Students worry that the Doug Ford government's cuts to student financial aid will have short-term impacts — increasing student drop-out rates — but also long-term impacts — more part-time students in post-secondary education who will work and study simultaneously. They worry that this will result in a crisis in student mental health. 

Premier Doug Ford's Ontario government has cut 70 per cent of provincial funding to a non-profit organization that helps more than three dozen Indigenous communities protect endangered wildlife and natural resources, National Observer has learned. 

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott's office is insisting that "no paramedic in Ontario will lose their job" as a result of a plan by Premier Doug Ford to slash paramedic services across the province.

The Ford government's budget proposal to cut financial support for people who need legal services is the largest cut of its kind and will result in the elimination of many provincial legal services for refugees and immigrants.

Ontario residents who need a lawyer but cannot afford one may soon be affected by dramatic cuts announced on Thursday in the Ford government's first budget. This is among a series of sweeping changes that the government says is part of "modernizing" the justice system and saving money.

The Ontario budget is neither as dramatically geared for austerity as was feared nor as transformational as some might have hoped. The budget theme is “protecting what matters most.” That means what they spend on is a clear indication of their priorities. That priority is clear: balancing the budget. But carefully, over six years. Spread the time to spread the pain. 

Efforts to exploit mineral resources in the Ring of Fire region has been fraught with controversy and opposition, as First Nations communities assert jurisdiction over traditional territory and raise concerns about the use of land and risk of water contamination.

The words “red tape” were mentioned 80 times in the 383-page budget document, compared to 17 references to “climate change” — a fair reflection on the priorities Ford pitched on the campaign trail last year. 

The Doug Ford government is quietly signalling to industry that it may be open to clean energy, while committing no fresh funds to fighting climate change “without a carbon tax.”

The 2019 budget forecasts that Ontario’s public account will not reach balance until 2023–24, one year earlier than the prior Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne had proposed but beyond the current term of the government’s mandate, breaking one of Ford’s key election promises.