive.is/4fZO3

One Reply to “Some Thoughts On Why Ontario Is Still Closed, While Other Provinces Are Fully Open”

  1. As I recall, interprovincial trade barriers are a myth, which means that the lobbyist is after some other freedom. Alas, democracy means gangsterism – for too many.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discover more from Canuck Law

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading